Houston, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed.

[Ian]

Hi and welcome to my build thread. I'll be building the Revell 1:100 Lunar Module "Eagle". As the title suggests I am intending to build a diorama with "Eagle" 40 feet above the moon with a little dust being kicked up from the surface.
Should be interesting!
I have ideas on how to create this but time will tell if I am successful or not.

[coptermech]

You could always ask those who believe we never actually went to the moon for some tips on how they managed the effect.......lol. Just kidding. Looking forward to your build

[Ian]

You say that, Tony, but I am toying with the idea of a diorama in a diorama.
Someone (and for the life of me I can't remember who) suggested a dio along the lines of Capricorn 1, where they had the LEM in a 'set' surrounded by backdrops and cameras. So I might make my dio and then, time permitting, add a secondary dio to fit neatly around the first, with lighting rigs, backdrops and cameras and so on.

[Ian]

Onto the important stuff!

Box


Sprues


Decals


Sweet wrappers


The sweet wrappers are gluing onto the bottom section of Eagle. They're a nice colour on the inside.


The kit may look simple but I am certain there are many pitfalls awaiting me, not least breaking the parts as I take them off the sprues. The hardest part will be the dio. I know what I want to achieve but I'm not 100% sure how to go about it all yet.
Still, let's get the kit built first!

[Jagewa]

Oh course you'll do it Ian, I'm so looking forward to this dio.
For mounting you could adjust your 40 feet down to have it just touching down ,and use the wire contact probes form the feet of the legs to hold it up..

Cheers
Jim

[Ian]

It's not the Eagle that I'm concerned about, Jim. It's the 'kicking up some dust' part. I'll work it out.

[Jagewa]

Ahh ok, it wouldn't have been fluffy sort of clouds of dust either would it?
So cotton wool may not look right.. hmm, now about tiny teased out wisps of cotton wool in a sort of broken ring around the landing zone?

[Ian]

I'm thinking about going down the teased out cotton wool route. I would need to dye it first as I don't want pure white.

On a more positive note I have been gluing parts together. Four, to be exact.
The ascent stage has been glued and sanded and has had a coat of aluminium to show where filler is needed.

I also added some windows made from thin transparent plastic as none are provided in the kit.

The descent stage is also assembled.


And with some nice sweet wrappers...


I have started foiling.


I have added three lots so far and I don't think you can see where they overlap.

Plenty still to do!

[Jagewa]

I like your size of wrinkles.. I bet you don't hear that very often

[Ian]

Thank you kindly, Jim. I've now finished the sides and top. I'll do the bottom tomorrow.
I'm thinking about painting the foil as it's a bit patchy where, when I scrunched it up to get the wrinkles, some of the foil came away.
I may try to so the underside with a single piece of kitchen foil.

[Jagewa]

Yes I was thinking of painting mine with some of Tamiya's clear yellow and orange, and see how it looks.

Cheers
Jim

[Ian]

I was leaning more towards gold. A mix of clear colours might be better. I'll have to try both on scrap and see what looks best.

[jssel]

Nice work. How are you attaching the foil?

[Ian]

I'm using Uhu - an all purpose contact adhesive. Very stringy to work with but does the job as it allows me to reposition and slide the foil as I need to.

[ShaunW]

That foiling looks very good Ian. I always thought quite a shiny gold was appropriate for these vehicles.