Astronauts A00741V

[Lareinedespres]

Hi there,

I've just purchased my first Airfix kit in (at a rough estimate) 35 years. It's the Vintage Classics Astronauts set, and I can't wait to get painting. However, there's no indication of which Humbrol paints I require. I wonder if somebody might be so kind as to suggest the relevant pots? I searched the forum for information, and the Humbrol site for the original set, but to no avail, so I thought I'd try asking here.

Thanks in advance,

Lareinedespres

[Ratch]

I have two old sets (I've not painted yet). When I do, I shall do a google image search and look for the real thing and try to copy them.

Probably white or silver maybe mixed with a little grey and a metallic visor (gold? Baltic Blue?) for starters.

[Lareinedespres]

Yes, thinking a 'dirty' white and a darkened bronze is the way to go. I shall just have courage in my conviction!

[Sailorman]

Unfortunately my instructions for the original set are packed away -  I'll be so glad when my move to the new house is done - it's postponed to September now  ☹️.

The best way to check the colours is to look up photos of the real astronauts on the moon.

NASA have an excellent website.  

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/index.html

The only problem is that if you visit it you are likely to end up spending hours going through the images and text........ and that will cut down on you model making time!

As we are coming up to the 50th Anniversary of the first landing the site is full of really interesting stuff.

 

[Kenneth ONeill]

Yes, thinking a 'dirty' white and a darkened bronze is the way to go. I shall just have courage in my conviction!

And possibly some pale grey "dust" on the boots (and the wheels of the Lunar Rover).

[Tomek22]

Some time ago I painted some of these. I used white for the suit, grey for the gloves and boots. Black for the visor. I tried to use bronze for the visors, too, but was not very satisfied with the result.

[Sailorman]

I used the humbrol "gold" paint.  I didn't stir it but too some of the solids out with a toothpick and placed it on a clean paper.  Then I used the oil with just a touch of the solids.  This gave a very faint gold tinge over the black which I painted beneath it..  It needs a bit longer to dry though.

[southwestforests]

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,

"The missions of the LFV are the return of astronaut-scientists to the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), if a surface roving mobile laboratory (MOLAB) should be disabled and, to supplement the surface vehicle by permitting flights to areas which are inaccessible to a MOLAB.

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.

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[southwestforests]

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!)

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[southwestforests]

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/

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Might this be inspiration for astronaut in the awkward leaning pose?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/21039121693/in/photostream/

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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.

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Yet in this image note how the gold reflective coating dominates visor hue in side view;

[southwestforests]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Okay, that covers the rest of what I want to add here.

Scott