Apollo Studio Decoration (Part 5)

The last week we worked some more on some models to decorate the Apollo studio. In the picture on the left you can see a Gemini capsule. The Gemini project followed the Mercury project and sent two astronauts in to space in stead of one Mercury. On the Mercury project also EVA's (Extra-Vehicular Activity, or space-"walks") were trained for the first time and also rendezvous and docking. After the successful Gemini project the Apollo project followed.

And here is an overview of the whole history of the three programs.  From left to right you can see the Apollo Command Module attached to the Apollo Lunar lander. In the middle is the Gemini capsule with the last stage still attached and on the right is the Mercury capsule with the big escape tower still on. I really like this overview. The whole history of the Space Race is starting to interest more and more. I'm reading about it a lot now and I'm also watching some documentaries in preparation of the Apollo album.

This project is getting larger for me than just Apollo and maybe I'll have to do something about the whole Space Race theme in the future as well. This one could not miss in the whole history of space. It is a model of the Sputnik satellite that the Russians brought into orbit on October 4th of 1957. This is really what started the whole Space Race. The Americans were terrified that the Russians had this capabilities because now they could also launch a nuclear weapon into the US and this was also the start of the 'Cold War'.

And here is another model that we build with the Apollo Command Module docked to a Russian Soyuz. This event took place after the last official Apollo Mission (Apollo 17) and therefor is also referred to as Apollo 18. This docking of an American and Russian spaceship in the middle of the Cold War was a turning point for the relationship between these two superpowers and it was the event that eventually led to the end of the Cold War. If you are interested in all this just go to Wikipedia and read up on the Space Race: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_race

Apollo Studio Decoration (Part 4)

Last week I worked some more on the studio decoration. This time I build some pre-Apollo stuff. I decided to not only go for Apollo but for the whole Space Race history. Here is a model that I build of the Mercury Capsule. Especially the red escape tower was a lot of work. Almost all those struts were loose components. Recently I did a track about the Mercury Project that you can find on my website on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/music/samplers/schallplattexii

And the rocket that started the whole Space Race is in the picture on the right. It is a German V2 rocket that was used for destructive purposes in the WWII. After the war the German Wernher von Braun who designed this rocket defected to the Americans and started building rockets in the USA that eventually led up to the Apollo project. The Russians on the other hand seized the remains of the V2 factories and designed their rockets as well based on the V2 design.

I also worked a little bit more with my youngest daughter on the Space Shuttle. I is already looking a bit like it now :) But there is also a launch pad going with it and the big booster rockets. We still need to build those. Also the paint job is still not done as you can see. I found some more nice models on E-bay including some very old Russian space models. One of them put the first Satellite called Sputnik into space and also the one that put Yuri Gagarin as the first man into space. So the coming period we don't have to be bored :)

Apollo Studio Decoration (Part 3)

Last week I did a lot of painting with my daughters on the models we are building to decorate the Apollo studio. These two models are right in the theme for the next Apollo album. On the left you see the Apollo Command Module and right the LEM (Moon Lander). They are glued together like they were in orbit over the moon transferring astronauts from the Command Module to the LEM just before the LEM would descent to the Moon's surface.

As you can see in the picture on the right, this model is made in a lot smaller scale than the LEM we build before. It is quite small actually and that actually makes it more difficult to build than the larger one. Less parts, but very small parts that you can hardly hold between your fingers. They have to go in the right spot of course and then they also needed to be painted. It is still fun to do though in the mean time we are still building more models at the same time.

The only problem is that we were short in some colors of paint so I asked them from our dear Sinterklaas. A traditional festivity that we celebrate with the kids today (5th of December). Everyone gets presents. It is a bit the same as Santa Claus with Christmas, but then different in many ways as well. Click on the link above to an article on Wikipedia if you are interested. Hopefully we can continue tomorrow then ;) And if you are wondering if I'm not doing anything musical at the moment. Yes I am for sure. More about that later this week ;)

Apollo Studio Decoration (Part 2)

Last week I started again to work on the decoration for my studio. I'm going to build this rocket together with my oldest daughter. It is the original Saturn V rocket that landed Neil Amstrong on the Moon in 1969. As you might have read already I'm currently working on an album about these Apollo space missions to the moon back then. When this rocket is ready it will be 114 cm tall by the way, so it is quite a big model kit. I don't know yet though where I'm going to put it :)

First thing to do is build the platform that the rocket will be standing on. We are doing to paint job together. It is hard for me because my daughter is a bit less careful and less patient than I am. I will have to put my perfectionism a bit aside now and accept that the outcome will be a bit less than when I did it on my own, but well this project is about the fun of building it and not about making the perfect rocket :) Besides it is dark in the studio so probably you won't see that the paint work is not so perfect anyway ;)

When I started with the rocket my youngest daughter was a bit envious and also wanted to help, but I promised my oldest daughter that I would build the Saturn V rocket only with her, so I decided to build another kit with my youngest daughter. We are going to build a Space Shuttle together. It is really fun to do this with them. So much fun in fact, that last week I bought a few more kits from E-bay. I explained to the youngest one that NASA used the Space Shuttle to build the International Space Station and there happened to be a model kit of that as well. So I ordered it and we will build that later. I also found some very old kits of some Russian rockets that put Sputnik in orbit and put Yuri Gagarin in space. I couldn't resist bidding on those as well. So we will have plenty to do to get through the dark winter days here :)

Using The Last Space in the Studio

Last week I made good use of the last space in the studio. Together with Gerrit that also build my studio desk, we mounted some planks on the wall to put stuff on. Here is a picture left of the door just above the movable modular rack. We mounted some rails there with hooks where you can put planks on. In this way you can decide later on, on which height you want something. That makes it very flexible. I will use these planks to put some Apollo studio decoration on. The Moon-lander is already up there now.

Between two rows of synthesizers there was another gap. Those of you who visited my studio know that it is already quite full there, but here was still some room. So we mounted three planks there as well to put stuff on. I build some little desktop synthesizers before like the AVRSynth32 and the MB6582 and they put there quite well. Not to use them of course because then you want to have them in front of you, but just to put them away. I can't use everything at the same time anyway.

And also above the far left and far right screen in the studio we mounted a bigger plank. I'll probably use them to put on some more studio decoration stuff. I'm not sure yet :) We'll see about that, but at last the room is there. In the process of mounting this I accidentally damaged one of the screens by the way. I pushed a bit too hard with my thumb on the screen and that resulted in a crack it :( After that it was unusable. Luckily my wife had the same screen on her monitor so I used that one and gave her another one. Too bad this happened, but ah well.. I'm used to setbacks by now :)

Apollo Studio Decoration (Part 1)

Maybe you remember from a long time ago that I posted about some plastic model kits I bought to decorate my Apollo studio. Well finally the first of the kits is ready. It is the Eagle Moon Lander (LEM) from the Apollo 11 Mission. I built it partly with my daughters, but like always they don't really have the focus and concentration to finish the project to the end. But they did help me with the painting. They both painted the surface of the moon together for example. Well it was fun to build, but took a lot longer than I expected. I guess the rest will have to wait now, because I'm very busy both with work and with musical projects.

Part of the idea of building these kits was also to get inspiration for the upcoming Apollo album, but that didn't really work. Watching documentaries helped me a lot more. Now I just have to find a nice spot for this Moon Lander. For now it is on top of a speaker, but that is up too high to see. I will have to think about some solution. But now I'd better focus again on the music. I'm in the studio a lot at this moment and I already have 12 tracks for the Apollo album, but I also needed to finish two tracks for two different sampler CD's. And already I'm behind schedule for the planned release date that I had in mind being the 9th of October this year. Well I'll just have to see were I can make up some time again. I'll keep you updated on the progress.