SHADO MOONBASE

 

Some photos I’ve taken of my SHADO Moonbase model, which I bought from my good friend and fellow Gerry & Sylvia Anderson enthusiast, Tony Freeman, at last year’s Cromford event.

It’s a solid resin ‘garage’ kit which, Tony warned me needed a lot of work, and a fair few modifications. Some of the parts were unusable, or had insufficient detail and had to be scratch-built. There was no decals, and the instructions took the word simple to a new level.

Never the less I enjoy a modelling challenge and set to work on the build.

It’s a small model, about 30cm across, and my initial plan was to simply use it as background dressing, although that changed as the build progressed. I decided to add some lighting around the surface decking, and on top of four of the five domes. (As the domes are solid, internal lighting was impossible, so on a couple of photos I cheated with a little cheeky photo-shopping)

The Shuttle launch gantry needed a fair amount of work to make it look a bit more accurate, with alterations to the vertical strut and additional girder work.

I initially considered that the lighting was too bright, but after taking a few test photos I reckon the model’s diminutive size meant the LED’s gave, what I considered a pleasing bathed in light effect.

To complete the look the model also came with a small metal ‘Comet Miniatures’ Lunar Shuttle.