Oxford Die-cast launched this 1/76 scale coach in mid 2014, it followed the Bedford OWB Utility bus and the Leyland Cub Tiger Cub models which had been the mainstay of the Oxford Omnibus Range until then.

The Weymann Fanfare model has been produced in two 1/76 versions depicting both a Leyland & AEC Reliance. The first release was based on the well known preserved South Wales Transport AEC Reliance NCY 626 which is a regular attendee at various bus rallies across the UK. This model (76WFA001) depicts the coach on route to Rome and carries the operators traditional cream livery with maroon relief and scroll style fleet names.

The first Leyland version (76WFL001) followed soon after the South Wales model and is based on the Southdown Motor Services coach XUF 141, this carries the operators traditional two tone green livery and has a Brighton destination.

During late 2017 Oxford released the first N scale version of the Weymann Fanfare as part of a Southdown gift set (NSET003) containing four other models. This model is also to be released as an individual model (NWFL001) during 2018.

The body has raised panel joints to represent the beading used on the coach and like so many models before these are clearly overdone in scale terms although still an important design characteristic.

One problem noted on the South Wales model reviewed is that there are a few areas where the paint finish seems a little too thinly applied, the result being that the cream areas in particular display signs of colour variation. This is most noticeable on the roof side cove panels and on the front off-side corner. The darker Southdown livery doesn't suffer from the issues however.

The large amount of chrome trim present on the Fanfare has all been reproduced using silver paint, again the application on both models can't be faulted. All the lights on the model have similarly been reproduced using silver, red or orange paint. Tampo printing has been used to reproduce the fleet names on the sides and rear, an AEC triangle badge is present on the front of the South Wales vehicle while a “Metro-Cammell-Weyman” badge is present on the rear, and no that's not a typo, there is a “N “ missing off the end of Weymann on this model and indeed this error has been repeated on all the other models issued to date that have this feature!

Small “Fanfare” names are present towards the front on both sides. Small lettering is used for the skirt legal addresses and unladen weight while the seating capacity of 37 and fuel filler identification lettering is also present & correct. The off-side emergency exit carries silver identification text, the fleet numbers 1032 on the AEC & gold 1141 on the Leyland. The South Wales model also has GB lettering on the rear in keeping with its continental destination. Oddly there's no fleet number or fleet name on the front of the South Wales vehicle despite the preserved example sporting both of the features. Perhaps these were latter additions to the original livery?

The over painted plastic body shell has the major advantage of allowing the thin side window pillars to be accurately reproduced to scale, something that is near impossible to do in die-cast, the windows themselves have the top opening louvers represented using silver paint, the same process is used to represent the windscreen pillars and the two small windscreen wipers.

There are quite a few detail differences between the AEC & Leyland bodies, firstly the chrome trim is different on the front panel, at the rear the AEC has a larger single piece boot door while the Leyland has smaller double doors. There are also more subtle differences with the rear lights and variations in the position of access flaps on the sides of the models. The AEC model also has larger roof ventilators compared to its Leyland sister.

The base plate which is the same on both versions contains a fair amount of detailing including the chassis members, drive trains and various tanks. The black plastic wheel hubs are over sprayed to match the skirt colour and have chrome central hubs. Soft plastic tires are fitted to the hubs although it has to be said these don't seem to fit particularly well due to the locating ridge around the hub being rather wider the corresponding groove on the inside of the tires. It took quite a bit of fiddling to get the tires to sit correctly on the hubs.

There are two cross-head screws in the baseplate which once removed allow the model to be easily dismantled, like the Leyland Tiger Cub the seating unit clips into lugs on the inside of the body shell and can be released with the aid of a small screwdriver or nail file.

This certainly makes adding extra detailing or passengers to the interior of model extremely easy, those contemplating repainting however will be limited somewhat by the one piece plastic body, which will need careful masking to protect the glazed areas.

The interior component is made of plastic, interestingly Oxford have painted the floor around the entrance and cab area silver. One slightly strange detail is the interior mould has a section blocking the lower part of the entrance which blocks off the lower door glazing.

All in all another impressive model from Oxford, for the price, around £16 in the UK, this is good value for money. There are some problems as noted above, but most of these are either minor or probably fixable on future releases.

A full list of the 1/76 scale releases to date can be found HERE.