Space 1999 Moonbase Alpha Model

[Elia Khensamphanh]

Space1999 was one of my first sci-fi shows, and I was glad to finally have a shot at this kit. Obviously the Eagle is the most recognizable element of the show, but I was always attracted to the sprawling and bit random nature of the moonbase itself. It seemed to present lots of interesting far-flung areas for alien encounters and adventure.

The original kit was wildly inaccurate and was missing many eagle launch pads. In addition, it had a spot cut out on the base for the main mission control subkit (which I did not attempt here). The new version removes that subkit spot, accurizes the eagle launch pads, and generally cleans things up a bit to make it worth attemping for a "purist" like myself.

First of all, let me say that I love the fact that the kit EXISTS. I would much rather work on a sub-par version of a kit that captures my imagination than a perfect kit of a subject I don't care about. That being said, this build was a bit rough.

The main issue is the base. It's quite flimsy. If you search back a bit you can find a post where I was given good advice on how to shore that up using CA and some paper towels, but even still, it was not friendly to pressure, full contact, putty, or really anything else. It was quite a chore to get it into a state where it could withstand attachment of the base, and even then, the fit was loose, and unwieldy.

The base sections also presented a problem. The molds are formed such a way that EVERY edge of EVERY base piece requires a fair bit of sanding to remove an obvious "lip" at the bottom. Unfortunately there isn't enough "tunnel" stock provided to link all the bits together as shown on the box, even though I was extremely careful not to waste any.

On the positive side, the eagle landers have been resized to be accurate for this kit, and they are quite well formed. It was beyond my ability to detail them well (the really are extremely tiny), but I would say they stood out as the best architected part of the kit.

After gluing the base, I puttied it, and applied some terrain around the seam lines to reduce the visibility, with limited success. I do give credit to the kit designers for angling the contact of some of the plates so that the long access tunnels cover most of two of the seams. Grey primer was followed with dry brushing of three different shades of grey, although you probably can't tell from the pics. It pops a bit more in person, but I intentionally didn't want to make it draw the eye away from the base itself.

Tunnel sections were painted in bulk, and then cut up by sprue clipper to slightly larger than the appropriate size and sanded in increments to get a snug fit. The largest user error was gluing the eagle access extensions before placing the decals (solved via a 2nd kit).

The finished kit had black weather stripping applied on top of the base section edges, and was placed in an 18x18 custom build frame from Hobby Lobby. It will hang on the wall, as I definitely do NOT have any horizontal space for this kit.

As for the actual moonbase... "Located in the Moon crater Plato and constructed out of quarried rock and ores, Moonbase Alpha is four kilometres in diameter and extends up to one kilometre in areas below the lunar surface."

It would be a fun exercise to estimate the square footage based on placing a 4k square around the base limits and take a percentage of that based on how much of the square is occupied by buildings. Of course, you'd also have to factor in main mission control, which has extra levels up top. Using a photo of the base, it would be pretty simple to have a computer spit out that percentage based on the whether the pixels in the target area are whiter/brighter than a given baseline value. I may have a go at that this weekend. (Yes, I have fun in weird ways. :)

Radius of alpha (pixels): 1547

Area of alpha (pixels) : Pi*1547^2 = 7520000

Green pixels : 363615

Ratio of building to moon : 363615 / 7520000 = 0.04835

Radius of alpha (km): 2

Area of alpha (km): 12.57km^2

Area of alpha (feet) : 135302000ft^2

Area of alpha buildings : 135,302,000ft^2 * 0.04835 = 6,541,851ft^2

Back in April, I shared the model I built of Main Mission, the command center of Moonbase Alpha from the 1970s TV series, Space: 1999. As I mentioned at the time, the command center was only one part of the kit. The main part of the kit is effectively a diorama of the full Moonbase from the series. We saw the moonbase at the beginning of each episode in the title card, and often at various points in the series.

This has been a busy summer for my daughter. She had a remote NASA internship and took second semester physics as an intense six-week summer course. I did what I could to help with both of these areas, explaining things like orbital parameters for the internship and helping her understand physics problems. I know how intense these things are and some of what I did was simply not provide a distraction at inappropriate times by turning on the television. This caused me to turn to books and comics for more of my entertainment, which is not altogether a bad thing. In seeking things to read, I stumbled across a comic published in 2012 based on the TV series Space: 1999 called Aftershock and Awe, written by Andrew Gaska. Given my recent interest watching the show and listening to the audio re-imagining by Big Finish Productions, I thought this looked interesting. The only problem is that it had gone out of print around the time the COVID-19 pandemic began and appeared to be somewhat difficult to find. I did find some copies on eBay and most appeared to be available for a fair price, considering that it was a hardcover book. Still, I decided to ask some devoted fans whether this was worth the price.

Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television programme that ran for two series from 1975 to 1977.[2] In the premiere episode, set in the year 1999, nuclear waste stored on the Moon's far side explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, as well as the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably into space.

Space: 1999 was the final production by the partnership of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and was, at the time, the most expensive series produced for British television, with a combined 6.8 million budget.[3] The first series was co-produced by ITC Entertainment and Italian broadcaster RAI, while the second was produced solely by ITC.

Two series of the programme were produced, each comprising 24 episodes. Production of the first series was from November 1973 to February 1975;[4] production of the second series was from January 1976 to December 1976.

The premise of Space: 1999 centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research centre located within the crater Plato in the Moon's northern hemisphere.[5] Humanity had been storing its nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but when an unknown form of "magnetic radiation" is detected, the accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha.[6] The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's Solar System, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity. Several episodes of the first series hinted that the Moon's journey was influenced (and perhaps initiated) by a "mysterious unknown force", which was guiding the Alphans toward an ultimate destiny. The second series used simpler action-oriented plots.[7]

The first series of Space: 1999 used a "teaser" introduction, sometimes called a "hook" or "cold open". This was followed by a title sequence that managed to convey prestige for its two main stars, Landau and Bain (both billed as 'starring') and to give the audience some thirty-plus fast-cut shots of the forthcoming episode. The second series eliminated this montage. The programme would then offer four ten-to-twelve minute long acts (allowing for commercial breaks in North America) and finished with a short (and, in the second series, often light-hearted) "epilogue" scene.

The headline stars of Space: 1999 were American actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, who were married to each other at the time and had previously appeared together in Mission: Impossible. To appeal to the American television market and sell the series to one of the major U.S. networks, Landau and Bain were cast at the insistence of Lew Grade over the objections of Sylvia Anderson, who wanted British actors.[8] Also appearing as regular cast members were the Canadian-based British actor Barry Morse (as Professor Victor Bergman in the first series) and Hungarian-born, US-raised Catherine Schell (as the alien Maya in the second series). Before moving into the role of Maya during the second series, Catherine Schell had guest-starred as a different character in the Year One episode "Guardian of Piri". The programme also brought Australian actor Nick Tate to public attention. Roy Dotrice appeared in the first episode as Commissioner Simmonds and at the end of the episode it appeared that he would be a regular character; by the second (transmitted) episode the character vanished, reappearing partway through the first series in the episode "Earthbound", his only other appearance on the show, in which it is implied that he dies from asphyxia inside an alien spacecraft.

Over its two series, the programme featured guest appearances from Christopher Lee, Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Cushing, Judy Geeson, Julian Glover, Ian McShane, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw, Richard Johnson, Patrick Troughton, Peter Bowles, Sarah Douglas, David Prowse, Isla Blair, Stuart Damon, Peter Duncan, Vicki Michelle and Brian Blessed. (Blair, Damon and Blessed each appeared in two episodes portraying different characters.)[9][10] The English actor Nicholas Young (who portrayed John in the original version of The Tomorrow People) appeared in a Year Two episode, "The Bringers of Wonder". Several guest stars went on to appear in the Star Wars films, including Cushing, Glover, Lee, Blessed, Prowse, Michael Culver, Michael Sheard, Richard LeParmentier, Shane Rimmer, Angus MacInnes, Drewe Henley, Jack Klaff and Jack McKenzie.

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