Expansion of Oxford Diecast 1/76 scale Omnibus range continues at a steady pace with it's release of a new model coach tooling of a 1960's Duple Commander II coach.

The first release reproduces Southdown's Leyland Leopard HCD385E (1785) which was part of a batch of twenty five 41 seat vehicles delivered to the operator between January & March 1967.
These vehicles arrived in the operators familiar livery of Apple Green with dark green skirt and were adorned with the traditional gold scroll style Southdown fleet names. They seem to have initially been used on the companies tours & excursions, but in later life they were also used on the operators express coach services & some gained white National Express livery in the early 1970's.

The Commander body style was originally introduced in 1964 by Duple and was initially built at the manufacturers' Hendon factory in North London. The new design took full advantage of the then recent changes to the permitted length & width allowing bodies to be produced up to the new maximum of 36ft & 8ft 2.5in wide.

The re-styled Commander II was introduced in 1966 and this was followed by a revamped mark III for the 1968 season.
All production of the Commander bodies subsequently moved to Duple's Blackpool site following the closure of the Hendon factory in 1970.
The Commander was replaced by the first variant of what would become the long running Dominant range of bodies in 1973.

Construction wise the model body is a mix of plastic & diecast metal, plastic is used for the baseplate & upper body.
Once again Oxford has over painted the clear plastic to produce the roof panels and window pillars, this method allows a good to scale reproduction of the thin support pillars.

The lower body has quite a high metal content & this results in quite weighty feel to the model.

Lights are all cast features on the lower body, all have been over painted to represent the lens colours. There are no mirrors as per usual for Oxford models, but silver painted front windscreen wipers are features cast into glazing.

Most other body details, such as the locker & rear emergency door handles are either over painted cast features or tampo printed. This method is also used on the front to reproduce the bumper grille & black air intakes below the main grille.

The destination display is tampo printed directly onto the front panel, this is acceptable given the that different operators fitted various sizes & layouts.

Nit picking there are a few issues however, firstly the front windscreen doesn't appear raked back enough and results in a rather flat front profile, the wheel arches are also noticeably flayed out to towards the lower edge & the tops have an odd downward slope towards the rear, the real vehicles appear to have had much more vertical sides to the arches and these certainly don't match those found on the Southdown vehicles at least.
Finally the roof centre is rather flat on the model, pictures suggest a more round profile was present of the real vehicles.

Interestingly, the line art originally issued by Oxford when the model was first announced shows a much greater windscreen rake, less flayed wheel arches & a deeper roof.
The real coaches also appear have had lower side panels that had a very subtle inwards tapper towards the bottom edge, this feature is also absent on the model giving it a rather square look.

One other slight error regards the roof air intakes, these appear to have been fitted back to front, with the intake opening on the rear instead of the front. The vents are actually separate parts which are glued on, so this may simply be a factory fitting error with this particular release.

The interior detailing consists of is a single plastic component which includes 41 passenger seats, drivers seat, & dashboard. There are also steps from the passengers door up to the main central gangway, all the flooring has been highlighted with tan paint whereas the seats have been painted light green. A separate black steering wheel & floor mounted control lever compliment the drivers seat.
Dashboard detailing is limited to a couple of raised mouldings to represent the main instrument display & a single dial, there are also a couple of switches to the right of the driver seat. The dashboard below the windscreen has been additionally sprayed light grey

Assembly wise, the model is easy to dismantle with just two cross-head screws in the base holding everything together. The seats are fixed to the upper plastic body by four small clips which can be freed with the use of a small screwdriver blade.
The front grille appears to be fixed in place with a glue and has two small lugs on the rear which locate into holes in the metal lower body. A similar fixing method is used for the roof air vents which are secured in place by a generous blob of glue on the underside of the roof.
Overall the construction of the model is very good with the gap between the two body halves being barely visible, this is further disguised by the trim below the windows.

Packaging is by the way of the standard Oxford plastic display case & Omnibus range branded card sleeve.
Overall this is still quite a nice model, but certainly not one of Oxford's best offerings, nevertheless it's a welcome addition for those interested in the 1960's & 1970's era.

Duple has long been the poorer cousin to Plaxton in terms of models produced despite the similar popularity of both marks with UK operators. So once again it good to see Oxford addressing this imbalance.

Oxford appear to have allowed for some vehicle variations as the follow up Grey Cars version has a different upper casting with smaller central roof light & additional cove window lights. It also features an alternative front grille without the number plate mounting.