The TWA Moonliner has always been
one of my favorite rocket designs. I can still remember seeing the original at
Disneyland when I was a kid. I have built several variations on this model,
using the Glencoe reissue as a starting point for various kitbashes.
When I found out the
theme of a science-fiction modeling contest being held at another site I
frequent (www.starshipmodeler.com)
was going to be "Legs", it seemed only natural to build one of these
beautiful ships for the contest. While kicking around ideas for how I was going
to build the kit, I was suddenly struck with an inspiration. A few weeks
earlier, I found a L'Eggs egg at my local thrift store for a quarter. (The
nylons inside make great paint strainers for airbrushing, BTW.) I decided to
build an eggplane variant of the Moonliner- a "TWEgg" Moonliner, as it
were. Thus, I'd be able to hit the theme of the contest threefold- a spaceship
with legs, made out of a "L'Eggs" egg, based on a design that is over
fifty years old- definitely a design with "legs".
Assembly was straightforward, if
a bit tedious. I cut the nose and cockpit off of a Moonliner model I had lying
around and glued that to the end of a small plastic Easter Egg. This assembly
was then epoxied to the narrow end of the L'Eggs egg. Meanwhile, I carefully cut
three slots in the broad end of the L'Eggs egg with a razor saw. (You can see
the tape layout for the cuts in the picture of raw materials for this project.)
The L'Eggs egg was made of an
extremely brittle plastic, so after cutting the slots it needed some support and
bracing from the inside. I glued styrene strips immediately inside the slots,
backed the slots with styrene sheet (to duplicate the landing gear slots on the
original), then backed the styrene up with Aves putty.
While that dried, I used Aves
putty and a styrene template to fair in the gap between the nose and the top of
the L'Eggs egg. I waited for that to dry, filed it into rough shape, then glued
the two halves together.
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images below to see larger images
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Did you know that a L'Eggs egg is
not a perfect egg shape? I do, NOW. After removing the six "nubs"
around the circumference, I applied more Aves putty to the various depressions
and ridges around the equator of the egg, then sanded, then sprayed the egg with
sandable primer (after masking the cockpit windows.) I repeated this process 3
or 4 times, each time getting closer to the final, seamless shape I was looking
for. (An amusing aside: My wife, upon seeing me sanding away at the legless
shape of the "TWEgg" Moonliner body, asked me "Why are you making
a model sperm?")
I painted the body with Testors
gloss white, then went in with 1500# sandpaper and smoothed the paintjob even
further. The landing leg slots were masked and shot with silver paint. (I wanted
this to be a clean, 1950's machine- no heavy weathering here.) An exhaust from
an AMT/Ertl Star Wars Podracer model was trimmed, painted with titanium
metalizer, sludge-washed, and epoxied into place.
The landing legs were
shortened from the original legs, then new landing pad "cups" were
shaped out of Aves putty packed into the now-hollow end. The landing legs were
also primed and painted with gloss white, and sanded to a smooth finish. The
landing gear actuators were shortened accordingly, and spray-painted silver
along with the landing gear.
I'd hoped I could use almost all
of the original Glencoe-issue decals, except for the new, wider-diameter stripes
on the egg surface. I laid down several pieces of Tamiya masking tape over the
area in question, and roughed in the approximate arc of the new stripes. I then
carefully peeled the tape off, applied the tape to a thin piece of styrene, and
created a template for the two new fuselage stripes (which I would need to
repeat three times each.) I sprayed a piece of clear decal paper with Testors
Italian Red, followed with a coat of Dullcote, then used the template to cut out
the six decals that I needed.
Luckily, I made more Italian Red
decal paper than I needed. When I went to use the kit decals, the first one I
tried to apply (of course, the one with the most intricate details and curves)
shattered into a million pieces! I tried not to panic, but realized that what I
needed to do was to clearcoat the rest of the decals ASAP. Never try to do
something that you've never done before at 3 A.M., two days before the contest
deadline- the can of clear I used was obviously the wrong stuff, as it caused
the rest of the decals to melt into a surrealistic mess.
I DID have another set of
Glencoe-issue decals, but they were a funky dark brick red that didn't match the
decals already on the body. I ended up Xeroxing those decals,
and using the Xeroxes as
templates to cut new decals from the Italian Red decal sheet. I found that I was
able to reproduce in acceptable detail everything except the "TWA"
logo- I ended up running out of paper before I got a set I liked. Luckily, the
box art for the Glencoe kit doesn't show any markings other than the stripes, so
I'm covered there at least.
After all of the decals had set,
I glued the landing gear into the landing legs, and epoxied the landing legs to
the main body. (A small pin takes most of the weight from the body into each
leg- the main body is relatively heavy, with its creamy Aves filling.) A few
touch-ups here and there, and she's ready to go!
Now, of course, the question is:
do I make this into a garage kit?
Matt
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