Larger versions of all the model pictures below can be found on the EFE Zone Fotopic site


32201 United Automobile Services 1234 - JHN334D

The much anticipated Bristol EFE RELH coach finally made its public debut at this years Showbus Rally where it was available as the event's special release. This first model is adorned in the traditional cream and olive green livery of United Automobile Services and depicts JHN334D (1234) on route 203 bound for London.

The overall shape of the coach looks to have been captured well by the model, body beading has been included and appears to be in all the correct places although it's probably scale wise slightly too pronounced but this doesn't really affect the models look to any great degree.
Even when the model is compared with the real coach there seems little that stands out as being obviously inaccurate, the models dimesions look to be pretty accurate as well.

 

The front of the model has a nicely tampo printed radiator grille complete with Bristol & ECW badges, the headlights are represented by white paint of a silver background, some may find the white paint makes these a little too prominent however. The wipers are cast into the windscreen glazing and picked out in black paint but look perfectly acceptable.
There are no wing mirrors fitted although it would appear that these weren't that prominent on the real thing anyway. The front indicators have been tampo printed rather than cast although I suspect this is to allow for future variations of the model. The front destination blinds are also produced using just tampo printing, no doubt this is to allow for a wide variation of blind layouts to be reproduced.

 

Moving on to the rear, the roof air intakes look to be to scale as do the light clusters, the rear registration plate is also correctly positioned in it's own aperture. One point noted when comparing the model to then real coach pictured above is that the model appears to have a much more rounded rear profile, whether this is a variation found of some versions of the coaches I really can't say.

The roof detail includes the already mentioned rear air intakes and roof windows, sadly although the roof window framing is cast they are not glazed, on the United model the glazing is represented using orange paint.

The base plate is plastic and has chassis, engine, gear box and fuel tank details. The wheels have new chrome hubs which capture the detail of the real things and give the model that elegant finishing touch.

Being a nick-picker I would have to say that the cream outlining around the glazing does tend to make the side and rear windows look slightly too small, it also emphasizes the thickness of the roof supports, but this is a minor point which may be specific to this livery.

The model uses the normal EFE pole construction method, the interior & seats are a single plastic casting and like earlier EFE coach models the seat backs are inserted individually giving the effect of the each reclining seat being set in a slightly different position.

The tampo printing of details such as fleet names and legal lettering is crisp and even the smallest printing is fully legible under a magnifying glass, the paint finish is smooth and blemish free, it isn't over applied either leaving the casting details crisp and well defined.

This is without doubt a nicely executed model that captures the looks and style of the ECW bodywork, apart from the few points mentioned above this is a hard model to fault. I'm certainly looking forward to the release of the Crosville and Royal Blue versions in the near future.
This is definitely one of EFE's best models to date and I'd personally mark it as a 9 out of 10.

The EFE dual purpose bus and coach versions of the Bristol RELH