Today I received a pair of GM Fishbowl busses by Busch. Real wonders. But I just can’t figure how to open them up since there’s no screw. I don’t want to break anything; anybody knows where to start ? I have a lot of passsengers waiting to get on board !
Martin
Québec City
Any chance of a pic or catalogue ref please?
Do they look right to you?
TIA
Here’s a link that shows the model : http://www.houseofhobbies.com/bu1hogmcfcib.html
Very nice. Comes in red too and also a white model with yellow and orange stripes. No screws. The whole bottom is snuggly fit with no evidence of latches. I tried to pull the sides apart but they keep in place.
Martin
Québec City
These where great buses, i drove alot of miles in one of these, but when we first got these they didn’t have power steering, [xx(] Is there a post that comes out the bottom of the bus with what looks like a rivet on it? There may even be two of these. If there is you can take a radoz knife and carefully cut these off, then you can seperate the body from the frame, take your time and DO NOT FORCE IT.!
I still didn’t find my way in. I just sent an e-mail to Busch and wait for theit answer.
Martin
Québec City
I would like to be able to repaint these buses in a freelance paint scheme that I have in mind and paint the interior as we… Certainly would make it easy if the chassis can be separated from the body…
Martin, please let us know what Busch tells you (hopefully they will reply).
I hope these puppies are not glued together from the factory.
I’ve got two that I want to paint in the TTC colours, my Dad drove those things in Toronto for years.
I have no answer from Bush yet. Dave, did you find a way to open them ?
Martin
Québec City
Martin4,
Don’t know if you have already tried it, but you might want to check in at the 1/87 Vehicle Club:
http://www.1-87vehicles.org
Hope this helps.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Martin,
I figured out how to get it apart.
It’s all press fit and the body is actually two parts. The part line is hidden behind the aluminum side panel.
First, take off the front rubber tires. You’ll see where there’s a space between the black frame and the rest of the body. I took a small screwdriver and gently pried between these two pieces and the frame gradually eased off.
Now switch to the back and gently pry between the two frames in the area where the rear wheels are. What this does is push up on the interior piece, which forces the real top piece to separate from the bottom. If you’ll look on the side you’ll see the two pieces start to separate above the aluminum side panel when you apply pressure. Once it starts to separate, it came apart easily.
The interior is nicely detailed. Plenty of room for passengers. I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t use clear lenses for the headlights and taillights. I’ll drill them put and put lights in, but it’ll be a harder job. Some “flourescents” inside and it’ll look pretty good.
Warning. I haven’t tried to put it back together again. [:D]
Mike Tennent
Please let us know if you can indeed add passengers to the bus. Anytime I’ve tried to add pre-made figures to vehicles or railroad rolling stock they have been a very difficult fit. Usually radical sugery is necessary, cutting off their legs, butts, etc. Wonder what is out of scale, the figures or the seating?
Bob Boudreau
Bob,
I model in N scale now, so I don’t have a lot of HO peeps sitting around anymore. I bought it mainly to see if I can make a lighting kit for it.
But I did find one HO “crouching” guy, so I can offer a guess: the seats appear to be wide enough, but there’s no foot room. You’d have to cut off the shoes. If crouching guy was sitting guy, I think he’d fit except for his feet.
Sorry I can’t be sure.
I can say the model really looks sharp.
Mike Tennent
I wonder if georges trains will have any painted for ttc? rambo1…
The problem isn’t scale; it’s reality. In the full-size world, you sit “in” a vehicle seat, not on it. Both you and the seat deform to fit each other. Even with a wooden bench, your rear end flattens out.
You can either remove material from the seat back and bottom cushion to fit the figure or remove material from the back and backs of the legs to fit the seat. I have done both and been pleased with the results as the figure sits in the seat at a realistic height.
Legs normally go under the instrument panel or the seat in front of them. As most model seats are not properly angled in the back, there’s no room for the legs so the easiest thing to do is cut them off below the knee.
Note on Busch models: Busch almost never uses glue but relies on tabs, press fitting and other methods, some of which can be difficult to uncover.
Thanks to Mike Tennent for the informations about opening up those Busch models. I just came back from a weekend trip and didn’t have time to try the suggested surgery but I sure will tomorrow night. I am aware of the usual problem of fitting passengers inside HO vehicles but I already have a bunch of Preiser figures with no legs, left off from previous scenes. They probably will be designed volunteers for the next departure !
Martin
Québec City
Mike,
Thanks guy!
I’m going to attempt your method on the bus that I bought recently. In addition to re-painting the exterior, I wi***o paint the interor wall as well since it’s the same color as the exterior. Most prototype fishbowl buses had either greenish-white or blue-ish white walls from the factory. Ceilings were always white.
May be a while, but I’ll post back my results.
Glad I could help.
I take a lot of vehicles apart and have only been defeated once. [:)]
A Corgi fire engine…
Mike Tennent
I asked them and they said no. Something to do with the TTC infringement rights, getting permission, getting someone to paint them, etc. I guess its to much trouble and would end up costing 50 bucks or so.
SUCCESS! [:)][:D][8D][;)][8)]
Mike, you’re the man! [4:-)][tup]
I took off the front and rear ruber tires. I “Very Gently” started prying with a small flat blade screwdriver inside the wheelwell. When I noticed that the aluminum panels started to bulge outwards, I then ran my thumb fingernail back and forth along the top of the aluminum panel where it meets the upper half of the body. I alternated sides. After about 1 minute, she the upper and lower halves came apart. Note: TAKE YOUR TIME!
The seats are a one piece unit that comes out of the lower body section. I’m considering painting the seats a pale Aquamarine(similar to New York MTA buses in the late 60s).
I took the rims off as I’m going to be painting them.
The glass on the sides and doors is a one piece unit and the windshield and back window are individual pieces. All came out easily. The windshield wipers on my unit appeared glued in, after 2 attempts to remove them, I left them as they were.
The upper half of the body is what I’ll be painting, exteriorwise. I wiped it with alcohol and then wetsanded it with 3M 600 grit paper. (Do not crosssand!) Just wet sand lengthwise on the roof and sides.
She’s now ready for two coats of orange-yellow. (I’m doing a freelanced version of a 1970s Tampa Bus Lines scheme). After I airbru***he body, I’ll simply re-paint the windshield wipers silver or aluminum with a fine paint brush.
Outside rear of the bus:
I did not like those painted on red tail and brake lights on the tailgate. Very Tacky! Here’s a fix that even impressed my warped little mind after I finished:[:p]
I slowly drilled out the upper brake lights with a #41 bit and glued a pair of red MV Lenses # LS 410. I then drilled ot the lower tailliigts with a #52 drill bit and glued on red
Today I was answered by Busch about opening up their 44500 Fishbowl bus. A photo came with the message but I don’t know how to join it with my reply and it is prtty large (600k). The message reads as follows:
Dear Martin,
Thank you for your interest in Busch-modelcars. In the following you will
find the answer to your question:
Remove baseplate.
9 plugs with hooks coming from the glass-part snap into the base - so the
bus keeps together. Bend the plugs a little inwards with a thin knife (see
picture).
Thereafter try to draw apart upperpart and base by moving to and fro. But
attention, it may happen that the rack in the front of the upperpart breaks,
because upperpart and base are a little pasted here so that no slit is
viewable.
Best regards
Jürgen Hohenadel
Produktmanager
Busch GmbH & Co. KG
Heidelberger Straße 26
D-68519 Viernheim/Germany
By combinong those explanations with the ones posted by AntonioFP45 and Mike Tennent I should be able to get further. I’ll come back about that.
Martin
Québec City