Rob's “Transportation 1957” Art

Woodsy,

As February was too cold to work on models in the cellar, I did a few more quick gouache sketches based on a 1950s Japanese Picture Transfer book.

 Subjects should be self-explanatory; I'm calling the series "Transportation '57." 

I like how the original artist turned these iconic vehicles almost into abstract forms, and I tried to capture this simplicity in my 5" x 8" recreations.

Hope you like them.

Rob C

USA

Ed's Azrak-Hamway #6371 Star Trek Phaser Water Pistol

Woodsy,

Here's a little sumthin' I picked up recently that you might like. Normally, I don't collect Star Trek stuff, but I got this for a reasonable price so what the heck!

Anyone else got an Ahi Phaser like this?

From Vegas Base

Ed

SCALEXTRIC SPV PROTOTYPE

 Scalextric have let collectors have a sneak peek of  their prototype Captain Scarlet Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle slot car. 

Obviously, it doesn't have the correct colour scheme  as yet, appearing in appropriate 'Mysteron' black!

It's a pre-order item,  and from what I understand it's scheduled to be released in the Autumn ,and  will cost just under £60.

Scalextric also propose to release a slot-car Spectrum Patrol Car.

Lips Manlis and the Sunny Smile

A recent car booting trip proved fun. I bagged this trio of vintage toys that came back to Moonbase with me.

The two carded figures are the only two carded figures I own and at £15 for the pair I couldn't resist. 

I've been aware of Playmates' Dick Tracy figures for decades, including the fabled Blank and this Lips Manlis is a trip down memory lane.

Captain Power is not a line I know at all really but this carded Chase figure was in such fab condition I got it as well.

The huge green Action Man tank is not the Cherilea original but the later Sunny Smile release, which I think is the same as Strike Force. It just needs a dusting and some of the decals re-glueing before going on maneuvers. A snip at £4 I thought.

Are these toys you know readers?

AMT USS ENTERPRISE

 I'm currently working on a 1986 AMT 'Voyage Home' Enterprise Refit kit, and am up to the stage of the first coat of sealer and applying the decals. 

Although it's an Enterprise 'A', I'll probably go for the Motion Picture version.

MARE CRISIUM

As the night sky was almost cloudless and reasonable clear,  I took a photo of the waxing crescent Moon last night.

The crescent clearly shows Mare Crisium AKA The Sea of Crisis at the upper edge. Anyone who follows space news will know that the Sea of Crisis is the landing site for the commercial lunar lander, Blue Ghost.

Another point of interest is that Mare Crisium was used as the location for Arthur C. Clarke's 1948 short story, The Sentinel, one of Clarke's stories used as inspiration for the film , 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the story, a mysterious alien structure is discovered in the mountains surrounding the 'sea'.

Will's Comic Giveaways

Hi Woodsy,

 Going through a few drawers and found these giveaways. The disguise is Whizzer and Chips, don't know the other two , but the flying saucer firing space gun is nice .

Anyone recognise them?

Will O

UK

The Crowded Moon

The Apollo Lunar Module is one of the most easily recognisable spacecraft in history, having been used for the first successful landing on the moon. Because of this, it has appeared in countless toys and models over the years, in greater and lesser degrees of accuracy. Recently, my good friend Terry Harle sent me a lovely little Japanese kit of an Eagle 5 LEM, made by Nikken. It was clearly a vintage kit and came in a small bag with a paper header.

The instructions show an Apollo Command Module on the header as an additional kit, so it’s possible there were two models in one box.

The kit itself is 1/80 and a shade smaller than the familiar Airfix version, but without a base or figures. It does however come with a neat feature in that the legs can fold inwards as they did at launch, before being released from the booster by the Command and Service module in orbit. As it was an otherwise unremarkable version of the LEM and almost all the delicate leg struts had napped inside the bag, due to the fragility of the plastic, I decided to try something different and decorate it in the style of Triang Spacex series 1 vehicles, such as the MEV or Prospector.

I already had some fiery orange and lime green paint from an ongoing MEV model project, so I was able to spare enough for the little kit. The leg struts and antennae were finished with a chrome pen.

The model doesn’t have any cockpit windows like the Airfix or larger versions, so I added some simple red film as tinted glass.Unfortunately, as it’s an older kit, the decals supplied perished before I could apply them.