Scale: 1/35
Source: Summertime on Icarus by Artur C. Clarke

My entry is the one-man space pod from Arthur C. Clarke's short story "Summertime on Icarus". It was first published by Conde' Nast Publications in 1960. I found in "Tales of Ten Worlds", by A. C. Clarke, published by Signet of New American Library, in April 1973.

In the story, a scientific expedition travels to the sun-skimming asteroid Icarus, which is an actual asteroid. Colin Sherrard is in his one-man space pod on the surface, when a fuel line explosion maroons him on the night side of Icarus. His radio is damaged, and the rising sun will incinerate him, unless help arrives in time. He manages to forestall death by dragging the pod into the shadow of a large boulder. Just as he is about to be incinerated, a rescue pod arrives, and scoops him to safety.

The pod has a clear dome for the pilot to see out of, a 10 foot long cylindrical body, two manipulators, and thruster modules.

My model is in 1/35 scale and is scratch built from an acrylic tube, styrene tube and sheet, wood balls and blocks, brass and aluminum tubing, paper, and foil. The top dome is made from a bubble gum machine toy container. A scratch built instrument panel has switches and knobs from styrene rod. The panel is a plastic sandwich using paper FW 109 insruments from a FineScale Modeler article, placed behind acrylic sheet.

Testors enamel paint was used on the pod. Orange Rollo candy foil and gold Delta Renaissance Foil was used on the "service" module and the quad thruster modules. The thrusters are 1/16 inch K&S aluminum tubing.

The manipulators are from brass tube, wood balls, and styrene. The shoulder and wrist joints are patented "three roll" joints, with revoulte joints for the elbows. (The company I work for used to make robots!) The grippers are cut and sanded from styrene.

The pilot is an Academy 1/35 scale IDF tank crewman. He is painted with Polly S and Model Master acrylic paint. The helmet is painted gloss white enamel, and has a boom mike from wire with a drop of Micro Krystal Kleer. He has a name tag on his shirt, and his left shoulder carries a mission patch. Both are made from paper decals (MS Word), glued on with Elmer's white glue.

He holds a control stick in his right hand, while his left reaches for a switch. His left arm sports a watch. The watch is a piece of brass tube, filled with Krystal Kleer.

Image: Isometric View

Image: Top view

Image: Side view