MOONRAKER Shuttle (1/72)

**t2sides** · Mar 5, 2011

Hi Guys!
It's been a while since I've posted anything, sorry. Here's the first of a few projects I'm wrapping up. It's the crappy Revell kit, but it was a fun project to throw together. It's 99% done, just need to remove the window masks.

I tried to match the look of the weathering/paint of the various shuttles from the Movie. (On the 747, launch bay and space). So it's kind of a all combined detailed shuttle. The decals I made myself (the color shift is worse in the pics).

Thanks to the other guys who have made and posted their shuttle build ups, it was a big inspiration!
-Sean

**RPF Support**

**Scott Graham** · Mar 5, 2011

That looks great! The paint job really brings it to life. That graphic scheme on the shuttle looks better than I remember it.

**DaddyfromNaboo** · Mar 5, 2011

Looks great!!!

Moved to General modeling since it´s not studio scale, or did they actually use 1/72nd scale models in Moonraker?

**darth_myeek** · Mar 5, 2011

They should have used 1/72! I really love it.

**JD1** · Mar 5, 2011

ManfromNaboo said:

or did they actually use 1/72nd scale models in Moonraker?

Possibly! The smaller Moonraker in this shot of Derek Meddings is probably the 1/144th Airfix kit, and the larger one is roughly twice as big.

I recall the magazine coverage at the time giving the approximate sizes of orbiter model used, but not the scale. How big is it in 1/72nd?

**falcondesigns** · Mar 5, 2011

Great work as usual,Sean.....hope your doing well,Alex

**b26354** · Mar 5, 2011

That looks great. Having painted and decalled one myself it's not easy to reconcile all the details from the various models in the film (and even the same model had markings change between shots).

When I made my drax logos I left the orange sections clear so the paint colour would show through.

I actually just ordered a 1/72 747 kit from the UK for mine to sit on...

**KUROK** · Mar 6, 2011

Love it, Sean!

**MooCriket** · Mar 6, 2011

Absolutely love it!

**AZSneed** · Mar 6, 2011

Very realistic looking, the weathering is awesome.
I wished that the kit had recessed lines, instead of raised, easier to work with.

**JMChladek** · Mar 7, 2011

Wow, that looks AWSOME! BTW, is that a Revell kit that you used? If so, I bet it was a lot of work to remove all that tile detail (or DID you remove it?). I see you also went about filling the elevon splits and the rudder speedbrake seam as well. All in all, it is one of the best Moonraker replicas I've seen to date

After a several month hiatus, I am back to working on my 1/72 Moonraker stack and it is nice to see I now have a new build to get ideas from. Your model seems to have captured the look of the studio models very well. What techniques did you use to get the tile detail on there?

BTW JD (welcome from the Eagle Transporter site), the length of the Revell 1/72 orbiter is given as 48.9 centimeters. Judging by the picture of Derek Meddings, the shuttle sitting on the 747 seems to be close to 1/72. I don't believe that particular shuttle was the model built for that sequence as it proportionally looks maybe slightly too big and the details are a little different. Plus, it has a "1" on the tail while the hijacked Moonraker had no number on it. Moonraker predated the release of the Revell 1/72 shuttle by about a year from what I've seen and I think the Monogram kit came after, so I doubt they used any of those. Maybe if they had access to a 2x master from Airfix (used in the creation of the 1/144 kit if Airfix went that route), that might be a possible scale source.

My own research seems to indicate at least three unique sizes of shuttle models were used, and possibly four. The smallest were the 1/144 models docked with the station. Bigger ones were used for the docking sequence closeups and the biggest one was the USMC shuttle used for the opening payload door sequence (BTW, I think the nose section of that shuttle was used for the Moonraker 5 glowing nose part as the white tile details match very closely). The shuttle used in the 747 hijacking was unique in its features, so I am not sure exactly what they used for that shot. There is also the question of how big the shuttle stack model was and a smaller stack was built for a distance shot where salt trailing from the bottom was used to represent rocket exhaust.

**franz bolo** · Mar 7, 2011

Very Nice paint job!!

FB

**t2sides** · Mar 13, 2011

Thanks everyone for the nice comments!!

Yeah, it's the 1/72 revell crappy kit.

I did fill in the rudder and wings with putty. There's a lot of little things I wish I'd done on hind sight, but this was just intended to be a fun, distracting project for me!

Thanks again!
-Sean

GF · Mar 14, 2011

Fantastic job!!!

Top notch weathering and panelling effect.

GFollano

MOONRAKER Shuttle (1/72)

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