Pure Moonscapism

Spacex Superset Craterscape

My recent photoshoots have all taken advantage of some ready made moonscapes, all in vacuum formed plastic. One of the first Spacex Supersets contained a moonscape, in fragile white plastic, shaded in pale blue. When I first saw one as a kid, I was taken with the colour and it has stuck with me ever since. Decades later, I finally got one and was surprised how small it actually is, about a foot square. With Spacex toys, the only really practical area to place them is in the centre, otherwise the jagged terrain means that only two wheels will be in contact with the terrain, making a very odd looking picture.

I picked up a piece of military diorama online, a shell scored landscape, which doubles as a moonscape quite well. I tried to paint this one in a similar fashion to the Spacex one, but its perhaps a little highly coloured. Its about 7 inches long and ideal for the smaller vehicles like Kinder Egg Space. The circular  Airfix Lunar Module base is a nice handy size for displaying small models too.

The largest of the dioramas came from a Johnny Astro set and is made from a slightly heavier plastic, which is possibly blow-moulded than vac-formed. Its a more striking blue and features the central crater, but with sweeping hills and other features around it.

The last four are made by Dekker Toys in the seventies - as you can see from the box, which sports an Airfix Hawk and Mego Black Hole and Buck Rogers figures. These four scapes were designed as 'paint it yourself' projects for kids and when I bought them on ebay, someone had tried to give them a once over with brown enamel. First of all I painted them with A Dulux Matchpot of white emulsion and then gradually built up colour and tone in blue and grey, finishing off with white highlights again. As the detail on them was a little sparse, I took the opportunity while I had them out at the weekend, to repaint them with some PVA Texture Gel, a white glue with glass beads in it. As the PVA dries clear, I dry brushed the shadows and tones in with a couple of spare pots of blue and grey I had lying around.

The little beads looked especially effective with some side lighting and resemble dust and broken rock on the surface, whilst the streaks in the PVA added additional texture.

Note the scientifically inaccurate teabags!