Article and images copyright © 1998 Rob Caswell.

Using the Apollo suit design as base, this kit depicts the artist's vision of NASA returning an astronaut to the lunar surface after several decades absence. While NASA would doubtlessly have made many changes in suit design since '72, this is still a cool kit, and could easily be built to depict one of the later moonwalk missions.

Overall Impressions

This is Rob's build-up of the kit.
Everything see here
comes in the kit.

John's build-up (side view)

John's build-up (side view)

John's build-up (closeup)

EVA Models is a company with a very specific product: miniatures of space-suited figures. Like any good specialist, they do what they do very well. Their line currently consists of a Real Space line (historical astronauts, from the Apollo and Shuttle programs), the "Back to the Moon" line (fictional figures in plausible suits, operating under the premise of Man's return to our satellite), and a Science Fiction figure line. All are 1/32nd scale resin, with some mixed media detail items.

The figure reviewed here is the only member (so far) of the "Back to the Moon" line. He is holding a Hasselblad camera and wearing a late-style Apollo suit, with tool/sample pouches hanging from each side of the PLSS. He stands on a circular, resin, lunar surface base designed to precisely fit within a quality display dome (also available from EVA at the very reasonable price of $6).

The kit's components include eight resin parts (with minimal flash), a wire antenna, a sheet of waterslide decals, and an assembly/painting sheet.

Okay - that's the basics. So why is this kit worth raving about? Because the quality of the parts is outstanding and everything was done RIGHT - and it's affordable. The quality of resin casting is among the highest this industry can aspire to. The only place you might find airbubbles is on joining surfaces (as it should be). The sculpting itself is very crisply detailed and everything looks just right. Finally, the parts fit is excellent. You just can't ask for more!

The two non-resin parts are the wire for the antenna which sprouts from the top of the PLSS and the decals. The hole for the wire PLSS antenna is pre-drilled (a nice touch). The water slide decals seem to be of reasonable quality, and include American flag patches, a NASA worm decal, and red suit identification stripes. The ONLY fault I found is that the blue and white starfield on the American flags were a little off-register. Fixing that problem is simple, if you cut up the decals and apply the starfield separately from the stripes.

Finally, the instruction sheet is brief but helpful, include lots of good painting and construction tips. Everything comes in a nice little ziplock with a full-color glossy photo of the finished kit for reference. When you combine this whole package with a six-dollar display dome, this has got to be one of the most outstanding kit deals on the market!

This is actually one of EVA's older offerings (hitting the market about a year and a half ago). Since then, the line has been expanded to include some excellent figures from the Apollo 17 mission. In addition, EVA reworked some of their older releases to bring them up to the company's current level of standards. EVA figures are available direct from the manufacturer.

More reviews of EVA figures can be found at Sven Knudson's Space Models.