ECW LEYLAND FLEETLINE
KELVIN SCOTTISH 1523 (ULS 670T)

This is another VR conversion but this time using a curved front and retaining the EFE windscreen aperture, if not by choice the screen. I modified the white metal front panel for my purposes and once again filled out the body side under the driver. The rear was tackled in the same way as the Midland bus, although the bustle has the more modern rectangular lights fitted. The side and front indicators were also re-made to match. The attractive livery was far from a joy to reproduce due to a blocked airbrush nozzle and difficulty finding a good colour match for the light blue. The result is not therefore my best work but is attractive nonetheless. The BET style front screen was supplied by Mark Hughes and fitted with a set of his etched brass wipers which I cut in two and re-stuck similarly to those supplied by OOC on their Metrobus. The result is good and this method has been used on the majority of my models since.

I don't know if any of these new-to-Midland buses have survived. At least one Eastern one has been saved, though I believe it is to be restored in a Western livery, which I'm unsure whether it carried. More recently a Highland example has also been saved.