Steven Vasko’s 2001 Discovery revised

This is a revised build of the Discovery originally seen HERE

I just thought I’d give my “Discovery One” build-up another going-over. I added totally scratch-built Space Pods, a Pod Bay, a Bridge/Circuit Breaker Room, and electrical lighting for my model plus new surface detailing in certain areas and a brand-new paint job.

The Space Pods are made from 7/8 inch acrylic hemi-spheres, styrene stock, and Milliput. (Since I have no real experience in scratch-building I felt if I could at least 3 WORKABLE, if not perfect Space Pods, I could probably handle the rest of the project.) The Central Pod is lit by a White LED fitted in the Pod Platform it rests on, which “feeds” 4 optic fiber strands set in the headlights. Power is fed to this assembly by HO scale model railroad nickel-silver rails which stand in for the Pod Platform’s rails. The entire Pod/Platform/Rails assembly is removable for easy transport and fits into a socket at the base of the Pod Bay.

The Pod Bay, Bridge, and Circuit Breaker Room are made of sheet and stock styrene and tiny details (push-buttons, floor Velcro strips, latches, etc.) are made of tiny pieces and strips of colored electrical tape and pin-striping materials that were cut to size and affixed with Super-Glue. The structures on both levels of the Command Module sphere have frosted clear styrene ceilings which are dusted with a coat of airbrushed Flat White paint after masking of “light fixtures” and allow for lighting of the rooms.

5 White LEDs placed overhead light the Bridge and Circuit Breaker Room, and a 9VT electroluminescent panel cut to size powers the lighting for the Pod Bay, which is augmented by frosted White LEDs hidden behind the port and starboard stored Space Pods. Blue LEDs placed in the lower Pod Platform Maintance Bay complete the lighting in the Pod Bay. (Pod Platform Maintance Bay? Sure! Just check out the film…you can spot it behind Bowman’s Pod just as it exits Discovery.) The Bowman figure and the Blue space suit are made of various Airfix 1/72 scale soft plastic military figures cut apart, glued together and painted in artists acrylics. They were detailed with more Styrene and tape pieces.

The outside of the model was detailed even more and then the Gray panels on the front and the exhaust ports in the back were masked off. Then “Krylon Fusion Satin White” spray paint was evenly applied all over the model to stand in for the “Anti-Flash White” military-grade paint used by Kubrick’s crew to paint most of the “2001” miniatures. Pastel dust was then brushed over the small thrusters in the back and the “shut-line” on the outside of the Pod Bay Doors and fixed with lacquer. (I would like to thank Scott Alexander and Jean-Marc Deschamps, whose work gave inspiration and rationale for my own build, particularly Mr. Deschamps on-line log of his build of a 1/60 scale Discovery model of his own.)

Steven Vasko