Lake County SpacePort 

                                                                                       "Ad Astra per Formae"

Revell 1/6 scale

Space Shuttle Astronaut

& Manned Manuvering Unit


The astronaut figure was based on Revell's previously released Gemini Astronaut, and did not have correct detail.

The model was marketed by Revell just after STS 51-A, where Bruce McCandless became the first to fly the MMU during that Shuttle flight.

Unfortunately, they did not do sufficient re-tooling to the astronaut figure to differentiate it from the old Gemini Astronaut state.

I had to scratch-build the front control box and seamline between the Hard-Upper Torso (HUT) and Lower Torso of the Shuttle space suit, or Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU).

These were fabricated and blended into the suit. The same is true for helmet work lights and visor details. 

Dateline July 5, 2019

Lake County Space Port revisits the Revell Astronaut with MMU model, in order to completely re-do the exterior surfaces of the MMU with a much higher level of detail than was orginally provided by Revell, or by the basic revision to the Astronaut figure. The inspiration came from fellow SpaceModeler, Michael Prator on Facebook, who fielded photos of a recent MMU build, which included panel and fastener details not originally part of the model. 

Renovation of an old model is a bit like peeling an onion. Once you get things going, you find other aspects of the model that come do well from a bit more effort placed into them. We could cover the metallic surfaces with the proper colored foils. we could add proper helmet-mounted lighting to the model. The MMU could have flashing Location Lamps, just as the real ones did.

The data came from later photographs of the MMUs on display at NASM and KSC, but also from 3D modeling offerings of the MMU now available on the Web.

Well, here's the results, including a display stand that can run the LEDs autonomously, by an internal 9 V battery, or from an external power supply. 

It also occurred to me that if we make our detail decals work on our model, others might want to use this type of solution on their projects as well. It could be a new "product offering" from the LCSP.com Web Store!

Thanks, again to Michael Prator, because without seeing what he had accoplished on his MMU model, I would not have decided it was time to updae our version.

You can now find the Revell Astronaut with MMU Detail Decal Set in the LCSP.com Web Store!  Scroll down to the newest store entry.  Go to store.