Moonliner......(With new Moon Base..)

Allan31 · August 27, 2020

So, after I finished my Cernan build, posted in "Real Space", I thought I would give myself something simple to build.

A white tube with three white things, how hard could it be?.......

I assembled the three sections of the fuselage then sanded and filled the sink marks and miss-aligned seams.

2-3 coats of Tamiya primer sanded silky smooth and then I applied the white. I opted to use a gloss white automotive "Touch-up" paint. First mistake.

The paint was hotter than I realized and dissolved all the layers of primer and putty. Several days to dry out then start all over sanding.

I then went with Rust-oleum 2x gloss white that I've had great luck with in the past. It reacted with something underneath and lots of alligator skin. Second mistake.

A week of letting it gas out and more sanding and a light , smooth coat of primer. Another couple of days drying then one light coat of the 2x white. A week drying then a nice wet sanding to silky smooth and one slightly wet coat of 2x white. At this point I broke off the pointy nose I had been so careful of. Cutting away damage, drilling hole for thick sewing needle, gap filling super glue sanded smooth.

That would be the third mistake.

Gassed out and white, time for decals. Too dark of a red but it is what I had. The hardest was the wrap around on the nose but managed. Next the "TWA". Glencoe used a very thin carrier film and much curling and folding but managed to float everything out into place. Oh, and I had a drop of Future to help with silvering under all the decals.

Following the directions, stripes #3 go here and #2 goes there. Well the call outs on the decal sheet are wrong, swapped. I did the legs first and was disappointed they were short but figured I can touch them up later. Then applied stripes between the leg storage area and they were much too long. Mistake number four...

At this point, for the first time in my life, I binned the model. never let plastic get to me before but this time it did.

Next morning I realized I can get a replacement sheet so I sent an email. I then retrieved the kit, washed off the coffee grounds and potato salad and set aside to dry.( It could be argued that this was another mistake...) The decals arrived 3 days later..

Yup, they sent me the better, brighter red decal sheet. Mistake number five or six I think....

Since the darker decals had been put down with Future underneath, they did not come off. Wet sanding to smooth edges, then 2 light coats of white. No reactions, 3 days of drying......

Since I had lots of practice with the decals, this session went much better. And since I was winning with decals I applied the door decal as well. The real one didn't have it but it looked cool and as I said, I was winning. I disgarded all the kit clear styrene for the windows and used Testers clear window maker instead, much, much easier.

I applied 2 light coats of clear gloss and prayed, again no reaction.

The wood base I bought online and will put a moon texture with spackle as I did on my Lindberg kit.

Remember, a white tube with three white things.......BaDaBing............

Edited September 30, 2020 by Allan31

Allan31 · September 30, 2020

The plain wood base needed some attention.

This is a method I've used on several other bases, works well and is stupid easy.

I sanded the wood to rough it up and apply wall spackle.

I plopped on the rocket to get footprints and then added craters using different objects like pens, beads of different sizes and fingers. For the "sand" effect, I stippled the spackle with a stiff brush.

The three craters in the front are made by my grand daughters finger. She wanted to help make "Papa's Moon". When dry, I took cans of light gray and nato black and just sprayed wet on wet to get a mottled effect.