Moebius Models 1/1 HAL 9000 - 2001: a space odyssey Kit Build Review

By Michael Benolkin

Build Review

Back in 1968, when Arthur C. Clark wrote the novel and screenplay for 2001: a space odyssey, one of the 'stars' was the HAL 9000 computer, HAL being an acronym for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic computer, heuristics in those days was one of the early foundations for what would become artificial intelligence. As you'll recall from the movie, the crew interacts with HAL through wall-mounted modules equipped with camera, microphone, and speaker, as the computer itself was a massive affair kept in a special chamber aboard Discovery. To put this into perspective, computers in 1968 were huge and kept in special climate-controlled rooms, usually in a building's basement, and interaction with these computers was through dumb computer terminals and programs were loaded using hundreds, if not thousands, of punch cards. What Clark presented as HAL was indeed futuristic at the time though today, artificial intelligence has advanced significantly and centralized computing of the past is now distributed computing through networks around the globe. HAL's user terminal concept is done today with devices like Alexa, and we've moved so far beyond with distributed computing using miniature computers inside smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc. Even so, 2001 still feels futuristic today on the big screen while other movies lose their futuristic feel within a few years thanks to advances in consumer electronics.

A few weeks ago, Moebius Models released their long-awaited HAL 9000 terminal kit. You can see our first-look at the kit and its parts here. While I want to put a few of these up around the house (fortunately, the spousal unit is also a sci-fi geek), I thought I'd build one straight out of the box to see how it goes. The parts layout is very nicely engineered to make painting easy, so that's where I started. Aside from the clear lenses, all of the parts were primed with black Stynylrez. The main wall plate was masked and painted Tamiya Flat Aluminum as was the lens frame. The speaker plate was painted Tamiya Gun Metal. The stand has '2001: a space odyssey' molded on it with good relief, though the instructions suggest painting the lettering white. Instead, I used a 3000 grit sanding stick and removed the paint from the lettering and it achieves a very good look (for me at least).

The decal for HAL 9000 and the markings for the lens were applied before the lens assembly went together. Using a microfiber cloth, I carefully wiped the lens domes of any dust or debris (it is very dry this time of year and static electricity is present) before gluing the domes into place. The instructions suggest white glue, which is a good idea, though I used Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to build this model, being careful to not craze the clear parts. The lens assembly goes into the wall plate along with the speaker grill. Next comes the electronics, which comes out of the bag pre-wired and ready to go. I inserted the red LED into the hole in the back of the lens assembly and it didn't want to come back out, so no glue was used here. The power switch drops into the slot on the side of the frame and a 9-volt battery was snapped into the connector and placed at the bottom of the wall plate. I've got the wall plate dry-fitted to the base plate/display stand for these photos, but I'll likely hang this one in my office soon.

This was a fun project and just what I needed to get my modeling mojo moving once again. Total time for this project was about 1/2 day, including masking, painting, decals, and assembly. For those with a twisted sense of humor and have one of those camera-equipped door bells, you could mount that camera behind this plate and talk to unsuspecting visitors through your HAL 9000 faceplate. Rather than recreate the HAL voice however, I would love to have a Samuel Jackson voice system instead. So many possibilities, so little time...