Questions about the Lunar Lander kit

[Oldcarfan27]

For a Christmas gift, we gave our son this kit.

As it's an old tool, I'm sure some folks here have built it in the past. I have a couple questions on it.

Since the kit comes with a sheet of Mylar film to represent the insulation blanket, how does it get attached to the plastic parts? Instructions say to "cement" it in place, but I get flashbacks of model gluing fabric to interior seats and creating a lumpy mess! There's got to be a more professional way than tube glue for this.

Second question, I'm trying to think of a fine grain material to use as "moon dirt" on the base. We want it to look like powder, but not smooth like paint. I thought of using flour, but I think the bugs would like that too much!

Third question, besides the gold foil areas, what colors are the best to represent the metals used on the rest of the lander? Instructions are very vague and the only pictures I can find online of the real one are in black and white. No color film on the moon, I guess.

Any advice would be welcomed. 

[Dpate]

If you look up the kit you'll see how it's more along the lines of silver/or aluminum along with black. Don't know about a real picture of it though.  Best metal colors for that would be Ak, Alcald, or even vallejo metal colors Silver or aluminum.  

[SSNJim]

Are you talking about the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module?

[Classicgas]

I have the, it myself.  I would use superglue for the mylar. There should be color pics out there. 

[DPNM]

1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Second question, I'm trying to think of a fine grain material to use as "moon dirt" on the base. We want it to look like powder, but not smooth like paint. I thought of using flour, but I think the bugs would like that too much.

If you try flour, and it looks good to you, perhaps a coat of flat, matte or satin clear would not leave it exposed to attract bugs.

[bisc63]

There was an excellent article some years back in FIneScaleModeler magazine that dealt with detailing this kit that went into it pretty deep as I recall. The lander was built to be light weight, so most of it is aluminum or some alloy of it, so using your favorite metal paint finishes in assorted textures ( flat, polished, etc.) make for a fairly attractive model straight out of the box, but there is always room for improvement! I would trash the mylar, and go out and buy a couple of Rolos candy "bars". Each segment of Rolos is wrapped in a very nice, thin, gold colored foil that will yield absolutely realistic results for the gold foiled areas of the model. It will take just a small dab of glue ( Elmer's, super glue,  anything really) to hold it in place since is real metal foil and will wrap and crinkle and nearly hold itself in place. If I can find the article mentioned, I'll reply here again with the info. As for the base, just use some plaster of paris powder, arrange as desired and mist with water in a very fine spray , like from a Windex bottle. Good luck!

Edited January 1, 2022 by bisc63

[peteski]

While I don't own that kit, I know that the gold foil is all crumpled (not smoothly applied to the surfaces.

I assume that the foil included in the kit has that mirror-gold finish and is very thin (like the foil used for cut flower bags).  If I was to build that kit I would cut the foil in a rough shape for each of the covered areas (make sure to make it larger than needed), then, in my hand, crumple the heck out of it. Then I would spray the back of it with some spray adhesive (the type that when dry becomes like the pressure-sensitive adhesive on stickers.  Then I would just apply it to the surfaces.  It will just stick to plastic, but don't press to hard to keep the crumpled foil look. For the landing gear pylons, just wrap the sticky crumpled foil around them.

If the included Mylar is stiff or thick, this procedure will not work.

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by peteski

[Rodent]

LM2 is at the National Air and Space Museum.

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/how-replicate-lunar-module-moon

How about some non-sanded tile grout for the moon's surface?

Edited January 1, 2022 by Rodent

[robdebie]

4 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Since the kit comes with a sheet of Mylar film to represent the insulation blanket, how does it get attached to the plastic parts? Instructions say to "cement" it in place, but I get flashbacks of model gluing fabric to interior seats and creating a lumpy mess! There's got to be a more professional way than tube glue for this.

Second question, I'm trying to think of a fine grain material to use as "moon dirt" on the base. We want it to look like powder, but not smooth like paint. I thought of using flour, but I think the bugs would like that too much!

Third question, besides the gold foil areas, what colors are the best to represent the metals used on the rest of the lander? Instructions are very vague and the only pictures I can find online of the real one are in black and white. No color film on the moon, I guess.

I built the 1/96 version two years ago, and made a full build report, with details of the paints I used:

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/lm.htm

With this as the end result:

For the 'wrinkled' isolation blankets, I used kitchen aluminum foil. If you have an airbrush you can use yellow and red paint to mist over the foil to create the required three colors. My build report includes a link to the David Weeks drawings, that contain a ton of information.

For the fine-grained material, another modeler used a mortar repair material, to repair brick walls, and that looked really good - just the right mix of fine material and 'boulders' if applied with a spatula. Plus probably the right color, boring medium gray. Here's a picture of the stuff I'm talking about:

Rob

 

 

[Oldcarfan27]

Great suggestions, guys!

I like the Rolos foil idea, any excuse to eat them. We might practice with aluminum foil first.

Plaster of Paris and grout are great solutions for the ground.

Pete, that's a very useful picture. I didn't find any pics of the LEM in color. 

Mr. Rodent

Great suggestions, guys!

I like the Rolos foil idea, any excuse to eat them. We might practice with aluminum foil first.

Plaster of Paris and grout are great solutions for the ground.

Pete, that's a very useful picture. I didn't find any pics of the LEM in color. 

Mr. Rodent, thanks for the link, that's gonna help a lot.

Rob, that's a nice build, very detailed.

4 hours ago, bisc63 said:

There was an excellent article some years back in FIneScaleModeler magazine that dealt with detailing this kit that went into it pretty deep as I recall. If I can find the article mentioned, I'll reply here again with the info.

Rusty, Please share that info if you can find it. Sounds cool!

[Can-Con]

Here's a link to pics of an actual LM in The Smithsonian Museum. They should be pretty accurate. Almost the same as the link Steve posted above but might have some other pics in there.

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/lunar-module-2-apollo/nasm_A19711598000 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Can-Con

[Bainford]

Micro Scale foil adhesive is worth considering for applying the mylar (or Rolo foil, as the case may be). 

[Rodent]

1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Mr. Rodent, thanks for the link, that's gonna help a lot.

I was able to visit Air and Space a number of years ago while on a work trip. It occurred to me that if there was a restored example somewhere, it would be there and there would be lots of pics available. It's cool that they have "cloned" LM2 into LM5, which is probably what you are looking for anyway.

How old is your kid? 

[peteski]

16 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Pete, that's a very useful picture. I didn't find any pics of the LEM in color. 

You're welcome.  I'm surprised you didn't  find any color photos.  I just used my favorite search engine and searched for "apollo lunar landing module" and I found lots of color photos.   https://duckduckgo.com/?q=apollo+lunar+landing+module&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images

[SSNJim]

Another good source for drawings and color photos is Wikipedia. Look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module . It looks like they have pictures of all LM/LEMs. 

[Oldcarfan27]

I typed in "air and space museum lunar lander" and I found lots of shots of the LM on display in Washington DC. Looks like there's a lot of good detailed angles of it (except the bottom) including all the metallic shades and textures. 

This ought to be fun!

[Classicgas]

Thanks for the Rolo foil tip.

[bisc63]

Here's a nice build thread ( this guy does really nice work)

https://www.hobbytalk.com/threads/apollo-11-eagle-by-monogram.525986/

[bisc63]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:20 PM, bisc63 said:

If I can find the article mentioned, I'll reply here again with the info.

...and here it is for anyone interested: FineScale Modeler article by David Senechal was in the September 1989 issue, even made the cover. It's a six page how-to that is very well written and illustrated; plenty of pictures and artwork. Back issues are pretty easy to find on ebay if you watch a bit, and subscribers may even be able to access the article online. If you're serious about accurizing the lunar lander, this article is highly recommended. Best of luck, and show us what you do!

[deuces wild]

On 1/1/2022 at 4:17 PM, Oldcarfan27 said:

For a Christmas gift, we gave our son this kit.

As it's an old tool, I'm sure some folks here have built it in the past. I have a couple questions on it.

Since the kit comes with a sheet of Mylar film to represent the insulation blanket, how does it get attached to the plastic parts? Instructions say to "cement" it in place, but I get flashbacks of model gluing fabric to interior seats and creating a lumpy mess! There's got to be a more professional way than tube glue for this.

Second question, I'm trying to think of a fine grain material to use as "moon dirt" on the base. We want it to look like powder, but not smooth like paint. I thought of using flour, but I think the bugs would like that too much!

Third question, besides the gold foil areas, what colors are the best to represent the metals used on the rest of the lander? Instructions are very vague and the only pictures I can find online of the real one are in black and white. No color film on the moon, I guess.

Any advice would be welcomed.

Nevermind...

Edited January 19, 2022 by deuces wild

[SfanGoch]

The best reference resource about modelling the 1/48 Lunar Module & CSM. Click on THIS link.

[Matt Bacon]

Very little of the lander is actually silver. The ascent stage (cabin) is dark grey, pale grey-green, beige or black-grey in different panels depending on what coatings or protection are applied. The link SfanGoch has posted has drawings showing the panel layout.

best,

M.

[bisc63]

9 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

The best reference resource about modelling the 1/48 Lunar Module & CSM. Click on THIS link.

Many thanks for posting that link; that is a wealth of good info!

[Oldcarfan27]

On 1/19/2022 at 1:30 PM, SfanGoch said:

The best reference resource about modelling the 1/48 Lunar Module & CSM. Click on THIS link.

Great reference, Thanks!

[Oldcarfan27]

I'm thinking were going to use PlayDough to fill in the footprints in the lunar surface to protect the detail, and then powder the undisturbed moon dirt areas, followed by pulling of the PlayDough to show the footprints again.