Author Topic: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress  (Read 4484 times)

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
  • Greetings from Portugal
The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« on: November 14, 2018, 05:18:51 AM »
Hi Guys

This is the 3rd Chapter of my personal Space Saga.

Even though I am a big fan of Mr. Heinlein's work, the title has nothing to do with his book :)
I just happen to like the title, and it happens to be true.

So this time I will try to represent, to the best of my modelling skills, the Apollo 11 LEM landed on the Moon.
No "what-ifs" involved. Sorry guys. Just a humble homage to the guys that did, it almost 50 years ago.


The kit I will be using is the good old Airfix one, from 1970.







And my bible for this small, yet very interesting and challenging project, is the book "Moonfire", by Norman Mailer,
here in the Portuguese version:




Enough of nostalgia, and let's get down to work :)

I will be using the kit base, so I made a suitable support/raiser:







Sorting out all the pieces and preparing them will be the next step (the most boring one :) ).




From what I have seen so far, the biggest challenge will be to emulate the different textures and surfaces.




So now is time to study all the photos and all the details I can find.


Thanks for watching!


To be continued...

Offline kitnut617

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2018, 06:16:03 AM »
This will be interesting, I bought one of those Lander kits not long ago to do again because I had built it once before many moons ago.

Offline Old Wombat

  • "We'll see when I've finished whether I'm showing off or simply embarrassing myself."
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2018, 07:06:17 AM »
Woh! So organised! :icon_surprised:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline GTX_Admin

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2018, 01:41:46 AM »
Looking forward to seeing your work.
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2018, 05:08:41 AM »
You've got to have the patience of a saint to sort through all those greeblies, Antonio.

This one will be a lot of fun to follow!

Brian da Basher

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
  • Greetings from Portugal
Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2018, 05:46:42 PM »
Hi guys

Since the base area is too small, I will not be using some of the gadgets supplied with the kit.




So I will reserve the spare parts for a future project.




The rest of the parts were sorted and cleaned-up.





The first modifications.




The foreseen final setup.




And the first try with the kitchen metal foil.




Now I have a ton of photos from the Nasa archives to peruse.

Lack of documentation will definitely NOT be a problem :)


Thanks for watching!

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2018, 03:01:43 AM »
Hi guys

Some advances on the LM-5 Eagle.

Rebuilding the plume deflectors










Sorting out all the mods needed...







Modifying the landing pads...







And several other modifications...































Thanks for watching!

To be continued...

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2018, 05:22:13 AM »
What a treat to see an update to this wonderful project!

That's some outstanding detail work, Antonio!

Brian da Basher

Offline Old Wombat

  • "We'll see when I've finished whether I'm showing off or simply embarrassing myself."
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2018, 06:10:44 AM »
 :D :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline andonio64

  • Fio Piccolo's understudy
Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2018, 02:38:36 PM »
Another great work to follow!!!

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2019, 11:59:34 PM »
Thanks for the comments!

And many many weeks later, and with the H-D Needlecast '46 done, it is time to reach for the moon again :)


With the construction pretty much done, is time to choose the colors to use.

After persuing the photos and documents again, here is my favorite set :)




For the wrinkled "metallic" surfaces, instead of the obvious chocolate wrapping foils, I am thinking of using
just plain kitchen aluminium foil painted over with Alclad.

The test results:




I kind of like it. Still need to do some more mixing tests, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel... I just hop is not a train :)






Offline arctic warrior

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2019, 12:50:40 AM »
I did build this several decades ago but your enhancement is terrific.  8)

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2019, 04:20:08 PM »
Hi guys

A few advances on this project, which is an example of procrastination at its best  ;)

Some experiments to emulate the mylar and metallic coatings without using aluminium (or aluminum  :smiley: ) foil.
Just a toothpick, some Tamiya putty and some AK True Metal paste:

Find the differences!



It looked all right to me, so the method stayed.


Some more detail painting on the ascension module:






The landing gear.



And the base with some basic paint.



Tamiya putty on the descending module.



Paintings used:



And the final result.



Auto-adhesive paper cut to measure for the black coating.



After painting.



And a very early sneak preview of the final result (hopefully).





And that's all for now. Thanks for watching!.

Offline Buzzbomb

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2019, 07:45:38 PM »
Great work.
I know how hard it is to get this foil work to happen.
I went down a similar path but in 1/48 using the Dragon LEM kit.
http://www.modelblokez.org.au/bthpix/SSM/lmmoon2.jpg

Nice details as well and you are doing it in 1/72!!! :o

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #14 on: May 03, 2019, 04:02:40 AM »
Thanks!

But after several hiccups, I finally managed to finish this!

Procrastination is such a nasty word... :)

Anyway, please find below the final photos...


























































Could it be better? But of course! And for a long margin :)

Could it be worse? Definitely! Never underestimate the capacity of a modeller to screw up a model! :)

Does it look like the real thing? I guess so. No one looking at the vignette will think it is the Hamlet's soliloquy :)


So, all things considered, I ended up pretty happy with the result!

This concludes the 3rd part of my "Space Conquest (personal) Saga".


Thanks for watching!


And beware, because I have already 3 more Parts planned :)

Offline apophenia

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #15 on: May 03, 2019, 04:04:55 AM »
Lovely work?  And I concur with buzzbomb about the foil  :smiley:
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #16 on: May 03, 2019, 04:49:33 AM »
Talk about a real gem of a model! Those metallics look great and sparkle nicely.
 8)
Amazing work, Antonio!

Brian da Basher

Offline Old Wombat

  • "We'll see when I've finished whether I'm showing off or simply embarrassing myself."
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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #17 on: May 03, 2019, 07:38:48 AM »
Really nice job, Antonio! :smiley:

I've always been intrigued by the "robot face" of the front of the lander.


Be waiting to see the next builds! :))
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Online finsrin

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #18 on: May 03, 2019, 08:00:22 AM »
"So, all things considered, I ended up pretty happy with the result!"  I must say so. 8) 
Two orders of magnitude beyond my best builds.  If this was baseball - would be a Grand Slam.
Like my model pictures to be fine like yours.  What camera are you using ?

Offline elmayerle

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #19 on: May 03, 2019, 09:46:27 AM »
"Beautiful!" is entirely too much of an understatement for this one, as is "Bloody Gorgeous!", but those will have to do.  My hat's off to you, Antonio.

Offline The Big Gimper

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #20 on: May 03, 2019, 10:01:35 AM »
Amazing work Mr. A.

I literally hear the sound of the astronaut's boots crushing the moon's regolith.
Work in progress ::

I am giving up listing them. They all end up on the shelf of procrastination anyways.

User and abuser of Bothans...

Offline Robomog

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Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2019, 03:38:23 PM »
Wow, I mean like WOW !

Awesome model Antonio, far surpasses anything I could do
  :icon_alabanza:  :icon_alabanza:  :icon_alabanza:  :smiley:

Mog
>^-.-^<
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline Antonio Sobral

  • Building and painting tiny little things!
  • Greetings from Portugal
Re: The Conquest of Space - Part 3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
« Reply #22 on: May 07, 2019, 05:49:38 AM »
Thanks a lot for the nice words and comments!

But if you think 1/72 was small enough.....




...think again  ;D ;D ;D


But that's another story...