Published in 1952, this cover is from a later paperback edition. The Stones, a brilliant but eccentric family of "Loonies" (residents of the Moon, known as "Luna" in Latin), buy a used spaceship (which by this time is less complicated than a car), overhaul it, and go sightseeing around the solar system. One of Heinlein's less successful juveniles, the novel is perhaps best known for the creation of Martian flatcats, an obvious inspiration for Star Trek's tribbles a decade and a half later.
The Stone family names their spaceship the "Rolling Stone." The image depicts the Rolling Stone's departartue from Luna, with Earth in the background. This image was created using a photo of my model and astronomical photos of Earth and the farside of the Moon.
The Rolling Stone arrives at its first stop, Mars, and prepares to land at the spaceport on Phobos. This image was created using a photo of my model and astronomical photos of Mars and Phobos.
The Rolling Stone passes near an asteroid as it enters the Asteroid Belt.
As usual, Heinlein provides little physical description of the spaceship Rolling Stone, though more than in some of his other novels. He does specify its height (150 feet) as it sits on its fins, and he mentions the number of fins (3), or to be more precise, the number of "landing jacks." He mentions ports, though not how many or what size. I took these scant characteristics and built a space ship in the style often found in science fiction magazines and movies of the 1950's. I particularly drew inspiration from the "Luna" from Heinlein's 1950 movie, DESTINATION MOON, and from the artwork of Wally Wood. (this model is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones")
The scale of the model is 1/144, based on a length of 150 feet. I included view ports on the three living quarter decks of the ship. Unfortunately, the size and spacing of the ports gives a first impression of a much smaller ship since they resemble the small passenger windows of aircraft with which we are all familiar. In the scale of the model, the ports are large and spaced seven feet apart. (this model is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones")
(this model is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones")
The body of the model was converted from a Revell Skipjack submarine model. The fins were made from sheet styrene. The streamlined landing jacks at the ends of the fins were made from aircraft drop tanks. The control deck fairing was also made from sheet styrene. The ports and control deck windows were cut from black decal film. (this model is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones")
Like most SF writers of the period, Heinlein described the ship as having "rocket tubes." The term "rocket nozzles" didn't really become common until NASA started launching rockets for real. I made the tubes from Evergreen styrene tubing. (this model is based on the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones")
If Strombecker had produced a series of models in the 1950's based on the works of science fiction authors, this might have been the box top for the spaceship "Rolling Stone" from Robert Heinlein's novel THE ROLLING STONES. A composite image using a photo of my model of the "Rolling Stone" and astronomical photos of Mars and Phobos. The station on Phobos was adapted from a well known fictional Moonbase.
