OlCabour's Hangar

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Space 1999 › Main mission

Fil des billets

vendredi, 2 mars 2012

Main Mission - Characters

The moon surface is made exactly like the launchpad. The foam sheet is even taken from a launchpad spare parts, so already shaped. Then the mixture of roughcast and dark gray paint is spread on. Once dried, a light gray is airbrushed, sprayed horizontally and always in the same direction, to give illusion of a sun light. The redult is a nice dusty grey.

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A few furniture items were still missing in Koenig's office : two small sofas and a large meeting round table. They are quickly scratched and painted.

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Koenig desktop is improved with painting, and missing feet are added on the control station desktop.

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Provided decals are really awfull. So I prepared new material on computer using photos and drawings found on space1999.net and modified to follow the sources. They are then printed in color on a thick paper.

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There are the central column of the main screen, the computers walls, and, for the office of Koenig, the communication terminal, a small wall screen, and the large meeting table. Lot's of tiny papers sheet, in differents colors are also prepared.

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They are simply set up with white glue (acrylic).

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For the computers wall, with a cutter, I ran a few very light notches for easy folding it like an accordion. Once dry, the wall is finally glued at its definitive place.

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I had originally planned to use silver tape for windows, which would have reflected light and would give the impression that the windows were lit (as was done with the studio model). But after seeing the tower painted, I thought that the whole thing would be too much gray in the end, so I kept the idea of ​​tape (for speed) but in black, to break the uniformity of the gray.

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To illuminate the corridors, viewable behind the doors left open, I will install two white LEDs. So I prepared a simple little parallel circuit, connected to an appropriate adapter: 3V and I do not know many ampere (I simply followed the advice of an electronics store guy... That was perfect for my level ;-))

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The upper and lower parts of the tower are finally glued together with white glue.

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The corridors are set up.

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And after some testing, LEDs are installed.

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The "box" is close, to prevent light from escaping behind, with a thick piece of foam board (1 cm) cutted tightly to hold in place by itself.

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Now i need to populate this space with the characters. In the kit, there are only four different types, each coming in three. Based on 2 kits, so I have six characters of each type. On each of these four types, I let one or two as is, and I modified arms and legs to change their positions. Some even became sitting characters. On the following pictures: those on the left are the originals, the modified ones are on the right.

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The character in space suit is recycled from an anime (Gundam I think) kit and modified.

The costumes are painted uniformly gray beige.

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Hair color and pullover sleeves are determined, according to their position in the dio, and the situations I want to create. The sleeve's colors belongs to the moonbase sections :

  • Black: commander
  • White: Medical
  • Red: command center / weapons
  • Yellow: technical / service
  • Orange: pilot / reconnaissance
  • Violet: Security
  • Brown: Computer
  • and Prof. Bergman, who has no color.

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The characters situations are dry tested. A meeting begins in Koenig's office. We can recognize Koenig, Dr. Russell, Professor Victor Bergman, Alan Carter, and a computer officer.

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Meanwhile, Paul Morrow oversees Main Mission, and particularly Sandra Benes...

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There are few characters remaining for the hangar.

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Paper sheet and folders are added on tables and desks to give a little more life to this place. The furniture, the communication terminal, the mezzanine and the characters are finally stuck with microscale Micro Liquitape. This glue has the texture of a white glue, and more importantly, it is repositionable. Very handy here, so I can then correct position if necessary.

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It's finished !

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jeudi, 1 mars 2012

Main Mission - Base color and furnitures

The same off white mixture, applied on the launchpad, is airbrushed in thin layers on Main Mission Tower.
The mixture consists of Tamiya matt white, broken by few drops of Sky Grey XF-19, and completed a few drops of Klir to strengthen it. It is also protected with a thin surface layer of Tamya white spray primer.

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The paneling is made with the same color and same stencils as on the Launchpad.

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The inner rooms mask is removed.

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The furniture gets its basic color:
- The seats in bright white, to simulate PVC.
- Koenig's office in metallic gray
- Control station destop in dark gray
- The spiral staircase and mezzanine floor in sky gray
- The railing of the mezzanine and the communication terminal in the same color as the walls

Having double copies of all the furniture, they will be used in Koenig's office of Koenig and in the hangar.

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Note, the staircase should not be spiral, but a mix of straight staircase and ladder! Look at this screenshot from the Catacomb website), steps are grouped in two!

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/images/space/atap/spatapxmms.jpg

It should not be easy for actors to climb up there!

To improve the stability of this portion of Main Tower Mission, I will place it on a board of medium, which will be then decorated with a lunar surface like the launchpad.

Main Mision - Frontage detailing and base colors

The details of the frontage are made of 1mm thick plastic card strips, in which the windows are cut.

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I tried to follow as much as I could the studio model (the one that is set in the center of the complete Alpha moonbase, not the larger scale main mission tower, made for close-up shots, that had differents details).

Close-up shot studio model : http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/cguide/umextb.html

Large moonbase strudio model (end of page) : http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/cguide/umext.html

After a little touching up of the floor (a micro drop of superglue did not find anything better to do than fell there !), the inner dio is masked, and the two element of the tower are covered with primer.

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Both building elements of the tower received a black preshading

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The characters and the furniture are ready for painting.

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mercredi, 8 février 2012

Main Mission - Inner painting, tower's base and roof detailing

The inside diorama received a layer of primer IMG_8534

Then a pre-shading IMG_8539 IMG_8540

And the base color (medium gray) is applied on the floor and walls. IMG_8541 IMG_8542

Then the color of the walls, in off-white. IMG_8547

The roof is finally in place, held with clamps during curing. IMG_8548

Round sides are filled with foam insulation to give a point to hang to the plastic sheet that will cover the entire building. IMG_8551

The base of the tower, which will be an arc of cylinder is made of cardboard and Cadapac foam board. There are many internal reinforcements of cardboard to support the weight of the upper part of the tower. A space is left open in case I need to light up the top (and it is quite possible that I have an LED in each lane visible through the doors, otherwise they will be rather gloomy. IMG_8555 IMG_8556 IMG_8558

Dry test :

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I then turned to the frontage, with 0.5mm thick plastic card.

Topside and downside : IMG_8560

then of the sides, after sanding of the previous ones : IMG_8562

The cylindrical face of the base is also covered with plastic card. IMG_8561

New dry test : IMG_8564

The base is then detailed with plastic card strips of different thicknesses and widths. IMG_8579

Back on the main part, a hard cardboard disk, also covered with plastic card, is set on the top. This cylinder fits exactly to the underside base. IMG_8573

Plastic card panels are added, on the roof based on the original model details. The two half-domes are shampoo caps, heavily sanded on a band sander. Note that the diagram detailing the disc is also drawn. IMG_8576 IMG_8577

I then just have to follow this template. IMG_8578

Next step: detailed the sides with plastoc strips and cutting windows.

Main Mission - The walls

The doors of Koenig's office will be left open, to see some adjacent lanes (here quickly drawn on the Cadapac foam board) and to give more depth to the whole diorama. IMG_8504

The main walls are finally glued. IMG_8509

The sides of MMT are made from foam board glued with white glue, and held in place with clamps while drying (which takes several hours with this glue). IMG_8512

Dry test to make sure everything fits well: IMG_8515

The first inner wall of cardboard is set. IMG_8516 IMG_8517

Then the internal dio is glued in place. IMG_8520 IMG_8521

The new walls are made from resin copies. The doors are removed to be left opened. IMG_8518 IMG_8519

The inner walls are completed (still with cardboard) IMG_8522 IMG_8523

Resins walls are then glued on the cardboard ones. IMG_8524

Then the remaining cardboard surfaces are covered with plastic sheet. IMG_8526 IMG_8527

The computer wall is not yet set at this stage because it will be painted separately. The cardboard wall, where it will be set, is left free to allow me to insert it later easily. IMG_8529 IMG_8531

The mezzanine, that overlook MM, will be painted separately.

This is what can be seen from Koenig's office. IMG_8532 IMG_8533

Main Mission - Starting the tower

After having left the subject on the side to settle the issue, I actually decided to insert this little dio in a portion of the Mission Main Tower, the central and raised building of Alpha moonbase.

http://www.space1999.net/~catacombs/cybermuseum/MATN/matn1007.html http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/images/space/spmba4.jpg

Various blueprints exist (found during 15 years of surfing on the net) but do not agree with each other, and at the scale of the dio, the width of the building varies from 60 to 90 cm long. With 65 cm cardboard and foam board sheets on hand, spare parts dating from the construction of the DeathStar turbolaser turret (see here or SFFM #5), I went with this length which makes it easy for me ! Only a slice of ~20 cm wide will be realized.

The shapes are drawn on the cardboard sheet (2mm thick), then cut. The same diagram is then reproduced a second cardboard and two foamboard sheets (3mm) with the help of the first as a template IMG_8501

The foam board is glued to the cardboard for proper rigidity of the whole. This will be later covered with 0.5mm thick plastic card. IMG_8503 IMG_8505

Main Mission : Third diorama of the project

Main Mission is the command center of the Alpha moonbase, and one of the high places of the show, as lot's of key actions take place here during the first season. The particularity of thid place, beyond being the nerve center of the base, is its contiguity with the office of Commander Koenig. The latter, its almost symmetrical, separated by a huge sliding door, usually open, separating the two areas. They will not go one without the other and represent a whole place. IMG_8598

The Alpha moonbase kit (initially issued under MPC brand, was reissued by AMT in the late 90s) includes a small diorama of Main Mission (on a scale between 1 / 100 and HO). Unfortunately, Koenig office is totally wrong and undersized.

To correct it, I will use a second Alpha kit, and strongly modify it.

Two different ground blueprints coexist, in which the Koenig office seriously differs. I preferred to choose the simplicity, so I use the version where the two parts are of the same surface.

http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/cybermuseum/MATN/matn1009.html http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/merc/fan/ky/ky1009.jpg http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/merc/fan/ky/vmfanpubkyg.html http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/merc/vmfanpub.html#Young

After cutting, re-arranging, gluing and filling, the floor of the office is corrected. IMG_8368 IMG_8369 IMG_8370 IMG_8381 IMG_8382 IMG_8383

The separation wall is made from the same parts from the two kits. The office of Koenig is on one level, so the top of the wall is cut out to be removed. IMG_8393 IMG_8394

I have now to prepare new walls for the office. I made a mold of a first wall from the original kit, and then prepared a new master by modifying a first copy (the mid-height horizontal strip is corrected). A second master integrates a

door made using plastic strip and photoetched for the control panel. IMG_8395 IMG_8396

As I was there, I made molds of various parts of the kit original walls in order to achieve all possible combinations in case other ideas germinate later. IMG_8394 IMG_8398 IMG_8513

Creation of a terminal of a communication terminal, using a plastic rod (from a Chinese restaurant). IMG_8397

As this dio looked really tiny finally, I quickly asked myself if I would include it in a part of Main Mission Tower to highlight it.