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There have been quite a few notable kits based on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. These include the Aries and Space Pod
kits from Atomic City, the Discovery and Hal kits from Lunar, and
of course, the Orion and Moonbus from Aurora. Now we have a new kit from Wilco to add to that collection, and a fine addition it is.
The EVA pod was featured prominently in the climax of
the movie as Bowman tries to rescue Pool outside the Discovery, only to be trapped outside the ship by the mad computer HAL.
This new 1/32 scale kit allows you to recreate this part of the film, complete with two figures. The completed model will measures about 3 inches in diameter. The twelve parts are well cast with plenty of detail. Even the interior is fully detailed. The two figures are excellently reproduced and are very well proportioned. My kit had a few bubbles in the casting, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of putty.
Assembly should go smoothly. You'll need to paint the interior first, and perhaps place some sort of illumination inside.
You'll also want to figure out how you want to handle the window. I suggest a piece of clear styrene carefully glued into place and masked. Once the two shell halves are glued together, you will have a nasty seam running around the pod to clean up. this may very well be the most daunting task in building this kit. Fortunately, the side parts are molded separately, so attaching these will hide most of the seamline.
About my only criticism of this kit is the resin claws that come with it. While these parts are well case and detailed, I would like to have seen them done in metal instead of resin.
Because they are resin, there will always be greater risk of breakage.
In the end, you really can't go wrong with this kit. The detailing is excellent, the casting is very good, and the
figures are a great bonus! And like all the other products from Wilco, you really cannot beat the price!
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