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Greetings!

 

Just completed, this is the resin and photo etch Space Station V kit from Fantastic Plastic.
The WIP can be seen here:

 

 

One of the many impressive designs featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, I believe this is the only kit in any scale of Space Station V currently available.  It is easily one of the most challenging kits I have ever encountered.  In general the kit is a well designed mixture of resin and photo etch, but perhaps overly complex in a few areas and lacking detail in some places.  Unfortunately my kit suffered from some poorly formed resin parts which required scratch building of replacement parts.

 

I added LED lighting to the docking bays in the hub sections which required carefully drilling holes to accommodate wiring and a brass tube.  The station rim parts are solid resin and I could not think of a way to hollow them out for lighting.  No stand is included in the kit, so I made a display base that will support the finished model on the brass tube with a 9 volt battery contained inside the base with a switch.  The Orion is mounted on a length of music wire attached to the base.


No decals included with the kit so I managed to find some very small spare Pan Am markings for the space clipper and a variety of other spare decals to detail the inside of both docking bays.  Various small styrene bits and several small photo etch items from the spares bin were used to enhance the kit details


The completed model measures about 8.5 inches in diameter and the scale is described as being either 1/1400, 1/2100 or 1/2800 depending upon the interpretation of the filming model and accordingly three scaled Orion space clippers are included.  I decided upon the 1/1400 scale as that was the only Orion that was usable in my kit - the other two were very poorly formed and beyond repair.  


Many thanks for having a look.  Questions and comments are always welcome.

 

Bill

 

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Edited by Jeddahbill
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Forgot to mention that all the above photos were taken indoors without flash using my ancient Canon S200 held steady on a stack of books with a piece of black felt cloth for a background.  Apologies for the poor quality on some of the images!

 

Many thanks,

Bill

 

 

Edited by Jeddahbill
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It looks great. A color-changing central led is a great idea. As for photos: it's not easy to shoot a white object against a black background, so in my opinion you did it very well too. You've created the illusion of space.

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5 hours ago, Hamiltonian said:

That's a great result. Love the illuminated docking ports.

Is the Orion III photoshopped in, or does it have some kind of separate stand?

Many thanks!  Separate stand - the Orion space clipper is glued to a length of piano wire painted black that can be inserted into a small tube mounted to the display base.  It can be easily removed or positioned as desired.  These images better illustrate how the Orion is displayed and how the photos were taken with my primitive setup.

 

Bill

 

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7 hours ago, voozet said:

It looks great. A color-changing central led is a great idea. As for photos: it's not easy to shoot a white object against a black background, so in my opinion you did it very well too. You've created the illusion of space.

 

Thanks for having a look and commenting.  I used two white SMD LED lights, one for each docking bay.  One has a red lens and both have have thin semi transparent clear plastic covers to help diffuse the light.  Photographing this model was indeed tricky, especially with my primitive photo setup.

 

Bill

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Thanks!  I would have liked a larger scale.  Some of the build was very fiddly with many tiny parts.  Detailing the inside of the docking bays was frustrating due to the tiny enclosed space.  Maybe Moebius will come out with a larger injection kit of the space station.

 

Bill 

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54 minutes ago, Jeddahbill said:

Maybe Moebius will come out with a larger injection kit of the space station.

Fingers are crossed all over the planet! But then, The real one is almost 22 years late already.

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For decades it was just the old Aurora moonbus, space clipper, and some resin garage kits.  A bleak time for 2001 kits.  Then Moebius emerged with several reissues and new injection kits within a relatively short time period.  Some rumors of more to come - Clavius astronaut, TMA-1, satellites, and maybe space station . . . . .

 

 

 

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OMG those books are enormous... oh er... hang on...

 

Beautifully photographed, I know full well how hard it is to photograph white things against a dark background!

This is an excellent depiction of the Space Station, love it!

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On 11/1/2022 at 8:19 AM, Kallisti said:

OMG those books are enormous... oh er... hang on...

 

Beautifully photographed, I know full well how hard it is to photograph white things against a dark background!

This is an excellent depiction of the Space Station, love it!

 

Thanks!  Yes, this was difficult to photograph.  Less than half of the images were usable.  An investment in better photo equipment would certainly make things easier and yield better results.

 

Bill

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  • 3 weeks later...
6 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Excellent model marvelous photography. It looks like a still from the film and I can't give it higher praise than that. Well done

Many thanks!

 

4 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Did you add the stars on the background physically (salt grains?) or are they Photoshopped in?

Nothing photoshopped.  The "stars" are reflections from the black backdrop.  The material is some kind of synthetic blend that catches tiny pinpoints of light depending on the viewing angle.   Looks best in low, indirect light.

 

Bill

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1 minute ago, Jeddahbill said:

Many thanks!

 

Nothing photoshopped.  The "stars" are reflections from the black backdrop.  The material is some kind of synthetic blend that catches tiny pinpoints of light depending on the viewing angle.   Looks best in low, indirect light.

 

Bill

 

Serendipity then. 😁

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