2001 Moon Bus – Part 4

Before moving on to the interior, I’ll mention that with these detail add-ons like the photo-etched brass set and the 3D printed parts, I’ve never seen anything that deals with paint details as they appear in the film. So, builders have to look for these themselves.

In the photo below, which probably violates some copyright restrictions somewhere (my apologies, please don’t sue me!), I’ve marked with green arrows the more obvious panel coloring that I’ve seen reproduced on some models.

The red arrows show panel coloring at the sides of the cockpit window as well as what looks like another set of handholds. I’ve never seen anybody paint this particular panel or add these handholds. I’m not planning to, as I think I’m dealing with enough on this model, but maybe someone else out there has done, or will do this.

Next, I moved on to some of what I consider the more fun stuff, detailing the cockpit area. First off, I dealt with a part that I always thought was some kind of airlock door on the sides of the interior cabin. Watching the film closely and being able to stop and start it, I found that these parts actually represented storage compartments for navigational and survey charts. I figured it would be pretty difficult to make these compartment faces nice and uniform, so I pulled out my Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutting machine and I used their software to design and cut some adhesive-backed matte white vinyl for the compartment faces, and similarly made the steel looking metallic vinyl for the compartment handles.

This worked perfectly, but the actual compartments were labeled. The best I could do was to handwrite some faux text on them, so that it looked like they said something. This ended up a bit busy looking, but frankly, you can’t see the detail very well though the models windows anyway, so they should be fine.

In actuality, it appears that only the panel on the left side of the Moon Bus (port side?) looks like this. The other side, we only catch a brief glimpse of a computer terminal, so it really should be plainer, without these details. But, I decided to leave well enough alone here.

Below, you can see these panels in place. Also, you can see what I ended up doing with the main control panel in the cockpit. I had considered trying to adding some kind of lighting, but decided to stay simple and just rely on the “overhead” LEDs to provide the interesting lighting effects.

One of the things you’ll start to notice in my photos is that I made first use of some panel marking pens to highlight the details. I used these along panel lines, as well as to provide a little shading along the edges of some surface details. I used Gundam markers for this. It was a bit easy to go overboard on this, so I tried to be a bit subtle. I probably won’t be certain how successful I was on this until the model is all done.

Next thing I wanted to do was to wrap up the lighting on the model. With the cockpit details in place, I repositioned the interior lighting and did another test. Because earlier testing showed the passenger/cargo section to be too blue, I swapped out a couple of the blue LEDs for white ones. There are now a total of 3 blue LEDs and 2 white LEDs in the passenger/cargo section, and 4 LEDs in the cockpit.

With all blue LEDs, you couldn’t see any of the details, just blue “stuff”. Here, I made sure to place a white LED directly above the passengers. Below, you can see some of that the details are visible now.

In the above photo, you can also see some of the paint details I added. Those little squares beneath the windows show up in film and were easy enough to add. There is also a black area surrounding something on the side of the hull, back of the landing legs.

Still more parts to add, including the rocket nozzles and the strips that will cover the seams between the upper and lower hulls. There will be a few more details as well. Plus, I need to deal with the piles of cargo strapped into place inside.

By the way, I ended up cutting thruster ports in the aft bulkhead. These are another of those features that are missing from the kit and really should be there.  One thing I didn’t deal with and may just leave is the part of the lower hull that sticks out the back. The film model doesn’t do this, but I’m thinking I’ll just leave it. It’ll just be one of those model features I can discuss.

I ended up ordering a new set of astronaut figures from Shapeways. This time, I got the 1/48 scale figures instead of the 1/55 scale figures and they’re perfect. They’re a good match for the figures in the kit. I didn’t paint them up yet, except to give them a coat of primer, but you can see that the figures now look pretty compatible.

I plan to use just one figure with the model, though I have six of them. I’ll probably use one of these two.

Unless I get carried away with some new details, I should be wrapping up this build next time.

 

2001 Moon Bus – Part 3

First off, I looked more closely at the moonbus figures and the astronaut figures I bought on Shapeways.com and found that someone is incorrect regarding scale. It’s most likely the moonbus kit’s scale. It’s stated at 1/55, but I think the figures are closer to 1/48. This makes the 1/55-scale Shapeways astronaut figures a bit too small.

In the above photo, the figures appear close in size, but the figure on the left is without a helmet, plus his legs are flexed and he’s hunched slighting. If the figure on the right is correct, then the figure on the left is only correct too, if he’s Ted Cassidy (think Lurch). So, I decided to order the 1/48 scale figures from Shapeways to see if they are a better fit. Whichever ones work best, I’ll use. I can always use the other set for a separate little scene of the TMA-1 monolith encounter.

While I’m waiting for the updated figures, I’m working on the painting, mostly using spray cans and brush for now. My airbrushing skills are WAY out of practice, and I was never very good with it, particularly with plastic models. Some assemblies are getting glued together, but most at this stage are test fittings.

The center rectangle above the cockpit window is a photo etch part that has folded edges, giving some thickness. The outer ones are the original plastic, which I’m leaving in place. Maybe I’m just accustomed to the way the old model looked, but I like this better. There are two handles on either side of the cockpit and these were supposed to be replaced, but again, I didn’t like the 2D look of the handles. If I were to replace these, I’d just use brass wire, but I think they’re fine as is.

The film shows some non-white panels in various places on the moonbus, so I’m adding those details. There aren’t too may really clear shots of the craft, so it’s hard to see exactly where these all are. There are some on the front of the cockpit and there is a row of squares panels under the side windows as well.

Again, mostly test fitting, but you can see I’ve completed the landing legs and am starting to detail the body a little.

On the sides of the craft are what I used to think were airlock hatches. Later, I thought maybe they were instrument pods. But, I guess they are actually a strangely shaped thruster pack to aid in maneuver the craft in the airless environment of the moon. The film clearly shows some burn marks along the hull in front of the modules, but the kit doesn’t have any opening on the front side of these modules. So, I created a pattern for them using adhesive backed vinyl and drilled and cut them to size. They may be a little on the small side, but I’m happy with them.

There are similar thrusters that appear on the back side of the moonbus in the film, so I simply used the same patterns to cut those out too. For the rear thrusters, I simply glued a thin piece of plastic on the inside of the back wall to close it off.

Next time, I’ll be working on some more of the interior details.

2001 Moon Bus – Part 2

Test fitting the major components began, and I started rewatching the moonbus scenes of the film repeatedly. I tried watching on the computer, but discovered that the resolution was so much better on the HD TV that I was able to see some small details that I had never noticed before, even though I’ve seen the film a gazillion times.

The first thing I did was to start working on the figures, since figure painting was something I’d always loved doing. Clearly out of practice, but I had to start somewhere. Anyway, since my first kit had an extra parts sprue, which included most of the figures, I went ahead and started experimenting with it. One thing I realized was that I didn’t have very many model paints for plastics, so I had to start collecting those again, plus glues, etc.

I test fit pieces and painted some parts as best I could, using the paints available to me. They’ll all get cleaned up, touched up, or completely redone later.

Note the holes in the floor. The kit has 3 rows of seats, but there are only 2 rows in the film, so I removed the front row, to be covered with cargo, etc. I also noticed that those tan color pieces that form the padded inner wall of the moonbus don’t look like that in the film, so I started thinking of way to modify that. More on that later.

I did have some gray primer, so I began by premiering the interior hull and the floor that you see above. The cockpit floor is supposed to get painted flat black, which this passenger cargo section floor is supposed to be silver, which basically matches the film.

Here’s an early test fitting of parts…

I also began experimenting with the LED lighting. This was easy to do, as I could simply rubber cement the LED modules to the model’s ceiling. I propped up the body so that it was about the right height off the base, and lit it up.

As you can see, the blue was very strong, and the red, not so. I had arranged the lights mostly to match the lights visible in the film. It consisted of a ceiling lighting panel at every window section, and two red lights in the ceiling over the pilots. The nice thing about these wireless LEDs is that it’s easy to test out how the lighting balances out and to make changes – no wiring or re-wiring!

I ended up swapping out some of the blue lighting with white lighting and reducing the number of passenger compartment LEDs by one. This made the blue color less intense, made the interior easier to see, and reduced the overall lighting intensity just a bit. Meanwhile, I added more lighting in the cockpit, placing lights in the ceiling of the nose piece. The casts light in front of the pilots instead of behind them, so it looks much better.

I’ll be able to continue to play around with the lighting arrangement until the model gets glued shut, which I’m planning to do, but that will be about the last thing I do. I would leave the top removable, but then it looks like I’ll end up with a poor fitting top if I do. We’ll see how it goes later in the build.

Meanwhile, I found some astronaut figures that someone developed. They are 3D printed and sold on Shapeways.com here. I went ahead and order a set in 1/55 scale, which is the stated scale of this kit. They also sell them in 1/72 and 1/48 scale, by the way. Below is the rendering of the figures.

It took a while for the figures to arrive,, but I got the figures and they are very nicely detailed. I premiered them all, but only detail painted one of them, picking what looked like the most usable pose.

More soon…

2001 Moon Bus – Part 1

After a few weeks of working long hours, I decided that I needed a distraction and also a short break from wooden ship modeling. Turning my attention to one of my lifelong passions, I decided to start work on a model of the moonbus (or rocket bus) from the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I remember my sister taking me to see this film when I was very young, and it made a big impact on me. But, I’m sure my sister got tired of me asking her so many questions during the movie!

I built the original Aurora plastic kit long ago, including the PanAm space clipper kit. But, I felt it was time to do the moonbus justice. Fortunately, Mobeus Models re-released the kit, and other companies have made aftermarket add-on sets for it, including a photo-etch brass detail set from ParaGrafix, and a lighting kit from VooDooFX. I’ve had them all for months, and I just rewatched the film to see some details and get some inspiration.

Only problem I had was that the kit was missing one parts tree and had two of another parts tree. The kit was therefore unbuildable, so I had to order ANOTHER one.

Here, you’re actually looking at the second kit, along with the photo-etch set and the lighting kit.

I did end up writing to Moebeius models, using a contact form on their website, but I don’t know how responsive these manufacturers are, which is why I went ahead and ordered the second kit. If Moebius models comes through with the missing parts, I’ll just have to build a second model(!).

The sprue that was missing from my first kit, present in the second kit.

Ended up with two of these in place of the missing sprue. Always nice to have spare parts!

I have a lot of work ahead of me on building this model based on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately, I’m also discovering an increasing number of inaccuracies in the model. But, oh well, that’s just the way it goes. The aftermarket brass photo-etched parts is a help with this, but only in a small way. There is also a set of 3D printed parts available from Paragrafix that I might use, but most of the issues that this set fixes, I think I may be able to do my own modifications.

Just getting started with painting parts, figures, and doing some test fitting.

The first thing with this kit, is that I’m having to relearn my miniatures painting skills, as I haven’t painted small figures in… decades? I used to do a LOT in my younger days. This project is also getting more expensive, since I no longer have all the paints needed for this kind of work, and plastic modeling is really so much about painting. For this project, and maybe all the others, I’m going to try working with Tamiya paints.

By the way, as you can see in the above photo, my first modification: removal of the front row of seats – the film set shows only two rows of seats. I’ll cover the openings with cargo. Also those wall sections don’t match the film either, but more on that later. Here, I’m mostly playing with the colors a bit. In the film, there’s a bluish cast on everything, so the colors are all strongly muted. If the colors I use on the model are too strong, it’ll look really weird and nothing like in the film. But, I also don’t want to paint everything black and white and gray.

LED Lighting

I decided from the start that I would add interior lighting, and even got the lighting kit from VooDooFX, specifically designed for this model. However, I think I’m going to experiment with wireless lighting, using a pre-made induction coil and similarly made LED lights. If they work out, it will simplify the placement of the LEDs and eliminate the need of any wiring into or through the model.

I remember someone telling me about wireless LEDs, so I looked into those and found some on Amazon.com.

The main component is a copper induction coil connected to a small circuit board, which is powered by a small transformer. The LEDS are attached to small copper coils, and they will light up as long as they are in the EM field of the big coil. I tested this out, and they should work well with this model, as all the lights will be only a couple inches above the coil. The coils will then be mounted in a display base with the model setting on top.

The LEDs have to be oriented so that they pretty much just shine straight up or straight down. Since these are for ceiling lights within the cabin of the Moonbus, this should would out perfectly. We shall see…

Space Modeling?

First off, I must apologies again for not really keeping up on my ship modeling blogging. I’ve had some life and work changes in the past year+ and have spent less time model making and even less time writing. I’ve been able to maintain a little bit of model work, and I’m hoping to expand on that as I get accustomed to changes in my weekly work loads. For the time being, I decided to do something that is simpler than working on wooden (or even paper) sailing ship models, and temporarily return to an old hobby of modeling space or sci-fi subjects in plastic. In this case, it’s modeling the Moonbus from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I don’t have really have any other place to maintain my build log on this project really, so I’ll post the build on this site, but kept separately from my ship modeling work. I’ll add a new category for it under the Non-Ship Models section. Anyway, writing here should get me accustomed to model work and writing, side-by-side, and I think I should be able to get back to working on the wooden (and paper) ship model subjects and keeping updated posts about them again.

Meanwhile, if you are a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Moebius Models kits, this one is a fun project. Ω

Building the 1/150-Scale Horyu-Ji 5-Story Pagoda from Woody Joe

Here’s a quick, one-page overview of the building of this very nice Woody Joe kit, purchased from Zootoyz.jp. This was a very quick, weekend build that I just wrapped up. The kit is a 1/150-scale model of one of Japan’s 5-story pagodas. This one, is located at the Horyu-ji temple in Nara prefecture.

If you follow my builds here, you might recognize that this is a smaller version of model that I started, but has been on my shelf to finish up for quite some time. That one is twice the size of this one. That’s precisely the reason I decided to get this kit.

If you’re interested in the larger version, you can see the logs of my unfinished build here: https://shipmodeler.wordpress.com/category/non-ship-models/horyu-ji-5-story-pagoda/

The Latest: Carriage Kits from Disar Model of Spain

While not ship modeling related, Disar, another relatively recent Spanish wooden model kit manufacturer, has released some new carriage kits that actually look quite nice. I haven’t been a big fan of the earlier Disar kits in general, primarily because of their product design (though I think their galleon Santiago de Compostella looks pretty promising). But, I’ve taken a closer look at a couple of these kits and they’re interesting enough to make me want to trying build one. 

“Dog Cart” Country and Hunting Dog Carriage

Berlin Coupe

Faeton Siamese

 

Top Canopy Surrey

Part of the contents of the Dog Cart kit. Photo courtesy of Ages of Sail.

These new kits, all 1/16-scale and somewhere around 9″ long (dimensions in the kit descriptions appear to be of the assembled base), are now available in the U.S. at Ages of Sail for around $60. These kits all included bases that are made-up to look like cobblestone surfaces, making attractive displays. In any case, for a ship modeler, these might prove to be nice, quick distractions. Ω

 

Building Woody Joe’s Nihonbashi Bridge Kit

Earlier this year, I decided to take a short break from ship modeling projects and spend a week or so on something fun, but a little different. I have several small kits in my stockpile (what’s in yours?) of miscellaneous Woody Joe kits, including one of the famed Nihonbashi Bridge.

The bridge was originally built in the early Edo period, around 1603. Built in the heart of Edo itself, It was extremely significant, as it was officially the starting point of Japan’s 5 major roads. Yes, all roads lead to Nihonbashi, and the bridge appears in many Japanese woodblock prints.

So, I decided to start the kit, which I purchased from where else but Zootoyz.jp, for about $41 plus shipping. One of the driving factors in building this kit is that it would allow me to exercise some of my basic diorama building skills. After all, there are trees, the bridge itself, the canal, a couple boats, and tiny people. Also, I knew that my 95 year-old mother would love to have it on display in her living room, and her birthday was coming up quickly. So, I needed to get it done.

Building Woody Joe’s Horyu-ji Temple Five-Story Pagoda – Part 4

Being primarily a ship modeler, I set this project aside for a while. Part of the problem was that I’d discovered that I was missing one small set 4 parts, all the same. There are a lot of parts in this kit and they are well packaged and labeled, but it took a while to go through and check and re-check and then to figure out exactly how the part was shaped and how it fit on the model.

The pieces are parts of the lower roof and cover the corner joints. Outwardly, they just look like simple wood strips, but they need to be groved on the underside in order to sit down on those corner joints. Also, they need to be thicker than the other roof boards to allow for the groove.

Building Woody Joe’s Horyu-ji Temple Five-Story Pagoda – Part 3

With the construction of the base of the temple completed, I proceeded to paint the completed assembly using smokey beige satin-finish Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover spray paint. I also decided to go forward with construction of the mounting base. This was actually from Step 27 in the instructions, but I had the parts out and didn’t see any reason not to go ahead with this assembly.

The base of the pagoda painted a stoney gray color. If I wanted to get more authentic, I would have painted it earlier in construction and masked off areas to create different shading for the different stone blocks.