# 2001 Airfix What If...



## miniature sun (May 1, 2005)

Whilst looking through the wealth of 2001 imagery I came across the paintings by Robert McCall ( Hey...wasn't he the Equaliser??)
Anyway one caught my eye and got me thinking how Airfix made the Orion shuttle but never did any other kits from the movie despite having a decent range of real space kits.
A little work in Paint came up with this what if....

The original...











The what if...


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## lunadude (Oct 21, 2006)

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'd buy one!


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

That would have been a nice kit . . . assuming the spacesuits and hardware were accurate, unlike Airfix's near-caricature of the _Orion_.

Suggestions: The fake box art should mention the movie title, and perhaps a few pertinent details such as:

• Contains Parts to Build (x number) Complete Astronaut Figures
• Includes Lunar Diorama Base
• Aries 1B Lunar Shuttle Not Included!


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## miniature sun (May 1, 2005)

scotpens said:


> That would have been a nice kit . . . assuming the spacesuits and hardware were accurate, unlike Airfix's near-caricature of the _Orion_.
> 
> Suggestions: The fake box art should mention the movie title, and perhaps a few pertinent details such as:
> 
> ...


Actually the Airfix Orion is not a bad kit and is fairly accurate provided you can find it with the original Pan Am decals. I guess those awful multicolored ones in the later kits were due to licensing issues. Also interesting is that as far as I'm aware the movie was never mentioned on the original issue box.


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## miniature sun (May 1, 2005)

Here's the original Orion artwork...











Here's the article I found it at...

http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/models/orion/index.html


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## Dave Hussey (Nov 20, 1998)

Doesn't the Airfix kit also include the Pan AM decals?

Huzz


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## Carson Dyle (May 7, 2003)

miniature sun said:


> Actually the Airfix Orion is not a bad kit and is fairly accurate provided you can find it with the original Pan Am decals.


Well, that depends on your definition of "accurate." Compared to the far superior Aurora kit, the Airfix model is pretty dodgy.

In both cases aftermarket PanAm livery decals are available (or, at least, they were available in the recent past) through sci-fi modeling vendors like StarshipModeler and CulTVman.


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## Dave Hussey (Nov 20, 1998)

The Aurora may have been superior, but at least the Airfix has been available within the last few years. And I think my Airfix has the Pan Am decals.

What about the Wilco resin kit? How does it measure up? Its supposed to be made off the Aurora.

Huzz


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## Carson Dyle (May 7, 2003)

Dave Hussey said:


> What about the Wilco resin kit? How does it measure up?


I haven't seen one in person, but the pix look good. And, yeah, it appears to be based on the Aurora kit.

Stargazer models also makes a couple different versions of the _Orion_...

http://www.planet3earth.co.uk/orion_3_spaceplane.htm


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## Dave Hussey (Nov 20, 1998)

I really should buy a Wilco Orion from Sarge, I think its only $30 or $40. You can't beat the price. I imagine the Stargazer is a lot more though. But probably good value and high quality.

Huzz


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## Fiver (Aug 30, 2002)

I own both the Aurora kit and the Airfix kit at present but I also owned both kits in the 1970's and did a lot of research with available photos and renderings and the sad truth is that both kits are just about at the same level of inaccuracy but in different areas. 

I think you'll find that the dimensions of the Aurora Kit is more accurate to the filming miniature but the details are pretty off base. It would appear that this kit was modeled after an illustration of the Orion from one of the movie posters. 
The Airfix kit, while being way off on dimensions has got much more accurate details, like windows and running lights.

I'm afraid if you want a truly accurate kit, you're going to have to build your own.

Pax,

Fiver


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## Marco Scheloske (May 16, 2000)

Dave Hussey said:


> Doesn't the Airfix kit also include the Pan AM decals?
> 
> Huzz


The first issue, yes (I own one, unbuild and boxed, so I`m 100 % sure).

The later ones not, because of the mentioned licensing issue (Airfix never had a license for 2001 kits).


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## Carson Dyle (May 7, 2003)

Fiver said:


> It would appear that this kit was modeled after an illustration of the Orion from one of the movie posters.


I'm confused; are you suggesting Robert McCall's onesheet rendering was the sole source of data referenced by Aurora when designing their kit? If so they deserve even more credit than I thought. 

Clearly many of the details are fudged on the Aurora kit (particularly the original issue), but with the exception of the area around the canopy the overall contours appear fairly close to those of the filming miniature. The lines of the Airfix kit on the other hand are so far removed from the original it could almost be a different craft altogether.


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## miniature sun (May 1, 2005)

Marco Scheloske said:


> The first issue, yes (I own one, unbuild and boxed, so I`m 100 % sure).
> 
> The later ones not, because of the mentioned licensing issue (Airfix never had a license for 2001 kits).


Actually, the third issue of the kit (which was the second issue to have that awful multi-colored scheme on the boxart) contained both the spurious decals AND the Pan Am ones.


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## Fiver (Aug 30, 2002)

Carson Dyle said:


> I'm confused; are you suggesting Robert McCall's onesheet rendering was the sole source of data referenced by Aurora when designing their kit?quote]
> 
> No...I'm not suggesting it was the sole source of reference but if you look closely at the poster, it contains certain details that differ from the studio model. For instance the lights where the wings meet the fuselage just fore of the passenger windows. On the Aurora kit they consist of a bar of clear cast styrene that runs under the fuselage and forms the lights as triangular sections where the wings meet the fuselage. That detail is completely absent from the filming miniature and the only place I've ever seen it apart from that kit is on the McCall poster (at least I think it was the poster...).
> 
> ...


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## Dave Hussey (Nov 20, 1998)

miniature sun said:


> Actually, the third issue of the kit (which was the second issue to have that awful multi-colored scheme on the boxart) contained both the spurious decals AND the Pan Am ones.


That is correct. I just pulled my Airfix kit out of my stash (the one with the red white and blue paint scheme on the cover art) and yes - the Pan Am decals are there.

Huzz


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

Here you go.alexander


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## X15-A2 (Jan 21, 2004)

The studio blueprints for the 2001 ships concerned themselves with the basic shapes and a few specific details such as windows, exhaust nozzles, RCS, and working mechanical details like landing gear. All other surface details were created by the model builders with some guidance from the A.D. and Kubrick himself.

If you were to get the studio blueprints in your hands, you would probably be disappointed by how little information they actually contained.

Aurora worked from photographs of the studio models, probably shot specifically for them. This is apparent from the inclusion of details which are accurate in look but are actually reversed in form, meaning that they are inverted. These details are high on the Aurora kit whereas they are low on the studio model and so on. This is known because of the efforts of those who have identified the kit parts used on the studio models. When using photographs as reference, it might be easy to turn an "outie" into an "innie". Because they used photographs, the outlines of their kits are accurate but the small details are questionable.

Phil


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## Model Man (Oct 1, 2007)

To get back to the astronaut kit...









Captain Cardboard does/did have this very project in mind. It looks like he may have cleaned that posting out though. 3 figures + moon gear as I recall, maybe some kind of base plate too... Don't quote me. It's been awhile. He may have pushed the idea as he tackles the load currently on his plate.


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## fernieo (Mar 22, 2000)

Coming Soon...












Not Really!


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