A little astronaut for the LM (Perdana meets UHU02)

[Tonino]

I recently posted a photo of my completed lunar module on Facebook and a friend made a comment: "...I wanna see when you'll make little Lovell, Swigert and Haise" ...

This recalled me the nice thread by @Nando about his build of Udon's LM. He realized a custom little astronaut to clarify real dimensions of the module to the viewer.

So started my thinking.

I had a view at the other - bigger - paper astronaut builded by Nando, it is a model by my friend Julius Perdana.
I suddendly ran to Paper-replika to download the patterns.

I played a little with the drawings, shrinked them to UHU02's LM scale and added or modified some parts to make the astronaut as similar as possible to Lovell's real suit.

The web has a lot of images depicting Jim Lovell in his lunar suit so the design work was pretty easy.
Not so easy - I'm afraid - will be building a model that was thought for 1:8 scale converted to something very, very, very smaller.

Let's try to put togheter the thing.


Here are my shrinked and retouched parts and some torso and legs components already closed.


As you see I always like to use little tabs to join parts head to head.
I removed all the triangular tabs as they would have been too small to be usable.


If you look carefully I also put the Apollo 13 mission patch and the Lovell name on the chest


Going to prepare arms


"Lower" astronaut almost ready to be assembled


and now let's complete the arms


It's better to curve the tabs before placing them if they are going to be put on curved surfaces.


...like the helmet, for example.


This is the PLSS. The one by Perdana is a little too "square". I prefer the UHU02's one. I traced it and duplicated without the original texture. The astronaut suit has no "crimpled" texture so the PLSS by UHU02 could appear too different if placed close to the perfectly white suit.

more to come soon...

 

[zathros]

An Astronaut is the cherry on top of the cake! Very very cool!

 

[Revell-Fan]

YEAH!!! It can be done! I did it myself - and the result is CUUUTE!!!

I have made the arms separated pieces and put them into the body with wooden rods to make them posable. The little one is 1/48:

HELLO!

(my original thread: http://www.zealot.com/threads/the-uhu02-colonial-viper-appreciation-thread.174905/ )

 

[Revell-Fan]

YEAH!!! It can be done! I did it myself - and the result is CUUUTE!!!

I have made the arms separated pieces and put them into the body with wooden rods to make them posable. The little one is 1/48:

HELLO!

(my original thread: http://www.zealot.com/threads/the-uhu02-colonial-viper-appreciation-thread.174905/ )

 

[Ron Caudillo]

That tiny astronaut is just the neatest thing I've seen in a while!

WONDERFUL job on the Lovell recolor. What a great tribute to a great man! Are you going to do the other two?

 

[Lee Clifton]

Very nice! Not sure I could work that small. I'd need a very strong magnifying visor.

 

[SonOfAGun2501]

Wow, that is crazy. Are you going to make a tiny Hasselblad to go with it?

 

[Nando]

Beautiful work Tonino, as usual.
I think the little astronaut will be a pretty add-on for your master piece.
I did it some time ago, with some enhancements, between them the Hasselblad.
Julius kindly hosted my design and you can download it here.

Here my little astronaut with enhancements highlighted.

Best Nando

 

[Revell-Fan]

The whole space program would have cost so much less if they had used astronauts of that size..!

 

[zathros]

They did, it was called the "Midget Space Program", (MSP), highly secretive, but the Astronauts of the program actually in secret built this Star ship, (see below), and left Earth to form a colony of people who would not be so bad to them. Only now are pictures being released in a massive disinformation campaign. The Actor Don Knotts did not die, he was sympathetic, and because his love for them, he reluctantly joined them. His height permitted him to reach the stuff that was up too high.





(***this really didn't happen)

 

[Revell-Fan]

Hehe - an Ant-Man army!

 

[Tonino]

... Are you going to do the other two?

Well, I don't know. I just wanted to give an idea of the real proportions of the LM so one is enough. The Capitain was the logical choice (as Perdana model has the red stripes on the suit).
It's not easy to deal with such little things like this, I'm rapidly loosing my sight on it...

Wow, that is crazy. Are you going to make a tiny Hasselblad to go with it?

I think the little astronaut will be a pretty add-on for your master piece. I did it some time ago, with some enhancements, between them the Hasselblad.

Well, Nando, as I said you was my inspiration deciding to start with this add-on. Many of the enhancements I 'm going to consider came directly from your build of Perdana's astronaut. However I don't think to add the Hasselblad, not for now, at least. First let's see how comes out the rest . I had to deal with the thumbs and they was a real challenge! :hungover:

 

[Tonino]

As I was saying above, the hand was a real nightmare in this scale! The thumb measures less than 1 mm. after folding!

The firs hand and the PLSS in UHU02 version without original textures.


The helmet was another difficult stuff in this little scale. The result is far from perfect. And this is the second try! The solar shield is the worst thing.

I tried to make it glossy with some Kristal Klear but the result is not very realistic.
I'm searching for a little ball of the correct diameter to have a spheric surface with the right curvature but had no success...
Going to think to some kind of "B plan"...


I added the UHU02 texture to the rear side of the PLSS that is little visible once the backpack is weared. Then I realized a custom design of the little box on the chest (the PLSS controls?) that, in Paper-Replika version was a little too big (well just what I needed: a further downscale!) On the left my version already folded and glued, on the right the original one. Please note the Lovell plate once more added to personalize the astronaut.

 

[Tonino]

Here is my solar shield update. I had an idea that can save my astronaut's head.
The goal is to have a nice golden surface for the visor. Gold paint doesn't look very shiny.
Then I remembered I have bought, some time ago, a pack of gold foil to restore an old wooden frame.

They are real gold sheets, VERY VERY thin (better to hold the breath if you don't want to see them fly all over the room).

The surface has to be prepared with this special glue, it must be applied very carefully on all the surface you want to cover. It's similar to white glue but much more sticky.


After 15 - 20 minutes it becames transparent but it is not dried, it is very sticky and ready for the gold foil.


Carefully transfer a piece of foil (with tweezers or a clean brush) on the treated surface and wipe gently over it with a soft brush to smooth the surface.


The foil is so thin that it breaks and remains only where is the glue. This is the reason for applying the glue very carefully only where you want the gold to be stuck.


And there is my head completed. I added also two little side sunshield (this is your suggestion @Nando !!)

 

[DanBKing]

Gold leaf.... a nightmare to work with.
But, as you have shown, when done well, it really makes a very big difference......! thumbsup

 

[Revell-Fan]

Excellent idea!

I have made the experience that the foil turns dull and oxidates with time. I don't know what I'm doing wrong...

 

[Tonino]

If this is real gold - as they say - it shouldn't oxidize at all.
Anyway, I think, it should be better to give some kind of final coat.
I still have a nice little jar of Tamiya paint, smoke transparent color, that I bought many years ago to darken an F16 canopy. Unfortunately now it is completely solid... unusable.
It's a pity, it would have been a good choice.

I never throw anything in the trash bin but, often, the things I keep so carefully doesn't resist to injuries of time.

I'll have to go to the paint shop to see if I find some other product to use here and give a more "glassy" look

 

[Tonino]

Added some details to the body prior to attach arms.

Not too satisfied with the tubes, they are a little too flat, but I wanted they to run exactly as they should. I draw them on CorelDraw and placed them as seen on various photos found on the web.
The red and blue valves was a real nightmare. I cut, glued and detached them 3 or 4 times. Everytime the color used to paint side of pieces spreaded all over the suit once the glued touched it. The final result is the less bad I was able to have. Nothing to be very proud of but I don't want to place my hands on them never again!
The custom command box is pretty fine and the backpack from UHU02 LM is another good point. Now the figure is pretty unstable as the center of gravity has shifted slightly backward. Let's see what will happen with arms on. In the worst case I'll put some lead shot in the feet.

 

[Tonino]

This is a detail I'm very proud of!
A watch with a dial of 1 millimeter (and a strap half than this)...

Nobody will see it but I like it so much!!!

 

[Tonino]

Finished!
This little gem was not so easy (I was aware) because it started from a project thought for a slightly greater scale. So several details, once reduced to 1:38 (right @DanBKing ? ) was just too little to be manipulated.
The result is far better than I expected and is really the cherry on the cake that's my LM.
Thanks to my friend Julius Perdana (@julescrafter ) from Paper-Replika for this very nice add-on, an essential piece for any space-addict modeler.