Space: 2022 - Episode Four

 

This post is first in a new feature whereas a specific episode will be showcased for a distinct reason, either for a guest miniature, story arc turning point, or in this case, the addition of a new cast member (and new miniature!), which will change the dynamic of the stories from this point on.  So stand by for a plethora of plot contrivances, Deus Ex Machina, and merciless rewrites of Year Two episodes!

As you may remember, we left the PHOENIX and battered crew in deep space after the unfortunate encounter with a proton storm (it's not safe out here...).  Badly damaged and limping through space, VICTOR detects an alien planet nearby.  The ship heads for the new planet with hopes of finding materials and minerals (especially titanium) to make repairs to the ship.

Bill Fraser and Co-pilot Ray Torens head down in Dove 01 and encounter an inhospitable planet with volcanoes and quakes, but no life.  As luck would have it, large quantities of titanium are detected, and Dove 01 heads back to the ship for more equipment and some navvies to do the heavy lifting.  Suddenly, a large ball of green light appears and engulfs the ship, reverses and returns to the planet.  Guess it wasn't uninhabited after all!

Alan initiates Red Alert and all weapons are charged.  How can anything live down there?  Suddenly, a loud booming voice breaks the silence.  "Commander Carter!".  The volume is lowered on the speakers and a large bearded man appears on the main screen.  It is Mentor Blessed, the sole inhabitant of the planet "Psychon".  After some discussion,  an exchange will take place in orbit.  First returning the first two pilots,  and then negotiating for the minerals required.  Alan commands Dove 02, with Koenig along for support, Helena for any medical needs, and Science Officer Picard (no relation..) for mineral advice.  But no one has seen the lioness behind him.  The big cat transforms into a young woman; she is a shape shifter and Mentor's daughter!  Back on the PHOENIX, the five board the Dove and set off for the planet.  In near orbit, a ship appears...

VICTOR scans the ship, but there are no life signs aboard.  It's a trap!  Mentor's ship, using magnetic energy, begins to drag the Dove down to the surface.  Alan hits the boosters but no effect.  As G forces increase, Alan tries a short burst of the Queller drive and they escape.  Safety is short lived as Mentor's ship has turned into a glowing green energy ball and engulfs the Dove as before.  The green ball descends and lands amongst some volcanoes.  But as the light dissipates, the captives realise they are in a kind of spaceship graveyard, made up of assorted Year One ships turned upside down.  They also see Dove 01 on the other side of the crater.  

Mentor tries his word tricks again, and they cannot contact the ship.  A cave is nearby so they disembark and head for entrance.  Meanwhile, Toren's is having his psychic energy extracted into Mentor's computer "Psyche".  He hopes to exploit this energy to rejuvenate the planet.  Meanwhile, Alan and the gang are exploring the caves.  They hear tools and find an area full of various humanoid aliens doing unpaid mining.  Torens appears and starts digging as well.  "Some sort of brain damage", says Helena.  Mentor appears as a hologram, and Picard shoots him, but the energy is reflected back and he is vapourized.  Helena screams.  The green ball of light appears again and the remaining four in the landing party are transported to a cell.

Maya, Mentor's daughter, has a chat with Alan; she is naive as to what her Father is up to, using beings as fodder for his evil machine and exploiting the left overs as labour.  Maya takes Alan to Mentor; he has John, Helena, and Fraser hooked up for psychic energy extraction.  Mentor will spare them all if he agrees to bring down the rest of the crew.  He complies, contacts the ship, and orders the crew to leave the ship;  "Directive 4".  No one on the ship knows what that means.  VICTOR does.  It means destroy the origin of the transmission.  With some protests, Tony agrees and Petrov dispatches a Planetomic bomb (they are not supposed to be carrying these...).

Mentor sees the deception, and destroys the missile.  And in kind, sends a few missiles back at them, but luckily Petrov's marksmanship prevails.  Meanwhile, Maya has been talking with the hostages.  They convince her to go to the mines and see what her Father is really up to.  She reluctantly agrees and sees for herself the results of Mentor's work.   Maya then takes Alan and John to Mentor for a final negotiation.  He will not listen so they begin smashing "Psyche".  Unfortunately, this machine is holding the planet together; Pychon starts breaking apart in spectacular miniature pyrotechnics.  Alan, John, Helena, and Bill make a run for the Doves, but Maya will not leave her Father.  Bill takes 01 and the others escape in 02.  The planet explodes and they return to the ship.  Just before they are about to leave, they hear a cry for help.

It is Maya in a strange alien spaceship, the "Psyche".  "Please, I have nowhere to go..."  Alan gives her permission to come aboard and the ship docks at the main airlock, the docking clamps giving her ship a warm, welcoming embrace.  (They never did get any titanium...).

Current Mission Report:

Ship's Complement (109)

Unwilling VIP Passengers (ep03)(added to roster)(+2)

Crew Deaths (ep04) (-2)

Alien Refugee (ep04)(+1)

Revised Complement (110)

"Space:1999" - Year Two, in this twisted 2022 timeline, is ship based rather than set on a rogue moon, so I had to devised an alternate way to get Maya on board that ship.  I borrowed (OK, stole...) the addition of Hawk (and his Hawk Fighter) to the cast/scenario of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" - Season Two.  Now that Maya has joined the crew as Science Officer, she will also utilize her ship, the "Psyche" when convenient for the plot.  As to the back story of this ship/miniature, please continue.

Building "Psyche"

I wanted Maya's ship to be radically different from the other primary ships, nothing 1999ish or recognizable.  I rummaged through my kit warehouse and found a suitable model from a totally different source.  The 1/550 HG Bandai kit of the MA-06 Val-Walo, a mobile armour from "Gundam 0083". 

Perfect size and very organic!  Of course I could not build it stock out of the box; I had some modifications in mind already.  Since Maya is a metamorph, I thought it would be a good plot device to have her ship able to change appearance as well.  Not by changing mechanically or by molecular re-arrangement, but by using holographic emitters.  To make the emitters, I remembered a Peter Elson painting I had seen (Perry Rhodan - 30 to Arkon book cover) of a craft encrusted with small domes.  Perfect for those emitters...

Built the kit over a few evenings, re-arranging some of the bits, and adding others.  Not going to over the top, as afterall, it has to be filmed...  Final step was adding on various sizes of domes (those plastic pearl things from the good old dollar store craft section) to complete the job.

It would have been easy to overdo the domes.  Luckily restraint prevailed!  After prime time, a final colour had to be chosen.  It's an alien craft, so (by law, somewhere...), it was painted green.

A basic off-the-shelf olive drab really with some highlights and minimal weathering.  Some metallic accents and a few alien-looking decals (ripped from a Macross kit..) completed the job.

That gap is where the cowling can be removed for docking.  I put some magnets inside the ship as well as in that main docking tube with the claws.  So the ship can be held there when not in use; it is permanently berthed there now.  It can hold two people if need be, but somewhat cramped.  And only Maya can operate the ship as it is controlled by her Psychon mind.  Maya can board the "Psyche" in seconds from the Command Module; just a few quick zero-G yoga moves!

Welcome aboard the PHOENIX, Maya!  We'll see what this little ship can do in later episodes to help combat the scores of alien baddies which, as you all know, are omnipresent in deep space!  You never know, it may turn into a hawk!

Have a better one!

Space: 2022 - Building the PHOENIX - Part Seven

 At last, the final part of the ship!  But without it, we won't be going anywhere...  Module G is the Mark VII Queller Drive, used for the intermittent light speed/warps, (42 minute duration) and the standard four fusion drives for cruising.  Another piece with very few standard model parts, the main drive "tank" is made up from the Airfix Saturn V "interstage" piece.  You know the one; that flaming cylinder we have seen to death for 50 plus years, even on "Star Trek"...

I capped the ends with two heat shield pieces and the rest is made up of assorted recycled parts; repurposed Gardenia hose attachments, lids from various sources and dollar store bits.

The classic Kinder Eggs finally make an appearance; I think it is my last four before that redesign, which I do not like.  The main booster is from a large detergent bottle (it also has a smaller one inside), and the four little boosters are from the Airfix kit.  The three fuel tanks are just wooden craft balls.

Acrylic pearls for the smaller tanks near the big booster, somewhat duplicating the Voyager One model from "Voyager's Return".  

Very light with the greeblies on this one.  Just added some left over laser cutting and some of those baby bottle bits.  Included some plant bands by the four tanks as well, used for tomatoes mostly.

It was now prime time, and then the same routine as all the previous other parts.  White base coat, grey accents, IPA weathering, some pigments, and finally graphics.  

Those other little grey tanks were made from tubular styrene and capped with those acrylic pearls (half sphere domes).  And that's the end of the ship!  As I post more episodes, you'll see the amount of abuse this engine is going to take.  Hope the warranty holds out...

And finally, a self promoting narcissistic image of myself holding the completed PHOENIX model, Sir Martin Bower style!  Next time, I'll take a break from the series and tell you of my recent foray into the dark side of modelling, probably never to return...  

Have a better one!

Space: 2022 - Building the PHOENIX - Part Six

Module F is the Engineering Section of the ship, and the smallest component over all.  The base unit is the Stage 3 section of the Airfix Saturn V kit, with minimal added greeblies and some other bits & pieces.  

Besides the internal brass rod, there is a salvaged lid at each end (sources long forgotten), assorted parts from small armour kits, and the "baby bottle" tanks which some of you may remember from the Hub section.  The big black disc is actually from the ends of a cardboard tube used for printing paper.  

The fastest component built as well, it was then off for priming, painting, IPA wash & weathering, and finally graphics.  Adding the last two escape pods finished off the model.  

Five technical chaps (with sleeves the same colour as that large anti-neutron shield),  work in this module.  There are two sections.  The smaller section behind the shield and about one third the size has two engineers working 4 hour rotational shifts in radiation suits.  Behind that three other engineers monitor all other ship functions, power usage, etc.  A sixth engineer is stationed in the Command Module and acts as monitor and liaison with the other members of the crew.  And of course VICTOR will be watching too!

The escape pods are shared with engineers and the technicians that may be in the Dove's Nest at the time.  Remember each one can hold five personnel.  

That about covers it for Engineering.  Sorry, not the most exciting bit, but essential none the less.  Next time will be the final component, Main Propulsion.  Have a better one!

Space: 2022 - Building the PHOENIX - Part Four

Module E, the Garage Section (also referred to as the "Dove's Nest" or "Dove's Cage" by pilots and technical crew),  was the last part of the ship imagined and constructed.  Originally I had the primary shuttle as an Eagle (and at one time, a winged lifting body),  docked at the Hub on that main airlock with the claws.  I eventually expanded that concept and thought a minimum of two ships would be better,  and still using the "Doppelganger" influence, create a new proto-type ship called the "Dove", a successor to the Eagle.  This section would have maintenance workshops, pilot's facilities, and refueling. 

This is also the only part of the ship not built using any pieces from the Airfix Saturn V.  It's basically a Frankensteined piece made up of whatever I could get my hands on and what worked.  It had to be long enough to accommodate the Doves without interfering with the adjacent modules, especially the big spinning bit.  I wanted some animation as well, with the refueling/docking arms being movable.  

The module is made up of two empty plastic vitamin bottles (probably Tumeric...), connected by some acrylic napkin ring holders I found on one of my safaris to the dollar store.  The blue ribbed piece was a paper towel holder, and the two clear pieces are old contact lens cases.  All carefully glued together and aligned with an internal brass rod.  The two docking arms are toothbrush covers; I have used them many times before.  

Encircling the two pods as it were are some smaller acrylic tubes which I acquired from work; they were for holding electronic equipment.  The open ends were capped with suitable googly eyes.  After the main structure was completed, it was then a few evenings of adding greeblies, stock parts, and more leftover lazer cutting, as well as making docking sections out of raw styrene.  But the best bits were yet to come...

Those orange bits are actually covers for printer cartridges during transport.  Once the cartridges are installed in the printer these parts are just binned, except by me of course!  I added on some detail parts and cables.  The arms are attached to the module by a ball and socket affair scrounged from some construction toys.  Originally there were to be eight; four each to secure the ships.  But I decided to cut that in half and use the surplus arms elsewhere.

Once all parts were completed, it was prime time (again with all the other bits).  One evening with the IPA wash, subtle shading and accents with pigments, and then finally adding graphics.  

And that is the Dove's Nest.  Maybe at this point I should finally reveal one of the elusive bloody things!  Next post will deal with these ships in more detail, but here it is!

Some of you out there may see the influence of another "1999" craft, but for now in closing here, is the Garage Module with two Doves docked:

I'll let you know how they stay attached to the main ship/module next time.  Have a better one!

Space: 2022 - Building the PHOENIX - Part Three

Next in line past Life Support, is Module D, or the Habitat Ring.  It is the largest of the modules, most heavily populated, and spins to create gravity.  (As I stated in an earlier post, I was never fully accepting of artificial gravity on the Eagles, or any other Earth-based technology ships in both Year 1 and Year 2.  I am more accepting on how gravity was dealt with in "2001: A Space Odyssey").  So in this timeline, exposure to artificial gravity and/or magnetic radiation, for any length of time causes brain damage, so now all Earth ships require Grip Shoes, or reasonable facsimiles!  

As this module is heavily based on Syd Mead's Leonev from "2010", I had to come up with a logical and, at the same time, cheap method to build it.  As Eagles are being slowly phased out to be replaced with the (yet unseen) Doves, I reasoned that Johnson-Bower Aerospace could repurpose Eagle parts for other constructions, this being the case for the Habitat Ring.  I acquired one of many 3D Eagle meshes available online and over a few sessions, first in RHINO, then in Solidworks, cut and pasted the basic module into an aesthetically pleasing cluster of five Eagle passenger modules.  

I will need two of these, and the prospect in buying 10 original 1/96 Eagles was out of the question, so I had the main unit 3D printed open ended, and would end cap the modules with lazer cut parts.  The large open slabs were to be covered by tanks and escape pods.  The original doors however, are non-functioning.  What followed then were many evenings of applying more lazer cut trusses and shapes plus the usual greeblies.  

The detail is difficult to see at this stage; it'll have to wait until its painted.  I then moved on to the extra features which were to be applied to the flat, open zones, the Escape Pods and Water Tanks.  For the Pods I employed the repurpose method again, this time the landing pods of the Eagles.  The shape was good, I had 12 from the three kits, and the Doves do not use them.  So I added bits like boosters and such to all 12 pieces.

Only 10 pods were going to be on the Habitat, the other two further along in the Engineering section.  Next were the water tanks.  For these it was time to use a staple piece in my modeling inventory, the Zaini egg.  I required 12 again; it depleted my stock.  The seam was covered by a strip of styrene and ends detailed with more snap fastener parts.

With basic habitat parts completed, I needed to create a central core piece.  For this I used two old Eagle parts, the small sections before and after the passenger modules.  I found two interesting fittings in the big lid box and inserted a brass rod.

The two sections were glued to the core, and then the 12 tanks secured in place.  The escape pods were to be a different colour, so they were painted separately.  Two nights of IPA wash to do this one; a lot of surface and detail to cover.  

That brass rod was temporarily secured to the core for ease of handling; still weighed a bit!  Next step was the graphics, the heaviest applications of all the modules.  Plus graphic work on the still separate escape pods too!

No shortage of checkerboard, stripes, logos and identification.  (See the first post on constructing this model for the original graphic sheets).  Logos and signage for Johnson-Bower Aerospace, EUROSEC, and name of the ship.  Also ripped that triangular Union Jack from "Alien"!

So that covers the Habitat Ring.  I toyed with the idea of somehow motorizing the section so it would spin, but it wasn't worth the time and expenditure.  Imagination is a lot cheaper and, besides, it can be positioned in various degrees manually during photo ops.  Next time, we head for the garage.