KEV's AGENT X20'S SUB SCRATCHBIULD

Just completed this build of Agent X20's submarine from Stingray. The model is made from a Revell kit of the Bell X5 aircraft, as was the original.

Off to see the Mighty Titan,

Kevin D

UK

IT CAME FROM 1956! BY ROB C

Woodsy,

As an experiment this summer, I decided to go to a nearby Hobby Lobby store and purchase my next model kit “off the shelf,” like we used to do in the old days!

As I expected, there was very little of interest. The vast majority of the kits were 1/25 scale motor vehicles by AMT, a company of no interest to me. Also, a small selection of Bandai Star Wars kits - again, of no interest to me.

I had almost given up, when I noticed one small box on the very bottom shelf, kind of squished in the back. It was an Atlantis model of a Sinclair Gas Truck, and I immediately snapped it up.

Originally produced in 1956 by Revell, this is a classic kit in 1/48 scale, probably originally designed to be used by model railroaders on their “O” scale train layouts.

Being a very old kit, the molds are a little rough and the fit imperfect - especially with the driver cab - but all in all a fun build, straight “off the shelf.”

Rob C

USA

A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

 When I was a kid I wanted to be a palaeontologist. I had some great fossil sets back in  the 1960's.

So too 2023.

My Grandson Moonbase Junior is walking the rocky road now as well. He wants to be a palaeontologist too.

The innovation is that Junior's modern fossil sets come with a huge chuck of concretion for bashing and chiselling.

Like my old sets though there are still great illustrated cards of our favourite dinos, T.Rex and Triceratops.

Inside the plaster block Junior chiselled out rather neat plastic model kits of them.

In another set all the hammering and gouging results in something familiar.

Small lumps of plastic containing insects.

In my day I had a toy set that made gloopy resiny pieces like this. You could add a key ring chain to the end. Just can't recall the name. Sound familiar?

They'll go well in his rocks and fossils cabinet.

I really hope Junior becomes a palaeontologist.

Or a geologist.

Or third on his list,

an astronaut!

Did you have a fossil hunting set as a kid readers?

Brave and the Bold: Hot Wheels Dark Gold Batmobile

Batman: The Brave and the Bold was an animated Batman TV series, that lasted from 2008 to 2011. 

Hot Wheels released a model of the Batmobile from the show as part of the 2010 Batman series, although this model has the copyright date 2014 on the base.

The car is dark gold, with black stripes. The wheel hubs are gold chrome, and the windscreen is clear plastic.

The Brave and the Bold Batmobile has previously been released in various shades of black, blue, and grey. There was also a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine version. This is the second of two colour schemes available for 2023, the other being maroon.

Do you like the colour?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

TAKIN' CARE OF BISMUTH

 The Grandson Moonbase Junior is a budding geologist.

Along with his Dad he melted a block of the heavy element Bismuth to grow crystals as it cooled.

Junior asked me to blog his best crystal, this quite beautiful Ziggurat-like staircase of metal

Its iridescence is really gorgeous.

We both agreed it looks like the gates of Gozer at the top of the building in Ghostbusters!

What do you think readers?

Approval of Stamps

  My father, amongst many other hobbies, was a stamp collector and every now and then, would bring out a pile of albums and pore over the pages of colourful stamps, sorting them in order. I would often sneak a look at the stamps over his shoulder, as he wasn't keen on me getting my grubby mitts on them and from time to time I would notice the odd space themed stamp. Since then and as my own interest in space ephemera has broadened, I have taken more of an interest in these space thematics and picked up a few used varieties on the way. Used stamps can be bought in bulk, if they are standard issue and I have bought a few packs of mixed stamps from ebay and charity shops. The difficulty in buying blind, is that you never quite know what you might find, so duplication is often an issue. On the plus side, though, it is quite common to find some lovely examples of the stamp illustrators art from all around the world.

The artwork on the stamps varies tremendously in content and quality. with some images replicating existing art or photo reference and others being entirely original or out and out fantasy, with odd representations of spacecraft and astronauts.

These larger format stamps from Yemen, have clearly referenced some NASA source material for the images on the stamps as they show a Bendix Lunar Rover prototype and a Flying Lunar Excursion Platform (above) as well as an inflatable moon base concept.

Another from the same release show the projected LEM 'truck' - a concept which would use a secondary Lunar module, without the ascent stage, as a cargo platform. The Flying Platform shown on the lower left, seems to be based on a Major Matt Mason toy astronaut too.

Its very common for some stamp producers to simply lift existing artwork and repurpose it as the basis of a stamp, such as this illustration by Ed Valigursky from the Time Life 'Man in Space' book, of a radiation shielded spaceman.

Existing artwork or designs can also be used to represent entirely different things, such as this spirited rendition of a Project Dyna-Soar glider, made into a space ambulance!

Probably my favourite style of all are the soviet or eastern bloc era stamps, commemorating the russian successes such as the Lunik series of probes and the Sputnik and Vostok missions.

Although a lot of these stamps tend to be tiny - sometimes less than an inch long, the level of detail and workmanship is glorious.

Varying from simple line drawings to lovely etched images, the stamps have a wonderful period feel to them.

Some of the designs of the spacecraft are noticeably vague or fanciful, reflecting the communist veil of secrecy on certain missions, such as the early Vostok flights, with the craft bearing little resemblance to the actual spaceraft. 

It would only be many years later that images of the actual spacecraft would be shown openly.

Second Post:

Yesterday, I received a packet of space stamps, kindly donated by Terranova, from his Space thematic collection. Here are some of the fabulous stamps included in the pack.