Translate

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Space Station V

Here are some more images of my scratch built model of Space Station Five from 2001 A Space Odyssey.  The materials I used for this model were a 4'x8' sheet of 1mm styrene plastic, 1/2 inch PVC electrical pipe (this is what determined its size), the windows are from a coil book binder punch and various types of sheet and strip styrene for structure and detail.
At the time when I built this model there were (or at least I don’t think there were) really any reliable blueprints of this model kicking around. So what did I do? Answer put the movie into the player, fast forward to the pertinent points in the movie and start taking measurements which is exactly what I did. Now some eagle eyed individuals will no doubt point out some mistakes on my model when compared to the original (which by the way was tossed into a farmer’s field in the early seventies and then was never seen again, what a crying shame). All I can say to those eagle eyed viewers is Hey! I took the measurements off a friggen TV set for crying out load gimmi a break!
From Wikipedia "
Space Station V is a fictional space station seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Operational, it is a large, international, rotating wheel space station used as a transfer point from Low Earth orbit to the moon and other planets. It also functions as an orbital hotel, mostly operated by Hilton Hotels. Rotation of the station provides artificial gravity for people aboard the station. The station contains two docking bays for docking spacecraft and is placed on its rotational axis at the opposite sides of the construction. By the time of events depicted in the film, it is still under construction, with the incomplete second wheel.
The rotating wheel depicted in the movie traces its lineage back to wheeled space station designs by Wernher von Braun and Herman Potočnik, the latter describing such a space station design in his book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor (1928). The studio model was reported to be eight feet wide (Bizony) or six feet wide (Agel), and stuffed with tiny lights behind the windows. Due to its large size and spidery structure, the model always seemed in danger of breaking apart. Kubrick had most of the models and props used in 2001 destroyed or discarded, or stored away and inaccessible, so that they wouldn't be used in any movies not under his control. In the early 1970s, when the MGM studio in Borehamwood, England where the film was made was demolished, the model for Space Station V was dumped in a field about 20 miles from Borehamwood. It was destroyed by vandals a few days later.

6 comments:

Manchu said...

Great work!

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Manchu!!

Unknown said...

Wow such nice work, looking to start one of my own, first major scratch build.
For spokes I found 1/2 in cake pillars in Joanne’s. The styrene looks like a great answer for the rest. I already have the middle hub started.
Have a question . What diameter are the wheels ?

Regards
Randy Ferron

Randyferron@gmail.com
😎

-Warren Zoell said...

Thanks Randy. Though it's not that accurate but pretty considering it was before the internet when I built it. The model is two feet in diameter.

templerman said...

That man was just plain crazy. Those models and props, along with all the phots and other minutia, should have been stored and put in a museum.

-Warren Zoell said...

templerman - it was one of the great shames in movie history in my opinion. At the Aries survived.