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Not Yet A Moonbus

08.15.2025

For a while now, I've been working on a Moonbus model from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's somewhere between 1/50 and 1/55 scale depending on where you read the details, and that's a close enough match to 28/32mm scale games to work. As my sci-fi base has had a bit of a retro theme, the 2001 future as seen from a 1968 movie kind of fits in. It was back during my trip to Georgia and the Hobby Town USA of Kennessaw back in either 2018 or 2023. It is indeed sad that I don't know how long the model has been sitting on a shelf. I think 2018, because along the way an Amazon sale came along where I purchased 2 more.

The reason I purchased 2 more - after trying to glue together a couple of models, it's somehow much more difficult to get pieces to line up now vs when I was 12! I'm accepting that the first time I glue together any model I'm going to screw it up. Thus, I decided Moonbus #1 would be the practice, make mistakes Moonbus. And I was right! I was focused on sub-assemblies and how to optimally paint some parts before gluing things in place, and then another round of painting with masking, etc. I was focused so much so that a key interior part(s) were not glued in before the out part that locks them into place was glued in. But this was practice, and that's ok. I continued on and by the end noticed some gaps that were going to need A LOT of gap filler to correct.

Lessons learned, and on to Moonbus #2 where I remembered that I needed to insert inner walls first, and not leave a big gap on the other part. The gap was on the main outer walls, and there's no good "clamping" point because of the angles, but I did my best. To counter this, when I glued on the front cockpit I managed to not set it flush/straight. Those side outer walls I was so focused on not having a gap - now where the cockpit to join flush I instead and a huge, measurable gap on one side and an overlap on the other. Between sanding options and actually going forward with using some styrene strips to fill the counter gap, I gave up and admitted it was beyond my current skills. Well, on to Moonbus #3 that I happened to have.

For #3, I repeated my corrections and tried to do better. There were still some wall gaps, but I can backfill those with putty filler. Somehow that damn canopy will not go on flush - curves and edges just aren't cooperating. Things are together, but it still feels hacked together. Maybe I need Moonbus 4. And 5?

As it is, I'm at the "I need to practice painting" stage, and I have plenty to practice on. The truth is, after fighting this model for over a month, I need to take a break. Now I have the hobby table cleaned off and ready for a weekend of a return to painting HeroQuest minis. Hopefully I won't get overly frustrated with that...

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