1/12 Space Helmet Models Buzz Aldrin

Gallery Article by Graham Symmonds on May 16 2019

 

      

I've had this little model for a while and I finally decided to get it done. With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 it made sense. I altered the base a bit to add a portion of the Lunar Module leg and landing probe, plus a place for the US Mint commemorative coin for the event. Overall it's a very simple model - not many parts. The representation is of NASA photo AS11-40-5903 https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo11/hires/as11_40_5903.jpg is very well done.

From a casting perspective, there are a fair number of small air bubble holes that I couldn't figure out how to fill without a lot of work. You really cannot see them from a reasonable distance.

Click on images below to see larger images

The base is a combination of the kit supplied piece, extended using Sculpey with some garden rock added. I built a footprint press to add additional prints in and around the landing leg. The LEM landing pad is a 3" ellipse disk from Plastruct and the leg is Evergreen tube. The LEM leg, landing pad and landing probe are covered in colored mylar with Kapton tape strips wrapped around and used to hold down the mylar.

The decals that came with the model are extremely fragile - and they don't give you all the markings so I printed my own. For the visor, I took a hi-res copy of AS-40-5903 and removed the reseau cross showing on the visor, ran the image through a free globe making application to create a decal that could really get around the compound curves. Lots of trial and error here, and I needed to touch up the junctions of the gores but it turned out pretty good.

Graham Symmonds

Click on images below to see larger images

 

Photos and text © by Graham Symmonds