marty_hopkirk Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 (edited) 1/55 is an odd scale That's a straight function of the kit being a 1/3rd the size of the filming miniature. but afaik, 28mm figures work out at 1/56 which is surely close enough. Guess the problem would be sourcing suitable 28mm true scale figures if you wanted a dio from the film.But there may well be some that could be converted. The stock Moebius kit comes with figures, including one dishing out the sandwiches from the snap box. I have started to adapt the the kit chassis pan to accept the Stargazer and Paragrafix rear tub/bulkhead combo. I need to look at the Paragrafix etched metal to see what I will be using. I also dipped for the TSDS decal sheet although I don't anticipate using all of them as quite a few are meant as replacement for the kit parts - but will be definitely using those meant for the flight deck displays. Marty... Edited January 25, 2011 by marty_hopkirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousFO98 Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Thanks for the info Marty Sammiches on the Moon! Assume it isn't Wallace and Grommit Nice touch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 It recreates a scene direct from the movie. One of Kubrick's mantras for the film was to show the extremes of space travel. On one hand it being mundane and ordinary and the other as extraordinary Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 (edited) The fitting of the passenger interior to the top side of the kit pan - again is taking more time than I originally anticipated but after another evening work it will snuggle down nicely. The interior colour of the Moonbus has garnered much debate. By common consent as well as flooding the flight deck in red light, Kubrick probably had it painted red to enhance the effect. Various people have tried to nail the 'true' colour of the passenger cabin, but because the set was bathed in a blue light, it has made it very difficult to pick out the true colours. A couple of guys on a website (I forget which) did try to colour correct some screengrabs but even then they did not really get too far in really resolving it. The padding in form, is not dissimilar from that in the Aries 1-B. But, that was a distinct mustard colour and would have shown up even with amount of blue lighting Kubrick threw at the set. The view below shows that the Moonbus did not have conformal glazing. It is likely the filming miniature did not have any galazing at all. Thankfully the exterior colour is much easier to work out. Marty... Edited January 25, 2011 by marty_hopkirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thx6667 Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 But, that was a distinct mustard colour and would have shown up even with amount of blue lighting Kubrick threw at the set. We talking about the sandwich? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Marty, Just did a quick bit of fiddling with the colour - by no means brilliant as a result, but might be helpful (going by skin tones): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 John - Thanks, a very good effort indeed. But,it's little to dark to be sure - whilst you have nailed the skin tones, I don't want to appear ungrateful (which I'm not) there is overall brown hue to the image. Look at the highlights on the suits. Once again thanks. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I forgot to post this classic view of Moonbus. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 (edited) John -Thanks, a very good effort indeed. But,it's little to dark to be sure - whilst you have nailed the skin tones, I don't want to appear ungrateful (which I'm not) there is overall brown hue to the image. Look at the highlights on the suits. Once again thanks. Marty... Yup, sorry about that - a combination of rushing it at work, together with an uncalibrated monitor . Looking at it here, I can see the brown cast... I can also see noise in the shadowed areas, which is probably more an artifact of the JPEG compression. I'll have another crack at it and see if I can fix it . Edit: Sorry - it's proving an intractable problem at the moment. If the midtones are adjusted to give a reasonably lifelike skin tone, the shadows gain a fair amount of red noise, and the highlights take on the brownish/reddish tinge you noticed. I could probably separate them out into luminosity layers and work on the RGB channels there, then re-combine into one image, but that would unfortunately take more time than I have today. Sorry . I'll see what I can come up with in the future, but in the meantime, I would guess that the seats (at least) are a dark skintone. But that would be a guess... Edited January 25, 2011 by John Laidlaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Good Man. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Edit: Sorry - it's proving an intractable problem at the moment. If the midtones are adjusted to give a reasonably lifelike skin tone, the shadows gain a fair amount of red noise, and the highlights take on the brownish/reddish tinge you noticed. I could probably separate them out into luminosity layers and work on the RGB channels there, then re-combine into one image, but that would unfortunately take more time than I have today. Sorry . I'll see what I can come up with in the future, but in the meantime, I would guess that the seats (at least) are a dark skintone. But that would be a guess... I guess this is one of the reasons why no one has got to the bottom of it. Kubrick left us with a Gordian Knot which I sure he would be proud of. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulbo Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 What I'm planning to do is match the on-screen colors. Given that I'll be using white light, it'll be easier to capture the look of the film that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I guess this is one of the reasons why no one has got to the bottom of it. Kubrick left us with a Gordian Knot which I sure he would be proud of.Marty... I love a mystery though . Do you have any frame grabs in a lossless format? PNG, TIFF? That would help, but if not, I'll pull apart the JPEG and see what I can do... failing that, there's a guy I know who teaches film-making at a local university who is something of a whizz at colour correction that I could talk to. And, one of his heroes is Stanley Kubrick, so I know he'd be interested. Just a thought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 John - I'll see, but I think all the screen caps I have will be JPEGs. Marty.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 What I'm planning to do is match the on-screen colors. Given that I'll be using white light, it'll be easier to capture the look of the film that way. Paul - I think that is a sensible way forward and most likely what I will be doing - but it would cool to know real colours of the set. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Laidlaw Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 John -I'll see, but I think all the screen caps I have will be JPEGs. Marty.. Okey-doke - not too much of a problem. The film guy I mentioned is on a shoot in Maryland until Saturday, but I'll be speaking to him when he returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Having checked all my screen caps are JPEGS. When your friend does get a chance to look at this I will be VERY interested in the results. I venture the only way to truly nail it will be if a colour image of the Moonbus set turns up in white light. I know there are a few in B/W, which has enormously helped with nailing the accuracy of the "internals" - but, obviously limited use for colour. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) Link to Douglas Trumbull's site. All very interesting, if perhaps not all for those making a Moonbus. http://douglastrumbull.com Links to DT's the Moonbus images http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...es/DSC09592.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...es/DSC09595.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...es/DSC09928.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...es/DSC09930.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...es/DSC09931.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img139.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img231.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img234.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img475.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img518.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img592.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img593.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img594.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img597.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img602.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img688.jpg http://douglastrumbull.com/sites/default/f...ages/img710.jpg Marty... Edited January 29, 2011 by marty_hopkirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 John - This is perhaps a better screen cap to 'correct', the light is a tad better and there is more interior on show. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Here are images of the 'raw' Moonbus as it left Mastermodels, shamelessly lifted from the Mastermodels site some years ago. I did have an image of Moonbus stood up on it's end (that I can't find) showing the underneath - which goes some way to proving the accuracy of the Aurora/Moebius kit as that detail is replicated faithfully on the kit. Note the non-conformal flight deck glazing and the lack of glazing in the passenger cabin, there is a notion that flight deck glazing got removed for filming purposes. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Here are the drawings that Chadders referred to in the Orion thread. My memory was not faulty and they are indeed preliminary GA's for the Aurora kit. Again from memory they were originally posted by Steve Mavronis five/six years back. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Velociweiler Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Must admit, I always thought the Moonbus undercarriage looked out of kilter with the design - if not downright ludicrous in some respects. Now I know that their origins were as 'walking feet' I see where the design might have started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) Must admit, I always thought the Moonbus undercarriage looked out of kilter with the design - if not downright ludicrous in some respects. Now I know that their origins were as 'walking feet' I see where the design might have started. I don't think that was the case. Remember, the above are not the MGM art department drawings, but Aurora's preliminary GA's for the kit. The drawings are dated Feb. 19. 1968, which was less than two months away from the premiere and most if not all of the filming had been wrapped by then - Kubrick would have been editing the movie at this stage - something he continued to do after the premiere, taking some 19mins of footage out. Given the way Kubrick worked it's highly unlikely that anyone at Aurora would have seen the movie at that point in time and the name Moon Walker is almost certainly an assumption on their part. I believe in the early days of the film, there was some thought the moon bus should be a tracked vehicle. Marty... Edited January 29, 2011 by marty_hopkirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Not the image I was thinking of earlier, but I have just come across this buried on a CD. This clearly shows the underside of the filming miniature pre weathering and detailing. The Moebius/Aurora kit compares well. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 (edited) This is a b/w interior shot courtesy of Scot Alexander showing the little seen rear bulkhead of Moonbus. This one shows Frederick Ordway on the flight deck set of Moon Bus. Whilst not in colour it is a 'white light' shot. Note the contrast of the floor finish. There is some debate if this meant to indicate strips of velcro, or not. Marty... Edited January 29, 2011 by marty_hopkirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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