Here is Roden's recent model of the 1940s Greyhound 'Silversides' bus. I'd still say vehicles are outside my comfort zone, especially in 1:35 scale, but this is an area dominated by military subjects, so when this civilian subject became available, I was interested. I mean, it's a classic subject, heavily nostalgic for film fans and Stateside road trippers alike. I've been wondering about that, and can't be sure if I ever traveled on a Greyhound bus or not (in more recent times, I enjoyed the services of Bolt Bus - doesn't quite hit the same spot, does it?). Maybe I did, in my mind at least.
This particular generation of Greyhound bus was what really established the brand. Though the war was on, and they were heavily used to ferry recruits to training depots. Such a scene features in the box art. Personally I was sad to see it, because the painting must have been one of the last pieces done by Valeriy Grygorenko, an excellent artist who produced highly evocative and very distinctive paintings to adorn Roden's kits. They weren't just detailed, they had a special personal 'stamp', and were sometimes humorous when you looked carefully. He was killed by a piece of shrapnel early on during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
I may have thought this was a straightforward build, quick to finish. Heh, not so much, as it turned out. Firstly, it's quite big: a shoe box doesn't quite contain it (careful with those fragile wing mirrors, if you do try and use one to carry it). I thought rattle cans would do most of the job. The silver went on well, but the blue had to be hand painted, as also did the white, because I'd run out of suitable spray hadn't I, and it was the Christmas period and I realised I could be asking for trouble trying for a speedy and efficient postal delivery. I sort of hoped for a Christmas finish, because I have a certain relative in mind who's been brilliant looking after my car and he might like this... I dunno! Anyway, recent medical things have interfered with a lot of things. Never mind.
White! Oh I hate having to paint in white, more than small details. For some reason white paint, and I really mean Tamiya's, is a sort of diva of the acrylic paint world, touchy and demanding of perfect conditions or it'll dry too fast/clog up/spread too thin and need multiple layers. But all that is fine since like most scale modellers I am a bona fide masochist. With a rich store of Anglo Saxon words suitable for an occasion like this. Yes, the roof took up a lot of my time during this build, together with the fitments underneath, ie the roof racks and passenger lighting (it'd be great if those actually worked, I realise now, since you can see less of the interior than I'd expected - bit naive of me there). You may think, what am I going on about, it looks good, but understand that I'm now a past master at taking pictures from favourable angles and keeping certain areas out of focus.
The interior is certainly time consuming, and also unusually challenging as a very long winded and repetitive exercise. Weirdly, I sort of love it now I've done it, but this picture is my main record of it now everything's sealed up (you can build it with the door open if you wish - I didn't). As you can see, each seat consists of several separate elements, to be painted differently, and there are 38 of them including the driver's. And I left out the window side arm rests - not that they would be visible - because contrary to the instruction sheet there were no location holes in the side moulding. It would have been tedious to the extreme to try to get them all lined up by eye. Anyway, before I put the roof on, I was rather pleased with the interior and its seating. The detail is decent, especially at the front, which is more visible through the driver's windows.
Another section of the model which in my case is even less visible, is the engine compartment. In the Silversides bus this was right at the back, under the rear seats (I wonder if the noisy proximity of that diesel engine ever put off the normal inclination of the bad boys or cool kids to occupy those seats?). This area can be on open display if you want: the blue centre piece lifts up, and the side pieces go left and right. But I could see that they'd snap off far too easily, and this particular model bus could well get a bit of handling. A pity in a way, Pete loves the innards of engines, and Roden do include a satisfying amount of machinery. Which I've mostly left out. I've only fitted the lower parts which are visible if the bus is looked at underneath. Oh, and I've shown little respect to either Greyhound or their mechanics: I saw a number of pictures of the engine compartment while researching, and I have to say, I've 'grimed it up' far more than any engine I viewed in photos. Sorry to them!
The other aspect of the build which wants a comment or two is the decaling. The sheet Roden provide is splendid. Apart from one of the recruiting buses, decals are offered covering multiple coaches which served in most parts of the United States. I do have some important advice. Before organising yourself to apply the decals, you must spend some time with a sharp blade trimming round a lot of them. Many won't fit into their respective recessed spaces otherwise (eg. the semi circular red ones at the back). Or, like with the iconic greyhound designs on the sides of the bus, which fit precisely onto the pieces of PE there, you'll find carrier film sticking out all around.
A few other thoughts. One is that there are several very large plastic pieces which have to be stuck together at various points. Do some serious mental rehearsing of how you're going to apply the glue etc., and bear in mind the temperature of the room you're in, or you could end up in a bit of a mess, with some of the glue drying far too fast. I managed okay, but I have to say, sticking on the roof especially was a little sphinctre tightening. But look, if you've made other models and you have a bit of common sense, you'll be okay.
It is a handsome model bus, and I for one enjoyed looking up its history. In the course of which I discovered that although yes the Silversides buses all had that silver blue and white scheme, in detail you never see exactly the same application twice. By which I mean, sometimes the edging is in one place, sometimes it's further along; sometimes the driver's window surrounds are silver, sometimes black; sometimes the blue is a medium shade, sometimes it's much darker; and so on and so forth. I reckon this gives you a bit of a free hand to please yourself in the finer details! I won't say it was an easy build, but considering the size and complexity I think Roden did a very good job here. One small example: the windows. Generally modellers regard these with trepidation, knowing how glue can spread maliciously and cloud the plastic. But you'd have to be pretty careless to suffer that here, with the way they are designed to fit. Honestly, I'm very pleased at the end of it all. A lovely kit.
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