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If I had to chose one of my top ten favourite designs it would be difficult to miss out the "ORION"
from "2001: A Space Odyssey". Its graceful flight across the screen, no doubt ably assisted by the soundtrack of the Blue Danube Waltz, is still one of the greatest, and most memorable of cinema moments. So at long last I got around to building a model of it.
Martin with the finished 3 ft long ORION.
The Orion's basic shape cut out of Jelutong wood on a bandsaw.
I carved the fuselarge shape using photos from the film archive I have
A composite shot showing the rear engine cowling. I was going to mould this but ended up carving it in lime wood.
This photo shows the inside of the engine cowling with the fine strips added. These butt up to the central vane to form a right angle, not a curve as is depicted on both the "Aurora" and "Airfix" kits.
I made the wings from 2 layers of 2mm Perspex, sandwiching one piece of 3.5mm Perspex between the upper & lower halves of the wing.
The model parts fitted together. However at this point, as can be seen, I have cut right through the model just behind the wings to enable me to carve the little recesses that are just forward of the intakes that will later be added
The model has now been sprayed in multiple layers of "High-Build" primer, rubbed down with Wet & Dry paper between each coat and then sprayed with fine grey & white finishing primer.