southwestforests

I would never have thought that about the flag. Then again, Napoleanic period is one I know little about. The guys look good, ready for action at any moment.

More thoughts about the astronauts: Had 2 sets bought multiple decades ago; bought 2 of the re-release last July; recently received 2 more bought this July. Wanted extra figures to try some kitbashing, especially for a second rover rider. Idea is that because 2nd figure creates clashing arms at the centerline control panel; swap some torsos to make differently posed riders & do a few with simply a different arm on the centerline. & also to try some detailing of the rover: such as whether fenders could be made out of dampened and formed paper.Paper could also be used to create section of straps between backpack and molded straps on figure shoulders. Another fine detail which could be added to figures is drill locations on chest for those additional life support hookups then add bits of styrene rod or metal wire as a basic representation of the 3D fittings. /media/tinymce_upload/130c8ac4ac066c4a4e4ba249c2779c48.JPG Getting that waistline hand worked in to sitting lower body could be an adventure. Would probably be a more straightforward job if figures were hard styrene, but pulling it off in this softer plastic would be a most satisfying accomplishment. And speaking of hands, yeah, my hands were shaky and I decided to paint the figure bases anyway because I didn't want to do nothing and make zero progress that day. Is frustrating when messy health gets in the way of having fun. /media/tinymce_upload/0fe440234a9094e16c3cae2f74fc75bc.JPG One of the Lunar Flying Vehicle parts in one of the newest sets was a short shot, but that's no loss, I'm wanting to try scratchbuilding one anyway. /media/tinymce_upload/58efad04b1e26c27de0c40a410c2c7f4.JPG Note: the white plastic will still yellow after multiple decades even when figures are in their box in a container in the closet. As well as yellowing they had also become a bit sticky. When I finally began painting them last summer they got a quick bath in soft abrasive cleanser and that resolved the stickyness issue. /media/tinymce_upload/3fa772e8b83deb5e3090a04f9b1cbb61.JPG And the referring to the Rover, the following book is full of great photo references for adding details to the rovers in box.My imagination can envision a resin and photoetch Lunar Rover product from the detail manufacturers but the practical side of my brain says there isn't going to be enough demand to justify the production effort. (I can also imagine a history where Airfix made a 2nd Astronaut set which had a few more figure poses & the various surface experiments placed around the landing sites. In my vision of history those poses would include another rover rider, a figure alighting or debarking from the rover, and figures engaged in geology tasks)And since the forum is seen in countries which drive on different sides of the road I want to add that the book states, somewhere, what side was designated official driver side of rover but at the moment I can't find the page.One thing I learned was that for a radiator for dissipating heat generated by the on-board electronics it melted wax in a tank & and then the wax solidified while rover rested between uses. Rover had 4-wheel steering and system could be set for only 2-wheel steering at front or rear. /media/tinymce_upload/208b3fb447e3e32532c0172f70a23a1a.jpg Okay, that covers the rest of what I want to add here. Scott

NASA has a number of photo albums on Flickr, so even though it is a year after this thread was begun, here for future reference is one of those album pages with several useful images of astronauts on the moon, with a couple showing the back of of the PLSS pack. (Personal Life Support System) Note how stark a white the suit appeared when directly in sunlight. Also; note radio antenna atop PLSS pack. (may or may not add to my guys, depends on how good my coordination is & how likely to break a #78 drill bit I feel) Astronaut photos are halfway down page. https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/with/21660108175/ --- Might this be inspiration for astronaut in the awkward leaning pose? https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21039121693/in/photostream/ --- Visor appearance: note in above images how visor feflects black sky and grey ground when viewed head-on. Somewhere in there are a couiple closeups where it can be seen that gold reflective coating on visor is giving reflection of grey ground a brownish/tan hue. --- Yet in this image note how the gold reflective coating dominates visor hue in side view;

While the question is about Humbrol paints, I'm painting, finally, my Astronauts with artist acrylic paints and acrylic craft paints. After trimming what little flash there was and washing figures with soft abrasive kitchen cleanser and an old toothbrush, they were given a base coat of artist acrylic matte medium with a little bit of grey craft acrylic mixed in so as to provide a way to judge coverage and have a built in shadow effect. When that was dry visors were painted black, because the edges would need to be touched up when painting white suit. As far as I can tell the exterior covering of the pressure suits was pure white; but I mixed white and off white and for unknown reasons a bit of pearlescent white. I was going for acceptable to me, not necessarily Smithsonian Museum quality, and gloves and boots were painted 2 different light greys, the boots just a hair darker than neutral grey, and the gloves just a hair lighter and bluer grey. After that, went back & touched up around visor, then gave black visor a coat of gloss with a bit of gold mixed in. In photos on the moon the visor is reflecting the blackness of the sky; but I remember reading that to the astronauts everything looked yellowish because of the the gold reflective coating on visor. And speaking of visors, later missions had additional sun shields added to helmet, might eventually try making those out of paper. Decided to paint-in some shadowing. While shadows were pretty stark because of lack of atmosphere there was lots of light reflected from moon surface. And then on a couple of the later missions the suits got very dusty, downright grimy. So on a couple figures being employed as decoration on base of MPC's Pilgrim Observer kit the Airfix guys were weathered to reflect that. (hmm, I'm not sure if super-extreme closeups are a good thing or a bad thing with my health declining and my dexterity following that decline)(but, hey, that 12 year old and several times dropped camera still does pretty well on the macro setting!) /media/tinymce_upload/20f312667736e6de0e271761043cfeeb.JPG

While these guys are being talked about, I finally, after literally 40 years, found what that 2 seat, 4 legged, thing is: Bell Aircraft Company, Aerosystems divisi Lunar Flying Vehicle (LFV). It seems design work started in 1964 as part of a series of studies for moon mobility devices.Text on page 200, Was listed as having a dry mass of 403 earth-lbs & a gross mass of 1548 earth-lbs with a flight range of 50 miles. /media/tinymce_upload/b78b1ba39f6559d58225c0e38dbd231e.JPG /media/tinymce_upload/2d271fd85cf8e008ba36bc44e554236b.JPG