MOONBASE CENTRAL

Friday, 7 February 2025

L'AUTOPEDE UFO

This is staggeringly good, the 1958 UFO carnival ride car by Belgian makers L'Autopede.

What do you think?

For more snaps go to Retro Station

https://retrostation.eu/product/lautopede-carnival-ufo-small-model/

Thursday, 6 February 2025

HI YA! OUR CUSTOM MULTIPLE TOYMAKERS KUNG FU TARGET SET DONE!

I'm pleased to show you our latest team effort readers, a custom Kung Fu Target Set finished.

Here it is booted and suited.

Bill created the fabulous graphics based on the original card by Multiple Toymakers released in 1975. It required some custom artistic licence on Bill's part on the 100 section, as the original was hidden from view and no loose card could be found online so it could be seen.

I had fun sorting out the toys and the blister; the horse and rider were from my bits box and needed a little tinkering; the toy revolver was from the local farmshop and got a lick of paint and a white grip; the target card clasps were plug fuse covers from the DIY box [the target cards were part of the backing card and had to be cut out originally in 1975].

As always the blister was tricky and in the end I used the original blister off the farmshop cowboy set I bought and cut it up to create two suitable shapes to glue down.

Here's a comparison with the the original toy; 1975 on the left and our 2025 custom on the right.

I forgot about the dart! Doh!

Hope you like this latest effort from ..... "Moonbase International"!

BILL'S ROTOMATIC CHRISTMAS

Image: Bill Everatt

Hi Woodsy

Attached is a photo of me in my Thunderbirds IR uniform complete with Rotomatic Gun.

It was taken on Christmas Morning 1966.

As the gun habitually leaked so badly, it had to be emptied and dried otherwise I'd have a wet patch not just on the holster but around my unmentionables too!

It's difficult to see, but if you zoom in on the picture, you can possibly make out that it was not JR21.

I was impressed then, and am still impressed now, how accurate it was to the actual IR guns. Especially in comparison to the JR21 TB5, or the friction drives of TB1 to TB3.

But we were children then.

FAB.

Bill Ev.

ASTROPHOTOS

As my town has been blessed, for the most part anyway, with some clear nights, I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the night sky in my back garden.

Although my lenses aren't ideal and don't have very low f stops, meaning they don't take full advantage of the limited available light, I did manage to get a few decent shots in spite of the light pollution.

The Moon is in a waxing gibbous phase, which is great for showing up the shadows on the terminator line. A full Moon doesn't always produce the best photos as the reflected sunlight tends to wash out some of the surface detail. It's still pretty bright, though ,so the camera's ISO setting needs to be very low to get the exposure right.

Here's a photo I took of the Moon in waning gibbous phase. I did a little post-processing on this to enhance the detail of the Tycho Crater and its rays.

This is a 4 second exposure showing an airliner crossing the night sky. The bright object is the over- exposed Moon.

A 10 second shot of the night sky with an over exposed Moon in the right-hand top corner. The photo, shows the constellation of Orion in the left hand corner rising above the trees, and the constellation of Taurus just above. The bright star above that is Jupiter, and above that at the edge is the Pleiades star cluster.

A close up of the belt and sword of Orion. Spot the Orion Nebula!

Photos of Venus and Mars

Finally, as mist began to rise up I decided to call it a night.

Keep watching the skies!

Golden Astronaut: Ed is Ready For Take Off!

Woodsy,

I've been going through old photos (I have a TON of them) and came across a few from a 2020 photo session. I've also taken advantage of all the old photos by finally posting them to my blog, Toys and Stuff.

From Vegas Base