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Airfix Apollo Saturn V
Catacombs Model Gallery
The Airfix Apollo Saturn V is a 1:144 scale rocket kit first produced in 1970. The 79 parts are full of cylinders, domes and rocket engines that can easily be used on science fiction models. Unusually many of those parts were used as structural elements of the models.
Airfix also made a 1:144 scale Saturn 1B, which represented Apollo 7 (with the same small lunar module as the Saturn V). This model was also used extensively.
The Apollo command-service module (CSM) of both original models were too small, and the conical command module was shrunken even more as the Boost Protective Covering and the launch escape system had to fit over it. Recent versions of the models correct the inaccuracies, but are incorrect for Space 1999 models.
Even the box appears in Space: 1999- here it is in End of Eternity, on the bottom shelf.
The unpainted model (missing the Launch Escape System rocket) is in Bergman's lab in Matter Of Life And Death, Black Sun and Ring Around The Moon.
In Matter Of Life And Death, the launch escape system rocket can be seen alongside the model. Only in Ring Around The Moon can it be seen in place, on top of the rocket.
One part that is clearly seen in the show is part 64, the front plate of the Apollo service module (immediately behind the command module). It is featured on the side pods of the first 44 inch Eagle model.
Here is part 64 shown on the kit instructions.
On the top of the same first 44 inch Eagle, within the start of the spine girders, is the front of the Saturn V lunar module.
Even the small but recognisable Apollo lunar module (front part 51, back part 52) appears on models. Here two of them are on the back of the Deltan battleship, on the back of the cantilever section of the conning tower.
The kit instructions for the lunar module.
The space dock in Breakaway is designed to look like it was built from used rockets. The used rockets are, of course, Airfix Saturn V stages.
A detail from the main Texas City tower, seen in Journey To Where, shows both the lunar module and the service module front face. This sort of detail was of invisible on screen, but the overall effect was to make the model look like a huge industrial city.
The Hawk from War Games. The main body uses the Saturn V 2nd stage tank extended with Airfix Saturn B 1st stage tank, with an added central section to widen it into an oval. At the rear you can see more lunar modules. The ribbed orange cylinder is the 1st/2nd stage adapter ring, with the domes from those stages on either end.
The stage 2 kit parts.
Moonbase Alpha has a few Saturn V parts, including the stage 3 rocket base (the ribbed cone in this picture). The folded leg from the Apollo lunar module can be seen on another building.
The Voyager from Voyager's Return has three chemical rockets alongside the Queller drive. The rockets are the 1st stage Rocketdyne F1 rockets from the Saturn V.
The F1 rockets in the kit.
The pilot ship from Bringers Of Wonder has three of the 1st stage rockets.
In Guardian Of Piri, the robot Servant head is made from Aifix 1:144 Saturn V engines. The 'mouth' has two of the Saturn V's F-1 engines mounted bottoms-together, with two more of those engines mounted atop them, pointing toward where the eyes would have been. A single, smaller J-2 engine sticks up roughly where the nose would have been. Thanks to Craig Rohloff.
Copyright Martin Willey