Steven Vasko’s Discovery – Third Update

I just added some minor “tweaking” to my Federation Models “Discovery” build, and I thought I’d share them with you…I found out that the thin piping that I placed on the rear engines was inaccurate, due to a faulty reading of photo-references on my part. I removed the piping, cleaned up some minor damage to the areas and rebuilt the original detail as best as I could with half-round and strip styrene. I placed some minor pastel weathering on the reactor housing and touched up some details in Light Gray on the front of this section as per a behind-the-scenes photo of this section of the shooting miniature being detailed by model-makers that I found in Adam Johnson’s book “2001:The Lost Science”

I reworked the “lunar terrain” on my Monolith bases so it would be flush with the tops of the sectional aluminum frames that surround them, and also added self-adhesive lettering to the bases that read “Discovery One” (front base) and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (rear base).

Taking a cue from Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars” miniatures, I excised and removed the clear plastic on the Command Module windows and left the window spaces “open” to allow a clear view of all the detail in the Bridge area. As a last touch, I added a few tiny details in Dark Ghost Grey along the front “equator” of the Command Module, as a little tribute to my old Lunar Models “Discovery” model kit, which I replaced with my current “Discovery One” build-up.

Here’s a final update on my “Discovery” kit: While surfing through Douglas Trumbull’s website, I chanced up upon a large photo of the fuel pod boom section of the 54-foot Discovery miniature, which showed that this section of this miniature had some degree of pastel weathering applied to it. Naturally, since I had gone through so much trouble in constructing my kit, I figured I should finish off the project by replicating these weathering effects on my own kit.

I can now say that my “Discovery One” model is now fully complete!