trekriffic
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Glencoe Mars Liner diorama
Haven't posted anything yet on this forum so thought I'd give it a try. I assembled this post from another thread on a different forum...
This diorama is based on the reissued Glencoe Mars Liner kit:
The kit is a replica of the Disney rocket which was the centerpiece of Disneyland's Tomorrowland back in the 50's and 60's:
As a little kid, I actually went on the ride. As an adult, I passed numerous times on purchasing this kit until, one day I stood in my LHS and got the
inspiration of using it in a space diorama. So I bought it several years ago and only now have I gotten around to completing this project which
continues to grow in scope.
Here is the ship after a couple of primer coats and after much puttying and wet sanding:
Anyone familiar with this kit understands the challenge of assembling the banana peel shaped hull sections. Getting rid of the seamlines and sinkholes
took a lot of effort but I was pleased with the results.
My dio involves two crew figures on the surface of Mars so I added brass hand rungs to the side of the ship below the hatch; I needed a way the crew
to exit the ship in an emergency. In spaceport the ship would be entered over an elevated gangway connected to the terminal.
The kit's rocket nozzle vane asembly was a plug designed to slide and twist into slots in the hull making it removable. This gave me the bright idea
(pun intended) of using it to make an internal lighting system using a penlight. After looking at several possibilities I lucked out and found a
booklight at the local Dollar Tree store:
The silver cone is a push button switch. Three watch batteries power a small white LED which supposedly will last 10,000 hours !
Using the guts from the booklight and an empty exacto knife cylinder I rigged up a lamp asembly. The pushbutton switch is activated by pressing
against a button where the rocket exhaust would normally exit the ship:
The three landing legs that came with the kit were very basic so I decided to redo them. I cut the feet off and hollowed out the tops with my dremel.
I'd bought some metal beads at the craft store to use for the next step:
I glued a short piece of brass wire into the hole in the center of three of the 3mm sized beads and inserted them into the holes I'd routed out in the
feet. You want a nice snug fit so the feet don't flop around too much once attached. I cut a washer sized section of evergreen tubing and fit it over
the top of the bead with the brass wire sticking thru. I glued this ring to the top of the foot trapping the bead underneath.
Next I drilled a small hole in the center of the styrene cylinder I'd cut off the feet. I cut a tiny section of evergreen rod a step down in
diameter from the landing strut cylinder and cemented it in place giving the impression of a shock absorber.
The brass wire from the feet was then inserted intot the hole drilled into the end of the landing stuts. The feet now are free to pivot in any
direction like they should:
Here's where I'm at as of last night:
I made a portable ladder to span the gap between the hand rungs and the surface. You can also see the remains of the booklight which I'm thinking of
bashing into a smaller rocketship; maybe some type of support craft to help with minor repairs ?
The ceramic tile in the photos will be the basis for my Martian surface.
This is a closeup of the two pilots in their EVA suits. I used an N-scale figure set for the pilots, IIRC it was the "city workers" set. The helmets
are made from Micro Crystal clear dolloped on liberally to make the proper round shape and allowed to dry:
I based the pilots on the suits worn by the Disney Tomorrowland astronauts way back when:
I figure it should only be a few more weeks to complete the scene; longer if I decide to include the "booklight" ship.
More to come...
Work is progressing well on the "booklight" rescue and maintenance craft. Most of my time is being spent on the landing gear legs at the moment. The
front leg is shown at the bottiom left; it telescopes from the belly of the ship near the front. The two rear legs are shown to the right. They
telescope and swivel 90 degrees for vertical or horizontal takeoff. All have pivoting feet.
This is the latest on the Mars Advanced Rapid Response Vehicle. Another option is Mars Atomic
Rapid Rescue Vehicle. :hmmm:
Maybe I'll just go by the initials MARRV and leave it at that.
Anyway, here's photos taken Dec 22 prior to priming. Sorry this is taking so long but I'm finally satisfied with the scribing and ready to paint ! I
think...
I'm leaning toward giving this a metallic aluminum finish like an old 50's jet fighter but with rocket power. Hope everyone enjoys the pics. This ship
looks good from so many angles IMNSHO:
Well the wife posted these to photobucket for me after all.
Here are the three pilots almost ready for painting. I may add a belt and some more cords and hoses to the suits but not sure yet:
Helping hands. I basecoated the outboard rocket engines and landing gear:
External Fuel Tank:
MARRV spaceplane basecoated:
Comments welcome !
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rossjr
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Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Mood: Happy as Lark to be a Grandpa!
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Wow! Great work! I can't wait to see the final product!
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Doctor Noodle
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Registered: 13-12-2003
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That's excellent! Great work.
“Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a
consultant.” - Scott Adams
Alanoodle's Scale Model Portfolio
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Jafo
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Posts: 1575
Registered: 5-7-2005
Location: 20 miles N. of the stinking armpit that is Detroit
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Mood: Detroit… It's not a movie set, it's for real
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cool as hell!
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naplak
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Posts: 2455
Registered: 12-5-2003
Location: Aloha, Oregon
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Mood: A little less Wack.
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Really fabulous!
naplak Modeling
A Free Site for Modelers to Obtain & Share all sorts of Modeling Information. Come visit us
and see what we have! And you too can add to our site... visit and see how. |
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trekriffic
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Glencoe Mars Liner diorama-Updates
I took these pics last week. The spacemen are pretty much done now aside from painting their bases- orange and rust mixed the color of Martian sand
should do it. I'll probably white glue some rust colored sand to give them additional texture:
Part of my backstory involves a meteorite damaging the space liner. The MARRV pilot uses a "gamma" welder to fix the damage after the two ships make
an emergency landing. Here's the back of the gamma welder power unit. The gamma welder "torch" sits in a cradle on top. I did some more sanding on
this after seeing this pic:
You can see I added control panels to the top surfaces using decals for rhe cockpit of a 1/144 scale Tomcat kit. I'll be using more of these decals
when I get to that point on the MARRV. The idea is the control unit can be carried by one man fairly easily in Mars's light graviy. The top section
flips open. The welding gun is assembled from sections stored inside the box:
Pilot at the controls of the repair unit:
Rear Legs:
Parts-is-Parts:
The MARRV. Ready for decals. I used Testors Silver Metallic from a rattle can and Stoplight Red brushed on for the stripes. Windows are white enamel
with future tinted with transparent blue acrylic. This should match the bluish white light given off by the LED for the space liner's windows.
Can you guess what I added to the tail fin ?
Next week I should have pictures of the completed ship. Sorry if some of these pics are a little blurry- I took them without a tripod.
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Doctor Noodle
CAPTAIN
Posts: 872
Registered: 13-12-2003
Location: Lawn Guyland, NY
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That's beautiful stuff! You're making good use of that magnifier!
“Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a
consultant.” - Scott Adams
Alanoodle's Scale Model Portfolio
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Jafo
COMMODORE
Posts: 1575
Registered: 5-7-2005
Location: 20 miles N. of the stinking armpit that is Detroit
Member Is Offline
Mood: Detroit… It's not a movie set, it's for real
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that is so cool!
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trekriffic
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Progress continues...
I pressed the rear legs on last night.
Added the initials MARRV in decals to the sides of the wingtip rockets reading vertically; I figured the engines would be viewed a good chunk of the
time in a vertical position so went with that orientation. I had to piece letters and parts of letters from 2 decal sheets to come up with 2 sets of
MARRV.
After drying and future application (this ship is super glossy with future right now) I slid the rocket engines onto the wings. After ogling this for
a while I attached the external fuel tank to the underside. The tank has pins that fit in 2 holes. I might add a few more minor decals like warning
signs or identification panels but that's about all.
Except... I do have 4 nice little yellow panels leftover from the Excelsior decals. I could add a couple of lower access hatches.
Hmmmmm... Nope...probably better not to get too carried away on the decaling.
Somebody once said to me "Keep it simple".
This whole ship fits in the palm of my hand. It looks more like a bomber now from certain angles with those big drumbstick legs. Or a hummingbird with
the rockets vertical.
Or... a shark without the external tank.
Ya know what might look cool ?
Adding the black shark's teeth under the nose.
I have a decal for it.
No... don't get carried away now.
Gods look at me !
It's got me arguing with myself !
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Steve
OWNER
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Thread Moved
16-9-2009 at 22:19 |
trekriffic
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Here are the finished pics of this Martian diorama.
The scene depicts an emergency landing by the TWA Mars Liner "Solar Flare" in the deserts of Mars south of the Olmpus Mons escarpment which rises to a
height of almost 4 miles in the distance.
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