MORE DOUBLE-DECKER LONDON BUSES - BARGAIN PRICES AND POWERED BY CLOCKWORK

David Jefferis waits at the bus stop

It seems that buses big and small are popular items with many collectors and model makers - certainly Mat Irvine’s news of the upcoming Revell scale kit of a London bus has struck quite a chord with visitors here at SMN.

Tinplate from Mettoy

So it’s interesting to see the UK store chain ModelZone promoting on sale Corgi’s tinplate-style replica - boxed in retro-style as an old Mettoy product - of the classic Routemaster, made to 1:36 scale. It’s a convenient sort of size, a shade under 5 inches (122 mm) high, which allows it to sit comfortably on a shelf without taking up too much room. It’s also a scale to which many ‘tourist tat’ items are made too, including diecast London taxis, so you could create an entertaining miniature city scene quite easily.

Full roster of working features

It’s also worth pointing out that while this Mettoy bus aims to replicate a tinplate ‘toy’ rather than a precision ‘model’, it does have some neat working features - front steering wheels, a ‘ding-ding’ bell, and a clockwork motor, with a big key that sticks out, ready for winding up that spring-powered engine. Then you can set those front wheels to one side, release the bus, and it will cruise round in majestic circles at your command. Great fun!

Town or country bus?

The Mettoy Routemaster comes in two colours, the classic bright red of a London Bus, or the softer tones of a Greenline rural-run machine. The London route marked at front, rear and sides is number 15, which travels between St Paul’s Cathedral and Trafalgar Square... oh nostalgia! How many times did I catch buses on that route during my Fleet Street days? Erm dunno - ‘a lot’ covers it!

Tinplate seats

I’m rather glad that the real buses offered seats that were somewhat softer than the curving tinplate ones provided here, even if they are neatly printed in the tartanoid pattern that only bus designers seem to come up with. The driver’s compartment is also somewhat familiar - I drove a Routemaster on an ‘experience day’ once, and that nearly-flat angle for the steering wheel certainly rings a bell.

SMN score

These tinplate models are available from ModelZone at less than half-price, making either (or both) of them a must-have if you like buses. The detail is actually pretty good for a tinplate, even if it is not intended as a high-detail product. And a further bonus is that both red and green buses come in handsome retro packaging, complete with a Limited Edition number printed on a simulated bus ticket.

Mat’s recent article on the forthcoming Revell bus kit makes good reading here.

The bus is available at ModelZone - along with other sale bargains - here.

Lots more buses here.

Pix courtesy Corgi, ModelZone, SMN studio.

LEONARDO DA VINCI AUTOMOBILE 'SELF-PROPELLING CART' KIT FROM ITALERI

Mat Irvine inspects

Here is another model in the growing range of Leonardo da Vinci designs, a 1:12 scale (or thereabouts) kit originated by Academy in South Korea, but made and marketed in Europe by the Italian firm Italeri.

The kit models Leonardo’s idea for a mechanical self-propelled cart, which would be, I suppose - if it had ever been built - the first example of a perfectly feasible ‘automobile’, predating Karl Benz’s three-wheeler by some 400 years.

Multi-media parts with motor

The kit is moulded mostly in conventional plastic, though there is, in common with all this manufacturer’s Leonardo kits, a pre-assembled clockwork motor supplied to power the completed model. The components are pre-coloured in various shades of brown, though a coat of paint - wood or tan, or similar - could be applied. However, if you want your cart to work properly, the areas where parts move against others will have to be monitored carefully. The solution for smooth running is to either mask parts so that paint doesn’t get on them in the first place, or to make sure that paint on affected areas is carefully scraped off before final assembly.

Simple but satisfying kit

The self-propelled cart is a simple kit of some 25 plastic components, a couple made of metal, plus the pre-assembled clockwork motor. The scale is a bit problematic, but - assuming the design was intended to be built at full-size - my best estimate is you are looking at about 1:12 scale, even though Leonardo didn't include any seats in his design, which would allow a more accurate scale guesstimate.

The pictures show, top to bottom:

1  The box for Italeri’s version of the Academy Leonardo da Vinci Self Propelled Cart, here prefaced with the word ‘automobile’.

2  Some of the main parts for the Cart.

3  The completed model.

4  A detailed booklet comes with all these kits, giving details of the thinking behind Leonardo’ s various ideas, plus museum and CGI images, and a list of other references.

Thanks to The Hobby Company for the review kit.

See the Cart and other Leonardo devices here.

More about Leonardo da Vinci here.

View Leonardo stuff here.

And some kits here.