Updated  11 27 07

Kit # 829-250

The Reconstruction

The next phase of reconstruction was painting the hull.
For this I used a shade that matched the aged color of the plastic.
I made a conscious decision to keep the 30 + years vintage look of the model.
I wanted to hide the blemishes but not make it look like it just hovered off the assembly pad.
Testor's Model Masters Camouflage Gray matched up nicely and went on easily.
I did not use a spray gun for this, just their aerosol can. Two light coats did the trick.
 

BEFORE PAINTING

AFTER PAINTING

The engine nozzles were painted gun metal and then
dry brushed with flat black to bring out fine details

LANDING GEAR

Surface prep was done in an earlier step and the area was masked off
prior to painting. All that's left is to cement the gear in place. The locator
tabs did not survive the restoration process, but gear placement is obvious.
 
 
 

Gear detail
 
 
 

INTERIOR

This view shows the fine detailing of the flight deck and instrument panel. Again the pics from
Comet Miniatures  were an inspiration here. Buttons and lights were done with ultra fine tipped
permanent markers. View screen details were etched in with a pin.
 
 

Next I installed the sub floor and the two interior rear side walls. Some sanding and
fitting was required here, probably because the original exterior walls were put
on so loose the first time the kit was built. I tightened those up in an earlier step
( see page one ) and now had to sand the interior walls to get a proper fit.
After that would come the nose cone and cock pit interior, see details below.
 
 
 

Notice  the two air lock bulkheads, roughly mid ship, one of which was scratch built.
 

ON THE NOSE

The last major section to be completed was the nose cone. This required some
light sanding to remove surface blemishes. I also tried several tricks to remove
the clouding around the window glass caused by too much glue. My final answer was
to mask the glass before painting and literally make the windows I/8 of an  inch
smaller on three sides. I did this buy not masking all the way to the ends of each window.
When I painted the model, 1/8 inch of window was painted too. The end result was hardly
noticeable and looks better than white cloudy windows.
 
 

Nose cone attached
 

UP ON THE ROOF

 The side strip was cemented in place and the custom roof antennae was
coming along nicely. With the cleaned up windows reattached and the interior
frames in place, the roof assembly was ready to go.
 
 
 
 

SCRATCH BUILDING PARTS

Antennae

This bus was missing the roof antennae when I got it. Good luck trying to
find replacement parts. So once again, I searched my meager reference materials and
came up with a design that looked about right. I scratch built an approximate antennae
based on box art and some gallery photos. Unfortunately, none were close ups. So this is an
approximation. If anyone out there has a Moon Bus or instruction sheet and would like
to send me a close up pic of the antennae, I would sure appreciate it.
 
 

Bulkhead

The forward bulkhead was gone and needed to be fabricated. This was fairly
easy as good reference photos were available. I used sheet styrene ( smooth 1/16
and one with a tile pattern ) the air tight doors between the cockpit and the aft section
were made from left over garage bay doors from a model train Diesel repair shed kit.
 
 
 
 

THE FINAL PRODUCT

After much work, the finished product is much more presentable than it was
when I first got it. I originally had one of these kits when I was about 9 years old. I don't remember
what ever became of it. But it was nice to get a second chance to do it right. It was an added bonus
to be able to restore something old and rare to good condition. Here are some final
views of the completed / restored model.
 

If your are viewing this page you must be a fan of 2001: A Space odyssey.
And if you are a fan of 2001 you must check out Dennis Gonzales's
2001 site and his exhibit at the San Mateo Library.
Featuring the Aurora Moonbus and so much
more from the ultimate Sci-Fi adventure.

Click here to be transported to another universe