Ok, here’s a wacky idea; how about a car transporter, made from a Routemaster, or London bus?

Somewhere on my vacation-break I got this awesome idea and started playing with it, I bought another London Bus kit from Revell (I kept the first one to be build stock) and got it yesterday evening. I was all excited at work to start with it, couldn’t wait and have now the first 2 hours in it.

It isn’t all that difficult if one went the easy route, hop in a ramp, change the back end and done. But I plan to go somewhat further and make it technical possible, so I need to take in account all dimensions, angles, room etc… not cutting corners, at least not too much.

On with some pictures:
The familiar box

The top floor, seems to have enough space for a E-type and a Morgan

This has to be cut, in order to change it into a transporter

Than I realised that the wheel wells? are quite big in the Routemaster, so I mocked-up the bus and see if a sporty granturismo would fit between the roof and the wheels, albeit a bit low, it seems to work out.

A bit more overall picture

And what a great view for people looking at the transporter!

A door in the side is also convenient to get to the storage area, fortunately, there is a door size window on the side and would make a great door. Unfortunately it is too far to the rear, so I will swap the two windows. The door will move one spot to the left.

The ceiling and topfloor are 2 parts, so twice the cutting and now past the point of no return!

A mock up again

This is how far I am going, I calculated the angles the Ferrari could handle and used that as a guide for calculating the ramps angles.
unfortunately, the distance between the rear of the bus and the rear wheels is too short and gets too steep, so I have to think of a solution for that.

Being smart this time, I decided to take little steps in building up. so I worked on the upper deck and get that nice and smooth.
I added some styrene to cover the gaps

And glued the longer strips whilst the bus was somewhat mocked up, I don’t have carpenters fingers, so in order for everything to be straight in the end, I thought it was smart to do it this way.

And I keep fitting the 275, it is my benchmark and if this one fits, the smaller british cars will fit too.

Important was some clearance on either side of the Ferrari

Time for a huge update, lots of pictures too.

I started with making the ramps on the lower deck inside, these will be fixed ramps.

Added a guide edge to it

I made a new wall/divider for the lower deck, this will divide the car from the small workarea/storage.

Including a door

Dryfitted together

I started with swapping the door and window area on the left side of the bus

The window is now moved one slot to the right and in the remaining hole will come the door.

Some strutting for the ramp

And the drivers wall got a open space, so he can get into the drivers seat from the work area.

Entrance of the work area from the left side

Workdesk

Fits snugly in the corner.

And from this point down, it was all done yesterday, went we had a modelshow nearby, where I actually do model. So there’s about ten hours of work below…
I started with making some storage space for the work area, it has to be cramped ofcourse.

I also made the swing-ramp for the lower deck, made it a bit trapezium shaped, for easy entrance and for the upper swing-ramp.

A little template for adding the right rear of the bus, getting rid of the big curve, this will add more space for loading.

This will be the upper deck, with the upper swing-ramp in place.

A view simple pieces of PS, but does look nice.

Dryfitting time, looks pretty good to me

It really starts to look like something

I added quarter rounds to the upper ramp, makes it look a bit more realistic

The ambiance I ‘had’ to work in, not that bad eh

I put the drivers cabin together, to see how it would relate to the work area and what work has to be done.

After adding a guiding edge to the upper swingramp, the fit got too tight, so I have to adjust that.

At this point I started to make a dryfit of as many bodypanels I could get. To see if everything was still straight and true. But also to see if I made mistakes and how to solve them

One week further and I was able to get some steps done, but the big steps that I could take before have been minimised to small detailwork.

I worked on windowframes on the divider, to give it a bit more depth

And added crossmembers for the ramps

Than started a long and tidious project, getting the ramps to hinge.

I used a fairly simple, but effective system in making my own hinges out of copper tubes

The top ramp has the same system, but over the whole length

The divider, the door opening got the same treatment too.

I wanted to make a compartiment for the hydraulic jacks that are needed for the ramps, because I want it to look a bit crude, but that’s for later. I found quickly that this compartment is too small, or at least not deep enough

So I got it out again

This is something that I will be doing for quite some time through the project; filling!

The drivers side divider got changed too, since I want the driver to get into the workshop, I opened a hole

And gave it some steps.

Some more work on hinging, this is for the rear-ramp

The bus side of the rear ramp, which will get a mesh insert, so people can step on it.

The whole ramp, hinged closed

And hinged in rest position

Some strengthening for the hinges.

I use a long rod, that way I know everything will line up later on.

And the whole ramp, completely open.

Should be adequate haha

And in closed position.

After being quite sick and after that being rather busy with work and the holidays, I finally got to another update. Due to being busy, the progress has been little, but there was some stuff done.

Let me run you trough it.

I worked firstly a bit more on the ramps, they are basically ready to be painted, but since I want to give weathering somewhat a try, so I added a few pieces of BMF under the paint, allowing me to give somewhat a more realistic paint chip off at the ramps

The drivers compartment is painted and partly put together, being able to still weather it before final assembly

The undercarriage is somewhat dissappointing with detail, it could have more parts to give it more oompf, I tried with paint to pick up on some detail.

A box full of painted parts, The mainfloor is painted in a nice flashy color, I wanted to go a bit different haha

The engine is painted in different shades of Alclad

Because the floorpan is quite warped, I need a few clamps to get everything a bit straight.

I installed the engine inside the bus

And the other floorpan was warped too, so needed to clamp that as well

I hope it is visible, but I added paintsplatters to the floor, to create a bit of garagefeeling to it (not sure that even existed then)

I keep fitting throughout the build, just to make sure, since there is so much adjusted.

Because the drivers seat is not mounted to its backwall no more and is visible from the back, I closed it on the back

The drivers cabin a little further

And the first glimps on the exterior colors!

The lower ramp is not fixed in the bus and the wheels are mounted, it is starting to give the transporter shape

And by now I reached a dilemma, I added the front part on it again and the top floor, even though I had in mind to make a fully closed of car transporter, I kinda like the looks of the transporter with no roof. What do you guys think?

I had yesterday finally some time to work on the project again, I haven’t been able to give it the time I wished I could.
But I am grateful that I made some progress yesterday. I worked yesterday mainly on scratchbuilding some new bodyparts. I had to add bodypanels to the rear, where they were too short or non-existing.

I added the lower ‘walls’

And added BMF to the upper rail

Then I started to mock-up the body as much as I could, that way I am able to get the right measurements for the new bodypanels.

As you can see, there is quite a gap in the back

And a smaller one on the right side.

With roof and the mock-up car inside

This is the new panel for the right side

It does make it a closed behind

To get it a bit in style with the rest of the bus, I added a few strips

Finally, after a busy period, I was able to re-start the bus project. Last night I started a little bit with the trailer and with that still in the development-stage, I took up the transporter today and started working.

I don’t much big work needs to be done, but to me, I think it is best now to finish the lower floor and go from there, that will include detailing and weathering, even before the construction work is finished; means challenge haha.

The kit I got for the trailer was partially started, therefore it has some paint on it, this is how it should be

And this is the first step; putting the saw to work

First I thought to leave the chassis like it was, letting the wheels stick out, but it looks odd and decided against it, giving me a lot more work….

Some rough idea’s

The original chassis

Cut in two pieces

And shortened 65mm

Putting it on the floor

Drew the cutlines

And voila; more pieces to the puzzle

Today I started on the bus; started the weathering

Adding some furniture

Some washes

More washes

And even more washes

I also gave the furniture a worn or used look.

[17-02-’19]

It’s been a couple of years, but the Routemaster is back on the workbench.  I really had to dig into the project-post and the pictures to get into this complicated built again.
I think I am on the same track as where I left. Work halted last time on detailling the workplace; making a diorama is not my forté. But it had to be done before I could go further and that is why it was stopped.

But since I finished a couple of projects, I wanted to start working on this monster of a project again.

The workshop is almost finished, just needs a little bit of weathering and detailling.

I also started on working on the hydraulic cylinders for the lower ramp, these will be the first to do, when I figured this out and have them done, I can do the other cylinders as well.