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Moebius 1/144 Discovery XD-1


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That's me caught up and very impressed indeed. Pod bay, cockpit and lighting too.

The Lego brick (I note you didn't use 'Legos' ) gives scale to your work. Too small for me!

And lit engines too. It just gets better.

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23 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That's me caught up and very impressed indeed. Pod bay, cockpit and lighting too.

The Lego brick (I note you didn't use 'Legos' ) gives scale to your work. Too small for me!

And lit engines too. It just gets better.

Thank you Pete - more to come on this build.

Bill

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LED lighting and modified display stands.

 

Controller with remote.  Effective range about 15 feet.

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Underside view of display base.

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Closer view of LED controller

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Connection point for power adapter

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Mounting hardware added to kit display stand base pieces.

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Another view

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Underside view of display base with stand securely mounted in place.  Wiring is protected with rubber grommet.

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Top view of rear display stand and wiring.

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Test fit of stands.  Middle stand is not secured through wood base.

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Completed model on stands.  Front and rear stand are secured through wood base with hardware.  Middle stand can be moved.  Brass tube for EVA pod stand passes through hole drilled in base and secured from underside.  Power provided by 9 volt adapter which connects to base through side.

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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This kit can be a challenge to display - very long, narrow and flexible.  Even with steel support tubes the spine will flex a bit.  The kit comes with three display stands which support the kit, but I wanted something more substantial and less prone to movement.  The point of contact between the kit parts and the top of the stands required some attention to more securely support the completed model.

 

Brass tube inserted into the bottom section of engine.  This tube serves as a sleeve for the steel tube stand that comes with the kit.  The steel and brass tubes are a very tight fit and require no glue or epoxy. 

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Inside view of the brass tube insert.  Lego block was modified to serve as a support platform and glue surface.  The center part on the inside of the Lego perfectly fit the brass tube.  A small piece of styrene tube was epoxied inside the brass tube to provide a stop for the display stand tube while allowing wiring to pass through.

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Display stand metal tube in place, A very tight fit - no flexing or any movement.

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A view of the completed modifications.  Wiring from the display base will pass through this opening to LED's in the command sphere and engines.

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I did not much like the look of the front display stand arrangement that comes with the kit and decided to modify it in the same fashion as the rear stand.  Again, a brass tube was inserted into a modified Lego block to accept the steel tube provided with the kit.

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The modified Lego epoxied inside of the neck ring.  This seems a much better position to locate the front stand.

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Hole drilled in the neck.   Essential to very carefully determine the location of this hole so that the displayed model will be properly oriented.

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Display stand steel tube inserted into the neck brass sleeve.  This is a very tight fit, no glue or epoxy needed.  No wiring passes through this tube.

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Once all of these modifications have been made to the display base and stands, the completed model is very secure - it is straight and level and does not move.  Painted satin black and photographed in low light the base and stands are nearly invisible.  With my "planets", the model shows very nicely.

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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1 hour ago, Electric Indigo said:

That final shot looks awesome. Yours is one of the few builds I've seen that doen't appear over-weathered to my eyes.

Many thanks for having a look and commenting.  I will post more images of the final model as soon as I have finished with this WIP.

 

After spending many hours studying hundreds of images, it seems to me that a model of Discovery can be finished in one of two ways.  Either as seen on the movie screen or as seen in still photographs of filming models.  Filming models appear to often have very obvious panel shading using a variety of colours.  The same studio model will appear very different on the screen, a far more subtle look.  Comparing the two side by side - studio model photo & movie screen capture - really illustrates the difference in appearance.  Perhaps the filming technology of the 1960's demanded this kind of approach, I don't really know.  Ultimately I had to decide which finish I wanted - Studio model or move screen appearance - I decided on the movie screen appearance primarily because it just looks better to me.  Personally, I am not very good at weathering space vehicles that operate entirely in a vacuum - it just don't know how to do it.   There are many others that have mastered this technique, but so far it eludes me.

 

Here is a side by side image taken indoors with flash.  Same finishing technique used on both.  About half of those that have seen the Atomic City Orion in person think it would benefit from bolder panel shading and weathering - they will show me photos of the studio filming model.  The other half think it looks just right and mirrors what they see in the movie.  

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Side by side image with the big Atomic City Aries 1B.  I did use darker panel shading on the Aries and there is some heavy weathering in places especially around the lower half - it is not evident at this distance.   Again, I tried to depict the Aries as it appears on the screen, not the studio filming model.  Sometimes I think I should have taken a slightly more subtle approach on the Aries.

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Most impressive,   wow.

I'm making the same kit, without the internals.  I have looked at frame-by frame stills from the movie, and much of the external detailing is not from the movie 2001, but some form 2010 and from other models. I am cutting off the bits that are wrong,: the radial detailing behind the habitat sphere is the worst,  some of the detailing around the same sphere, adding some to each of the 30+ module backs,  the Mobieus repetition of the top an  bottom of the engine block can't be right.

The  2001 Discovery was not weathered, which Mobeius comment correctly, but a lot, hundreds  of the tiny panels  are slightly different off-grey blues and light greys. I thing a light grey-blue overall is a good description of the final effect on the screen. I notice you have corrected many of these faults .

 

M.

Oldmodeler

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On 5/18/2021 at 12:33 PM, oldmodeler said:

Most impressive,   wow.

I'm making the same kit, without the internals.  I have looked at frame-by frame stills from the movie, and much of the external detailing is not from the movie 2001, but some form 2010 and from other models. I am cutting off the bits that are wrong,: the radial detailing behind the habitat sphere is the worst,  some of the detailing around the same sphere, adding some to each of the 30+ module backs,  the Mobieus repetition of the top an  bottom of the engine block can't be right.

The  2001 Discovery was not weathered, which Mobeius comment correctly, but a lot, hundreds  of the tiny panels  are slightly different off-grey blues and light greys. I thing a light grey-blue overall is a good description of the final effect on the screen. I notice you have corrected many of these faults .

 

M.

Oldmodeler

 

Many thanks!  As you mentioned there are issues with the Moebius kit, some of which can be corrected easily while others require some major work.  Even with these blemishes, I really like this kit and think Moebius have done a good job overall with this subject.  I do hope they will correct some of the more obvious flaws in future releases.

Regards,

Bill

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Brass sleeve added to collar

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Steel spine tube inserted into sleeve.

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Cargo sections - very tedious work

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Spine connectors.

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Steel spine tube modified for wiring

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Alignment problem with kit.  Easily corrected by removing tab and carefully aligning by hand.  I only noticed this when dry fitting the parts.

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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Work on the command sphere.

 

First pass with paint

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Dry fit

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Command sphere together with Interior details in place and wiring.   Each LED came with resistor at end of positive wire.  I placed all of these together in a plastic harness salvaged from old computer parts.

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Wiring all tucked up into the sphere

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Final lighting test before command sphere gets attached to spine.

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Air lock details

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Engine lighting details.  The engine parts just slip over the lights.  Once in place, there is a gap between the engine exhaust sides - a flaw in the Moebius kit.  Easily corrected with some styrene strip.

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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Thanks for having a look and commenting!   Please have a look also at the finished model in Ready for Inspection -

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235094044-moebius-1144-discovery-xd-1/

 

Some final WIP images -

 

Display case off

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Display case on

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Engines. apologies for the poor image.

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Command sphere as see through display case.

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Set up for photography.  Black felt cloth and "planets".  Photos of completed model taken with very old Canon S200 in low light with flash turned off which required that camera be braced (no tripod).  Only half of the images taken were usable.

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Side by side with TimeSlip Creations XD-1.  The Moebius kit is about 41 inches in length, a bit more with a pod extended.  The TimeSlip Creations is just under 60 inches.  The completed segments of this kit are shown dry fitted together in this image, no primer or paint.  I have kept this kit partially built in storage until I can find a place to display it properly.

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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On 15/05/2021 at 18:43, Jeddahbill said:

Many thanks for all the kind comments!   Now some details on the engines.   Having the engines lighted while EVA pods are being deployed is a bit odd, but I really wanted to light the engines and decided to include both in the completed build. 

 

Slight modifications to engine parts were needed to fit aluminum tubes for LED lights.  The tube helps with light blocking and provides support for the LED.  I experimented with three coloured lens caps - yellow, blue, and red.   Blue is often seen in similar builds and looks good, but I went with red as it is a bit different and looks very nice on the completed kit.

 

Blue = engines at full thrust.

Red = engines cooling after braking burn. This takes a while as somebody deleted the radiators from the design.

Yellow = in between.

 

So not odd at all - the EVA pod is doing a visual inspection after Jupiter orbit insertion. Infinity awaits...

 

Beautiful build, wish I had the room for a Discovery.

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23 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

 

Blue = engines at full thrust.

Red = engines cooling after braking burn. This takes a while as somebody deleted the radiators from the design.

Yellow = in between.

 

So not odd at all - the EVA pod is doing a visual inspection after Jupiter orbit insertion. Infinity awaits...

 

Beautiful build, wish I had the room for a Discovery.

Yes!  Of course, I should have thought the same thing.  That is exactly what is happening.  Good call!

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