Irrational Number Line Games, LLC
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It's the magic bus!
SThis is a simple, yet hopefully usefull look at some die cast toy busses for use
as 28mm gaming scenery. A bus is a nice addition to a lot of venues, but do you
really have to spend the price of a nice sit down dinner for one or is there a
fast food price option? This would become very important if you wanted a fleet of
ten or so for a scenario. So, for this idea of the week we went looking for a
solution and are here to tell you what was good and not good about what we found.
Spoiler up front, the bus we settled on (Sunshine LTD die cast) after some searching
did work out well in practice and is forth the investment of $50 to put ten on a table.
Other than buying them, what is really necessary? Not much if you just want a
regular school bus (like we will for the fleet), but since we got the trial ones
to test whether they would actually work with 28mm figures before the big investment,
we figured we could dress these up a little. The basics are the same as most
vehicle toy conversion efforts: gum up with wheels with household repair adhesive
so they don't roll. These busses are very nice as they actually have rubber wheels
as opposed to plastic. Not only will the wheels not roll now, but they bus won't
slide, either. All in all, a nice start.
Well, what can you do with a bus? The first option you can see there, is just to paint it white. There are lots of white bus options where you could use the piece now - church, prison, activity bus in Canada (Note: My wife took a school trip to Canada back in 19noneofyerbusiness where they found out that it was illegal to use a yellow bus for anything other than transporting kids to and from school up there. Don't know if that's still true.) - and it has a cool little trick. If you have a computer (I am assuming you have some access) and a printer, you can easily print black letters on white paper and redo the labels on this bus without painting and repainting. One day it's from the Innsmouth Elder Care Facility and the next it is from the Narnia Correctional Facility. Just print and glue!
The other bus is getting ready for a post apocalyptic make over. I broke the door and glued it back on, then added a few pieces of cardboard and some slices of a coffee stir stick. The top has a gasket from inside a soda bottlecap, which will make a nice metal hatch when painted. All these bits get some nails/rivets made from dots of liquid latex (that stuff in the craft store for decorating t-shirts). The pièce de résistance is a cow catcher that was left over from a Hot Wheels Custom Motors conversion kit (more on those in coming weeks). Once the bits are done being added, I painted them metallic by using silver craft paint and adding a dot of black into it. this gives you a nice subdued, realistic metallic look.
The finishing touches for the postapoc bus are quick and simple. I gave it two
passes of black and brown spray paint from about 2-3' away, resulting in a dusting
of color that makes a nice slimy grime, and finished it off with some matte sealant.
The figures are just some modern civilians in 28mm. They remind me of the people
I used to ride the school bus with, way back when...