Click the small pictures throughout the review to view larger versions.
Review & Photographs by Kevin Ellis.

Oxford Diecast: 76WFA001 & 76WFL001- Weymann Fanfare Coaches AEC & Leyland Versions - click to view super hi-res image
Oxford Diecast: 76WFA001 & 76WFL001 - Weymann Fanfare Coaches AEC & Leyland Versions.

   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.

Near side front view - Click to enlarge Off-side rear view - Click to enlarge
Oxford Diecast 76WFA001: AEC Reliance - South Wales Transport.

Off-side front view - Click to enlarge Near side rear view - Click to enlarge
Oxford Diecast 76WFL001: Leyland Royal Tiger - Southdown Motor Services.

Nearside front view - Click to enlarge Off-side rear view - Click to enlarge
Oxford Diecast NWFL001: Leyland Royal Tiger - Southdown Motor Services.

The Real Coaches

The Weymann Fanfare was launched by the company in 1954 and was aimed at the then booming post war market for tours and excursions. The vehicles could seat between 37 & 41 and were advertised as being designed for easy convertibility between coach & bus use if required.

Options allowed vehicles to be produced with roof mounted destination displays or large front roof lights if required. Later vehicles had options for twin headlights & some vehicles had less chrome trim.

The 1950's had seen a move away from the traditional half cab types to under floor engined vehicles which offered higher capacity and a more modern full fronted design. South Wales Transport purchased two batches of the vehicles in 1956 and NCY 626 came from the second batch of five coaches. A final third batch were delivered in 1958.

The South Wales vehicles were initially used on continental tours until replaced by new Harrington Cavaliers in 1962. The Fanfares continued to be used on day tours & private hires until withdrawn by the Welsh operator in the early 1970's.

Southdown also took batches of the Fanfare during the 1950's and their bodies were mounted on the Leyland Royal Tiger chassis. Several vehicles received a dark blue livery used by Triumph Coaches which were acquired by Southdown and depicted by Oxford on model 76WFL002.

Nearside front of AEC version
Off-side front of Leyland version
Off-side rear view of AEC version - Click to enlarge Nearside rear view of Leyland version - Click to enlarge

The 1/76 Scale Models
A close up of the front detailing - Click to enlarge

The models are like the earlier Leyland Tiger Cub are a mix of die-cast metal & plastic, in this case the proportion of metal is much lower than that found on the Cub. The metal content is limited to the floor and lower skirt panels, while the main body shell is a single clear plastic component. A plastic baseplate holds the axles & wheels in place while all the interior detailing is contained on a another single plastic component.

The models overall seem to have a very good likeness to the real vehicles, the body design features many subtle curves all of which have been superbly reproduced on the model. The clear plastic used for the majority of the body shell means that all the solid body panels have been reproduced by over painting the exterior of the model. On the whole Oxford have made a fairly good job of the application, certainly its hard to see any signs of paint bleed between colours or over and of the glazed areas.

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.

There's some noticeable colour variation due to the uneven application of the cream paint - Click to enlarge

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!

Close up of the front detailing. - Click to enlarge Close up of the rear on the AEC version. Note the miss-spelling of Weymann on the badge - Click to enlarge Close up of the rear on the Leyland version - Click to enlarge
Close up of the South Wales fleetname & window detailing - Click to enlarge Close up of the South Wales fleetname - Click to enlarge

Close up of the front & entrance Click to enlargeSmall “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?

Close up of the rear wheel arch - Click to enlarge 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.

Front comparision of AEC & Leyland versions - Click to enlarge Rear comparision of AEC & Leyland versions - Click to enlarge

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 detailing - Click to enlargeThe 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.

The model's four main components are held together by two cross head screws - Click to enlarge The diecast metal lower body & plastic base - Click to enlarge The interior seating component - Click to enlarge The interior seating component obstructs the lower door glazing - Click to enlarge

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 driver's cab & entrance area - Click to enlarge 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.


Further Photographs Of 1/76 Scale Models
AEC front nearside - Click to enlarge AEC front off-side - Click to enlarge Leyland front nearside - Click to enlarge
Leyland front off-side - Click to enlarge AEC front nearside - Click to enlarge AEC front off-side - Click to enlarge
Leyland front nearside - Click to enlarge Leyland front off-side - Click to enlarge
Nearside view - Click to enlarge Roof detailing - Click to enlarge Off-side view - Click to enlarge

    Pros:
  • Good vehicle likeness
  • Excellent value for money
  • Good decal application
    Cons:
  • Poorly fitting tires
  • Some uneven paint application

Marks:
Construction: 9/10
Livery Application : 8/10
Decal Application: 10/10
Interior Detailing 7/10
Likeness to Subject: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10


The N Scale Model

Three years after the 1/76th scale model was launched Oxford released a scaled down N scale version of the AEC Fanfare Coach. A Leyland version is also planned for 2018 and both of the chosen liveries are copies of those already featured on the larger scale models.

Off-side front view - Click to enlarge Near side rear view - Click to enlarge
Oxford Diecast NWFL001: Leyland Royal Tiger - Southdown Motor Services (from set NSET003)

Construction wise these are again a mix of metal & plastic, although the proportion of metal content is once again reduced with the body shell now being all plastic & metal parts restricted to the baseplate. Like the larger scale model the plastic body is made of clear plastic which is over painted to produced the solid body panels.

Off-side view - Click to enlarge Near side view - Click to enlarge

Detailing is once again to a high standard and includes beading for the body panels & glazing. The chrome trim has been neatly highlighted using silver paint which is cleanly applied without any sign of bleeding.
All the tampo printed decals are sharp and even at this smaller scale include the tiny legal lettering & seating capacity on the skirts panels.

The interior detailing is also good for this scale and although limited to a single colour plastic component is perfectly acceptable. Interestingly like the 1/76 scale model the seating component again blocks the lower glazing on the door.

Model components & interior - Click to enlarge The Fanfare & Leyland Royal Tiger from NSET003 - Click to enlarge

There are a few negative issues on the model, firstly there are two internal fixing columns, which although made of clear plastic are still quite noticeable. The second issue is the paint finish, on the review model certain areas of the green colour are a little on the thin side leading to some very noticeable colour variation. Finally the axles are also a bit too long meaning that the wheels slightly protrude out beyond the wheelers.

Overall still a very good addition to the Oxford Omnibus N scale range, which is well up to the standard of the earlier models in the range.

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

    Pros:
  • Good vehicle likeness
  • Good value for money
  • Excellent decal application
    Cons:
  • Wheel axles slightly too long
  • Some uneven paint application
  • Internal fixing columns

Marks:
Construction: 7/10
Livery Application : 7/10
Decal Application: 10/10
Interior Detailing 7/10
Likeness to Subject: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

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