( Homemade shock absorber prototype next the kit provided landing gear. I'll need eight of these per gear. )

While the kit looks like it will build into a fairly accurate representation of the Moonbus shown on screen, it does have its problems. First and foremost, the main cabin piece has many pits and divots across its top surface. These will need to be filled and sanded and then the surface detailing (minor) will have to be re-engraved. The pitting is barely visible in the fourth picture (with the penny) towards the front left corner of the cabin - over where the pilot would sit if this were a modern aircraft. The detail on the landing gear is rather soft as well. But I'm not too worried about that, because ...

In terms of accuracy, the biggest problem I have with this model is the landing gear. As you can see in the upper scan the landing skids hang from a central "pillar" with three shock absorbers on either side (inboard and outboard) and a single longer shock angled down both the front and back for a total of 8 shocks at each gear. In the picture below it you can see my proposed solution. I hope to trip down the mounting "block" to much slimmer pillar and them mount eight home made shock tubes around it as shown in the source photo.

I also intend to drill out the openings at the bottom of the rocket exhausts.

Painting will be pretty simple. The "original" was a dirty, grayish white with fairly significant weathering - mostly blackening around various vents and streaking around the windows. I'll do the windows in gloss black and over-paint with clear green in the passenger cabin and clearr red in front of the cockpit. I'll due a flat black, or flat dark grey for the anti-glare panels. Black or burnt metal for the inside of the rocket exhausts. A moderate wash of dark gray will pretty much finish it up.

Finally, for display I plan to create a "lunar surface" on the top of a small wooden plaque and will mount the completed model above it with a small brass or acrylic rod.