Author Topic: The NASA model building thread (Read 1083592 times)

BenB5150 · « **Reply #80 on:** 04/12/2006 06:11 pm »

I'm working on building the Revell-Germany 1/144 space shuttle and I'm modeling it after Columbia with the SILTS pod. I got the resin SILTS pod from Cutting Edge and I've made one attempt using the the resin piece as a guide and I ruined the tail. I tried to correct it with modeling putty but it just looked bad. I ran across a page where they did it on a 1/72 scale but the tail is different from the 1/144 scale. So before I ruin another orbiter I wanted to see if anyone else had attempted this modification.

Thanks!
Ben

BlackBirdCD · « **Reply #81 on:** 04/12/2006 08:34 pm »

Glad I found this site. I've been on many of the SF Model boards for ages - kraisee, I remember seeing your photo-etch launch pad work a while back. It's still impressive to this day, and I'm thrilled that someone is 'kraisee' enough to try it

Bubbinski · « **Reply #82 on:** 04/13/2006 03:20 am »

My first post here, I've been lurking for a while....

There's been some very good work shown on these pages. I not only follow the space program but I'm an active modeler and I'm working on a shuttle project at the moment (Shuttle Columbia - 1/288 Academy/Heller kit). I've also done other shuttles in the past year that are shown on Aircraft Resource Center and Starship Modeler (the Airfix 1/144 Discovery kit and the Tamiya 1/100 Challenger).

Ben, as far as paints go I've struggled with that myself. These days I'm using Model Master Yellow Ochre (for lighter more orangish tanks) or Model Master Sloth Brown (for darker tanks closer to launch). I use Polly Scale Italian Camouflage Yellow for the piping and raised boundaries of the intertank along with the (extinct) PAL ramps. And an airbrush is great for subtle color effects.

kraisee · « **Reply #83 on:** 04/13/2006 03:28 am »

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BlackBirdCD - 12/4/2006 4:34 PM

Glad I found this site. I've been on many of the SF Model boards for ages - kraisee, I remember seeing your photo-etch launch pad work a while back. It's still impressive to this day, and I'm thrilled that someone is 'kraisee' enough to try it

The Apollo LUT gave me nightmares due to its complexities - but not as much as the Shuttle tower is going to...

And actually, because the tower tapers so much, the LC-34 kit, with LUT and MSS is going to be a pain too.

Nobody realises just how much more difficult the launch towers are to model than the rockets. Ultimately a static display rocket is just a tube with some cool bits stuck on it. A launch tower is lots of beams, trusses, pipes, gratings, more pipes, hinged gantries, cabinets, wires and a ton of other things. They're tough to design and manufacture as model kits.

But I sure hope NASA goes with the extended FSS-style launch tower for the CLV and CaLV because I've already got the FSS completed here thanks to the Apollo LUT and extending it won't be all that difficult

Ross.

nethegauner · « **Reply #84 on:** 04/13/2006 09:15 am »

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BenB5150 - 12/4/2006 8:11 PM

I'm working on building the Revell-Germany 1/144 space shuttle and I'm modeling it after Columbia with the SILTS pod. I got the resin SILTS pod from Cutting Edge and I've made one attempt using the the resin piece as a guide and I ruined the tail. I tried to correct it with modeling putty but it just looked bad. I ran across a page where they did it on a 1/72 scale but the tail is different from the 1/144 scale. So before I ruin another orbiter I wanted to see if anyone else had attempted this modification.

Thanks!
Ben

Just how many Bens do we have now?

Regarding the SILTS pod: for a 1/144 OV-102 model that I built years ago, I used a sawed-off tooth pick. Yeah, right...

I picked one that had about the right dimensions. I sanded it here and there to make its shape look more like the real thing and painted it black before glueing it to the model. It looked OK.

BlackBirdCD · « **Reply #85 on:** 04/13/2006 06:34 pm »

I thought they tore down the FSS tower (isn't that the old Apollo tower? Maybe I'm confusing the tower names). I was just at KSC two weeks go - no older Apollo tower anymore

DaveS · « **Reply #86 on:** 04/13/2006 06:42 pm »

The FSS is Fixed Service Structure, the shuttle LC-39 tower. The LUT or Launcher Umbilical Tower was the old red Apollo tower.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #87 on:** 04/14/2006 09:34 am »

Any of you guys build models out of wood and metal?

Of course, I didn't build these below, but theses are mine....

Bubbinski · « **Reply #88 on:** 04/14/2006 03:16 pm »

Back when I was in college, I built a Guillow's Space Shuttle - a balsa wood kit in 1/77th scale. It was a good kit if you wanted a model that showed the "framework" of the shuttle, but not so good if you wanted a totally realistic shuttle as you had to use some kind of fabric to skin the model.

These days, I stick with plastic and/or resin.

kraisee · « **Reply #89 on:** 04/14/2006 04:29 pm »

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DaveS - 13/4/2006 2:42 PM

The FSS is Fixed Service Structure, the shuttle LC-39 tower. The LUT or Launcher Umbilical Tower was the old red Apollo tower.

Yes Dave, the old Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower #1, the tower which Neil and Buzz last walked on before they next walked on the Moon, is gone.

It was destroyed just a few years ago, and the 750 tons of steel were shipped I believe to China where they today it forms part of the structure of the huge three-gorges damn structure.

LUT #3 was dismantled around 1975 and about 2/3rds of it today form the Fixed Service Structure at Shuttle Pad A. LUT #2 was similarly re-built into Pad B the following year.

The three Launcher Platforms became the Shuttle MLP's and are still used today.

I've got lots of pictures of all the changes if you're interested?

Ross.

Rocket Guy · « **Reply #90 on:** 04/14/2006 04:35 pm »

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It was destroyed just a few years ago, and the 750 tons of steel were shipped I believe to China where they today it forms part of the structure of the huge three-gorges damn structure.

Are you serious or is that a joke :-) It would be a rather ironic fate!

The campaign to stop it failed, but you can read about it here: http://savethelut.org/

newsartist · « **Reply #91 on:** 04/15/2006 01:15 am »

Touching on tank color again....

I don't know how useful this is to the Europeans here, but try looking in model railroad specialist stores or train shows, for paint?
Several of the steam-era (US,) railroad oranges were real close; better than starting with aircraft colors, even if you have to tweak them with a drop or two.

kraisee · « **Reply #92 on:** 04/15/2006 05:53 pm »

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Ben - 14/4/2006 12:35 PM

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It was destroyed just a few years ago, and the 750 tons of steel were shipped I believe to China where they today it forms part of the structure of the huge three-gorges damn structure.

Are you serious or is that a joke :-) It would be a rather ironic fate!

The campaign to stop it failed, but you can read about it here: http://savethelut.org/

That's serious.

I was the local 'front-man' for that campaign actually. Got interviewed by Todd Halvorson at Florida Today and by David Waters of CFN-13 which got us national TV coverage too.

We had been planning to approach NASA that summer with a comprehensive plan to gradually raise the funds to have the tower rebuilt. But before our plans were ready, early in the year, someone passed us a copy of a memo going around KSC telling people to stay clear of the boneyard while the tower was destroyed!

Talk about running around like headless chickens!

I got in direct contact with then NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe within a few hours. He put KSC Director James Kennedy on the case that day and we worked with a number of people around the center. Ultimately, they managed to somehow 'hold' the destruction for a few weeks to try to urgently pull something together. But pulling millions of dollars worth of donations together in just that period of time proved quite impossible.

We did get thousands of signatures on petitions, and donation offers totalling over $500,000 within a few weeks. We got a lot of interest from the heritage preservation societies, both local and national.

We had one organisation which really wanted the tower, but the funding looked, well, I'll call it 'iffy' and leave it at that because the truth might be considered slanderous by some. So we ultimately pulled the plug on that lead ourselves.

The $2m demolition project went ahead. The scrap value of the tower was half the contract value for the company doing the demolition job.

All the construction-grade steel and aluminium was sold for scrap, and China bought it for the dam. No joke. China has been gobbling up all the steel and concrete supplies from all over the world for years now.

One of the massive Saturn-V Hold Down Arms was salvaged and is being refurbished currently. It will be put on display somewhere at KSC whenever its ready, like the one at the tail end of the Saturn-1B at the Visitors Center.

So today, all that remains of the launch tower which launched Apollo 11 are the segments of tower at the pointy end of the Saturn-V on display at KSC, the Crew Service Arm (#9) at the Visiors Center, the White Room at the Kansas Cosmosphere and the TSM I just mentioned. Shuttle MLP #3 was the original Launcher Platform under that launch though, so while it's radically different now, it's still operational.

Ross.

Hotol · « **Reply #93 on:** 04/17/2006 03:39 pm »

Does NASA give away the models they use for scale testing?

Jim · « **Reply #94 on:** 04/17/2006 05:15 pm »

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Hotol - 17/4/2006 11:39 AMDoes NASA give away the models they use for scale testing?

no, it depends on who owns them and remember the Smithonian gets first right of refusal

Bubbinski · « **Reply #95 on:** 04/20/2006 06:21 am »

I've just finished the Columbia shuttle model I mentioned earlier, here she is!

nethegauner · « **Reply #96 on:** 04/20/2006 07:25 am »

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Bubbinski - 20/4/2006 8:21 AM
I've just finished the Columbia shuttle model I mentioned earlier, here she is!

Small, but beautiful...

Bubbinski · « **Reply #97 on:** 04/21/2006 06:13 am »

Thanks. I'll be building more shuttles this year. Maybe even the STC Start Buran and ISS kits.

Sphereion · « **Reply #98 on:** 06/06/2006 04:34 am »

So lovely examples here. Fine work.

Jason · « **Reply #99 on:** 06/06/2006 02:38 pm »