![[Starship Modeler's fifth on-line modeling contest: the future that should have been]](2001_banner.gif)
Moonbus |
VISIT OUR SPONSORS
|
|
|
Scale: Not stated This one needs no introduction or explanation. The Moonbus from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick and Aurthur C. Clarke classic is (or should be) familiar to anyone interested in science fiction films. Until the rise of the garage kit industry in relatively recent years, the only mass produced versions of any of the vehicles from the film were produced by Aurora , which released an Orion Spaceplane and the Moonbus; and Airfix, which also had a version of the Orion. I picked up Aurora's Moonbus, now a rare (and rather pricey) collectors item, at a department store back in the early 70's (for about $6!), and it remained in my model collection for lo these many years. When I'd returned to modelling as a hobby in a big way 3 years ago, I was glad I still had the model, but it didn't survive the decades unscathed. Slapped together and played with as a toy after bringing it home, it wasn't long before pieces began breaking off and dissapearing into the lawn. Not that I'd done a very good job assembling it in the first place (I never did put the antennae assembly on it) and the passenger window frames were glued backwards - on the outside! Just didn't have the patience to follow the directions well back then. Over the years it also became the testbed for adding parts and converting into my first kitbashes. At one point it sported warp nascelles from the 18" U.S.S. Enterprise kit to become a Federation shuttle during my Star Trek phase. |
|
|
So needless to say, a great deal of cleanup, repair, and scratchbuilding new parts to replace the either missing or mangled ones was needed. This included building new passenger window frames from sheet styrene, and quite a bit of the rest of the interior as well. I also took the opportunity to do some accurising in there as well, as some of it didn't match up to what is seen on screen, most notably the interior side walls which I completely reworked. This also gave me the chance to add LED's and fiber optics for lighting.
On the outside, although the hull was intact, it had great pits , holes, and deformed areas where the various "conversion" parts once were attatched, and then unceremoniously ripped off when a new idea took hold. A good bit of filling, sanding, rescribing, and repairs later brought the hull back up to snuff. I then went about building three new landing pad feet from scratch to match those that remained. Next, but not least, I only had 3 of the original 6 engine bells left. Since I needed new replacements, I made use of the services provided by Small Art Works and sent off one of the plastic bells to them for use as the pattern to machine brand new ones out of aluminum. It was then a simple (albeit tedious) matter to add the piping on each one. Luckily I didn't need to replace the large windows in the front, as the filming miniature never had them in the first place, and used thin plastic sheet to make new (and correct) inset windows seen in the photos. I also added a few details that weren't on the kit originally, namely the RCS thrusters on either side of the pilot cabin windows, the additional RCS ports facing forward on the side RCS pods, and the two on the rear on either side of the door, and then finally the small hand rails on the back as well. I used vinyl zip ties for the strips that run the lengths on both sides, nicely covering the seams between the roof and lower fusalage. I then scratchbuilt a new antennae assembly from bits found in the parts box and brass photoetched screen. A new paint job, weathering, and paneling put the finishing touches on it, and made thirty years of abuse, and glue stains, dissapear. In closing, I'd like to say that Aurora did a pretty fair job with the accuracy of this kit, and with a bit of work and good reference, it builds up to a nice representation of what is seen on film. Image: Side view Image: Overhead view |
||
![[Millenia Models International]](mmi.gif){kind=small}
This page was last updated 31 July 2001