JMChladek
Sr Member
This is but the first post and naturally it doesn't have much yet. But, I have to start somewhere.
I've had a longing for some time to do a model of one of Derek Meddings' masterpieces from the James Bond film Moonraker. Indeed there are several kits to choose from via the secondary sources from the 1/144 kits by Airfix and Revell to the 1/288 offering from Doyusha. Pictured below are the ones in my own personal stash:
The Airfix kit was licensed for the European and I believe possibly the Canadian market while the Revell kits were intended for the US market (and probably some other countries). It is kind of interesting in seeing the contrasting styles related to the box art and the approaches both companies took. BTW, the Airfix kit builds as Moonraker 6, while the Revell ones both build into Moonraker 5, although the full stack doesn't include Bond and Holly standing under the rocket exhaust areas.
Here are the decal sheets for them. The left one is the Airfix kit while the center and right ones are for the Revell kits (the center one being for the full stack version). The one below is an unlicensed 1/144 sheet printed by Amaquest about a decade ago and it is based on the Airfix sheet, but with a little better coloring.
Naturally, any of these would work well for a 1/144 offering. Indeed a few years back I started a 1/144 shuttle with the intention of finishing it as a Moonraker (it still may become one). But, I want something bigger. So I set my sights on the Monogram 1/72 scale full shuttle stack kit. I built one of these a couple years ago as shuttle Atlantis from mission STS-117. This model currently resides at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Nebraska.
Thankfully, I have a couple more of these Monogram kits in my stash. The one I selected has become something of a parts donor kit anyway as I had to make resin casted SRB nosecones for it since it originally came without them. This way I could preserve my full styrene Shuttle stacks to build as actual shuttle models. But other then that it still includes all the parts needed for this particular conversion. My plan is not to just do an OOB shuttle model as Moonraker though as I am going to make some subtle alterations to the model to more closely match features found on the studio models. This one will be built as Moonraker 6, complete with Bond and Holly in the cockpit.
First modification has to do with the nose thrusters. The original kit features plugged thruster ports on the nose. This is fine for a real shuttle as the thrusters are sealed with tyvek covers on the launch pad. At launch, the covers fall off, clearing the open ports. But Moonrakers had open thrusters. So out came the Dremel to drill out the ports. To make the thruster exhaust ports, I back filled the ports with Apoxie sculpt and then used a sharpened pencil to mash in the proper contours to the ports like this:
This technique will also work for a normal shuttle model either in orbit or landed. It can also be done to the Revell shuttle as well, although that one has better thruster ports at least on top of the nose.
I've had a longing for some time to do a model of one of Derek Meddings' masterpieces from the James Bond film Moonraker. Indeed there are several kits to choose from via the secondary sources from the 1/144 kits by Airfix and Revell to the 1/288 offering from Doyusha. Pictured below are the ones in my own personal stash:
The Airfix kit was licensed for the European and I believe possibly the Canadian market while the Revell kits were intended for the US market (and probably some other countries). It is kind of interesting in seeing the contrasting styles related to the box art and the approaches both companies took. BTW, the Airfix kit builds as Moonraker 6, while the Revell ones both build into Moonraker 5, although the full stack doesn't include Bond and Holly standing under the rocket exhaust areas.
Here are the decal sheets for them. The left one is the Airfix kit while the center and right ones are for the Revell kits (the center one being for the full stack version). The one below is an unlicensed 1/144 sheet printed by Amaquest about a decade ago and it is based on the Airfix sheet, but with a little better coloring.
Naturally, any of these would work well for a 1/144 offering. Indeed a few years back I started a 1/144 shuttle with the intention of finishing it as a Moonraker (it still may become one). But, I want something bigger. So I set my sights on the Monogram 1/72 scale full shuttle stack kit. I built one of these a couple years ago as shuttle Atlantis from mission STS-117. This model currently resides at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Nebraska.
Thankfully, I have a couple more of these Monogram kits in my stash. The one I selected has become something of a parts donor kit anyway as I had to make resin casted SRB nosecones for it since it originally came without them. This way I could preserve my full styrene Shuttle stacks to build as actual shuttle models. But other then that it still includes all the parts needed for this particular conversion. My plan is not to just do an OOB shuttle model as Moonraker though as I am going to make some subtle alterations to the model to more closely match features found on the studio models. This one will be built as Moonraker 6, complete with Bond and Holly in the cockpit.
First modification has to do with the nose thrusters. The original kit features plugged thruster ports on the nose. This is fine for a real shuttle as the thrusters are sealed with tyvek covers on the launch pad. At launch, the covers fall off, clearing the open ports. But Moonrakers had open thrusters. So out came the Dremel to drill out the ports. To make the thruster exhaust ports, I back filled the ports with Apoxie sculpt and then used a sharpened pencil to mash in the proper contours to the ports like this:
This technique will also work for a normal shuttle model either in orbit or landed. It can also be done to the Revell shuttle as well, although that one has better thruster ports at least on top of the nose.
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