American Astronaut, Gene Cernan,....Part 2.......

[Allan31]

Honestly, my next build was going to be my DynaSoar combination in 1/100 scale.





I had the Reveal Gemini astronaut out and also the old Aurora astronaut and was intrigued at how similar in size they were.



The Aurora sculpting is typical 1967 but the equipment parts looked pretty accurate compared to photos. The Revell Gemini astronaut is a pretty good and simple kit.

Gemini 9A was flown by Gene Cernan and Thomas Stafford. The mission was to dock with a practice vehicle, the Agena, and also test the first MMU or AMU, Manned Maneuvering Unit or Astronaut Maneuvering Unit. Ultimately, it was MMU. Upon arrival, the Agena was found to not have shed its protective nose cone making docking impossible. This Agena was to be called the "Angry Alligator". Since an EVA was planned anyway, it was discussed that Cernan would float out to the Agena, cut the strap with hand snips and remove the cone. This was abandoned as nobody could reliably know how much tension that one strap was under and it was deemed too dangerous to let Cernan that close.



They then went to the next scheduled event, the EVA. Cernan was to leave the Gemini cockpit, go around to the back of the service module and don the MMU unit.







Due to inadequate training in working in a weightless environment, Gene was able to work his way to the back of the module but with his elevated heart rate and respiration combined with a fogged over visor preventing him seeing anything, Mission Control ordered him back inside before he could complete the EVA. This is what the Aurora kit is depicting. To my knowledge, no accurate kit in resin or plastic shows to good effect this EVA.

Cernan wore almost the exact same suit as White did on his walk in space. I assembled the Revell kit right out of the box.





Discarding the astronaut, I assembled the MMU equipment from the Aurora kit. It went together well for thick plastic from 1967. Looking at my reference photos I collected off the internet, it seems fairly accurate as well.





I could now test fit everything together to see how much surgery was going to be needed.





I was amazed at how well this rough fitting went together. Only some sculpting of fingers and figuring out a covering for the leggings and this is just falling together, I'm thrilled.



More to come, thanks for wondering down this far, be safe and wash your hands!!!

[general rocket]

Interesting

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice build. Love the history too. Keep it coming.

Nigel

[Allan31]

I found the decals with the Revell kit and noticed the name tag was blank.( It should have said "White")



Using rub on type letters, I was able to squeeze in "Cernan"



I needed an extra "Nasa" logo on the front pack and raided the stash for that..



I took the kit visor and vac-formed thinner copies.



I used my christmas ball idea and made the gold platted visor. After several attempts, I got one I can use. I will put thin strips on to look more like the real deal.







I next had to change the kit hands to grab onto the nobs on the MMU. The left hand one was easy, but the right came molded with the controller in his hand. I cut away controller and fingers and start making a new hand with styrene rods and putty.







This is it shaped but not sanded smooth, should work fine.





Next came the legs. I thought they had something like pull on "chaps" to protect the suit from jet blast but it turns out the leggings were sewn in to the suit itself. I'm having some trouble figuring out how to make the texture of the silver legs different for the white suit but I'm experimenting...





Thanks for reading down this far, more later.