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I hadn't visited the ARC forums in quite some time, seems there are some serious space enthusiasts here. Thought you might enjoy my Cernan figure.
 
This project came to me when I coincidentally had the old Aurora and Revell kits in front of me at the same time. 
 
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I had always been disappointed with the Aurora astronaut and thought the Revell Ed White was a good solution.
 
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By combining the backpack and chest-pack from the Aurora kit and Astronaut from the Revell kit, I was thrilled to find they could fit together.

 

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A good "proof of concept" for my gold visor technique, some surgery on hands and suit details, I was ready to jumped in.

 
Gemini 9A was to have Gene Cernan test fly the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit, AMU. The unit was stored in the service module part of the space craft and required Cernan to leave the capsule, work his way around back and strap on the unit.
 
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Tested on earth, everything seemed fine but in orbit, the effort required to get to the back had Gene's heart rate off the scale and his visor fogged up so he could not see. He was ordered back in the cockpit without completing the test mission. After reading several books on Cernan, I knew how disappointed he was and decided to help out.
 
The biggest surgeries were re-creating fingers, metallic leg coverings, suit details and gold and clear visors.
 
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All the various suit hoses were done using different diameters of lead wire. All the new belts and straps were done with yogurt foil with the stitching done with my rivet wheel. 
Helmet ring and wrist rings were done with my go-to furnace tape, the right colored with tamiya clear red. The gold visor attachment is wrong, had I done better research before hand, I would have done it correctly, but it's staying as is.
 
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In this scale, 1/10th, ( Figure is about 6" tall, ) I found there was no cheating or short-cuts allowed. This made for a lot of work and I almost burned out with AMS. As it is, I could have done more detailing, such as lettering on the AMU but I'm done.
 
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As so often happens, as I'm looking at this post, I realized I forgot an important, obvious detail on the astronaut. I will hoist a glass of my favorite adult beverage in your honor if you can spot it too.
 
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Thanks for reading this far, enjoy.
 
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Edited by Allan31
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Very nicely done!

 

I did one a few years in 1/24 along with the Gemini 9A spacecraft. The build thread is here on this forum ... 

 

2v2JHSHvFxAnAAS.jpg

 

I like yours better! The colour of the suit, the detail on the helmet, the ELSS looks GREAT!

I'd love to see more build pix ...your AMU looks perfect, along with Geno!

 

And his mics are missing, I think,  but is that your concern?

 

Nice to see you here and glad you made it back to ARC!

Pete

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Thanks for the kind words.

 

To Pete and everyone else, no, it wasn't the mics I was concerned with and now that you've pointed it out, it is yet another build that has something I forgot.

I wasn't sure how much sleep I was going to loose with the incorrect gold visor attachment so the head is not actually glued on, it's on with sticky putty so I could almost add them. My concern is will the superglue fog the inside of the visor.

 

I will chalk this up to yet another bout of "cranial flatulence".

 

Cernan has been updated to show the missing "thing" that I was referring to and to show the decals for the AMU I found the day I posted this originally.

 

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Screen_Shot_2020_08_02_at_1.43.26_PM(1).

 

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I'm glad I found the decals, it really kinda finishes it off. I liked his flag better and replaced what I had. I also found the Gemini 9A patch and added that to the base.

 

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Ooooph...I think it really is done now.

 

cern12.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bo

 

 

Edited by Allan31
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K2Pete asked to see more build pics, click on the links for more...

 

Part 1 https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20203&p=436646#p436646

Part 2 https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20220

Part 3 https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20394

 

In fact Pete, it was your 1/24 scale modeling on Cernan I found on the www that got me back to the ARC forums so, thanks !

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Thank for the build pix ... I had made the assumption that the AMU was scratch built ... man, that looks good! They did a nice job on it!

Can I ask about the gold visor, it doesn't look as shiny and highly reflective. Is it just the angle of the image or is there a coat of matte clear on it?

 

I'm glad I helped to redirect you back to ARC ... thanx for the hat tip!  ;- D

It's great to see your builds!

 

Pete

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Pete,

No, the visor is perfect, if you look at the big close-up of the face you can see the four bladed overhead ceiling fan, and in the third from the last, you can see my head as I'm taking the photo. Had I done the photography with a real camera, you could see it better. These were all done with my phone...

I'm not sure how you missed this:.....

 

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With a couple of coats of Future, the visors sparkle beautifully and hide any scratches......

Edited by Allan31
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