MOONBASE DIARY - MOONBASE IS GO FOR LAUNCH!

Dedicated to Michael Collins who came so close

At long last and luckily coinciding with the Moonlanding 40th Anniversary, my PROJECT SWORD MOONBASE is finished and go for launch! It's been a blast making it and with the help of the mighty WOTAN with some finishing touches ( LRV, astronauts and module signs) it's fully operational and ready to accept earth's first avacuees onboard the Nuclear Ferry.

I have taken lots of snaps as I'm not sure how long I can keep the Moonbase biult-up like this. It's taking up a quarter of my attic! Check out the rest of the pics in this gallery. Mostly pretty much sticking to the original Manual drawing, I have had some fun mixing up SWORD ships!

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It's one small step for Man and one giant LeaP for LP Spacemen! For the full MOONBASE DIARY since May (May's at the bottom), should you be exceptionally bored with life, click here.

Project s.w.o.r.d moonbase toy playset scratchbuild: intro

Way back in 2009 I attempted to scratch build  a replica of the Project SWORD Moon Base play set as depicted in the Official Manual pictured below. The build formed the basis of a blogged moonbase diary.

I did this in the attic, where I had some space and could leave a mess each evening.

It didn't generate much interest back then so I'm re-posting the half dozen posts again this week in case it's of interest now.

2009: Last week I spent a highly enjoyable hour reading about Mike Delamar's wonderful Scratchbiulding a Thunderbirds Fire Engine project on the brilliant Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum. 

I am both in awe and inspired by Mike, a real friendly guy, in equal measure and have resolved to start my own 'pet' project, which has been languishing on the 'drawing board' for ages: to build the Project Sword Moonbase!

You fool I hear you cry! I agree! The obstacles are great and many, the greatest of which are my lamentabley 'green' modelling 'skills' (a virgin solder!) followed closely by the lack of authentic Project Sword Moonbase imagery. 

The only real drawing is in the Official Manual (top pic) supplemented by the odd TV21 comic strip appearance (bottom pic). There are some similar moonbase artworks by the great Ed Valigursky on the net, but these can only be viewed as background material really.

So, with super-glued hands and dedicated to virgin solders everywhere, I set off to discover the dark secrets of the fabled Moonbase! Watch this space (or not)!

MOONBASE DIARY

Last week I spent a highly enjoyable hour reading about Mike Delamar's wonderful Scratchbiulding a Thunderbirds Fire Engine project on the brilliant Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum. I am both in awe and inspired by Mike, a real friendly guy, in equal measure and have resolved to start my own 'pet' project, which has been languishing on the 'drawing board' for ages: to biuld the Project Sword Moonbase!

You fool I hear you cry! I agree! The obstacles are great and many, the greatest of which are my lamentabley 'green' modelling 'skills' (a virgin solder!) followed closely by the lack of authentic Project Sword Moonbase imagery - the only real drawing is in the Official Manual (top pic) supplemented by the odd TV21 comic strip appearance (bottom pic). There are some similar moonbase artworks by the great Ed Valigursky on the net, but these can only be viewed as background material really.

So, with super-glued hands and dedicated to virgin solders everywhere, I set off to discover the dark secrets of the fabled Moonbase! Watch this space (or not)!

MOONBASE DIARY

Work is drawing to a close on the Moonbase! All the biuldings are biult and just need a few decals. The crew and Lunar Roving Vehicle pictured above have arrived from Sword Base North West courtesy of Commander WOTAN. The lunar surface is complete too and strangely this was one of the most enjoyable things to make. It took me back to railway days as a kid, making hills and mounds from papier mache and painting them green. This time it was grey. It's not brilliant but it'll do. The craters came out well. As you can see from the top piccy of your bespectacled host I'm pleased with the results so far, as is Jigger, our pet guinea pig, Batman as well, who popped in through the attic window and Godzilla too, who temporarily broke off from wrestling Thunderbird 2 to say hi!

Just looking at those white, yellow and silver LP astronauts, it reminded me of how a toy dealer years ago tried to sell me some as actual Project Sword Moonbase astronauts! I said, so where's the moonbase? Well, soon we'll have one!

MOONBASE DIARY

It's been far too hot in my attic workshop to work on the Moonbase! It's a lot cooler now and I've got some new K'nex module legs - for the moonbase that is, not for me! - so hopefully there'll be some progress soon on the Radar unit and the LEM.

MOONBASE DIARY

Today's booty at the Fitzwilliam Car Boot sale! Can't ID the Sub, either Bug or the red spaceman yet but I reckon somewhere in there are summer modelling projects for a SEA SWORD, Scramble Bug and Spacex Rocket Launcher! Steady on, don't get cocky I hear you say, finish that Moonbase first!

MOONBASE DIARY

Ever since getting back from the Boot sales this morning, it's been chuckin' it down! So, in between buying my mate's son's toy collection off him and playing with Blue the Doggy (bottom pic - looking sad!) I have made some progress on the Moonbase model in my rather cramped but snug attic den! - pic 5. That old Liberty chair is so comfy you wouldn't believe! And with my stereo record player still in action I've been modelling to the sweet riffs of Wishbone Ash and Rory Gallagher!

So, I've tested the battery-powered lights on the Housing and Light Modules - top 3 pics; more or less finished the Garage Module, complete with crane and ramp (looks quite good!) and the base unit of the Light Module, looking like a square cake with 4 legs at the mo! - pic 4.

As predicted the LEM has proven the most difficult. I couldn't find a Panettone box anywhere - think it must be a Xmas thing - so I've opted for a stack of 3 small boxes to create the effect. Not finished yet so the jury's still out!

Need to decide whether any extra livery or decals are required over and above the SWORD logo?

MOONBASE DIARY

With my trusty Project Sword Official Manual to hand I have encountered my first modelling problem - that quintessential dilemma of scale. There is no real clue in the Manual other than the control box, which you can sort of envisage, since there are some pictured switches. The problem is best summed up by the vehicles we know so well - the Moon Prospector and the Scramble Bug, pictured above in both Century 21 and miniature Spacex plastic/Imai die cast sizes. To re-create the Bug garage module at C21 Bug scale it would need to be really huge - a couple of feet high! I have found this rather cool storage system by Kartell, which could work, but they are hellishly expensive and the door slides rather than lowers. Similarly a C21 scale Prospector would require a ginormous living module (to its left on the Manual picture). All just too darn big for me to work with - I can't imagine the proposed C21 toy would have been at this scale either, child-squashingly massive in a box several feet wide and deep! The astronauts compound the issue too. To illustrate this I have placed an LP silver astronaut - the C21 scale (compare with the Bug driver) - against a mini yellow crawler with driver - the miniature Spacex scale. You can see that the LP astronaut would need a giant moonbase! So, weighing all this up I have opted for the Spacex scale Prospector and Bug and therefore a much smaller, more manageable and affordable model base. Phew!

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PS. Mini Prospector customised and donated to me by the mighty WOTAN. More on this to follow!

MOONBASE DIARY

I've been gathering together bits and pieces that might be useful for the moonbase! Stuff from the attic, the shed and a couple of Ebargains- an old egg cooker and an actual jet radar dish! A trip to the local junk shop produced a mini desk fan and 2 old emergency lamps - one looking like a blue R2D2! So, what to do with it all?

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WOTAN's comments about scale make me feel a lot better about choosing the 'Spacex' size. I love the batteries in his brilliant colour illustration! Never even spotted them before! I must admit the whole control panel thing in general worries me though. I'm considering forgetting that any of the parts should move or light up. My kung fu is just not that good!

MOONBASE DIARY

The moonbase model has begun! Having decided that the Housing Module looks a bit like an egg cooker, I attached some K'nex rods and old plastic wheels to said cooker base. Well its a start, the astronauts will have somewhere to live soon and their eggs will only take a minute in space!

MOONBASE DIARY

Things are going well on the Moonbase. The Lighting Unit is nearly complete - top pic. I've added Letraset numbers to the modules, a good idea from the mighty WOTAN, plus the odd small black vent. Need to print some SWORD decals too. That leaves the LEM to complete, locate a Lunar Roving Vehicle at Spacex scale, find some plastic astronauts - still unsure about the scale - and last but not least, make the lunar surface for it all to stand on!

MOONBASE DIARY

There's been some progress in the modeller's loft! The Housing ('Egg 1') and Light ('Tin 1') Modules are more or less finished - top pic - maybe just another SWORD logo somewhere and a light in the Housing unit and that's it! Phew! I've started on the Garage module too - bottom pic -basically a thick cardboard tube with a card ramp. A stroke of luck was the plastic lid it came with - a sound base for the plastic roof crane unit (courtesy of an old megarig set). I also picked up 2 tupperware stacking trays -middle pic - at Dewsbury Car Boot. Not sure I can use them yet but one might make a good LEM base! Still no Panettone though! WOTAN has given me some good LEM leads so there might be progress there too soon!

MOONBASE DIARY

Made some progress on the 'dish housing'. Quite chuffed as I picked up a cheap Hawker Hunter Aircraft Reflector dish on Ebay from Jet Art. Fits the bill I reckon. Added a paintbrush handle and a few other bits and its getting there. I even mounted the dish on a small mini desk fan so that it might rotate but it just got too fiddley so I ditched the idea! The tin with the V attached to it is the start of the 'light' module, the V being the first leg mounting. The tea is real and I even forgot to take the bag out! Scruff!

MOONBASE DIARY

After a particularly dire late night choice of Friday films on TV, the best of which was 1992's The Unforgiven with Clint, Morgan and Gene, I went to bed pondering - is there anything else that looks like a LEM? ..........and hey presto, out of that wacky dream machine called sleep we have PANETTONE LEM! Bravo bravo! The box is a definate contender for the main body I reckon! The right size (phew!), cheap AND the contents are edible! A second normal box for the base and some K'nex legs and voila, off we go! Its common knowledge that small astronauts love Panettone bread and butter pudding too! So where to buy one in May?

MOONBASE DIARY

Unfortunately this week my modelling efforts have been hindered by pesky sinus headaches making me grouchy and gruff! However, a visit to the docs this morning and a bevvy of new drugs has done the trick and I'm back in the attic!

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The housing module legs - top pic - are painted and the body is ready for finishing touches like sword decals! I just have to decide if the top clear half needs some space 'furniture' or simply illuminating.

The rader dish array is finished and the pedestal is painted - top pic. Not sure what to use for the boxy base. Might just use a box!

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It was always going to be difficult and it has been - the Light Module - middle pic. I have painted up an old tin as the base section. The lamp itself is an old mini table lamp again painted in space cream - bottom pic. K'nex rods and old storage wheels make up the legs. Old model sprues make up the V's, which were really tricky to stick onto the tin but my trusty super glue came good.

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Finally I have painted up an old plastic crane - bottom pic - to use on the top of the 'garage' unit. I've got the crane but no unit yet! I need to be able to cut a 'door/ramp' into it so I'm leaning towards a plastic paint 'tin', which more or less has the right cylindrical shape.

Progress!

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However, I foresee my biggest problem already - the LEM. There's just no way I can make one from scratch! HELP!

Moonbase Diary Contact Sheet

A few years back I had great fun making a model of the Moon Base Playset as featured in the SWORD Manual. I came across this contact sheet of the shots I took and posted at the time. All cardboard, glue and white paint. Very low tech! Anyone else made a Moon Base, from scratch or a kit?

CHRIMPRESSIONS

As always in mid-December it started at Moonbase with a conifer [the same one, its plastic!]

Then we decked the walls with holly ... well, Xmas ornaments really.

The 23rd rolled along and I was a year older once more - darn it!

Christmas Eve twinkled on the 24th

The chimney was ready for its annual sweep by Santa

But Santa's grown so we decamped to our daughter's who had a bigger chimney!

And Father Christmas, to the sound of December rain and the hazy glow of  fairy lights, ate his biscuit and drank his milk before leaving some welcome Yuletide gifts..

The Video Hunters Guide Book

The Lost Worlds of Gerry Anderson DVD and a vintage Black Hole Bottle Opener and Key Ring [thanks Arto!]

The makings of a Star Wars Christmas: shampoo, bubble bath, pyjama pants and wrapping, which had what appeared to be Nien Nunb on it! Also some Rush and High Tide rock CD's, a cool Moon Light and set of plastic flies [thanks Bill!] and a patchouli candle to remind me of my hippy youth!

A Krampus DVD and a Letts TV21 Diary [more of this to come]

and finally a jar of sweets to last me all year!

And now all that is left of Christmas are the saved tags and strings and that warm feeling that something special has just happened.

How was your Xmas readers? Piccies of prezzies welcomed.

FOR ARTO IT STARTED IN EDINBURGH – WITH A SCREWDRIVER!

Soon after my toy collecting began in 2002 and whilst browsing the internet wonderland, I stumbled upon a Project S.W.O.R.D. Checklist compiled by one Paul Woods. 

I was instantly smitten with the colourful fleet of concept space vehicles, and with the fervent enthusiasm and good humour evident in the toy depictions by the checklist’s author.

July 12th, 2003. Edinburgh, Scotland. On the previous day at the Hamilton Toy Museum in Callander, we were given a tip about a toy shop worth visiting in Edinburgh. It was called Now and Then, at 7-9 West Crosscauseway. On the street we were greeted by a simple a-frame sign with a word “TOYS” written on it. Very promising!

The shop itself was a set of adjacent rooms connected by narrow passages, brimming with all sorts of antiques, including the best collection of old toys we had seen so far. Although most items were placed in display cabinets, there was an air of sweet disarray which added to the magic of the place.

The shopkeeper Alan and his girlfriend Hetty were very friendly, helpful and infinitely patient with my endless questions about toys related to Century 21 and Gerry Anderson’s output. I was such a newbie! As our discussion turned to Project Sword, my friend remembered catching a glimpse of a red arrow-like toy plane in the shop window.

There it was, the Re-Entry Task Force 1 in all its sleekness! My first-ever Project Sword toy contact was true! Alan was not aware that the plane with simple “T1” decals was part of the Sword toy line, so I was happy to reciprocate at least that bit of information.

But there was a downside to this discovery. TF1 was missing its rear exhaust. Huge disappointment! Suddenly, Hetty remembered that there should be another example of the same toy somewhere. Having located it, we were able to see that its nose was broken off – but the black rear exhaust was there.

Solution? Alan handed me a small screwdriver, with which I moved the exhaust of the broken example to the incomplete but otherwise fine TF1. My first-ever Project Sword toy, mended by myself! I was overjoyed, paying £50 for it plus three chosen C21 annuals. Hetty gave me a green Clarks shoebox where this prized possession travelled safe for the rest of our journey. (Still have the box too.)

From there on, I would continue to augment my Project Sword collection through eBay purchases. It would take six more years until I made another significant contact, with one Paul Woods, our Woodsy, through the Moonbase Central Blog he had just started in 2008. The rest is (personal) history!

Arto

Helsinki Base

'Project SWORD' Excerpt from my travel diary