1/350 Moonlander

[Rick Lowe]

The only major (and it's major) problem with this kit is the scale. It is nowhere near 1/350. When it's finished, I'll show the difference.

What you need, then, is The McGuffin Industries' 'Handwavium Device'; available wherever supplies of Unobtanium are to be found. 

[frank2056]

I've already given this the handwavium treatment and it's going to be a "supersized" Moonlander, with a built-in habitat and cargo section.

I had to order some brass tubing in the right size; I have tubes that are either too small, exactly the same diameter as the plastic rods, or far too big.

[Rick Lowe]

I had to order some brass tubing in the right size; I have tubes that are either too small, exactly the same diameter as the plastic rods, or far too big.

Isn't that always the way?! 

[frank2056]

Rick - thank you for the brass tube suggestion! It worked like a charm:



I think I prefer this to the original, unmodified supports. Here's a fuzzy closeup:



It took very little time to cut the brass tube to length, slightly ream out the holes, snap the old tank supports off, then slip the brass in place. As a bonus, they've straightened out the supports. The brass is just holding things in place, with the tank support glued in. I can adjust the straightness left or right by adjusting the tube positions.

Now on to finishing the rest!

[NARSES2]

  

[Old Wombat]

  

[Rick Lowe]

  
Glad to help.

[frank2056]

Slowly approaching the finish line... very slowly. The original design has two wimpy cranes that are supposed to take the astronauts from the "observation deck" to the surface. The Paragraphics PE set has two nice elevators, but I couldn't see a safe way of getting the astronauts (in their cumbersome suits) from the deck to the elevator. The elevator then has to swing out far enough to clear the engine base and landing pads. It just didn't seem like a safe operation all around.

I spent way more time than I'm willing to admit designing a platform that would allow the astronauts to safely step into the elevator and not have to swing widely over the surface just to clear the vehicle structure. I also added an expandable airlock to the base of the cargo/habitation module. I spent some time in my CAD program designing the folds... when  I realized that if I printed it on my FDM printer, the print layer artifacts would be perfect. I added some internal guide lines and a hatch. Here again, the printer artifacts look like insulation/details.

Both in place. Adding the PE was a perfect example of CA refusing to work. The CA stuck to everything except the edge of the plastic. It took several attempts (with the help of some accelerator) to get everything to stick. I still have to bend one of the railings back into place. There's a small piece of plastic at the front of the platform (barely visible) that will act as the local controls for the crane. The first crane would be almost directly over the front of the platform:



Here's a closeup of the expandable cargo airlock. I still need to add a smaller platform and the possibly larger cargo crane:



I used some printed 1/350 astronauts to get a scale of this ship. It is just massive (and massively out of scale); a crew of 50-60 would fit comfortably in the sphere.

[buzzbomb]

I like this a lot. The detail fits the scale to my eye. Good work on making the brass fix look almost seamless to the overall look

[Old Wombat]

The more I see this, the more impressed I am by your attention to detail & your ability to fix sh!t, Frank. Going great guns! 

[NARSES2]

Stunning     

As for CA refusing to work I know exactly what you mean.    I sometimes think it's down to temperature, but then  at other times it just seems to want to be downright perfidious.

[Old Wombat]

I think some CAs revert to their origins as a suture alternative for combat medics.

Human skin? ... Sure, that's what I'm here for!   

Metal? Plastic? ... You crazy? I don't do cyborgs!   

[NARSES2]

There's a lot of truth in that 

[Rick Lowe]

Yup 

[frank2056]

Decals are on and all that's left are a few minor cleanup details. Overall shot:



Besides dust and debris, the crew sphere has two astronauts under the big clear dome (in blue) and one in the smaller dome (in red):



Detail of the crew elevator. I used very thin elastic cord for the elevator line and restraining rope across the entrance; neither is really visible in this picture:



The cargo crane is from a USN ship PE set. The crane control is from an ancient 1/150 Tarantula torpedo boat model - the sprues were repurposed into space ships by a Czech company called Andromeda. Really handy set.

I used 10 astronaut figures; 5 on the crew platform, 3 in the crew elevator, one in the lower cargo hold hatch and one (not in this picture) in the cargo elevator.