JDave Say

Hi everyone, pack 9 stage 81 starts with the back wall panel the upright polls and the wall at the top of the stairs on the upper deck at the rear of the bus , most notable of this stage is the LED that lights the stairs , in a future stage you’ll need to remove this back window wall and move the LED to under the rear seat so the cable comes out of the back of the bus in the notch doing this now will save you having to take the rear wall off again in the future , Also the upright polls and the upper deck inner roof will be tackled in this pack 9 and we have a special modification to make fitting the roof with the polls a lot easier it’s a suggestion that was given to me by a friend and it really works more about that later on in this pack , once this stage of 81 is finished it completes the upper deck inner walls of the bus and the next few stages are the upper deck inner roof panels .

Routemaster Pack 8 stage 80 the front upper deck windows destination box and electrics , ok this build just gets better and better with this stage we see the metal framework for the front upper deck windows and destination surround , my notes on this is take note of the small sliding windows that drop down these windows need to be correct the silver needs to go to the top of the windows , the drop down windows on a Routemaster are covered on three sides with polished alloy frames and they are top of window and sides the purpose of the polished alloy is to protect you from being cut by the glass which is why the lower part of the windows isn’t covered by the alloy frame because if anyone leans out of the windows or puts their arms out they’ll be protected by the alloy frame , so alloy frames go to the top , also in this stage you have the opportunity to test more of the electrics and a chance if you want to change the buzzer for a bell 🛎 I have done this on our models as personally I think it sounds better again use my diagram which I’ll put a picture in along with the others , happy building see you all on Pack 9 .

Pack 8 stages 78 & 79 Routemaster upper deck interior walls both sides , in these stages we fix both sides and front walls together and also fix the seats to the sides of the interior walls , only note I had at this stage was making sure the seats where sat properly on the lower seat pegs on the sides of the interior walls if they all look square to the sides you’ll know because when viewed from above if one seat isn’t sitting correctly it’ll look out of place to check this put one interior side wall on first then look underneath the seats to see if they sit in correctly , this wonderful model is now beginning to look like a double decker bus and wow it certainly is challenging to take photos with it being so big But that’s the appeal to me and many of my friends too the shear size of this beautiful model , and very soon we are going to be putting it all together.

Pack 8 stages 76 and 77 drivers cab details and more electronics and roof panel over bonnet , ok so stage 76 drivers cab details they are as if you was the driver looking upwards from the drivers seat , it houses three switches for functions on your bus which will be added in stage 77 , stage 76 has a lot of very small parts so be careful not to loose anything when building I recommend using a bright surface to build on as most of the parts to this stage are black and could be difficult to find on a dark work surface area , likewise putting black parts together along with black screws also has its difficulties so I recommend plenty of light in you work area , stage 77 is great stage as we actually start putting these two stages together onto the underside of the upper deck seating , we also run wires along the underside of the seating too ,

Pack 8 of the Routemaster stage 75 is the front destination blind it scrolls too so you can change the destination ,note it’s the only destination on the bus that you can change destinations on , ok so notes I have with this stage is mainly the grease on the cogs please make sure you have something to regularly clean your hands as grease gets everywhere including on your blind and your bus blind is very fragile and will mark very easily so again I used a soft build mat and kitchen roll and followed the instructions to the letter , the blind build is not the easiest but take your time and examine the pictures in the build download section for the correct orientation of the parts but I must stress that you have to build with clean hands as the grease gets on everything including where the blind sticks to the rollers ,

Routemaster pack 8 stages 73 and 74 is ceiling framework and upper deck handrails etc , these two stages are pretty straight forward , care must be taken when fitting the metal framework to the underside of the upper deck as you have to turn the whole upper deck over which will be resting on the seats and as you know these are fragile plastic so I used a soft build cushion and supported it with my free hand while I put the screws in , the upper deck handrails and front interior window frame and destination box cover are again plastic and care must be taken not to over tighten , note I made was on the rear wall panel the light lens falls out so perhaps secure it with a little tape until further along in the build .

Hi everyone , firstly am sorry for the late inclusion with this pack and stages , this is pack 8 stages 71 & 72 the electrical connections and upper deck lighting and other electrics , firstly I made a quick and easy reference to the circuit board on the Routemaster by simply making note of where all the sockets where on the board see photo which hopefully you’ll find useful in your build , I had help from my YouTube friend Horlixs doing stage 71 and managed to do 72 fairly easily best advice I can give is to take your time make a diagram of the circuit board see photo , read all instructions carefully and remember to turn off the power at the switch every time you go near the circuit board especially when your plugging plugs in etc and another point to stress at this time is to make sure you have the plug the correct way round to fit into the board , and now for the fun part test everything in order of the instructions , hopefully by the en of this pack most of the electrics will be working and it’s just placement of wires etc that you’ll have to worry about , your wires will look like a birds nest but don’t worry these will be sorted at another stage , I stored my bus on its side in a massive box in between stages as I thought it would be the safest way to keep it and so far it’s remained in tact ,

Pack 7 stages 67,68,69,70 followed on from the building of the seats and 67 68 69 where arranging the seats on the upper deck floor and attaching the three floor sections together and arrange the seats in the correct positions for the grab poles on the back of the seats , and stage 70 was the framework for the underside of the upper deck floor rear half which is attached to the rear underside of the upper deck floor .

Pack 7 stages 64, 65 , 66 , where upper deck seats , my wife Chris asked if she could help with these stages and as a team we built seats until we’d got all the upper deck seats finished and then we carried on until we finished the flooring too ,

Pack 7 stage 63 is fitting the rear platform and stairs and cables, wow this stage really was a pleasure to do for me in total there’s 8 screws holding this rear together but when finished you will have the full scale length of your model of 27.5 inches long and I may add it’s a whole lot heavier too so before starting this stage please make sure you have replaced the rear section of the last stage the rear wall with the bell switches on then using something soft on your workbench turn the whole model on its o/s and make sure you have lots of room to work around the model then you can offer up the platform and stairs to the rear to see where you attach it via four screws underneath and four screws at the side of the stairs , I believe I did this stage as I ve done all the other stages live on my YouTube channel ( D S Models & Vintage ) just look for the stage and pack number , I may have done this stage with the bus upside down resting it on some blue foam blocks that I use for model making that way I don’t break anything so just to clarify if you do turn your model either on it’s side or upside down please be very careful and use something soft to raise your model off the work surface ,also in this stage we start putting the electric plugs into the circuit board for this I have made a template of the circuit board with all the relevant letters on so if I find it difficult to find a certain letter to put the wire plug into I can refer back to my diagram for location of plugs etc .

In this stage 62 once again this fabulous model takes on a big change in its size and weight after this stage you’ll find that we have a the models full length ( 27.5 )inches long , be sure to follow the instructions to the letter as this stage is one that has a lot going on at the same time , my recommendation is to study both the pictures on the net and against the model , and my build tip is to take the back wall off the one at entrance door with the bell switches , by taking this back off it makes things easy it’s only held on by 4 screws so it’s easy to move out of the way until your ready to put it back on again, the red pipe under the bonnet is quite tricky and so is the screws to line up at the back of the kick raiser plate onto the chassis underneath,

Pack 7 starts with stage 61 fitting the bonnet , wow very small parts in this one certainly if your not used to building part works then please take this one step by step , slow n steady is the name of the game especially with this and the next stage as there’s lots to think about all at the same time , my tip is to sort the parts first into left hand and right hand side and then check all screwholes are free from paint block etc and being careful with your build whilst fitting the bonnet as it scratches easily, once the bonnet is on you would think that your build has finally moved from base to the very beginning of a truly beautiful model bus , I mostly use a build Matt especially more so recently less chance of any scratches etc .

Pack 6 stages 56 , 57 , 58 ,59 , and 60 , I decided to lump these stages together as these are quite exciting stages and some where covering stages that we’d done before such as the stairs etc but also when these stages are completed we find the full scale length of this wonderful model which is 27.5 inches long when finished and of course that tells us that because this is 1/12 scale that indeed the real bus is 27 ft 6inches long , the shear size of this model far dominates any other Routemaster model that’s ever been commercially available, in these stages it also gives us insight into its electronics with the circuit board and the interior lights for the lower saloon , also within these stages are the completed stairs and the interior rear wall for the back platform , my main point to tell you about these issues are the battery box and switch they can be very fragile so i taped it safely out of the way with wide masking tape once I’d completed the back platform which will be fitted to the model in the next pack .

Pack 6 stages 54 and 55 lower deck ceiling and lights and details , couple of really nice stages with added details of handrails lights bell rope and electronics for the bell and lights etc , the bell rope was probably the most challenging for me as couldn’t get the rope through the holders in the ceiling but thankfully my lovey wife came to the rescue as she’s used to dealing with cotton with her sewing experience , so with that said we don’t fasten the roof down until later on in the build so another part to keep safe until we need it ,

Pack 6 starts with the front interior wall fitting to the front bulkhead 51 , so I’ve put three stages together again so with this update it’s stages 51 , 52 , 53 , the rear interior and exterior walls 52 and 53 fit together to form the rear interior wall before the platform entrance , , it is at these and the next stages that I would suggest you look around for some interior advert stickers to make your model more individual to you if you wish to do so I’ll certainly be covering this in my Blue Routemaster Southend Transport bus build later on and I’ll be using Peter Kurton’s superb advert stickers which are available if you wish to contact him by email only on ..sdp.repro@gmail.com ask him for a list of his adverts and streamers etc for this fabulous bus .

Pack 4 stages 47 , 48 , 49 ,, and 50 are the front bulkhead the interior walls and seat fixings and details and rather quick to assemble and leaves us with two large pieces of the build until the next pack arrives , .

Pack 4 stages 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 where done together in one sitting for me it was a fairly easy few stages for me but I did have my lovely wife ( Chris ) helping me as she wanted to build bus seats to save me time and so she did and I was able to complete 4 stages at one sitting, thank you ( Christine ) .

Stage 42 of pack 4 is quite a large issue with lots to do as we fix together the drivers cab and the chassis/frame , a large work area in needed for this stage as is the screws left over from stage 41 , you’ll need plenty of time and I suggest you have plenty of room on your work surface but honestly this isn’t that difficult so long as your well prepared, we’re actually working in three areas of the build firstly the cab floor needs fixing into the cab after you’ve done the fix to the underside of the brake pedal switch , then use the black tape over the chassis frame ends , then the cab assembly fixing to the chassis , as it states in step 4 you will need to study the assembly guild as your going to be placing parts together almost simultaneously but once done this stage is very rewarding as it’s the first big step to making your model look great .as in pack 4 stage 2 finished view 14 in the instructions , parts included in this stage was the lower front deck floor and flywheel cover .

Stage 41 brought us lots of interesting parts to the build including the perspect glass for the cab windows plenty of details for the cab including ventilation flaps and more electrical wires etc . Notes I made was to be very careful when fitting windows into the cab do not over tighten the small screws that secure the drivers sliding cab window and it’s important to keep your wiring as neat as possible under the cab floor for later on in the build it will be necessary to secure the cab to the chassis/frame and these could be in the way of securing the cab properly , in this stage with most of the front panels put together you get to see how this beautiful bus starts to look with its fabulous and famous London transport Red paint ,

Pack 4 stage 40 , well what can I say this stage is just wow we receive the cab itself with details to be added it’s beautifully painted in the London Transport Red and has its gold transfer of RM857 fleet number this to me was a really satisfying issue to do and the biggest painted part so far , there’s some very exciting times ahead in the next packs , hope your all enjoying the build so far , JDAVE .

Pack 4 stages 37 , 38 , 39 , ,,,stage 37 is more work on the cab continues… brake pedal and accelerator and more electrics , the sticking point here for me and note to everyone is the very small and delicate spring that attaches on the brake pedal under the cab floor and piece 37f has to be kept safe until you do the next stage ,,,stage 38 is fitting the dash board and more details inside the cab , my notes for this was to make sure you fit the piece left over from the last issue and then to make sure you have the wired switches the correct way round , there’s lots of small parts in this stage which could easily be lost to so maybe a parts tray or similar would help to put your parts in ,,, stage 39 is the drivers seat an easy stage which was a nice change to the busy issues we’ve had before and once fitted to the cab this completes the work for the drivers cab .

Pack 4 stages 35 and 36 ,,,,,, 35 is the drivers cab floor with handbrake and engine side cover this stage sees the first of a few stages all about the drivers cab only note I had on this one was the handbrake it’s a push fit into the floor but it’s quite fragile so care is needed I cleaned the fixing holes for it with a tiny file and it pushed in easily but for the next few stages care will be needed to not knock this or worse brake it as we have to handle the drivers cab many times often turning it over etc to work on it within this pack , stage 36 is the steering wheel and box and details in the cab , the work on the cab continues in the next few stages .

Pack 4 stage 34 is the fuel tank & safety bars , ok and here’s my first confession whilst I was building this stage I had difficulty attaching the two central brackets for the safety bars it was possibly one of my senior moments lol as I’d actually got the centre brackets wrong on each side it’s easily done so beware if your safety bar or brackets don’t fit very well it’s possible that the brackets are wrong way round , once this stage is complete the subframe/chassis is much more rigid which if you remember was quite an issue to a few of us before with the chassis flexing etc , we also receive the four black plastic blocks in this stage they are stands for your model and are used to keep the weight off the models tyres and is for your model to be displayed on if you wish , I would strongly recommend that you use them , the chassis has four corresponding flat squares that match these blocks see my photos for more info .

Hi Everyone and welcome to pack 4 stages 31 , 32 , 33 . The wheel arches , stage 31 was for me an easy issue and quite satisfying one too giving our bus the two rear wheel arches , stage 32 the near side front wheel arch and was the first time we have seen electric on our model with the front fog light and the bulb for the near side headlight this stage is a little tricky but gives an impression on how the build will progress from here with the electronics etc , stage 33 was again quite a easy issue but with them stages out of the way we find our model with the four wheel arches completed .