Ed's SpaceX Moon Base

Woodsy,

Here's a practice shot of the Moon Base taking shape on the moonscape.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Small Step

Well Woodsy,

I couldn't get too far along with this Moonscape diorama without first taking some photos of the Apollo landing. 

I think there's a law that says you have to do that when you have a moonscape! LOL

 These pieces were from Imperial Toys Set #304A (1970) which also includes a miniature Major Matt Mason Space Crawler.

Ed

From Vegas Base

   

Moon Cruisin'

The space fun has started!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Diorama: Dark Side of the Moon

 Woodsy,

Here's a few shots I did the last day or so on the new diorama base.

 I went into The Cave and pulled the easiest spaceship I could reach (Masuya's Moon Rocket) and snapped a few pics (more than a few actually - these are just the ones I like best). 

The very first photo I call "NASA's secret dark side of the moon launch post Apollo 17".

 The last photo is more-or-less to show the surface texture, but it works well as a spaceship landing. 

The stars are all Photoshopped in vs. me inserting a star field photo from the internet.

Hope you Enjoy!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Moonscape - I'm Calling It a Wrap!

Okie Doke Woodsy,

I applied the last dry-brush color and will call this mostly finished. The base as you see it is pretty much done, and I can always tweak it later.

 All I need now are some sheets of black foamcore board to serve as backgrounds for when I photograph this. 

The ones I have at the house are actually too short and I had to use two sheets per side instead of just one. 

Anywho, it all worked out for this particular photo shoot and you guys are the witness to the first landing on the new Moonscape!

From Vegas Base

Ed

 

Ed's Moonscape: HQ Colony

Well Woodsy, the second coat of paint has been applied to the Moonscape. 

It's actually a lighter gray (in the can) than what it appears because it went over that dark gray first coat. 

Now the question is: do I dry brush on a coat of white to highlight everything or leave it alone?

 I placed a few of my Tri-ang Moon Base HQ's on the surface to show scale.

From Vegas Base

Ed

 

Ed Start: Ed's Moonscape Diorama Progress

Well Woodsy,

The first coat of paint has been applied. 

I've been using this dark gray for the roads on my train layout and thought it would work well enough as the darker base coat for the terrain. 

There's a bit of touching up to do still as the white Styrofoam underneath is showing through at places. 

Next, will be a topcoat of light gray applied in a dry-brush technique which will cover most, but not all of the darker color underneath.

From Vegas Base

Ed

 

Ed's Moonscape Diorama Progress

Hey Woodsy!

Long time no talk to. This year has been quite busy with trying to keep up with my blog series of Forces of Valor / Unimax WWII figure sets and Flintstones toys.

I have managed to pick up a couple of space toys which I'll share in an upcoming email or two, but for now, let's look at the moonscape diorama board which has been a slow leak in progress over the past couple of years.

My last update showed the background hills taking shape. Since then, the hills have been carved and shaped, and the whole covered with a lightweight spackling compound (I prefer the lightweight spackling compound over plaster as it does not dry to a rock-hard mass and making changes down the road will be easy).

Next step will be lopping off any sharp pieces, a bit of sanding, and then painting.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Moonbase Diorama

Good Day Woodsy!

The diorama. I can't believe this has been sitting here since May of last year!! At the time, the base was built and basic Styrofoam landforms had all been glued to the base but then it started getting hot outside (where all the work was being done) and my intent was to give it 'a couple of weeks' to start up again.

 Well, Vegas weather got in the way of good intentions and here we are in March 2026 and I finally got around to working on it again. Two things got in my way this year: ill health, and the weather.

I should elaborate on the weather. You see, here in Vegas we don't have the traditional four seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Here it's like: Summer, 2-4 days of Autumn, Winter, 2-4 days of Spring. We had Spring last week Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!

Okay, so I chanced getting out the diorama base and started my first round of carving. To compare, the third image was sent to you last May. 

There's still a lot to do of course, but I think I can pull it off by doing most of the work in the early morning hours when the temps are still tolerable.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Terranova47's Completed Seaview and HMS Sophie Diorama

Hello Woodsy,

Now that it's completely finished, here is my Irwin Allen's Seaview again, passing through The Time Tunnel and threatening Patrick O'Brian's HMS Sophie captained by Jack Aubrey.

An interesting combination of nautical fiction!

Above also is a photo showing the scale of the diorama.

Hope you like it.

Terranova47

USA

Terranova47's French Foreign Legion Figures and Diorama

Hello Woodsy

As those of us in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy the heat of summer and think of escapes to seaside and sand I sit in the heat of northern Connecticut and at least contemplate sand.

Not the sand of a beach but of the deserts of north Africa. I recently found a box of French Foreign Legion in uniforms appropriate for north Africa in the 1900's which I purchased to recreate one of my favourite comic strips of the 1950's,

LUCK OF THE LEGION in EAGLE comic.

I loved the colour illustration and stories, also bought the books containing novels of the characters. I had been given a number of Pulp Magazines by an older cousin which inevitably contained at least on FFL tale.

The movie with Ray Milland, 'Beau Geste' was great fun, a true adventure and over the years I have acquired reprints of the Sergeant Luck stories ....

and of some of the pulp stories. There is a lot of plot repetition in these stories and none really betters Beau Geste by P.C. Wren as a novel.

I still have my copy of 'The Reluctant Legionnaire' a true tale of helping a Brit escape from serving in the Legion which certainly put off any childhood plans to enlist!

Attached are first progress photos of the figures painted in the diorama, not finished but the best way to see where painting needs improvement.

See what you think.

Terranova47

USA

Ed's New Moonscape Diorama Project

Woodsy,

I started this new diorama base project back in May and this is as far as I've gotten.

Except for the cheap framing, I already had the other materials on hand and decided they needed to be put to use. It's 48" x 38.5" and consists of two sheets of Masonite, glued and tacked onto a frame of fake wood (don't know what they call it but it's a plastic-like material), over which 1" sheets of Styrofoam are glued.

The crater rim is sheets of 1" Styrofoam cut and glued to the board. To finish this, I'll need to carve the foam to its final shape, cover everything with plaster (or similar), and then paint.

Here's the kicker: I can't do all that carving, plastering, and painting in the house, so it'll need to be done outside but it's gotten warm out there (we're looking at 112°F/44°C out on the patio). Plus, I have other things going on in my life.

Hopefully I can re-engage this project this coming Autumn.

The first two photos show the work in progress. The third photo was taken a few days ago after pulling out some of my SpaceX Moonbase HQ's to visualize what a set-up would look like.

See what you think.

From Vegas MoonBase

Ed

Ed's Hangar Background

Woodsy,

Here's a few shots showing how I did the hangar background for my air field diorama board.

I took photos of several different types of hangars while attending air shows at Nellis AFB (I'm only showing one here though).

Any distractions - like modern era halogen lights - were Photoshopped out, the photos printed on heavy cardstock, then mounted to foamcore.

I attached a flap at the back with about 2" sticking below the bottom of the foamcore which allowed me to insert the photo between the back of the diorama base and the larger backdrop.

This prevents the photo from just flopping over as well as allowing me to place it anywhere I like. So far, it's worked pretty good.

The in-progress photos were taken on my older 20" x 8ft shelf runway where I used Woodland Scenics 'Top Coat - Concrete' as the color for my ramp (the area in front of the hangars).

It is more of a tan color but did the job for me at the time. You'll notice however that the photo of the actual hangar shows a more realistic light gray forward of the doors, and this is how the new board is painted.

From Vegas Air Field

Ed