1/72 Moonraker shuttle stack

[JMChladek]

Here's a project I finished middle part of last year to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle. I took a Monogram shuttle stack and turned it into a 1/72 Moonraker stack, taking care to do all the necessary modifications to make it look like a Derek Meddings studio model as opposed to just slapping Moonraker markings on a normal shuttle model. So that involved grinding off the rough texture on the ET, putting a raised intertank on it (to make it look like an oversized Airfix external tank). The cockpit has figures of Bond and Holly in it and the decals are all ALPS printed and designed by me. The display stand was signed by Richard "JAWS" Kiel when he was visiting my area for a Bond movie charity event in May (one of the main reasons why I finished it when I did). This one took a lot of work to pull off and I am very happy with the results. It took me a little over a year off and on to finish this as I got close to burnout a couple times. But the ending was worth it.

Additional photos (including work in progress shots) can be found here:

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l31/JMCh...;cpZZ1QQtppZZ16

Edited March 24, 2012 by JMChladek

[Warris]

Very nice well done

[GordonD]

I hate to say this, but if you were aiming to replicate the studio model then shouldn't the underside of the Orbiter be brown rather than black? IIRC they did this so that it would still be visible against the black space background.

[JMChladek]

I hate to say this, but if you were aiming to replicate the studio model then shouldn't the underside of the Orbiter be brown rather than black? IIRC they did this so that it would still be visible against the black space background.

You mean like this? This is a work in progress shot.

The lighting for the pictures kind of obscures the coloring a little and the semi-gloss clearcoat kind of darkened it as well. But take a close look at the wing and tail edges and you can see it is a brown shade as opposed to black (a little dark to see, but indeed brown). Catch the lighting just right and it looks very brown. Only thing I didn't do was put any pencil tile lines on the bottom as the ET and SRBs obscure the model from those angles anyway (I might have done it if this was an orbiter only model). But I tried to nail everything else as best as I could.

I used Tamiya flat brown on the bottom and the strip section of the tail. Testors Aircraft Interior Black was used for the racoon windows and the black patch on the forward RCS section. I did a mix of black and brown for the boat tail section around the SSMEs since the normal brown color looked a little bright to me (sort of like a pre-shade as it were). I also redid the carbon carbon nose in a mix of Tamiya metallic gray and flat aluminum since the nose was slightly metallic in sheen compared to the gray carbon carbon wing panels.

Here are some shots I recently uploaded of the model next to an Atlantis STS-117 model stack I built a few years ago. That model is currently on display at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, NE and I had to do some repairs on it when the orbiter popped off the ET. So I felt the time was as good as any to take some comparison photos of the pair. Hopefully a couple of them will showcase the brown on the Moonraker a little better compared to the black of shuttle.

Edited March 24, 2012 by JMChladek

[Smiffy]

Very impressive. I like that.

The paint work looks superb.

[GordonD]

You mean like this? This is a work in progress shot.

It still looks black to me in the original shots you posted but that close-up of the nose does reveal it as brown. It's a while since I've watched the film (it's my least-favourite Bond movie) so I had a memory of the underside being an even lighter brown than you have it but this again may be down to lighting conditions when you took the photos. A nice piece of work and the comparison with the one in real NASA markings is interesting!

[Mike N]

Very nice indeed! Moonraker is one of my favourite Bond films for the great locations, music, and of course the one-liners

Nice work on Bond and Holly, are they visible through the windows?? Great paint job too!

The 'real' shuttle model is lovely too, I must've missed it when I visited SASM a few years ago.

Mike

[Julien]

WOW, simply WOW

One of the best shuttle models I have seen and a James Bond one at that.

Please tell me how you got that effect on the leading edges of the wings with the pannels going back to the main wing.

Julien

[JMChladek]

This image shot by a friend of mine at Wonderfest last year shows the brown a little better if you look at the image at full resolution:

Moonraker at Wonderfest

The brown used on the studio models might be a little lighter, but the Tamiya color was the best I could find at the time and I didn't necessarily want to go too light with it since the bottom tiles should be somewhat dark. My photo references were primarily of the shuttle stack in the silo as opposed to the ones in space, so I wanted my brown color to match that and it looked like a darker brown shade than what I've seen on the studio models that were filmed against the black backgrounds. Believe me, in person the brown looks lighter in color than what the photos show.

As for Bond and Holly being visible, yes they are. When a shuttle is standing vertical, the windows act like a skylight, so any light overhead shines down on them. I can just glance at the shuttle and see yellow peaking out of the windows, highlighting the two figures I added (much better eye candy than two empty seats IMHO). They are resin casts of the male and female pilot figures from the 4D Vision shuttle toy/model prepaint. It was pretty coincidental that the toy came out right when I needed figures as with some decent paintwork, they were perfect. I knew I would need them as I added astronauts to my Atlantis STS-117 shuttle stack (Airfix seated astronaut bodies with the helmets from the Monogram spacewalking astronauts added):

While I don't have an image of the Moonraker crew in the cockpit, here is a shot showing how visible the NASA astronauts are in the Atlantis stack:

As for the 117 stack, it was something that has been on display since about 2009. It is part of an exhibit for Nebraska born astronaut Clay Anderson (first astronaut born in Nebraska). The exhibit sometimes gets moved around though and I've had to repair the stack twice when the orbiter popped off the ET. I think I've beefed it up enough that it should survive for a few more years yet. Coolest thing was when it first went on display, the curator felt it looked too good to go in one of the other cases, so he had it displayed in its own case on the upper level of the museum just behind the entrance (overlooking the restoration hangar). THAT made me feel good as people could see it from all angles. Now it is in a display with one of Clay's flightsuits. While not all the angles are as visible, it still looks good. Here is what it looked like when it had its own display case:

Edited March 24, 2012 by JMChladek

[JMChladek]

WOW, simply WOW

One of the best shuttle models I have seen and a James Bond one at that.

Please tell me how you got that effect on the leading edges of the wings with the pannels going back to the main wing.

Julien

Thanks guys, I am honored!

What I did there was I masked off every other panel and sprayed a thinned down mixture of Tamiya smoke and Tamiya clear with my airbrush. The masking was done to make sure one edge was hard while the other was soft edged and would fade into the base color. Then once those were dry, I masked off every even panel and did the same thing. I tried using the same strength on the gray RCC panels and the wings as you can see the streaks carrying onto the wings themselves. But it was a little too strong for the white areas. So to tone those areas down, I masked over the RCC panels and sprayed on some flat white to tone down the streaks. My trigger finger for the airbrush didn't get fully worked in until I got to doing the criss crossing smoke streaks on the elevon tiles. On those, I finally got exactly the look I wanted, so I didn't have to overspray white on top of them.

In addition to the streaks on the white paint, I also drew on tile lines on the nose, wings and fuselage sides and painted some of the tile panels in slightly off white shades (white mixed with a drop or two of aluminium to stain it slightly). The pencil lines were a little harsh and smudged easily, so they got misted in white as well until their appearance was reduced to what I wanted. I used a similar technique on the bands of the external tank by doing the same masking technique as the wing panels, but I just used the darker off white shade instead of smoke tint. Again, hard line on one edge, feathered out to softer shade and blended into the base coloring. It gives a convincing effect of multiple panels without having to do each panel in a different color.

Edited March 24, 2012 by JMChladek

[Julien]

Cheers for that explanation.

Might take me a while but I get the gist. Been modelling for more years than I care to remember but only got an airbrush the other year.

Thanks

Julien

[JMChladek]

Cheers for that explanation.

Might take me a while but I get the gist. Been modelling for more years than I care to remember but only got an airbrush the other year.

Thanks

Julien

My pleasure. The tricky bit about spraying clear tints is initially they don't seem dark enough, so you try to compensate an BAM, now you've gone too far. But they can offer some new capabilities when you learn to spray them properly. The brush I used for the Moonraker was an Aztek 470. Its not working to well now, so I recently upgraded to a Neo by Iwata brush (which I used for my last two builds, NICE brush). As with anything it takes practice and patience. But sometimes, happy accidents can still occur and that is what makes modeling fun in my mind.

[christof]

That is amazing work on both shuttles.

christof

[F-32]

Love it, looks superb and really good next to the 'real' version

[Mike N]

As for the 117 stack, it was something that has been on display since about 2009. It is part of an exhibit for Nebraska born astronaut Clay Anderson (first astronaut born in Nebraska). The exhibit sometimes gets moved around though and I've had to repair the stack twice when the orbiter popped off the ET. I think I've beefed it up enough that it should survive for a few more years yet. Coolest thing was when it first went on display, the curator felt it looked too good to go in one of the other cases, so he had it displayed in its own case on the upper level of the museum just behind the entrance (overlooking the restoration hangar). THAT made me feel good as people could see it from all angles. Now it is in a display with one of Clay's flightsuits. While not all the angles are as visible, it still looks good.

That explains why I didn't see it - I visited in 2008

Anyway, it looks fantastic, and to have it on prominent display in the museum must give you a buzz!

Mike

[JMChladek]

That explains why I didn't see it - I visited in 2008

Anyway, it looks fantastic, and to have it on prominent display in the museum must give you a buzz!

Mike

Now that I remember back, I believe I delivered the shuttle in late October of 2008 while Clay was still in orbit. But indeed if you had visited in the summer, the model would not have been ready yet. All things considered, its paintjob is holding up rather well IMHO. So except for the ET issue that periodically comes up, I seemed to have built it pretty well.

It most certainly does give me a buzz. Periodically I inspect it and I can tell by the fingerprints from the short viewers that they appreciate it (the young are the people I wanted to ignite an interest in). Right now I'm advising on a little project going on behind the scenes. I can't say what it is yet and it may not get approved. But, it is shuttle related and if it happens, it will be something "Big". As for another project, I am trying to sell the museum on having a whole display of launch vehicles in 1/72 scale. Dragon has given us the Mercury Redstone and I understand we will eventually get an unbuilt Saturn V. So, if a Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan and Saturn 1B are added to the mix (I have a Semroc model rocket kit for that), it could make for an even more impressive display.

Edited March 28, 2012 by JMChladek

[Moofles]

This has caught my eye, and I must say, this is damned impressive. well done.

[JMChladek]

Moofles, F-32 and christof (and everyone else), thanks a lot for the kind words.

One thing I will mention if anyone else wants to do a 1/72 Moonraker stack, keep a vacuum cleaner next to your workbench if you plan to sand the ET smooth. The Monogram kit has raised texture on the external tank and it took A LOT of elbow grease to sand it all off. It always seems like when you try to keep details, they sand off easily. Yet when you want to intentionally get rid of them... lots of pain! At the end of that ordeal I had so much white powder on me I looked like I had a cocaine binge or got flour bombed. Wet sanding helps of course, but you still need something to get rid of the residue. That was probably the most time consuming step of the whole build in hindsight prior to the paint masking.

Edited March 29, 2012 by JMChladek