Monday, 24 September 2018

What A Piece of Junk!

In preparation for my wander through the Mars Base library archives, I was looking at some old illustrations of Werner Von Braun's Moon Expedition vehicles and the even more extensive Martian voyage plans. 
A lot of Von Brauns designs feature ungainly globular ships bolted together with frameworks of steel and cable, such as this Lindberg Space Shuttle kit. I had the kit many moons ago, but due to its fragility, it hasn't fared well moving house almost two decades ago and is now reduced to parts. Even so, I was taken with the idea of these vintage craft and decided to see if I could whip something up, quickly from the parts box, just to while away an hour and drown out the dreadful X-Factor being enjoyed by the family on TV! So I dashed into the garage and within 20 mins had identified some useful bits. A couple of old garden light shades, an eye drop container, a few wooden skewers and an assortment of greebly from toys and kits. With a bit of epoxy, I soon had the basis of a Lunar Shuutle! I'm hoping to pick up a tin of white primer today to knock back the garish colours and then I will try and add a superstructure to the hull and some surface detail. The devil certainly makes work for idle hands!

3 comments:

  1. Cant wait to see what you come up with.
    Mish.

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  2. Personally, I love the Von Braun design for the Moon Lander, which Lindberg Models did release as a kit, first as Moon Ship, and later as Star Probe Space Shuttle. I have the Glencoe reissue of the kit, which I intend to build one day when my metallic airbrushing skills are up to par. Love that design!

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  3. Well! After all these years I've found out where this ubiquitous globular design came from! I checked and lo and behold! it WAS von Braun! Thanks a lot for solving a 40 year mystery (in my head anyway!)

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