Over the past month or so, I did almost nothing for fandom. I had plans to write fanfics (I actually do that a lot, just not on this account), to write meta analysis, and I just… didn't. And whenever I talked to someone in Tumblr DMs and on Discord and whatever, my answer was, "I'm actually working on a tiny RC bus". There's also been headaches and toothaches and medication side effects and so on, Youtube videos to watch, the whole deal… but at the end of the day all my creative energy has indeed gone into a tiny RC bus. No apologies for that, but I thought I'd at least show you the bus.
Coin and Chat Noir's ring for scale.
[Video description: Three scenes of a small beige bus driving over a wooden floor, first in general, then up-close from above and finally what it looks like from below when it's on its back. The bus is a half-built kit with things like windows and paint missing, and the shell isn't fully on.]
This bus is not done yet. I have the windows and everything all ready to go, I just want to optimise the drive train and steering some more before I put that in. Also add lights, and repaint it, and reposition the on-off switch, and…
But look, it works! Steers and drives forwards and backwards. No matter how many things I want to fix, I'm very happy with what I achieved already.
For the bus nerds here, this is a model of an MAN Büssing SÜ 210, a semi-rare variant of a very common and boring bus. Back in the 1960s, West German transit operators got together and specified a standard bus for the entire country that all manufacturers should then build. While things like engines and transmissions and logos were left up to them, important details like destination display holders, window panes and overall dimensions were standardised. The end result is that there are a lot of bus types in Germany that all basically look the same. The SÜ 210 is the version by manufacturer Büssing made while they were in the process of being absorbed into MAN, and so is co-branded with both names and uses the then-current MAN numbering scheme. It got quickly replaced by the SÜ 230 and then 240, very much the same bus except they had 230 and 240 horsepower as opposed to the SÜ 210s… 210. They had slightly different arrangements of the logos, mostly, and later dropped the Büssing part (Büssing's emblem, the lion, has stuck around and is now the logo of MAN, and even part of the name of their new city buses, named Lion's City).
Eventually I want to paint it, and the obvious choices would be either for the bus operations of the German postal service (which means painting it yellow), or the bus operations of the German railways (which means painting it dark red). Both seem boring. I'm currently thinking about a blue-white design from the region where Büssing is from. That's still a long time away, though.
The reason I bought this one is… I found it cheap in a bargain bin. It's a 1:87 scale (H0 model railroad scale, except for countries where it's HO) static model and actually came as a kit. You can also sometimes get it pre-assembled for twice the price, but since I wanted to customise it, this was the perfect choice.
Converting it to an RC model first meant cutting out everything I don't need or, since it's a kit, just not installing it in the first place where applicable. The rear axle is driven with a 7mm coreless motor with a 1:90 gear reduction, which I bought as a kit. The front has the steering, also bought as a kit, controlled by a tiny RC servo. Both are held in place by 3D printed parts I designed myself, which are held by very tiny screws.
To complete things, we have a battery in the rear (180 mAh, 3.7V), a bit of copper PCB section as main power rails, a switch and charging plug (barely visible, in the random big black bar in the middle), and finally, currently at a jaunty angle, the little PCB that controls it all, acting as the 2.4 GHz receiver (with built-in motor controller).
When it comes to improvements, first I'll redo the steering assembly. Currently the turning radius to the right is bad and to the left terrible, because the wheels need more space, the lever needs more arm and the whole thing is currently installed crooked.
Next I'm thinking about relocating the on-off switch and the charging port so I have space to put the receiver PCB in flat. I'm also thinking about changing the receiver. This one (MXO RX87E-D) works fine, but I have another one that is slightly larger but supports fog lights, which this bus has. We'll see how that goes.
For cosmetics, obviously lights, definitely a new paint scheme and fixing the parts where I accidentally caused gashes because I wasn't watching my Dremel closely enough, and also an interior. There is an interior that came with the kit, but it's designed around the idea that there's nothing underneath it, so I'm planning to design a new plastic piece for that and then 3D print it myself.
Of course when all this is done, the main problem with this bus that will endure is that it's H0 scale, 1:87, a common model railroad scale but actually not my model railroad scale. I use N scale, 1:160, i.e. everything about half as small. Since this already uses the smallest components I've been able to find that you can buy, building a remote controlled bus in N scale is almost completely infeasible.
By which I mean I already started. Got a gearbox that may or may not work, a completely 3D printed steering that I'm feeling good about, and now I just need to design a completely new chassis and interior for that bus. As for fanfic, I promise I'll get back to it, whenever I feel like it.
