Lunar
Model kit build-up - part i
Via Ebay I bought a Lunar Time
Machine Model kit and brought it to Poljane, a little village near Opatija,
Croatia.
There
I began to assemble it in saturday 19:th Juny 2004 with the only tools shown
above. The wooden stick has a drill bit fastened in the split end with rubber
band and I used it to drill four holes in the base for the railings (because
the four original holes was all in the wrong position, ca one centimeter (less
than a half inch) forward than necessary). It was also necessary to drill a
hole in the motor pedestal for the shaft and a deeper hole in the dish. With
the file I made smoother surface on the end caps for the generator cones and
the panel (or else they wouldn't fit) and also on the generator cones for the
motor pedestal. Two corners on the pedestals's base was damaged, and therefore
I made round corners. The forward pair of legs is in their right position, bud
for the back legs it was wrongly marked on the base and I placed them five millimeter
forward and one centimeter wider so they matched the original position of legs
under the movie prop.
Also one rivet was missing from the dish but it was easy to replace with a spare
resin part and one of the generator cones had a strange pointed shape on one
side but it was easy to file down.
The picture above is fron 26:th Juny, I sat with the Time Macine Model kit almost
every evening out in the terrace until the sun went down and it became to dark.
In this picture I have already begun to assemble the kit.
Oops, parts are missing ...
Yes, several parts wasn't in the kit
when I opened it in Sweden before the departure. First, the frontpiece of the
armchair was missing, also a brass rod to make the M-shaped frontpiece between
the runners and the metal thread was too short. I found a brass rod and enough
brass thread in the dustbin(!) in the GOArt workshop where I in autumn 1998
worked with oak carvings for the North-German baroque organ for the Örgryte
New Church in Gothenburg, Sweden.
This is why the armchair was never assembled that summer, because it is hard
to find a fitting spare part. (I must take an another look in that dustbin again
:-)) And more, the armchair is very badly cast, it will not hold together, if
I can't reinforce it in a proper way. I think I will do it with the spare resin
rod which is holding the very small parts of the kit. The picture above was
taken 12:th july and the picture below 15:th july.
No transfer decals here!
I brought the transfer decals with
me, but then i realized that my Time Machine model would be more personal if
entirely handpainted, and i used the transfer decals only as a pattern. When
the base and the motor pedestal was assembled I began to paint them and the
dish by hand with Citadel Colour which was perfect for resin parts. I used Dwarf
Bronze, Shining Gold, Burnished Gold, Blood Red, Sunburst Yellow and (mistakenly)
Chaos Black on the dish. (It must be Enchanted Blue on the hub as the forthcoming
acantus ornaments.)
Then i used Scorched Brown for the base, Mithril Silver (The "Lunar Models"
plate), Chainmail (wheels), Blood Red (cushion) and Burnished Gold (rivets).
Now the Time Machine Model kit
is beginning to take the familiar shape ...
The temporal motor is painted with
Woodland Green, Burnished Gold, Skull White, Chaos Black, Blood Red, Enchanted
Blue, Sunburst Yellow, Goblin Green and Bleached Bone, and the runners is painted
with Burnished Gold and Enchanted Blue. It was very tricky to paint the generator
cones black and white, but I wanted them personal - and in the medieval Matebia
there was no transfer decals. The picture above is from 17:th July and the picture
below left from 11:th August.
The console is also entirely handpainted
...
The date on it, 9:th April 1321, is
crucial for my fantasy novel and in the right picture, the lamps got cages of
brass strings. For the lever i only got the plastic bead in the kit, for me
it was enough (and you can't find any suitable rock crystal in a little city
as Opatija). In the kit it was also a round brass rod and I wrapped brass strings
around it to make the six coiled wires for the temporal motor. The yellow squares,
the date windows in the panel and all lampbulbs are lacquered with 'Ardcoat
gloss varnish.
Now the Time Machine Model is only missing the armchair, the dish and the
rear lamp. The brass thread I brought with me was too thin (but in middle of
march 2005 I found a proper copper thread in the above mentioned dustbin) and
therefore are only the panel lamps with cages. The picture above right is from
12:th August 2004, the day before the departure back to Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Time Machine Model will be completed summer 2005 and I will use the decal
sheet as a pattern, it is very beautiful but compared to the Time Machine in
the film, some decals are missing: for the rear parts of the railings, for the
inside of the runners, for the backside of the dish and also one golden dot
is missing in the front decal for the console.
Click on the images to enlarge them
Time Machine Model kit builder and painter: Sandra Petojevic
March 26 2005 (updated February 25, 2007)