I found an out of production Downtown Deco Bus Depot at a show last year. It is a great Art Deco structure that fits my era. MTH makes a nice built up Bus Depot, but it is HUGE. My city is getting a little crowded with buildings, so this is a better fit.
After truing up the wall edges with a file, I glued them together with epoxy, and painted them with flat white primer. I looked at vintage Greyhound station pictures and decided on a 3-tone blue plus white paint scheme. I masked out the parts that remain white, then airbrushed the dark blue first, remasked and painted the medium blue. and finally hand painted the light blue in the recessed curved area.
The Bus depot sign is part of the kit made by sandwiching 4 styrene pieces together. I rounded one corner to give more of an Art Deco look. The kit includes signs printed black on copier paper. I wanted a better look, so I found some letters used in an office letter board sign. I cut off the tabs, airbrushed them and glued them to the sign with MEK.
The roof is a sheet of styrene. I cut the black paper into 1" strips, sprayed the styrene with spray adhesive and glued them in place. The strips overlap the stryene on all sides by about an eighth of an inch. When the glue dried, I cut a 1/8' square out of each corner. Then I laid a ruler over the edge of the styrene and folder the "lip" up. This will simulate flashing. The kit supplies another sheet of styrene for the canopy. It looked silly as a thin sheet, so I added 1/4" styrene strips around 3 sides as fascia boards. Black paper was glued on. Both roof pieces were dusted lightly with grey primer from a spray can. I just sprayed it aiming up over the pieces from 2 feet away and the mist added a little textured look.
Another piece of sheet styrene is included as a base, but I wanted something more 3 dimensional. I cut a piece of 1/4" MDF, scored the lines with a hobby knife followed by a razor saw and painted with Flat grey primer alternated with Camo Beige spray cans.
Paint job done and unmasked.
Doors were detailed with 3 "push bars" made from styrene strips and glued from the back. They were painted with Model Master Aluminum, and the styrene "glass" was glued to the back with Canopy glue. The side doors were airbrushed with the light blue. Glass block windows were cut to size and glued with Canopy glue. Unpainted letter board letters were also glued with Canopy glue to make the Greyhound sign,
Adding the side canopy required a little care. I measured, marked, and drilled holes at a 45 degree angle in both the wall and the canopy. I cut 3 pieces of the enclosed wire and inserted them into the canopy and bent over the extra 1/4". I inserted them into the building and then cut the wires shorter 1/8" at a time until it hung level. I secured them with a blob of Canopy glue and propped up the canopy until the glue dried. Then I glued a 2" strip of 0.030" x 0.250" styrene to the building with CA cement just under the canopy. When it was dry, I slopped some MEK to fuse this piece with the underside of the canopy. I drilled 2 small holes in the corner of the building and the edge of the Bus Depot sign, inserted 5/16" pieces of the same wire, and secured it with Canopy glue.
Now I just need to find my Greyhound ScenicCruiser Bus. It's around here somewhere!
Bob
