Newly announced by AK Interactive, a T2 1967 bus.
This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/ak-interactive-t2-1967-bus
This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/ak-interactive-t2-1967-bus
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About time! My uncle ruined several of these in my youth, with all of us cousins sloshing around the back - no seatbelts back then! IIRC there was a petrol-powered heater strapped under the floor, which rarely survived the first bumpy level-crossing…
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Well colour me Gelboliv; we can make a Bundeswehr version from this can we not…?
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I vividly remember being picked up from Frankfurt Airport in one and taken to my first duty station in Germany in ‘85. Cool!
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If going for Gelboliv, just wait a little bit 
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As much as I would prefer this in 1/24 to go with all my other bus models, I will get this as so far this is the only kit that represents the 1969 7-seater walk-through I owned. Hasegawa is pre-1967 and Revell is post-1971.
If it doesn’t come with the shorter middle row seat hopefully I’ll be able to modify it.
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Let me know when the 18 window version comes out.
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I’ve seen 11, 13, 15, 21, and 23 but never an 18. None of those go past mid-1967 as far as production goes. What model are you referring to?
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The Volkswagen Type 2, also known as the Microbus, Splitscreen, or Splittie, was produced from 1950 to 1967. The most common number of windows on a Volkswagen bus is 21 or 23, but a rare few have 18 windows:
I like rare.
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They must be super rare then, because I’ve never heard of one and cannot find any reference to one on any of the major VW sites like TheSamba.com. I can’t even find an M-code for such a feature. Were these perhaps special order vehicles built to a specific purpose like the extended bed pickups or the radar trucks?
Do you have a link or image?
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If you use the exact verbage I used in my post to search (which I copied) you can find where I got that blurb. I only know about it because an SF guy I worked with had one near JBLM, which I have seen for myself.
Personally I don’t care which version of the “splittie” it is. They’re all cool, and if I had room I’d probably get one.
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Not a Splittie split screen, but in UK parlance, a ‘Bay’
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Yes, known as Bays in most of the U.S. as well. Mine was a '69 built in October 1968 and shipped to Jacksonville, FL the end of that year.
I still cannot find any reference to an 18-window anywhere even using those search terms, nor can I visualize that arrangement based on how the others are set up. After 1964 there were no more corner windows so that gives you at most 21 and typically the skylights go if you drop a tier so that gives you 13 windows max. Where would those 5 windows go to make 18?
Someone asked about this on TheSamba.com forums as he was considering buying one from an ad (the seller insisted it was a factory-produced vehicle) and the answer he received was no as far as a factory production item was concerned. A link to an article or image of said vehicle went unanswered. My guess is there was no pic in the ad for him to post on the forum which makes me wonder why you would buy a car with no pics. But regardless, I am still unable to find a single reference to an 18-window microbus anywhere using three different search engines (Google, Brave, Bing).
My guess is the wait for such a kit will be longer than the wait for Trumpeter’s Devastator was; much longer.
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AK also has a 1972 windowless panel wagon version.
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My recall is that the '67 Bus was the last with the split windshield. '68s were advertised as first year with the solid/curved windshield. At least in the States.
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Automobile production often starts the next calendar before the end of the prior year so they can build up new car inventory to ship out and have available at the first of the new year. My 1969 VW bus was built in October of 1968 but the VIN identifies it as a '69 model and it has features associated with that year and not on the '68 models.
My 1999 Jetta Wolfsburg was actually built in the latter half of 1998 and is technically considered a '98 1/2 as they shifted from the Mark III to the Mark IV around this time, so my early '99 looked like a '98 but the '99s built later in the run looked like '00 models.
So, a 1968 built at the beginning of the run technically was assembled in 1967 and in some places they focus on year of assembly as opposed to production year.
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I agree that technically it was probably built in 1967, but would have been presented/sold/acquired as a 1968 model Type 2. Such is the life of the commercially-built motor vehicle.
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W would this vehicle be seen in Vietnam circa 1968? TYIA
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Yes, it was. Pics show both civilian and military (Aussies and Kiwis for sure, US probably but pics are not clear) T2 in use at the time.
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