Lunar module - Finished

Having reached the 90% spot mid-december, I once again found myself stuck on a model, unable to find the motivation to push through to the end. Wich is why the last 10% was finished - after a 2-month hiatus - with least possible effort. The Vallejo Metal Varnish actually made it worse in some parts and I won't be bothering to do extra paintwork on the astronauts.

Nevertheless, the kit served it's purpose as source of nostalgia for a long-lost model from my childhood and as a testbed for Vallejo's Metal Color range, which has impressed me (except for the varnish).

Kit: Lunar Module
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Airfix
Price: €7 (second-hand)
Number of parts: 90
Time spent: 14 hours
Project completion time: 4 months

If you get to the last picture, you might think it's a varnishing-job gone horribly wrong, but it is in fact a recreation of micro-meteorite impacts. :-)

Materials used : (Paint = Vallejo)

• Black primer
• Metal Color - Duraluminium
• Gold
• German Grey (Pure black would have been too harsh)
• Mix of Light Grey and Yellow Lazure for the base

• Aluminium foil for the lower stage
• Sand + white glue (diluted) for the base

Lunar module - Basecoat Vallejo metal colours

I must say, I'm rather impressed with Vallejo's new range "Metal color". I only tried duraluminium, but others have tried most of the colours and they behave the same way.

It sprays almost like water, so easy on the trigger is the most important message I can give you. The result is very ... well, "metallic" is the best word to describe it. If I had polished the primer a bit, it would probably have looked even better. Metallic paints are very unforgiving for surface flaws.

The gold on the descent stage (picture below) is regular old "Model color" and sprays badly (old bottle? bad technique?). Result is okay and since it's on an irregular surface (aluminium foil), it's hardly noticeable.

For the landing legs (which I've wrapped in aluminium foil for the proper texture), I will admit there's something extremely dissatisfying about priming aluminium foil in black and then painting it aluminium. (Reason; other colours will follow)

Lunar module + Vallejo gloss black primer

First step in trying out Vallejo's new metallic colours, is seeing how well the accompanying gloss black primer behaves.

I can already tell you it sprays beautifully straight from the bottle. That may not sound surprising to you, as the entire Vallejo Model Air range and the primers is supposed to do so, but as I usually have to thin it 30-40% to get it right, this was an actual first. Low pressure and easy in the trigger.

In a quick few coats, the result is indeed very glossy, laying down what should be the perfect undercoat for their new metallic paint range.

Now THAT is glossy! 

I've wrapped some parts in aluminium foil and primed those as well. I haven't tested how durable the primer is when masking tape comes in the picture, but I'll let you know.

I'll be honest, sometimes I actually like the construction phase, especially when it's all fiddly bits. Getting on your knees to find them on the floor is the best!

Lunar Module - Part 1

Among last weekend's loot from the convention, was Airfix's 1/72 Lunar Module. This is a very old kit (1970), reboxed many times and likely to have flaws, sinkmarks and a whole lot of flash, but I bought it anyway.
It's a model I build 20 years ago, that got ruined in a moving accident. I can't remember the brand, but it wasn't Airfix. I think I bought it at Space-camp. I'm now rebuilding it for nostalgia's sake.

There's not that many pieces, but enough to keep me happy for a while again.

I found one picture of my old model. You can imagine what happens to all those fiddly bits when you drop a shelf on top of it, It was painted just one shade of aluminum, but it was a sad moment when I had to toss it in the bin.

The old model kit had a sheet of gold foil for the legs and descent stage. The Airfix model does not, but I'm going to try and see if I can replicate it with aluminum foil and paint it silver/gold/.... Call it another experiment.

Everytime I (intend to) start a more "casual" kit, it quickly escalates to more serious while doing research. I was just looking for which parts I needed to paint gold, when I found this site detailing which coating was used for every part of the module. Turns out they used over 10 different kinds of metal/fabric coating to protect all the parts. I guess painting will take a little longer that anticipated.