1/16 Resin ASTRONAUT kit

NEIL A. ARMSTRONG

"That's one small step for (a) man, One giant leap for mankind".

Gallery Article by Michael Jack on Nov 22 2012

 

 

On July 16th 1969, Three Astronauts launched atop a mighty Saturn V to make history, Of landing the first men upon the moon.  A four day voyage 252,710 miles (406,700km) from earth.

On July 20th the world held it's breath as the CDR of the Apollo 11 mission Neil A. Armstrong & LMP Buzz Aldrin took the LM Eagle down to the lunar surface.  Whilst lone CMP Mike Collins relayed all communication to earth from lunar orbit in the CM Columbia.

After a daring troubled manual landing on the lunar surface, tranquility base was established.  With all the checks for suit up made & LM cabin depressurization.  The hatch was opened & Buzz helped Neil out backward to the porch landing, were he then descended the ladder, spoke his famous words & the rest is history, mans first steps on another heavenly body.

 

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I made this model of Neil Armstrong from a resin kit, originally modeled as Al Shepard with his famous golf swing.  The model does not come with decals, I was lucky to have a couple of spare US flags & NASA meat balls from other space models.  After the kit parts were sanded, & modified I assembled the model. It went together very well, & was happy with all the detail. 

This is a very accurate model, I did need to remove the visor cover from the helmet & visor. I altered the right arm with putty to grasp the lander leg later.  I then spray painted the model with a base coat of off white, then a top coat of white AS11.  The hose connections were painted with Humbrol metallic blue 52 & gloss red 19. Gold 16 for visor, flat black for watch band, Boots painted Humbrol gray 140 & 157.

The base is an MDF box from a craft shop, I used a thin layer of resin & added crushed granite to simulate lunar surface.  Several grays were used to bring out textures to the moons base.

The lander leg was scratch built from evergreen plastic pipe covered in gold & silver foil, the ladder is also evergreen plastic, including the flag stowage.  Putty was used to make the detail at each end of the leg including the pad.

Thank you & I hope you enjoy my model of the late great hero Neil A. Armstrong, who become the first man to set foot upon the lunar surface after making the voyage from the Earth to the Moon.

Michael Jack

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Photos and text © by Michael Jack