That is a slendid build.  The open window is a masterful touch.

Pawel, Outstanding work on your ZiL. It looks every bit the part of a hard working truck. The interiors are a treat to see, as well. I am so glad I “rescued “ your build thread from where my stupid email provider mistakenly put it. Stay safe and well. 

Hello!

Gino, John, Brandon - thanks a lot for your comments and for your kind words, they mean a lot to me!

Have a nice day!

Paweł

Incredible! All I can say is I am truly impressed. Amazing work.

BK

Well done.

Are you kidding me??!!!?!  That turned out fantastic, and pretty spot on to your  reference photo.  

Very nice.  It came out looking great, and just like the actual vehicle.  Great job.

Hello everybody!

After adding some extra details like mirror arms made of wire (one of the plastic ones was broken in the box) and the missing roof marker lens the build is now officially finished - regrettably the war is still going on, and worse still people working vehicles like this one - heating network emergency service have lots and lots of work to do repairing the bomb raid damage in the cities. I would like this build to be a tribute to those hard working people - and now the pictures!:

As a reminder, here's what I was aiming for:

And how it turned out:

Thanks for reading and special thanks to my friends from this forum who commented - your attention helped me get through this build and made it this much more enjoyable!

Have a nice day

Paweł

Dodgy, Chad, Brandon - thanks a lot for your kind words, I'm so glad you like what I'm doing here! Have a nice day!

Paweł

Wow, that looks amazing. Your paint work is on point. Excellent work!

BK

I can certainly tell you put a lot of work into this one!

Hi Pawel. I've only just found this thread and have read it from the beginning. A wonderful model by a very competent modeller. Thanks for sharing.

Dodgy

Gamera - thank you very much for your kind words!

It was one of those last minute ideas - I've caught a glimpse of it on my master reference photo looking at it for the Nth time...

She's looking fantastic Pawel!!! 

I love the safety vest on the seat! 

Gino, Gamera - thanks a lot for your kind words! They mean a lot to me!

I have finally added some stuff to the cab interior and I have closed the cab up. I have also added the sun visors and the dome light (painted up using my white & silver trick):

I have also permanently mounted the shelter on the frame and finished the chassis by completing the exhaust and the mudflaps (the rubber flaps were made from sheet metal recovered from an oil paint tube):

So it's about time to wrap everything up:

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

That looks great Pawel! 

Hello everybody!

Some progress to report - the custom decals are on, together with some dirt and flat coat... Here's how it looks like:

I still have to put some details in the cab and then just wrap everything up... Like I hoped the war is going to end before I'm done :-(

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day

Paweł

Gino, Gamera - thanks a lot for your comments, they mean a lot to me and I'm glad I can count on you in this thread!

I didn't use busses a lot when I was in school (walking distance from my home), except for school trips. Most of the buses we used had "emergency exit" stencilled over a window and on some of them you could pull out the gasket around the glass to remove the window, on others there was a special "emergency hammer" for that. As you can imagine that hammer was a valued prize among the more unruly boys and had to be guarded...

The roof vents also had a special setting to be used for emergency exits in case the bus tipped over on the side.

Have a nice day!

Paweł

That looks fantastic Pawel! The yellow and red look perfect. The metal bars and slight rust and wear on the inside of the door looks perfect too!

Gino: Yeah, I remember the old emergency drills where we're all have to line up and leap out the back door of the bus.

Looking great.  The yellow looks good, as do the red stripes.

Pawel

a large hatch hidden in the front ... it is there for loading stretchers in case the bus is converted to an XL size ambulance - a cold war relic. I believe the American school buses have a door on the rear for this.

US school buses have the back door, but not for stretches.  It is an emergency exit.  Newer ones also have emergency hatches on the roof to escape from if the doors are blocked or damaged in a crash.

Gino, Gamera - buses are a very interesting subject... Lots of variation in design from country to country. Let me just tell you the one I posted above has a large hatch hidden in the front, that is notoriously leaky and is never used, but it is there for loading stretchers in case the bus is converted to an XL size ambulance - a cold war relic. I believe the American school buses have a door on the rear for this.

Gamera - thanks for your observation on the yellow shading - that's exactly how I wanted it to look.

As for the ZiL - I'm waiting for my custom decals to arrive, and they are taking longer than they should. In the meantime I have painted the red stripes (tried to shade them lightly, too) and added some detail on the inside of the door (they will be mounted open):

Thanks for lookin' and have a nice day!

Paweł

That's interesting Pawel, it looks more like one of our city buses. The ones around here look like the upper one Gino posted. I don't think I've seen one of the cab-over ones like the lower one you posted Gino.

She looks great Pawel. I'm only pre-shaded yellow in small stuff like leading edge ID stripes on aircraft. Love how she's going- it's there but it's not obvious at first. It's subtle enough that you don't notice unless you're looking for it.

The paint came out looking great.

US schoolbuses are a little different.  This is the most common type and color; a more orange-yellow.

Cab-over style is also commom, same basic color.

Hello!

First school busses were really introduced in Poland about 25 years ago - before that it was understood that a school has to be close enough to be able to reach it on foot or using public transport. A typical Polish school bus looks like this:

Anyway, I started painting the shelter - first I went with a minimal layer of Tamiya white primer to equalize the background a little bit, knowing that yellow will not want to cover:

Then I went on with some brown pre-shading:

And then the final coat - Humbrol 69. Under it the preshading hardly looks brown anymore!

Now it has to dry really well - gloss paint is still sticky after a few hours, then I have to paint up those red stripes. How do you like it?

Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Yeah, I was thinking American school bus with the bright yellow! But I don't know if school buses are yellow in Poland or anywhere else outside the US though!

Gamera - the example I posted, it's from a webshop, let's call it "out of the box paint". I don't quite like it, the real vehicle, even straight out of paint shop, doesn't look like this. I'll try to get as close to my "master reference picture" as I can - where the paint is in good shape, just a little dirty and with natural light shading. Let's see how this will turn out.

Have a nice day!

Paweł

Cool Pawel, so you're going with a more faded yellow? The bright yellow is very eye-catching- I'll give it that! 

Gino, knox, Mike - thanks a lot for your comments!

Well I'm anxious to have it painted, too! I'm glad you liked my write up on it and I'm delighted to have you all here in  my thread.

Those Citadel/Games Workshop paints have funny names, but the way you can paint with them, layer after layer with almost no drying time between them makes them super handy for painting-intensive stuff, like figures or stowage.

Thanks again and have a nice day

Paweł

Hi Pawel!

I've just caught up on your build and it is amazing. I'm definitely following this thread.