jargonking

Thanks Jorgen...I'll have a hunt for them first but if I don't find them then I'll get back to you.

Stair assembly, note the timetable in it's case above the luggage rack. Painted the edge yellow as I remember them looking. I was astounded at how well the parts fit together here.... I painted the yellow edge of the stair treads prior to fitting and now I'm not sure that the edges against the bodywork shouldn't be left grey... More detail added to the platform. The decals really bring things to life here. Still need to add the handrails... Platform is largely complete now... Test fit of the ceiling and upper floor... There's a bit of a gap between the floor and the top step which I'll have to address. If I was building this again I'd probably leave the top step loose until the floor was installed then trim the tabs on the underside of the step to allow it to slide back to meet the floor... Some of the decalled seats. These just need a coat of matt varnish to kill the shine. On an Easter clean up today and whilst burrowing at the back of a cupboard I came across a box containing this...a Heller Paris Bus from about twenty or more years ago that I'd completely forgotten I had! What's more it's 1/24 so will look well against the Routemaster. A bit dusty and missing a headlight but I'm sure I can solve that....Windscreen is still to be attached.... Lifting off the roof reveals the remaining parts to complete the bus...I can't remember why I stalled at this late stage but it won't take much to finish.... Interior is completely finished minor some placards on the frames between the seats... View to the front....the end walls and sides of the driver's cab are moulded in clear styrene meaning the windows need simply masking off before painting.... I had the prescence of mind to put all the loose parts and decals into a bag before storing it away.... Just need to locate the instructions now..... Picked up this mixed bag of figures for a few quid off eBay...there are 20 in the bag but all multiples of these poses. They look like Chinese knock-offs of standard architectural figures and because of this look like they were sculpted from cheese...I'm guessing the originals were far more finely detailed but then again maybe they looked like this in the first place. Only one seated figure which is a bummer but the same seller is advertising groups of seated figures for the same price. The woman on the left is unuseable and looks more like a tailors dummy and the seated woman looks like she has flippers instead of feet but the rest have some potential for swapping heads/torsos etc to make some good figures from a bunch of bad ones.... I like this guy as he is and with a little tweaking he should paint up nicely. He looks a little lost in his thoughts like he's contemplating throwing himself under the bus behind....maybe he's just been ditched by his girlfriend upstairs....

The driver's cab interior, plenty of detail in there although being largely black the pictures don't really do it justice.... Progress with some of the interior parts....the fit of parts is excellent so the whole build has become a monumental exercise in masking and painting. The grey primer floor on the left has received the first of two coats of Humbrol Slate Grey which will be weathered. Contrast between the interior and exterior reds....all are Halfords acrylic spray cans... Interior is Citroen Venetian Red over red primer. Exterior is Audi Bright Red, again over red primer. Cream is Ford Ivory White over white primer The masking for the kickplates on the stairs took me nearly two hours! A lot of fiddly masking here. Base colour is Citroen Venetian Red sprayed over red primer. Silver is Games Workshop Chainmail Some sharp masking required here...for this I used narrow Tamiya tape for the edge with the larger areas covered in conventional low tack masking tape. Now just need to weather the grey floor. After what seems like weeks of mask,paint,mask,paint, I finally got to assemble something! Engine looks good in place... Still a bit of work to do here but coming together nicely... Forgot to paint the tops of the steps over the wheel arches. These will get the same weathering as the floor. Note the vents picked out in black... Upper floor...the dark grey base colour was drybrushed with three, gradually lightening greys to achieve a nice worn effect. I've decided to leave the central aisle in the same shade... Vents picked out in Matt Black...very effective. To do this make sure the Aluminium is totally dry (several days) then paint the top face with Humbrol 33 Matt Black enamel. Leave ten minutes for the paint to touch dry then wrap a piece of dry kitchen towel round your finger and rub back and forth, removing the paint from the top surface but leaving it in the depressions...

You wait ages for a bus then four come at once!..... Anyway, here's my take on the Revell kit, largely an OOB affair with the odd tweak thrown in....I don't profess to be an expert on buses so don't hang me if I do something wrong.... Here's the main chassis built...only a few parts here but it ends up looking quite complex... Some nice detail moulded in... Got all the engine parts cleaned up and primed in Matt Black ready for the metallic finish... A good tip for getting a realistic rust appearance on exhaust manifolds is to use baking powder...simply paint the part in liquid cement and dip in the powder... several applications later it looks like this ready for painting... Engine built and ready to install. The finish was achieved by undercoating all the parts with Matt Black acrylic auto spray. After 24 hours the parts were drybrushed first with Humbrol 56 Aluminium followed by 11 Silver. Then the parts were assembled and individual areas picked out in various metallic shades. Here's a shot in natural light which shows the true colours... Other side... The exhaust manifold was painted red-brown then drybrushed with 62 Matt Leather. The decal supplied for the fuel cock was carefully cut out of the sheet but I chose not to soak it but left it on the backing paper and glued it in place using CA glue to better replicate the thin metal plate on the real engine...

I like the different coloured tinwear over the cylinders, reminds me of my bus engine. I'll be watching this closely as I've got one of these in the stash.

Just came across this thread. I like the combination of the Paragrafix and Stargazer upgrades. I used both Paragrafix sets on my build but went with the stock interior. Some pics here.... http://www.paragrafix.biz/x_gallery-iain-c...Bus-diorama.asp Full build is in Sci Fi and Fantasy Modeller Vol 24 http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1v28k/Sci...h%2Fwelcome.php

Yes I did intend to set up an online shop but this coincided with increased teaching commitments so it's on ice at the moment. I've offloaded some stock but still have some if anyone is interested. You can email me at... iaincostall@hotmail.co.uk I'm concentrating on building at the moment......

I've noticed a difference in the newer formulation...definitely needs mixing more thoroughly and doesn't cover so well. I used a matt grey last night that still didn't feel dry this morning...it had a slightly "velvety" feel which didn't disappear until about an hour ago. The old formulation used to be bone dry in a few hours. On the subject of mixing, I've always stirred them then shaken them before use. To be honest Humbrol have never been as good since the loss of the Authentics range, of which I still have quite a few that are still useable.

Here's the Halcyon Narcissus Shuttle as seen in Alien/Aliens. I cut out the rather basic cockpit and replaced it with some scratchbuilt seats and consoles. The blanking plate in the rear door was removed to allow a view through the ship and a very rudimentary interior was added...basically just plastic shapes as the windows are tinted and you can't see an awful lot. Brass tubing was added to the nose to correct the poorly moulded front escape engines. I added a little detail to the underside of the engine pods and replaced the belly panel with a scratchbuilt representation of what I presume are vertical lift engines. The kit stand was replaced with a brass rod and a scratchbuilt base which uses a nameplate cut from the kit box.

Thanks again for all the positive comments. You're right Glazy...things are getting a little Alien-orientated and I've got more to come yet...

This is the Halcyon kit of the APC from Aliens. The scale is 1/35th which fits in nicely with available figures. I thought I'd break with the normal scenario of placing it in a combat situation and instead depict it on the hangar deck of the Sulaco. I figured that, being a Marines ship, the equipment would be kept reasonably clean when returned from each mission, so I avoided a heavily weathered muddied look. It was built pretty much out of the box apart from some odds and ends to busy it up. The figures are from Verlinden with some mix-and-match of arms on the pilot. All the other equipment was from the spares box.

Actually it's a trick of the light, the flash on the camera tends to washout some of the more subtle colours and gives weird reflections. It also makes dead matt colours appear slightly glossy...I probably need to start using separate lighting and maybe take some better shots...

Thanks for all the positive comments folks and thanks Smiffy for the heads up on that Sulaco...not sure I've got room for it though as I've still got a 1/35th Dora Railgun to build which is 8 feet long!

Thanks for the comments. As far as filler goes I think the kit went together pretty well with only the odd area needing filler.

Love the smoke effect...excellent job all round.

Truly excellent work...I wish I could sculpt...

Spurred on by Glazy's excellent offering I thought I'd show you mine. Thankfully, I don't suffer from asthma so was unable to use an inhaler to acheive a look as atmospheric as he did but I'm pleased with the results none-the-less. Kit was built straight from the box, the only addition being the home-etched descriptive plate on the base.

Hi folks, as I've just joined I thought I should share some pics with you. Any comments,good or bad, are much appreciated... First up is the Halcyon Power Loader from Aliens... I filled all the hollow areas on the inside faces of the legs. The pistons of the hydraulic rams were replaced by polished aluminium tubing. The harness was scratchbuilt from lead foil and home-etched brass buckles. All of the hydraulic hoses terminate in a scratchbuilt coupling made using chrome tape and tiny stainless steel nuts. I also added the feed lines and cable ties to the cutting torch.

Hi all, just found this forum, thought you might like a peek at the new Tardis kit...here's a review I did over at the ATF site... http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/about7568.html