Moebius Models 1:144 Scale 2001 Discovery XD-1 - Painting Advice

Albireo · Jan 14, 2026

For those of you who have built this one I'm trying to get some ideas on how to go about doing the light grey paneling on the main sphere (front).

I'm not an air brusher so it's all rattle cans for me. It's the masking that I'm puzzling over.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

BOATMAN · Jan 15, 2026

Some pics of it would be nice to as i loved both films 2001 AN 2010 the the year we made contact
chrisb

BigGiraffe · Mar 12, 2026

Hi Albireo,
From the age of this post, I guess you have resolved your paint questions and are pressing on? I built the Moebius kit a couple years ago using spray cans and hand-painting.
Best regards,
Kurt

Albireo · Mar 12, 2026

BigGiraffe said:
Hi Albireo,
From the age of this post, I guess you have resolved your paint questions and are pressing on? I built the Moebius kit a couple years ago using spray cans and hand-painting.
Best regards,
Kurt

Kurt,

Yeah sorry I've not updated this. After studying this for a while I stumbled on a guy online who made his own custom masks. The set he sells has far more than I wanted to bother with but I got the main areas covered.

For the front section (ball) I primed with a light grey (Tamyia) masked, then painted with an off-white. I then removed the masks and lightly (spraying from farther away) hit the whole thing again with the off-white. That lightened the grey to what I think looks right.

For the rear nuclear reactor/engine section I didn't do any masking but tried a different technique to try and make all the intricate detail stand out. I primed it with a dark grey and then when I painted it with my off-white, enough of that grey remained or rather, showed through to make it look really good (I think). Click on each thumbnail for a higher res photo.

BigGiraffe · Mar 12, 2026

That's looks really good! I used similar techniques, only I brush-painted many small panels and details, kind of randomly though tried to use photos as reference. I'm sure I saw the same custom masks and said "nawww". Besides, I wanted it to look like MY model, something I did.

Yours is a beauty! You can be proud of that one!
Best regards,
Kurt

Albireo · Mar 12, 2026

Further, I'm now building all those tiny cargo containers that run along the spine. Talk about tedious. Thankfully there's Tamiya's quick setting liquid cement.