Space Capsule

This is a Chinese food sauce called Yum Yum sauce.

The top part of the bottle looks a lot like a Mercury Space Capsule to me.  So I need to remove the label and work on it.  Tearing it off only got me this far.

So I applied a little WD-40 and it loosened the glue and allowed me to get most of the paper off.  I spray it on until the paper is saturated and leave it outside over night.

Then I use alcohol to remove the WD-40 and the remaining bits of paper.  For this I use an old rag.

Then a little citrus cleaner with a fresh rag to do the final cleaning.

It looks like this when it is all clean.

The three main stages of cleaning.  I have a few GI Joe space capsules and I anticipate painting these to match them.  They come in both black like the real Mercury capsules and in gray.
 

Space Men

Robot to assist my Space Men.  I selected the largest and most robust looking figure for the task.

This Red Space Men unit is Rust-Oleum Gloss Apple Red.

Naturally I had to include the GI Joe Adventure Team in any space adventure.  Here is there yellow robot.

Rust-Oleum Sunburst Yellow gloss spraypaint.

This rather retro-color is Tamiya Coral Blue.  You can see a few of the Space Men on the right side of the photo getting some touch up paint.  The figures are 1/72nd scale figures from Dollar Tree from about 20 years ago.  They are pretty good copies of the 1/32nd scale Airfix WWII USMC and WWII British Paratroopers, all with US M1 style helmets and rather generic weapons.  Sadly only a few poses.

The white figures are more technical troops, supply, maintenance and others.  The are in a semi-gloss white by Rust-Oleum.

This last group is what I call my US Army Astro-Rangers.  These started as MPC 60mm troops in gold.  I use the gold figures because MPC made a space set and the figures were gold plastic.  Also one of the official colors of the US Army is gold, the other is black.  So when I started doing Space Men in 1/72nd scale I included the Astro-Rangers.  They take the name of Ranger and spread it throughout the solar system.  The are elite troops in space as they are on Earth.  I named them Astro-Rangers because it had a 1950's retro sound to it and combined astronaut and Army Rangers.
 

Robots and Space Men

For about 20 years now, off and on, more off than on, I have been working on a Spaceman Project.

The plan was to have 1950s style Spacemen, what we would call today, Astronauts. 

I wanted them to have a robot aid, companion, helper, like Robby or Robot B9.

That's one of the reasons I got these goofy robot molds for candy.

Three colors of robot all ready.  Actually, these are for a separate project, but that's another story.

This is the box for one of my Space Men units.  In the first big budget color science fiction movie, Destination Moon, the Space Men wear space suits in different colors.  That way they could recognize each other from a distance by the color of their suit.  NASA even has problems in some of their video and still photos telling which astronaut is which since they all dress the same on the Moon.  So my units are various colors, Red, Blue, Gold and other colors too.
 

Saucer Men

Figures from ElastoWit in 54mm in rubber like plastic.  No flash, original themes.

Alien figure with ray gun, very useful for wargames and skirmish games.

I took the cape off of the Flash Gordon figure and it looks good on him.

Perhaps that makes him the alien commander?

Alien advancing to menace the cute girls.

In the movie Invasion of the Saucer Men there is a dis-embodied hand that threatens several people.  Note the base of this figure has such a hand.  I suppose you could cut it off if you wanted it as a separate piece. I am considering it.

The end.
 

NASA SEV Chariot

The new Matchbox NASA SEV Chariot vehicle.

It's a great model.

So far I only have one of them, but I hope to find more.

It's designed to drive astronauts around the universe.

The real vehicle has wheels that can turn sideways and go in any direction.

The white capsule can be removed and sent into space as a modular spacecraft.

Pegasus UFO

I cut up an old army shirt and have been using it as a base for photos recently.  It provides a nice change from a solid color.  It's US Army Woodland camouflage.

A UFO lands in the wilderness.

The landing legs deploy.

Who will exit?

Or what?

Spacemen

 A completed spaceman.  The flamethrower is glued on upside down to disguise it's origin.  The wire is an antenna.

Spaceman finds human.

These 1/72nd scale cheap figures were very plain, making them good for conversions.

I plan to use them for 1950's style space adventures.

These figures will be painted soon.

Caesar vs Airfix!

Caesar Miniatures had done a set of 1/72nd scale Astronauts.  How do they compare to the 40 year old set released by Airfix?

Caesar Miniatures on the left and a 40 year old Airfix figure, painted silver, on the right.

The two figures are not all that different.

The Airfix guys come with a separate backpack.  The arms are out away from the body too.

Given how much time has been past, the Airfix set has held up pretty well.

Ground Control to Major Tom

This is the new Caesar Miniatures Astronaut and Spacecraft set.

It's mostly 1/72nd scale, but has a small space station that's probably about 1/300 scale.

This is a two man capsule, I think it's a Chinese design.

It has a cut away section showing the inside. Nice detail, no flash, fits together okay, not great.

This is the space station.  I will use it as a satellite.