glueman

Phew, been a while since I last posted. I have been working on the rebuild ... just very slowly. What am I doing now? Well ... I decided to have a go at making some new engine nozzles as the ones on the kit aren't really up to scratch. I did a bit of research on the net and found that the nozzles that come with the kit appear to be loosely based on the 2010 film version of the Discovery, not the original 2001 model. I wanted my rebuild to be more like the original 2001 version. At about this time ... and this always happens when you commit to doing some serious scratch building ... along comes a brand new kit which is an accurate representation of the original 2001 Discovery. I'm talking about the 1/144 kit by Moebius. Bit frustrating to say the least!! I've invested so much time, effort and money in my rebuild that I couldn't really justify splashing out on the Moebius kit ... never say never. I used the various images of this kit circulating on the net as reference for my scratch building. For example, this link shows the new engine block and nozzles: https://culttvman.com/main/moebius-models-2001-discovery-update/ First step .. find the right sort of shapes to make the new engine nozzles. Easier said than done. I did find a pen, more specifically parts of a pen, that looked the part and were the correct size. As I only had one part from one pen it was time to learn something new ... casting. I ended up used Blue Stuff to make the mould and filled the mould with fine grained Milliput. Had quite a few experiments that went horribly wrong but eventually got there and produced three good reproductions from the pen part. I learned some new techniques along the way ... like after making the bottom part of the mould, put it into the freezer for 30mins. This helps to prevent the top (and hotter Blue Stuff) sticking to the lower (cold) part. The next step was to build a section of the nozzle between the new milliput part and the bell-shaped end of the nozzle. I opted for a tapering hexagonal shaped part made from thin plastic card. I drew a template in PowerPoint, printed out the pattern and transferred the pattern to the plastic card. I wanted to have a plastic rod through the centre of the nozzle to make it easier to fit to the engine block. Building a new set of nozzles entailed scratching building the bell end shape of the nozzles plus all the detail that is often shown in photos. It was a case of finding the correct shaped bits of plastic card ... and lots of patience and a steady hand. The finished bell end shape of the nozzle. I'm pretty pleased with my efforts Using the reference photos as a guide I added some surface detail on the hexagonal shape parts. The bits that look like mini ladders were made from a section of plastic card with parallel lines scored every 1mm apart which is then sandwiched between two strips of card (0.5mm thick by 1mm wide) ... 6 in total for each engine nozzle ... 18 to make. I admit that it is not a 100% copy of the nozzles shown in the reference photos ... but compared to the original part (upper nozzle) I reckon it is miles better and much more of an interesting shape to look at. One down, two more to go.

Me too Mike ... love everything to do with 2001. I'm still (re)building the Discovery albeit rather slowly and the Space Station. Pete

Wow ... lucky lucky man. I was hoping to snag one of these for Christmas but didn't get one However ... I did get a Yoda space ship Lego kit ... and ... a 1/144 scale Bandai AT AT ... my first ever Star Wars kit Will be following this build Pete

Hi Jack109, I'm about to venture into casting and I was wondering if you have managed to cast any parts yet. Did you encounter any problems or have tips/tricks you have come up with. I've bought some Blue Stuff but like you am wondering whether to use Milliput or Green Stuff for the medium. Thanks Pete

If I can add another tip to this great tip ... I found that I get the best results when I bend the tube very, very slowly. Pete

Thank you Not had much time to add to the build ... sorry ... dreaded work has got in the way again. Hopefully I'll be able to post some more photos soon. Pete

Hi everyone, Bit more action on this rebuild ... this time scratch building a new fuel pod as one was missing. I used the D type pod as a guide and used various pieces of plastic card for the body and for the surface detail. I wasn't aiming for an exact replica ... only a look-a-like. I'm pretty chuffed with my effort.

Hi everyone, Looks like the photos have been disabled ... sorry. I'm in the process of uploading the photos onto Flickr and replacing the ones in the text. First one appears to work. May take a while. Thanks Pete

Hi everyone, Been a bit absent recently with one thing and another ... but I'm still working on the rebuild of the Discovery. Bit of a slow job but I'll get there in the end. Still working on building the fuel pods along the spine. I'm building the pods "off-structure" as I think it is much easier to build and to paint the fuel pods when they are not attached. It's also easier to ensure they all align correctly. Here is one I made earlier. Those of you who have built the Discovery know that there are four combinations of pod parts ... i) one long pod; ii) two pods of same size; iii) one long and one short pod with the short pod facing to the command module and iv) one long and one short pod with the short pod towards the engine. In the instructions, there are no hints on how to secure these individual parts to the spine so the likelihood of the pods not being correctly aligned are pretty high. I decided to make my life easier and glue the individual parts onto a strip of plastic card 1mm thick by 4mm wide. This does make it a lot easier to attach the pods to the supporting hexagons and to align the fuel pods with each other. This photo is a close up of the fuel pods and the connectors between the pods. This is just a dry fit of the parts and not the final fitting. I'll most probably paint the individual parts before assembly. NB: Since taking this photo I have rebuilt all the 'connectors' using plastic tubing instead of the plastic pen covers. Although I used super glue to attach the plastic connecting rings to the pen covers, the bond was a bit on the weak side and didn't stand up to the man-handing of the connector onto and off the spine.

Hi Warren, Many thanks!!! I received the kit ... and very nice it is too. I've got a simple battery box with an on-off switch. I've included a couple of photos below to show the lights. Two questions ... i) If I only want to use the blue LEDs can I simply cut the wires to the other lights to disconnect them? ii) The instructions say that 2 AA batteries are required. Could I power the blue LEDs only using a series of button sized batteries of the same voltage? The battery box is just a tad too big to fit inside the command module. Many thanks Pete

Thank you for looking. Not to worry ... I haven't done much on the rebuild recently ... been out and about in the sunshine. Cheers Pete

I'm still making parts for the spine ... when will this end?? This time I'm making the ribbed sections at the connector rings between the fuel pods. I couldn't salvage these from the original kit so I've ended up making new ones. I ended up using lids from felt tip pens cut to the right length (ca. 5mm). At first I tried to use a fine razor saw and a mitre box to cut the lids but couldn't obtain a nice clean cut. After searching the net I came upon this method that uses a power drill. i) Switch the power drill to 'unscrew' (or clockwise when viewed from the front) and clamp the felt pen lid in the drill. ii) Use a brand new scalpel blade and rest the blade on the lid at the required distance. My drill had a flat end so I could use that as a guide to keep the blade vertical. iii) switch on the drill and apply slow speed at first to create a grove. iv) Increase the speed of the drill and slowly increase the pressure of the blade against the plastic. Eventually the blade will cut through the plastic leaving a very clean cut.

I totally agree that the visual impact of the 'trench' is down a variation in tone rather than depth of casting. On my Reshape version of the Discovery, the 'trench' effect is overly deep and looks very odd given the scale of the command module ... but on my Lunar version of the Discovery it is less defined. Pete PS: Great link to Atomic Rockets

That would be fantastic ... thank you. I'm leaning towards having a few lights in the command module ... even got a simple lighting kit. Pete

Another instalment ... and a bit of a confession to make. The confession ... bit of a long story to set the scene ... but please bear with me. During the rebuild I'm having to make all new parts to go along the spine. In the posts above I described scratch building the hexagon supports for the fuel pods. Each set of three fuel pods is separated from each other by two 'connector rings' joined end-to-end. I couldn't salvage these from the original spine so have made some new ones from caps from felt tip pens. The connector rings have three 'clamps'. Below is a mock up of the connector rings and a clamp. Luckily, I managed to salvage some of the clamps from the spine but not all ... so I'm having to make more clamps. The question was ... how to make exact copies of the clamps. I read a post in the Tips section of the forum about transferring plans to plastic card. To be honest I was a bit sceptical as I wasn't sure if it would work ... or more precisely ... if I could get it to work. I decided to give it a go. I created a template using powerpoint and printed out the template on ordinary paper. I then used liquid cement glue (Plastic Weld) ... actually I did this step twice ... the first time I painted the liquid glue on the same side as the template ... big mistake. Second attempt ... I painted the glue on to the BACK of the paper, then I pressed the paper down firmly onto the plastic card for 2 seconds. Then I pealed back the paper ... it worked ... the template was transferred on the plastic card. I can now make lots of identical clamps. Once I was a non-believer ... now I'm a believer (cue the Monkeys song). If anyone is using this technique, here are two handy tips; i) cut the paper longer than the design so that you have something to hold on to when pealing the paper from the card, ii) paint the glue onto the back of the paper (opposite side to the design). ddd

Thanks for the link John. I've just placed an order for a light set. Interesting times ahead. Cheers Pete

Thank you Madhatter and John ... that is exactly what I was looking for. Fantastic web site ... I can see some shopping coming on. I guess the next step is to give it a try, see what happens Thank you again for your help. Cheers Pete

Hi everyone, I'm toying with adding lighting to my rebuild of the 2001 Discovery kit. Nothing fancy, just a simple light in the cockpit area of the command module. I've never done this sort of thing before and don't really know where to start or what is involved. My absolute beginner questions ... i) Where do people 'shop' for lighting components? ii) What are the minimum components - set up required? iii) Could people point me to a basic 'How To' guide or web article on the subject. Many thanks and apologises if this has been covered elsewhere. Pete

The big problem with having a new spine is that you have to recreate all the supports for the fuel modules that are supported on the spine. This is the stage that I'm at now. Along the spine there are ten fuel storage sections (with three pods per section). Each storage section is supported by three supports on the spine. Each support is a hexagon shape approximately 3.5mm in thickness. I'm following the build notes shown in the link in my previous post and am scratch building the hexagon supports. Each support is composed of two hexagons slices cut from 1mm thick plastic card. To give a solid yet 'open' structure each slice is separated by 1x1mm plastic strips along alternate edges of the hexagon. The sides of the hexagon shape with the strip are those that will glued to the fuel storage pods. There are 6 separate hexagon slices and 9 strips per fuel storage section ... in other words an awful lot of drilling ... cutting and scratch building. The process is relatively straight forward. Mark out the centre of the hexagons and drill out the hole. Thread the plastic sheet onto a Hex Bolt and mark out the outline of the hexagon shape. Then cut out the hexagon slice using a new, sharp flat edged scalpel blade. Sand edges smooth ... repeat ... many times over. The supports for the high gain antennae section and faulty AE35 unit are created in the same way but are square in shape rather than being hexagon in shape. It's a slow process ... but I'm getting there This is a close up of three hexagon supports on the new spine. Note the 'open' structure I mentioned earlier. The sides with the strips will be glued to the fuel pods. The photo is just a mock up to show what they look like ... the final versions will be a lot neater ... I hope.

Hi everyone, I've started yet another project ... a rebuild of the Lunar models Discovery from 2001. It's not an original unmade kit ... but rather this will be a rebuild of a kit that I purchased from a forum member. So ... what's in the box? Lots of nice parts ... a couple of containers are missing but that is ok can rebuild those from scratch. Unfortunately, there are no EVA pods. Good detail on the command module but the engine module has a surprising lack of surface detail on a part of this size. There is more intricate detailing on my Reshape version of the engine module which is only a few inches in length compared to this Lunar version. Both the engine and command modules are hollow. I'm undecided at the moment as to what to do with the command module. Leave as it is ... or open the windows and have some LEDs inside ... and/or open one of the pop bay doors and build a pod bay. Two sheets of instructions which given the size and complexity of the kit is a bit sparse. Slightly bent spine ... this is the Achilles Heel of this and the Reshape kit ... and virtually Discovery kits. The spine is just not stiff enough even with the suggested 3/32" diameter tubing to support the command and engine modules. You may not be able to see it in this photo but the spine has a bend ... it is not perfectly straight ... and therefore will not 'do'. I've tried to straighten out the bend but it's a bit of a lost cause (or perhaps I'm not using the right techniques). So ... my first job was to decide what to do about the spine. A quick search on the net and I came across this article shown in the link below. The author used a steel rod for the spine which seemed perfectly reasonable to me ... so that is the route I followed. http://www.starshipmodeler.com/2001/md_disc.htm I've opted for a steel rod 6mm in diameter which was then inserted into a plastic tube 7mm in diameter. This is slightly thicker than the original spine, which is about 6mm in diameter ... but I don't think anyone will notice. Inserting the rod into the plastic tube was fun ... not. Bit of wet-n-dry together with some GT85 helped the rod slide (albeit after a few attempts) into the plastic tube. The photo below shows the original spine and the new steel rod -in- plastic spine.

Hi Richard, Thanks. No it didn't come with pods so I may follow up on your idea. Size of command sphere ... hmm ... good question ... can't remember off hand so I'll measure it and get back to you. Pete

This lovely item arrived a few weeks ago ... Lets open the box and see what is inside ... Yeah ... it's a Lunar Models version of the Discovery from 2001 ... happy days

Sorry for the lack of update with this build. In fact I've decided to stop this build (for the time being ... or even permanently) as I've recently acquired a Lunar models version of the Discovery from a fellow forum member. Not done much as work is getting in the way ... plus a few other things ... hey ho. Watch this space ... Pete

Hi oldmodeler, Thanks for the details. I've tried to call the above number but it wasn't recognised. Is there a digit missing? The price plus postage sounds good. Going to send a PM. Cheers Pete

That looks awesome!!!!! Definitely better detail compared to mine I'm definitely interested if you would like to sell. You mentioned that the spine is in one piece ... so would that about 24 inches long? I'm just trying to picture the parts all wrapped up in a parcel. The price you mentioned (£48) ... is that just for the kit? Do you have an idea about postage costs? Thanks Pete