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Airfix 1/144 Apollo Saturn V box art diorama


beany

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I have this build going on UAMF but wanted to share it here as well. This is my current project for the CBK SIG "Classic British Box Art Display - Take 2" for Telford this year, although I'm hoping to have it done for Farnborough Modelfest on Saturday. We'll start with the base board and backdrop...

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The backdrop is tall and narrow and a screwed butt joint didn't look like it was going to work so I cut some notches into the backdrop and put another piece of timber at the back to make up a slot for it to slot into!

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The Saturn V was always a favourite since I was a young kid - I was always into "space" - difficult not to be with a name like Alan Bean (fourth man to walk on the moon - Apollo 12).

As for the model - smoke added here - not sure if this will work but I'll be creative with the poster paints and add cotton wool and should get a rough approximation of the box art I hope. I was going to go bigger with the smoke but what you see here is an entire can of foam and I ain't made of money!

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Here is the baseboard stippled with Gesso primer. A few more coats will be needed I think.

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... and the star of the show after a coat of Halfords Appliance White.

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The kit is the Skylab Saturn V version, but these were on offer for £10 less than the actual current Saturn V boxing, and the Skylab boxing still has all the parts to make the original, so I just discarded the Skylab extra sprue. the moulds are a bit tired these days, but good enough for a diorama I reckon.

Time for some mounting. I found a stiff metal rod saved from a long discarded display cabinet if I remember correctly (diorama builders throw NOTHING away!)

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I had to carefully pull off the inner engine nozzle that has previously been glued in place before notions of turning this build into a CBBA project had surfaced.

I thought it would have to be scrapped but then realised I could cut the tip off and slide it back in place over the rod.

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I cleaned up the plastic, teased out a small indentation in the centre as a guide for the first drill and then opened up the hole with gradually increasing size of drill bits - slowly and carefully. I eventually got a nice tight hole for the rod to stop the rocket body moving about once mounted in the baseboard.

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I took the assembled rocket and positioned it to gauge the correct angle for the hole in the baseboard to best match the picture on the box art - again starting with a pilot hole and opening it up to get a nice tight fit for the rod.

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This diorama is big - I had to stand on a chair for this shot...

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Last shot before breaking it down for decaling and then painting the baseboard and backdrop.

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I am going to wimp out as far as the falling control tower is concerned because it is difficult to see with clarity on the box art - I had toyed with doing it in low relief but will now just paint it on, so the rocket and smoke effect are the central focus.

Cheers

Al.

Here is a scan from the catalogue of the box art I am trying to model. I did have this boxing as a youngster, but no longer I'm afraid. It has to be one of the most powerfully evocative boxes ever - I wonder how many of these sold in the 70's on the basis of the artwork alone?!

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Right then - quick lesson (and rebuke) for those who say "I can't paint..."; tell me what's so difficult about this:

Basics shown here - cheap poster paints from The Works, ditto stiff brushes for oil painting - you are going to bash the whatsit out of these with all of the mixing and stippling so you certainly don't want to ruin beautiful sable artist's brushes. Even DIY type decorators brushes would do.

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We will work wet on wet - i.e. mix the paint as we go in the container - vermillion and yellow side by side, used neat and then mixed on the brush to give the orange shade - dip it in the verm. then straight into the yellow and just daub away on the foam.

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Got to get into all the nooks and crannies so it takes a while.

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Now just work some neat yellow on top while all still wet to give some highlights...

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...and doing the same on the background. Remember to keep your reference close to hand so you don't stray too far off piste!

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Now you can go and have some lunch while this dries. An hour later, start with the neat white for the smoke highlights. Bit of impressionist work with smaller brushes and washes to do the sky and the building (they don't warrant close inspection) and you are more or less there. Grab your rocket and stick it in the hole and voila:

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Have I mentioned how hard it is to photograph this flaming thing :evil:

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There is more work to be done on the kit - more decals to go on and the black/white demarcations certainly need some touching up where we had some bleeding under the masking tape, but I'm hoping people won't be looking that closely.

Cheers

Al.

Edited by beany
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Wow! Wow! Wow! WOW!

I saw the magazine blurb about the box art display at Telford last year and it was pretty dang cool. Indeed the Saturn V was one of the kings of cover artworks as whomever painted that artwork did it as a real labour of love. The Saturn on the box art actually looked a little more accurate than the kit even thanks to the paintwork on the CSM and BPC (the current Saturn V kits corrected that shortcoming from the original kit). Those brilliant yellows and oranges also nicely captured the colours of Saturn rocket exhaust. You see that on shuttle liftoffs as well with the SRB plumes, but the brightness of the plumes washes out the coloring in most photographs to white (but when you see that brilliant yellow and orange in person, you ALWAYS remember it). Do you also plan to sculpt any of the steam coming off the rocket as well?

I've been tempted to do something similar with the old Airfix Vostok box art, showing the rocket core stage ascending as the strap ons fall back into the Kazakhstan desert, complete with the red "BOCTOK" titles over a white rocket (only accurate to a full size non-flying replica of the Vostok, but still cool in the artwork).

Edited by JMChladek
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Thanks for the kind comments guys. I not a very accurate modeller I'm afraid - I'm too impatient and too lazy to do the proper research - so I go for the Impressionist approach with these dioramas.

Do you also plan to sculpt any of the steam coming off the rocket as well?

Yes indeed - there is still a bit to do on this one yet hence putting it in the WIP section for now. My initial idea is to use billowing layers/clumps of cotton wool stuck on the baseboard for the jet blast. If that doesn't look right I will have to buy another can of expanding foam!

I've been tempted to do something similar with the old Airfix Vostok box art, showing the rocket core stage ascending as the strap ons fall back into the Kazakhstan desert, complete with the red "BOCTOK" titles over a white rocket (only accurate to a full size non-flying replica of the Vostok, but still cool in the artwork).

Please do - these dioramas are great fun and are always so well received at the shows we attend. they can be made reasonably cheaply as well as I've tried to show above, using old off-cuts of MDF or chipboard for bases and backdrops and cheap paints. I would love to see that Vostok - it's one of the few Airfix kits I never made as a kid, or since.

Cheers

Al.

Edited by beany
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Saw this at IPMS Farnborough ModelFest yesterday and it looks fantastic in the flesh!

+1 - very impressive as were the rest of the displays on that stand - such a fantastic theme

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Please tell me somebody has some photos of the completed model on display. Or was it still pretty much in the same state as the last WIP photo showed?

There is still a bit left to do on her, but I felt it was good enough to put it on our table. It got some very favourable comments, as did the rest of our display. A very enjoyable show as always - well done IPMS Farnborough.

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Cheers

Al.

Edited by beany
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Several of these I remember from the article about Telford. Quite a few nice staples of the group, such as the long lived Lancaster G for George landing artwork, the IAF Mirage III, and SeaKing 66 recovering Apollo 11 (my second favorite next to the Saturn). Very lovely creative display work which publicly helps to express why we love building these little bits of plastic. And getting a few of these on display is certainly cheaper than hiring James May to explain it. ;)

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Hi al,excellent work on the saturn 5,love it,do you find the angle a bit unnerving it looks scary in the side view,would like to see you do the 1/72 version,by dragon that would be scary,cant say it enough,must be visually the best looking saturn 5 ive seen,cheers Don

Edited by Mike
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%Thanks for the comments guys.

...do you find the angle a bit unnerving it looks scary in the side view

I have to admit the angle is quite pronounced from the side view Don, but it captures the box art better when viewed from the front and slightly above - except you need to be about 7 foot tall for that!

There is a half inch steel rod holding her up so she is actually pretty secure. The only fear at the weekend was that a Health and Safety Nazi would make us stick a cork on the escape tower to stop having someone's eye out!

Edited by beany
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