Cold War Space Race: CCCP goes Lunar with Soyuz and US NASA Saturn 1B - CoW Game Prep 2026 (WD)

This is a blast from the past and down Airfix memory lane I go. The lunar lander (The Eagle) which was part of the Saturn 1B (IIRC) was hidden in an unassembled, primed and "brown washed" state for such a long time. All it took was for possible inclusion in my Conference of Wargamers (CoW) game 2026, "The Earth Prepared" to jolt it towards the painting tray (see below, not sure about the hole in the roof, but I think that is where it attached to the orbiter Columbia - I quite like how it has come out): 

The big boys rockets - the diminutive Soyuz in comparison to one of the 'smaller' American rockets, the Saturn 1B (see below, a stretch goal for the game is to get the Saturn V, currently hiding in the loft, assembled and painted too): 

Note the little Yuri on the launch pad, a tiny dot towards the front of the CCCP (LHS) launch pad.

Tim Peake's Space Capsule: York Railway Museum

Same space capsule, and if anything it looked smaller, but this time at York Railway museum (see below, note the circular glass panel on the right was not there during the launch, but cut in afterwards so you could get a better view of the cramped claustrophobic conditions):

I have to say the Shildon folks put on a better display as there were plenty of volunteers telling you lots of interesting extra facts. For example on the actual mission, there was such a tight set of docking parameters to the International Space Station that when the docking computer broke) they has to do a manual docking process, but get it wrong and they were floating off lost into "deep space". They did it with just two minutes to spare!

Tim Peake's Space Capsule at Shildon Railway Museum

Hard to believe it but someone (actually three) sat inside this thing and went up into space then came back down again (see below, the parachute mechanism is to right and to the left an "after the event" observation portal into the interior):

I kinda think it looks like the head of a giant Dr. Who robot villain (see below):

Hats off to you Tim Peake you are a braver man than I am ;) Also a big thank you to the Shildon volunteer experts who made the visit all the more worthwhile by being on hand to tell kids and adults alike interesting facts.