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Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle (03701) 1:48


Mike

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Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle (03701)

1:48 Revell

 

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2019 is the 50th anniversary of Man's first landing on the Moon, which began with the huge Saturn V rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral and ended with the tiniest percentage of its total mass orbiting the moon.  Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong moved from the Command Module (CM) into the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) for the descent to the lunar surface.  Despite the dangers of this frail contraption failing at some point they landed safely with a few teaspoons of fuel left in the descent thrusters, after which the immortal phrase "The Eagle has landed" was uttered, of course referring to the name of their little ship.  After a momentous descent down the ladder and speech by Neil Armstrong they spent a couple of hours mooching about on the surface collecting samples and setting up a few instruments, then blasted off for rendezvous with the combined CM and Service Module (SM) for the journey back home.  Splashdown was also safely executed, and another six successful landings were made in the next few years until the programme was terminated prematurely due to them finding Transformers on the Moon. Or was it monsters, or Nazis?  I forget now.  Could it have been budgetary reasons and a loss of interest from the American public?  Surely not. ;)

 

 

The Kit

Revell have been busily reissuing their back catalogue of Apollo Programme related kits lately to celebrate the anniversary, most of which originate from the toolings made around the time that the landings were still ongoing.  This is a more recent kit that is a reboxing of the Dragon kit first released in 2011, so has a lot of detail moulded in and some use of slide-moulding to improve detail out of the box.  It also includes a rendition of the gold-coloured Kapton foil that was used to insulate the descent stage and is missing from many of the older kits.  The only difference this kit has from the original is that the gold-coloured parts aren't pre-painted.

 

The kit arrives in an end opening box and inside are eight sprues of a matt-finished grey styrene, a single part for the octagonal base of the descent stage, a small sheet of decals, and an instruction booklet.  First impressions are good, and the moulding of the crinkled surface of the descent stage parts looks great, although some visible seams will need scraping away for realism.  As this is a special edition there are a couple of thumb pots of acrylic paint and a number 2 Revell paint brush included in the box, although that's probably most likely aimed at the casual modeller who may not have their own collections of paint and tools.  Great news is this is your first dip of the toe into the hobby.

 

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The ascent module builds up quite cleverly, with long tubular friction mountings keeping the module rigid, and simplifying assembly. There is no pretence at an interior here, and the windows that are present on the real thing are supplied as decals to keep it simple. The various antennae and the important direction control thrusters are simple to install, and each have hollow reaction bells, enhancing realism.

 

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The lower descent module is mostly covered in the heat resistant Kapton material, but the facets below the thrusters are painted black, so there's less gold to spray. The legs attach to well-defined mounting lugs, which should make for a strong joint. The dished feet don’t have the odd sensor spikes that are sometimes seen under them, so check your references and build up your own if you’re planning on modelling it in-flight. The big reaction bell in the central underside is very well moulded, but has no aperture for the reaction gases to exit the bell, so check your references and decide whether you want to replicate this area.

 

Markings

The painting guide is in the back of the instructions, and as well as the gold areas, silver and black are the main colours used for the exterior. The black areas different widely between the various modules, so remember to check your references carefully before committing to paint if you are going off piste with your module choice. Even panels that do appear to be “black” seem to be more of a very dark grey in some pictures, and there are details to the areas that require some close inspection.

 

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The decals are printed for Revell in Italy by Zanetti, and consist of a pair of US flags, the “United States” panels emblazoned on the descent stage sides, and the four windows, two triangular and a further two lozenge shaped in the “roof” to monitor the docking procedure with the CM. These decals are black with silver borders, and white markings that were used to guide the landing and docking process.

 

Conclusion

This is a very nicely presented kit, and having it in 1:48 is really nice for those of us that also have an aircraft habit in this scale. The parts are well engineered, with a modicum of slide-moulding evident to produce more accurate parts without complicating the build, which is good news.

 

The replication of the wrinkled insulation material is first rate, and the lack of a cockpit interior doesn’t bother me in the slightest, although I would have liked some more realistic windows. Overall though, it’s a great looking model, and I’m really looking forward to building it, as I have a fondness for the Apollo programme and real space in general.

 

Very highly recommended,

 

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Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit

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