On a Rope!

As All Hallows Eve looms ever closer and Monster Base's house band is raising hell in New Jersey, I thought I'd play a few creepy tracks over the next few weeks on MoonBase to get us into the spirit of the dark season.

To kick off here's Rocket from the Crypt with On A Rope from 1996. Yeah!

https://youtu.be/2Ezd9WfXbnI?si=iG4r78BAd1ZGdLYS

Please send in your spooky requests. If you can mix space and monsters then all the better! 

Ring a Ding!

Blimey, I'm a sucker for character and premium rings like the beauty above. 

It's a massive subject and I'm very much the beginner.

I think it started with watching Shazan! As a kid. Remember that?

Naturally most of the ring action was and is Stateside and here's a few tasty joblot morsels I've seen online.

See anything you recognise?

A Manhattan Lobby .....

 ...... Halloweened!

Pics: Terranova47

Have you begun to Halloween up?

Now, Voyager!

When I was a little kid, I was fascinated by model displays in Museums... I always thought it would be the best job in the world. Sadly every time I've had the opportunity to produce something for a Museum display, I've always cone up hard against the fact I'm not as good a modelmaker as I fancy I am.

During my recent trip to Japan, I was in touch with my lifelong pal, Kerrie Dougherty. As BIG Gerry Anderson fans, we managed to leverage that interest into paid employment. I became a film miniature modelmaker and she was head of the Powerhouse Museum Space section. She has since gone on to the Australian Space Agency in Adelaide, but is still keen on displays for public education. A few years ago I made some large models of Australian Space hardware for her Adelaide displays.

Always keen for representations of Australian Space hardware, she asked me to look out for any kits in Japan. I managed to score two Japanese built satellites, an Explorer 1 rocket and a 1/48 scale kit of Voyager. Having enjoyed it's guest appearance in Star Trek The Motion Picture, I was looking forward to putting this kit together...

I have to say it is the fiddliest kit I have EVER made in my life and an expected romp turned into five excruciating hours of wresting with tiny girders and widgets. Amazingly, I didn't drop a single piece on the floor! ( the plasma detector array breaking off doesn't really count!) My hands didn't shake or lose grip, but I did wonder if my eyes were finally failing me!

Painting the long Magnatometer boom was extremely difficult with copper rungs and yellow edges. This wasn't helped by the fact the entire length also twists!

Anyway here are some piccies for your enjoyment. The pics really don't do the fiddly intricate nature of this model justice!

Now I know why, when the Klingons destroyed one in Star Trek 5, the SFX crew just blew up a photograph rather than an actual model!

The finished kit (minus copper paint on the whisker antennas) with Earth display stand Alien Grey figure for scale (no, seriously. Those Japanese have a sense of humour when it comes to whether anyone will play Voyagers Golden record) Hasegawa also included a nice embroidered mission patch as a bonus.

The all important gold disc in all its vacuum metallised glory.

"Hey Moonbasers! It's a Golden Astronaut alien!"

"Triang Space-X missed their chance there..."

Well, back to the kitchen table, I have two more kits to put together before I can deliver the lot!

Have you made a Voyager?

Looey

Oz

M.C."Screechin' Creech"

Introducing the latest member of Monster Base House Band!

I couldn't find a scale drum kit, so Creech is going to keep the beat with his laptop and provide the hook with his turntables!

- BrianF 

Monster Base 

NJ USA

Your Top Five Foods to Take to Titan?

If you were a castaway on Titan and could take your top five foods with you, what would they be readers? You can delve into history, we can provide anything! 

My own Top Titan Five would be:

1. Hot sugared ring donuts from the seaside

2. Sugared pancakes

3. Steak and kidney Suet pudding, chips, peas and gravy from the chippy

4. Roast Chicken and chips

5. Thick plain pork Richmond sausage sandwich on white bread.

A substitute would be a curry. Oh yes!

With these, any drink will do! 

Matchbox Ground Grinder

Hi Woodsy

In recent years Matchbox have released a number of models in an unusual, and rather nice, light green. The markings are for the National Parks service or Forest Ranger.

Models carrying these colours have been included in the regular Matchbox line, Moving Parts series, Working Rigs (trucks), Hitch and Haul (vehicle and trailer), various multi-vehicle sets, Color Changers, and Sky-Busters (aircraft). I have not even attempted to collect everything.

Ground Grinder is a grader, and first appeared in 2013 (copyright date on the underside 2012). This 2025 version has National Parks – Maintenance Road Crew on the sides.

Only the green parts are metal. The cab and engine deck in black; and the underside, including the fixed grader blade, in grey are plastic.

The grader blade is fixed. The models come either on a card, inside a clear plastic bubble; or in a small cardboard box, with glued-down end flaps.

Do you like it?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Monster Base Meobius!

Hi Woodsy,

Here's my Moebius Giant Insect and Dr Deadly kits!

BrianF

Monster Base

NJ USA