The body of the Space Jet is based on the Revell "Haunebu" flying saucer kit. Obviously, you need two of those, one for the upper and one for the lower half of the body. That really hurt my purse! On the lighter side, I got a lot of left-over parts for future projects! The acrylic dome is cut out from an acrylic ball, which you can get at the crafting dept. of some DIY stores.
The shafts into which the landing gear retracts are made fom aluminum and PS pipes. Note the way in which the shafts overlap! :) This makes the gear extend in a skewed way and makes it look more interesting! (IMO) A lot of glue went into this part of the ship to make sure that the gear supports the weight of the model. (No, the rubber band is not a load-bearing part! :)
Fitting the hull for the first time. Mind the gap – which is my fault, BTW! I originally wanted to make one third of the upper body removable, which did not work out so well. I then just glued that part in place, which did not work so well, either.
Illumination of the airlock is done with lots of phosphorescent color! I do not like to fill my models with lots of wire and I really enjoy that glow!
The seats are handmade from polystyrene sheets! At a 1:150 scale, they are about 5mm tall.
This is the elevator shaft in the main airlock, leading to the middle deck. All elevator shafts are made from PS pipe. You can get those at most DIY stores.
The bridge before tinting the acrylic dome, and after:
I worked on this model for about eight months, on and off. It was a lot of fun, but also a little bit intimidating. Maybe I should have picked an easier project to for a return to model building after more than 30 years...
Anyway, it's done now and turned out really beautiful!
