Scott Copeland’s 2001 Pod

Here’s one of the first resin and/or garage kits I ever built, it’s the old Lunar Models 2001 Space Pod. In the good ol’ pre-internet days, I mail ordered it from one of those miniscule pictureless ads Lunar used to run in the back of FSM back in the eighties. I didn’t build or paint it well back then, to make it worse the old Testors gloss paint yellowed badly over the years, and my kids had broke off the “waldos” several times with Nerf balls and other implements of destruction.

I decided to spruce her up a bit, I filled the old seams much better and sanded it smooth, and repaired the arms the best I could with superglue. I should have scratched built a new set, they were poorly cast and multiple breaks and CA repairs didn’t help. But I went with the original ones. I airbrushed a few light coats of Boyds White Primer thinned with mineral spirits, sanding between coats. I masked the engine panels and view port with post-its and airbrushed them flat black. Next came 2 coats of Testors Glosscoat, then she was ready for detailing.

I drybrushed the engine “rings” with MM chrome silver, and the four little “jets” around the top. Hal’s “eye” was MM insignia Red. I also drybrushed the ribbed opening around the viewport with MM steel. The Lunar Kit didn’t have decals, I dressed her up with a few odds and ends from Hines Riley’s Eagle Decal Sheet and Rick Sternbach’s 1/32 Apollo CSM Decal Sheet. Hines and Rick are both very generous with spares on their respective sheets and I raid them frequently!.

The old wooden base I had it mounted on was faded, and I had a loose spot on my masking tape that let in some white overspray. I painted the base and support rod Krylon Gloss Black from a can, I think it shows off the white Pod nicely. Considering it’s age before the internet resources and DVD, Lunar didn’t do too bad, it’s surprisingly accurate, if a little on the small size, the pods only 3 inches tall!

Scott Copeland