SHIELD 616, the "Bus"

[Quaralane]

Okay,
Time for a new build at the Workshop.
Continuing on from what I did with the Helicarrier and Quinjet builds, I'm going to work next on the "guest star" from the Columbia build
Namely, SHIELD 616, the "Bus"


To that end, I'll be using parts from two 1/144 Revell C-17 Globemaster III kits


Main piece of interior was assembled per the kit instructions.
I left the majority of it unpainted as I intend to build this version with the bay closed.
So, only the back area 'carpet' and the seats for teh cockpit were painted in with the dark grey Vallejo primer



Landing gear struts were assembled and put into place. Per the kit instructions, the wheels have not been put on yet.
Each of these four struts are made up of 5-8 pieces


Landing gear struts in place, I installed the complete interior shell inside the fuselage and glued itg all up.
There were some seam issues as the fuselage halves and the bottom plate have some funky jogs along the seam line



Taile planes and main wings were glued up per the kit instructions.
Though not shown in the pics here, I also glued up the main wings from the second kit prior to cutting them down to length to make up the rear wings



To create a stable mount for the rear wings, I cut a channel in either side of the rear fuselage, then inserted a couple of wooden corn dog sticks to create a support for the wing assemblies


The six main engines were assembled per the kit instructions.
Based on the pics I've found for SHIELD 616, I also added a couple of small rectangles of sheet styrene to each engine to match details on the show version of the plane


Wings were glued into place, along with the tail planes.
The back section of the new rear wing assemblies were filled in with Aves Apoxie Sculpt.
The main canopy was masked off and glued into place at this time as well


Engines were glued into place on the wings.
The landing gear wheels and doors were also cemented into place.
I did have some difficulty getting the wheels on the main gear to cooperate due to some fairly tight tolerances



At this point, I need to smooth out the Aves, then she's ready for primer.

Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZOvQ7qQtg

 

[sci-fi-bldr]

Nice.... ;D

 

[Quaralane]

Thank you

 

[Scrach]

Good progress! How long is that thing? I was thinking I'd hunt for a 1:72 kit (doesn't look like they exist), but that 1:144 looks big enough! (lots of questions) Have you found anyone else doing a similar build? I wonder if the second (rear) wings are C-17's shortened. Here's this if you haven't seen it:
https://youtu.be/qPB37OcHDPo

Once again, another project that could put others on hold. I'll probably be stopping at the LHS to find some kits.

 

[Quaralane]

Thanks
at 1/144, she's about 15 inches long.
There's more likely going on with those rear wings than just cutting off a length from the normal ones, but I'm not shooting for 100% accuracy here.

Don't know of any build for this one going on right now, but I don't hit a lot of modelling forums besides this one any more.

Brad Hair Productions also has a vacuform conversion kit available, but I didn't really like how the engines looked on it.
Part of why I went this route.
That, and I have another project in the works that'll be using the cockpit and landing gear from the second kit to help make a more convincing scale conversion

 

[Scrach]

Went to the LHS to price those kits... $36 a piece... uugh...

 

[nicholassagan]

Brilliant!

 

[Quaralane]

@ Scrach, I got lucky and picked up the second one for cheap off eBay.

@Nick, Thanks.

 

[smokeriderdon]

I have the upper left kit sitting in my stash. Even though I am a comic geek, I have not watched SHIELD at all, so this was quite a pleasant surprise. A VTOL C-17. With guns. ME LIKEY!

Cant wait to see how it turns out. Looks good so far.

 

[Quaralane]

Thanks, smokeriderdon.
The good news is that I really only need one decal for her:
The SHIELD logo for the top

I do need to at least place the added windows on her, though.
SHould be easy enough with some creative masking and undercoating

 

[Quaralane]

Update time on this build.
Wasn't able to finishe it for the contest, but wasn't planning on it being entered anyway, so.....

To make the added windows on this version, I opted to go for a painted on, rather than cut out version of things.
To that end, I painted a metallic blue ober the surface where I was going to need windows.
This was coated with Future, in hopes of masking it off before painting


For the roof emblem, I found a suitable SHIELD logo on the web, then printed it out on white decal paper at the size I'd need.
I used the white decal paper so that the lighter border around the emblem wouldn't disappear


Okay, note to self, painting acrylics onto bare plastic, and then masking them off, doesn't work.
The masks will peel the paint right off the plastic.
With that discovery made, I opted for plan B.
Gave the whole model a metallic basecoat


With that down, I painted the new window areas with a mix of Future and blue dye.
Those were then coated with Future and masked off for the added windows


With the masks done, I gave the whole plane a coat of Vallejo German Grey.
The insides and back ends of the engines were painted in with Vallejo Gunmetal



Now, for another hiccup in my "great plan"
The decals I'd printed didn't want to come off the backing for anything.
Could NOT get them to even begin to cooperate with me.

So, with that failure, I opted instead to mask off the bird emblem and paint it in.
Did the borders in gunmetal, followed by filling in the rest in black.


With that done, I peeled off the masks, touched up where needed.
The whole plane was given a coat of flat sealer, and then I took off the window masks.

FInished build pics:

And on display with some of my Omega 7 aircraft:

Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yfCgSyLxiE

 

[THE NEW ONE]

nice

 

[sci-fi-bldr]

Real nice.... ;D

 

[Jaitea]

Q you NEVER stop

,......nice work

J

 

[Quaralane]

Thank you, guys.
Glad you liked how it turned out

 

[smokeriderdon]

Sweet! Me likey!

 

[Quaralane]

Thanks

 

[Teddz]

I just found this build of the Bus while looking for some info on it.

I too am building a version of the 1/144 Bus, but it's taken me a lot longer to build due to what I'm doing to it and other obligations getting in the way. I was also contacted by the guy who built the model that sits on Coulson's desk who also forwarded the link to a build log on FineScaleModeler to the Agents of SHIELD production team.

The Bus I'm building has been stretched and highly modified... from the engines to the cockpit to the sponsons being even... It also has fiber optic lighting, a custom made LED board inside the cargo area and is turned on via a touch sensitive billet aluminum SHIELD emblem (that also lights up) that's embedded in the base. I'll get a thread together to outline what I've done.

Here's my Bus as it sits now... the engines have been dry fit to get a better idea of the overall look.
Lights off:


Lights on:

The cockpit and Coulson's office both have lights in them, but since the clear plastic on the cockpit isn't painted and Coulson's frosted skylight isn't in place yet, it doesn't really show.

The touch sensitive on switch..



I'm also in the process of building a 1/72 version of the Bus which will be way more detailed than the 1/144 version. This one will take a while to complete only because of all the work that will be involved... from the actual modification of the resin kit to the molds I'm going to need to make to get clean resin parts for the finished model. It's a monster.

 

[Quaralane]

1/72 would be HUGE

 

[Cash]

Thats sweet!