1/350 Lunar cargo ship (If magazine, Oct. 1955)

[Frank3k]

This is easily my scartchbuilt with the most parts - almost all have been 3D printed. Builds like this are one reason I bought my resin printer - while cleanup and processing is annoying, it's less annoying than dealing with Shapeways.

I enjoy reading old SF stories and magazines and I love the artwork. One cover that caught my eye was the October 1955 issue of "If: Worlds of Science Fiction":



I started the 3D model but in 1/350 scale, it would have been expensive to print at Shapeways. I could print it on my FDM printer, but wasn't looking forwards to the extensive post-processing to get rid of the printer artifacts. It stayed unfinished until I got my Anycubic Photon printer.
The first version I printed was in 1/700 scale, which came out well. I thought I'd light the interior, but it would have been cramped at 1/700. Instead, I rescaled it to 1/350 (inadvertently making the shere's walls extra thick). Here are the results - I'm ready to start building.

The magazine has a view of the cargo ship in space:



 I took some liberties with the design and added some details. The images are hard to make out because the resin is semi transparent. The parts have been sanded to remove the support points:


The floor/roof are thin wafers with many holes (for the lights) and to indicate some sort of floor structure:


I printed a lot of cargo containers. I'm still learning how to add supports to ensure a proper print. I thought the smaller parts would have a lower yield than the large cargo boxes, but it was the reverse. Now I have tons of small cargo boxes and oxygen/gas tanks:


The cargo hatches, interior ribbing and landing pads (I need four, printed 6):


The crane on the cover will be from a random sheet of 1/350 ship PE.

I also needed astronauts, so I made 4 different poses and found two other astronaut types (one a 2001 astronaut) online. These 30 or so are the best of the lot; I have another 20 or so missing limbs that I can place elsewhere:


I also needed cargo tractors. I didn't find a better image of the tractors until yesterday, so I made a guess. I also made a wheeled cargo trailer and a "sausage" pressurized crew transport:


The clear resin makes it hard to see the details:


Here's one of the rejected Oscar Meyer Weinermobiles and a handicapped David Bowman astronaut:


I neglected to add a drain hole to the sausage, so it has some liquid resin inside until I cured it.

Thanks for looking! Next I'll start priming parts.

Here are the If issues with images and texts to go with the pictures. As far as I can tell, this was an Ed Valigursky idea and not based on any "real" studies:

If, June 1954 Just saw this one - it has a closeup of a tractor.
If, August 1954
If, April 1955
If, Oct. 1955 This has the cover image

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Nice!

[Kerick]

Those 1950s designs are a lot of fun! Just can’t get away from those giant fins on everything!
What diameter is the hull? Looks close to some Christmas tree ornaments I have. (Not suggesting that your project looks like one.  )

[Frank3k]

The sphere is 54.52mm (2.15") in diameter. I guessed at the scale based on the figures.

[Kerick]

Nice! That will make a great display.

[finsrin]

Nice! That will make a great display.

Yes - ditto

[turtle]

Interesting project you have there.
You just have to admire the 1950's magazine artwork and the imagination that goes into the concepts, Popular Mechanics is another for somewhat 'over the top' concepts.
Keep us posted on your progress.

[Antonio Sobral]

That´s great!

From a magazine illustration to a gorgeous vignette/diorama in a "few easy" steps:
Just imagination, know-how..and a 3D printer.

What's not to love? :)
 
Thanks for sharing!

[Brian da Basher]

Your old-time sci-fi projects are some of my favorites, Frank and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this wonder!

Brian da Basher

[elmayerle]

Clearly a predecessor of the station-to-Luna ship seen in 2001.  It and the diorama look quite promising.

[Buzzbomb]

Magnificent !!!

[Madhatter]

I can only really echo what the others have said but that is a very unique subject. Will be watching this one

[Frank3k]

Thanks guys - I have the upper half light blocked, but I may have to redo the ceiling - the holes are so small that they act like pinhole cameras... so I can get a fair image of the LED die, but not so good illumination.

This build will also trial using resin as a glue.

[jcf]

 

[Kerick]

For what was known back in the day these designs were “out there”!
Lots of fun seeing this come together!

[Robomog]

Ooooh you are really making me hanker for a 3D printer !

Love all those little vehicles

Mog
>^-.-^<

[Dr. YoKai]

 Another nifty project, Frank. I really have got to start playing around with 3d graphics programs.

[Camthalion]

very cool

[Frank3k]

Holy necroposting!This model has sat on my self of doom for almost 5.5 years. This was one of my first prints after I got my first 3D resin printer and the results were disappointing; there are major surface defects and the sphere halves are slightly out of round, so I gave up on it.

Cleaning up my bookshelf, I found this and a couple of other 3D prints languishing on a box. I could either toss it and reprint it in better resin on a much better printer, or I could just try to finish it.

I wanted to light the interior, so I modified a spare LED cabin light for my car to run on 9V and added it to the upper half of the sphere. There's enough light to illuminate the control cabin, but the resin is too foggy to see any details. I added a connector so I could work on the lower half without having a heavy resin piece knocking about:



 The power exits out the bottom and down two of the fins.

I made a support for the crane and added some cargo and three figures. The floor is a left over ABS raft from an old 3D printer (THREE filament printers ago!). Of course, the one time super glue works as it's supposed to for me is when I put the floor in. It rotated and stuck fast. That's why the floor lines don't line up with the big cargo hatch:



Here's the view from the surface. The supervisor is on the left, two workers on the right:



The way the crane works makes it difficult to take cargo in or out, so I'd originally cut out the area between the crane hatch and the cargo hatch, then I decided to put it back.

I painted the ship (still need to do some work around the control cabin). The crane is held in place with poster putty for now. There are two "hot dog" moon trucks; this is the red one with a cargo trailer. I printed a tracked Moon tractor, but it rides too close to the surface:



View from the ground:



I'll run the power lines to two pins coming out of the rear fins. Still need touch up work and some decals. I'm still not clear on how they would hook up cargo on that crane and swing it out, but that's not my department.

[Kerick]

You remarked about the handicapped astronaut and that made me remember an article where the author made a good case for people who would be considered disabled on Earth to be very productive in space in a weightless environment. People with heart problems would be much more mobile on a space station. Amputees would also be able to move freely and be able to have a fairly normal life. Something to think about.
Your moon lander is looking good!

[Buzzbomb]

Oh very good 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Great project revival and most excellent details to the interior.  As far as the floor alignment issue consider the benefit of the angular connection as a means towards increased structural strength by not being perpendicular to the stress points. 

[robunos]

XLNT !!
I could just imagine a Company of Wolf's Dragoons or the Gray Death Legion exiting that ship, prior to giving some Snakes a battering . . .


cheers,
Robin.

[apophenia]

So glad that you resurrected this one, Frank! A very cool concept 

... The way the crane works makes it difficult to take cargo in or out ... I'm still not clear on how they would hook up cargo on that crane and swing it out, but that's not my department.

Not your department but I had a thought on cargo handling. (Poor-quality images are attached to illustrate the concept - which I'm thinking of as more backstory than suggested physical additions.)

Okay, the idea is that cargo pods are readily moveable within the cargo bay due to the Moon's one-sixth surface gravity (compared with Earth). Perhaps there are retractable castors to make shifting cargo pods even easier? Final pod off-loading technique would then depend upon the conditions at the landing site.

Basic manoeuvring of pods out of the cargo bay doors could be accomplished via two pivoting arms mounted to either side of those doors. These are basically gallows-shaped with the pivoting upright section extending from floor to ceiling with a boom arm at the top. Those boom arms would be extensible.

In more austere conditions, cargo pods would be swung out through the doors, the boom arms extended, and the pods hoisted down to the surface for later removal.

If proper cargo-handling rovers and/or trailers were available, the pivoting boom arms would be extend far enough outboard to clear the cargo lander's structure. Then, each cargo pod would be transferred to the longer gantry crane for accurate placement on the cargo-handling units below.

[Ramba]

The green 3D print reminds me of the old uranium glass from the 1930's. The ship has a cool design and the build is coming along nicely.

Link to some uranium glass.
https://nucleardiner.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/psa-uranium-glass/