1
INTRODUCTION
2
CONSTRUCTION, Antennas, Sphere
3
Interrogations, Moulding, Casting
4
COLD SWEAT, Spine parts
5
Supports, Modules, Castings
6
Vacuumforming, Photoetching
7
Engine block, Short delay
8
Crew, Sphere, Pod
9
ASSEMBLING, Helping hand, Bay
10
Cockpit, Electrical syst, Base, DECORATION, ASSEMBLING
11
CONCLUSION, SOURCES, MATERIALS

The crew
When it was a question of finding a 1/60 figurine, big problem ! As a last resort, I used a little too large soft plastic figurine, I reduced it by cuting then regluing the limbs, considering that the original thickness corresponds to the spacesuit one. The suit rolls are carried out while rolling a Superglue striped cap on self-adhesive aluminum, this one being thereafter glued directly on the figurine. The metal circles fixing the gloves and boots are made with very fine aluminum, the helmet is sculpted in Sintra, as well as the ventral and dorsal packs. Their details are drawn with the computer, printed in colors then glued on the packs resin casts.


The original figurine, its modification and final versions

The sphere (twice)
After having built the few fine parts which still missed (starry cones and front disc stiffeners), I can concentrate on the sphere whose initial cast does not give satisfaction. The connection between the 2 half-spheres not doing well (the first version was really disastrous!), I spend a certain time sanding and puttying the whole to find the good shape! I modify the veins location and the details to correspond on the changed scale, and I increase and move slightly the pod bay doors.

The streaks on the each door chamfer are carried out by steaking self-adhesive aluminum with a small striped plastic wheel. The fine cut out tapes are glued on each chamfer.

The left door is remade with photoetched parts, and the cockpit dimensions are modified according to documents meanwhile found, while carrying out in the same time the interior blueprints according to photographs. A Sintra master of the canopy is used to vacuumform one, but Sintra have a bad reaction to the heat of the acetate and the part is " blurred ", plenty of small bubbles. I thus rebuild a master with Super Sculpey (Fimo paste in France), kind of modelling clay which fires in the oven. I sand it very finely to have a perfect master, and the result is an almost perfect photoetched canopy, because of the quality of the master and of its absence of reaction to heat.

A new problem: the canopy put in the sphere does not look well, there is something wrong... I reverify my dimensions once more and decide to modify for the 3rd time the shape of this damned canopy. There is only the result which counts... The difficulty is to have the interior and external cockpit dimensions corresponding, the shooting photographs being distorted by the wide-angle lens.

The pod (twice)
At the beginning of December 2000, I rebuild the pod at the good scale. A boxwood jack is used as a basis, it is modified with the lathe before detailing. The cones are in turned Sintra then streaked and the supports of cameras are 2 drilled half-pearls. Styrene parts are glued to represent the side sheets, the holes are filled with woodpaste then with finishing putty. The boxwood is worked well, it is easy to engrave the details and to cut out without leaving it in dust. The side streaks are made with sheaths of flat data-processing cable cleared up from its wires.





The old 1/100 pod and the new 1/60 one

December 8, 2000, the pod is finished (without its arms), the loop is shut!

End of moulding and casting (not to soon)
The largest of what remained to be moulded and casted is done before Christmas 2000, except for the sphere who definitely gives many worries. The casting of silicone with a bucket as a surround for the 2 half-moulds does not occur well. A leak not detected at the base makes me lose a box of invaluable (because expensive) rubber, then the final casts are twisted by lack of rigidity of the moulds shapes. A gauge out of cardboard allow to cure the problem.

January 10, 2001, it does remain to put together all the parts... The hassle continues!

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