This
is the EVA Models Lunar Rover. It's my first all Resin kit. Chris Chulamanis,
who passed away just after New Year's 2008, did an outstanding job on this kit.
No air bubbles, easy-to-understand, well illustrated, instructions and very well
thought out.
I
scratchbuilt the aft equipment pallet to depict Apollo 17. The diorama depicts
the astronauts' visit to the Taurus - Littrow site, Station 6, in December 1972.
The Apollo 17 landing site, named for the Taurus mountains and Littrow crater,
is located in a mountainous region on the southeastern rim of the Mare
Serenitatis basin.
I
initially used the figures from the kit, one standing, one seated, but decided,
after watching the Spacecraft Film on Apollo 17, to have the Gene Cernan figure
walking from the LRV to the 'Jack' Schmitt figure. I contacted Chris at EVA and
he obliged me by sending me another standing figure. I then modified each figure
by repositioning arms and legs and shaving material from the visor area of the
helmets to more accurately represent them. You may notice I've also added straps
and hoses, to the astronaut figures as well as tongs and a hammer to the Cernan
figure ( red stripes).
Click on
images below to see larger images
I
then scratchbuilt the Equipment pallet, to show the version of the LRV, used on
Apollo 17, using styrene, some aluminum sheet ( from a commercial printer ),
some styrene rods and 1/16" aluminum tube.
The
LRV has seat belts, a map holder, a tool attached to the mast and a few other
customized items on it.
The
LRV and astronaut figures were then sprayed with a couple shades of grey to
represent lunar dust, which went everywhere.
The
'lunar' base is masonite (...I also used foam rubber to create the slope and
the big boulders...) with crack filler (spackle) spread over it. You may
also see the scratch built Gnomon by the Schmitt figure. One of its uses
was to get accurate colours when printing the photos.
The
website, Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, was my prime photographic reference tool.
Just about every photo taken on an Apollo lunar mission is on that site.
This
is a very good kit. Well cast resin, photo etch parts and excellent instructions
made this a fun build.
Thanx
for looking and ... thanx Steve, once again, for maintaining such a great site!
Pete
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