1938 Bedford: Complete (#7 for 2022)

Got the little brass hinges from Micro Mark, so I was able to hang the second door.

The colours look good: Tamiya TS-7 Racing White over Tamiya TS-11 Maroon (which is quite purple).

Overall a nice kit; probably the trickiest bit is positioning the grille so the hood fits. 

Box and broom from the Ford C600 stake bed. I may add the oil drums as well. 

What's next? Well, after two 'easy' kits, maybe it's time to get back to the 962C, for which I also now have M0.6 bolts for the door hinges. Stay tuned! Meanwhile Rule Britannia.

Renault TN6 C2 city bus: Complete (#6 for 2022)

The missing sprue turned up, courtesy of a French hobby shop, eBay and Canada Post. Of course I had to buy a whole other kit... 

Overall an excellent kit, everything fits; but not for beginners as there are lots of places where trial fits may lead you to a different assembly order. For instance the seats went in as follows: right side body panel plus partitions first; next seats on the right side (which attach to the floor and to the body panel; they are not free-standing); then left side seats glued to left side body panel; then the left side body panel got attached. 

Also there are no paint colour call-outs except for the green and cream (which corresponds to 'oak', but reference photos show it closer to cream). So reference photos from the Interweb, largely from museums, will have to do, as period colour photos are few and far between.  

One issue is the front and rear partitions, as well as the glassed-in driver's compartment, are all moulded in clear, and you will need to tape up the windows in order to paint the partitions.This requires lots of tape and leaves lots of room for disaster via bleed-through.

An excellent addition to the French shelf, which, excluding Alpine, Rondeau or Matra race cars, today consists exclusively of Citroën vehicles. There's an R4 as well as a Renault Estafette van on the shelf, along with Delahaye and Delage sports cars, so there could eventually be some diversity.

What's next? Not sure! The Bedford is waiting for more hinges from Micro Mark, but there are other commercial vehicles in the stash, as well as a variety of Renaults. Meanwhile if anyone wants an incomplete kit of this bus, let me know.

1938 Bedford

While waiting for parts for the Renault bus, I got roped into another pre-war commercial vehicle, Emhar's Bedford in the dropside lorry version. (There is also a dump truck and a tanker.)

Doors are moulded separately, so I hinged them using small brass hinges sourced from Micro Mark (click here). This required gluing 0.040" quarter round inside the door and frame, in order to provide a greater surface area for the CA glue to take.

The kit is quite nice, with well-done parts that all fit.

The wooden bed and drop sides were brush-painted Wooden Deck Tan (XF-78), followed by Brown Panel Line Accent Colour (also from Tamiya). I like how it came out, partly due to the depth of the engraved wood grain. This went on after spraying Maroon (TS-11) on the metal frame and hardware. This is quite purple, but will look good with Racing White (TS-7) as a contrasting colour.

 

Next, I am waiting for a second set of hinges in the mail, and struggling with getting paint to stick to the plastic -- it's as if I'm fighting with a killer mould release agent on a poor mould from some obscure resin caster. The fenders need to go back in the isopropanol bath, sadly. And coincidentally, as I started the fenders soaking, the missing sprue from the Renault kit turned up. Stay tuned.

Renault TN6 C2 city bus: overview and first steps

This classic Paris city bus was introduced in 1931, and the last one was pulled from service in 1969. Consisting of a Renault TN4 (4 cylinder) or TN6 (6 cylinder) chassis with wooden bodywork by the Parisian public transit company RATP, they featured a hop-on platform at the rear where the conductor checked tickets, and a driver sitting in a small platform atop the engine. 

This Heller kit reproduces the 1964 C2 configuration of this as it ran on the #85 line (still in operation today) from the Louvre to Saint-Ouen via Montmartre. It's actually quite a nice build. 

 

The big six cylinder gasoline engine made 67 horsepower, apparently, but one assumes lots of torque at some ridiculously low RPM. There was also a diesel by Hispano-Suiza, apparently. There are pictures taken during WWII of these buses with a large domed roof designed to carry town gas (a.k.a. coal gas, consisting of a mix of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, ethane and other volatile hydrocarbons) in an era of gasoline shortages. There is no record of how passengers felt about riding around with an enormous poisonous gas bomb over their heads...

Steerable wheels include a moving pitman arm and drag link, but the steering column is fixed to the steering box. Still this is a lot of detail.

The driver sits on a platform above the engine and only got a partially enclosed cab in post-war versions. 

 

Sadly I did not inspect the kit properly when I acquired it over the Interweb some time ago, and have now discovered it is missing an entire sprue, including the sides of the bus body as well as the cab floor, engine side access hatches, grille and hood among other things. So with the seats and internal partitions all painted and ready to go, the kit has been moved back to the Shelf of Doom until I can source the missing bits, likely by buying an entire second kit. Lesson learned... I'll have to pick up some more green and cream paint, too, as the surfaces that need paint coverage are quite large.

 

Stay tuned! In spite of everything, progress continues to be made. 

1951 Chevy Belair Ute: Complete (#5 for 2022)

Completely built up from stuff from the scrapyard. I'm quite happy with it, even if it is a bit rough.

As a fan of '50s and '60s European sports racers, not sure how I would up with four '51 Belairs, except that it is an iconic shape (especially the Fleetline); and the two AMT kits, while horrible to build (I am thinking of the inner fenders here), both have neat hot rod bits for the venerable Stovebolt 6. 

What's next? Well, I have a dozen WIPs on the shelf; but I've got some other hack'n'slash ideas. Stay tuned!