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#2140 by roma847 on 19 Jan, 2022 14:55
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Hello friends of the Rings,
now I want to show you quickly how far I have got with the Barber Pole Spiral.
Good Heavens!! What incredible detail! Roma, that is some FANTASTIC work!
Thanks Truckmen.
Yeah! That's what gives it that extra something.
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#2141 by roma847 on 19 Jan, 2022 15:03
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Great detective work, Manfred and having well-informed friends is very useful, too.
Thanks Mike,
yep, this first-hand information is an awesome help to any scratch builder.
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#2142 by roma847 on 29 Jan, 2022 17:11
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My friends,
we will never forget this day when yesterday 36 years ago the Challenger disaster happened on the newly built launch pad 39B and the STS-51L crew of seven became everlasting legends.
Back row: Ellison S. Onizuka, S. Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis, Judith A. Resnik
Front row: Michael J. Smith, Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Ronald E. McNair
Source: wikipedia.org
That's why my STS-6 project should be a little tribute to these heroes of American spaceflight history.
May they rest in peace.
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#2143 by roma847 on 09 Feb, 2022 22:49
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Hello everybody,
then I want to continue, so as not to get completely out of practice.
However, I've first turned to the Transporter, which still gave me a few puzzles that I still had to solve.
In the beginning I've used this beautiful image of the transporter as a guide,
Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov
and I first started the experimental assembly, for which I glued both side fronts onto a Balsa board (2 mm), whereby I was so busy that I made a few mistakes,
which I've only gradually recognized.
Since the photo shows one of the 2000 transporters delivered by KAMAG, I've first replaced the front KAMAG Logo with the NASA Worm Logo and pasted over the back logo, which later turned out to be a mistake. That had to do with the fact that I was initially guided by James MacLaren's words that the first transporters had driver's cabs on both sides, which is why one had not need to distinguish between front and back side, but what is simply thought too short ...
This also resulted in the error in my reasoning that I mirrored the other side, which was not necessary respectively wrong.
So I created a copy of the first side and thus had two opposite sides and thus a driver's cabin on both front sides. So far so good.
With that I could now continue the construction, for which I've fixed the two side parts on a steel sheet with magnets over the floor plan of the transporter (124 mm x 44 mm) in order to then be able to glue the front and back side between them.
To do this, I looked again at the few photos of the transporter from the STS-6 and from the STS-9, which followed six months later, and have compared them with James MacLaren's photos, which were from the same period.
And in doing so, I noticed some serious differences regarding the front and rear of the transporters of that time, which I had not known or overlooked before, but which are decisive for their construction.
And they are clearly related to the direction of travel of the transporter when transporting the Payload Canister to the launch pad, which ultimately should turn out to be the solution to the riddle. 
But since I've made good resolutions and don't want to work a night shift again, I'll stop at this point and continue tomorrow.
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#2144 by roma847 on 10 Feb, 2022 17:29
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Hello everybody,
as should have already become clear in my last post, I struggled with some inconsistencies and ambiguities for a while, the clarification of which was actually a rather tough nut to crack,
which, on the one hand, kept me busy longer than expected and was quite stressful, but on the other hand, was essential in order to can scratch the transporter used that time possibly close true to the original at STS-6. 
As already indicated, I've tried to get things straight concerning the driving direction of the Transporter when transporting the Payload canister to the Launch pad, during the canister was always standing upright (Vertical Transportation Mode).
Source: Space Shuttle News Reference (NTR Server, 1981)
In this upright position, the transporter leaves the preparation building (Vertical Processing Facility), as can be seen in this image of the STS-6. And now it gets interesting.
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
In this position with the flat side of the canister forward, however, the transporter does not drive to the launch pad but in the opposite direction, wherefore it's controlled from the driver's cab on the rear side,
what is a small but subtle difference that one have to take into account, what can be seen in the following image.
Here, in the mid-1980s, the transporter was almost at its destination on the way to the pad and is already on the slanted access road, with the hillslope being compensated by the lifting technology of the chassis, as one can clearly see.
Because of the driving direction, this is for me as from now the front side of the transporter.
Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren
Arrived on the pad, the transporter finally maneuvers in a left turn so far under the RSS until it comes up with the Payload Canister directly under the Payload Bay of the RSS and there to standstill.
Consequently in this image by James MacLaren one has a look at the back side of the transporter with the rear driver's cab and at the F&GS Module and I&CS Module, located on this side, whose tasks have already been briefly described in Reply #2135.
Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren
In this position directly under the Payload Bay of the RSS, the transporter turns into a special Hoisting Mode, in which it gets on its knees, which means that the front side is tilted down and the back side tilted up, so that the canister can then be hoisted up by the RSS crane.
Source: capcomespace.net
On this photo of the STS-6 one can see the canister already hoisted in front of the RSS Payload Bay and the discharged transporter below, looking onto the rear of the Transporter with its back side.
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
In the zoom one nicely can see the arrangement of the I&CS and F&GS modules.
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
And now all I needed was a similarly good shot of the front side of the transporter, which one can see in this cropped photo from the STS-6. A typical feature on the front side are the red hoses, via which the air conditioning of the environmental control system (ECS module) is connected to the canister, whereby constantly clean room conditions were ensured inside.
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
Here is another image of the front side of the transporter in Horizontal Transportation Mode of the canister at STS-9 in late 1983 showing the side connections of the hoses at the canister.
Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Ares67)
With this the structure of the Payload Canister Transporter of that time as the basis for scratching has now been fundamentally clarified, from which it is clearly evident that the KAMAG Transporter delivered in 2000 differed from the early transporters by having a clearly different structure especially at its back side.
Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov
Besides the fact that there was only one driver's cab at the front side, one can see this large cavity at the back side that I had noticed all along. In addition, the rear end is stretched far too long due to the perspective distortion of the photo, which has surprised me and initially irritated me.
Consequently I have to revise the design of my side walls again and adapt some details to the outfit of the STS-6 transporter.
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#2145 by roma847 on 17 Feb, 2022 15:39
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Hello everybody,
at least this inconsistency I have now been able to clarify.
As one can see in this photo of the transporters 2000 delivered to NASA for replacing their 20-year-old predecessors, the space next to the driver's cab for the Environmental Control System (ECS) was still empty, which is why I assume that the transporters were subsequently equipped at the KSC with some of the previously described subsystems for monitoring the environment inside the canister: the Electrical Power System (EPS), the Environmental Control System (ECS), the Instrumentation and Communications System (I&CS) and the Fluids and Gas System (F&GS).
Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov
This image before STS-125 shows the ECS Module at the front side of the transporter as it enters the clean room environment of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to load Hubble hardware/equipment to service the Hubble Space Telescope during this mission.
Source: NASA (Kim Shiflett)
Next, I tried to adapt the previous side walls of the transporter to the STS-6 outfit of that time.
To do this, I have carried out extensive analyzes of my reference photos from that time, through which I have recognized some typical differences in detail, especially on the front and back side.
These two photos by James MacLaren were very helpful,
Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren
Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren
where one can see, among other things, that the driver's cabin had a different shape at that time and the driver's door had a larger rectangular window. There were also added some instruments on the side panels as well as the modules on the back that I tried to replicate.
As a result, the NASA Worm logo of that time also moved to the right place further back. I've then scaled these details down to my scale (1:160) and photo-mounted them on the previous side walls and added the front and back sides from that time, which I then liked much better. 
These modified side walls I've then first glued again onto a Balsa board (2 mm), but then quickly realized that this two-dimensional representation of the walls with textures similar to David Maier's Paper Kits looks a bit too unrealistic, since some of the details have to be behind the 2 mm thick side walls, such as in particular the double twin wheel sets, about the modeling of which I was uncertain for a long time ...
After careful consideration, I then discarded my previous Scratch concept and thought about a more realistic construction of the transporter,
whereto I carefully separated the driver's cabins and modules at the end of the side walls.
Some more information on that will come next time.
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#2146 by roma847 on 18 Feb, 2022 23:09
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Hello everybody,
let's continue, and with that to the Twin wheel sets, the structure of which, starting from this old photo, I only gradually got to understand.
Source: Space Congress Proceedings 2. - 1980 (17th) A New Era In Technology (W. H. Rock)
A bit of luck is part of it!
While browsing the KAMAG websites, I came across these principle sketches in an image brochure some time ago, wherewith I have a good chance for scratching the chassis of the transporter.
Source: tii-group.com
I first divided a wheel row in the middle, mirrored one of the halves,
and then scaled to my scale (1:160) and printed out in shades of grey, which therefore match the side walls very well.
Using this template, I can now produce the 48 wheels (Ø 6 mm, 2 mm thick) of the early transporter, which are then glued together with spacers, and hint at the 12 pendulum axles with two twin wheel sets each. The only things missing then are the hydraulic push rods, which I'll do without because you're unlikely to see them under the finished transporter.
In reality, this hydraulically supported Pendulum axle looks like this, whose construction principle was created by SCHEUERLE in 1956, which meanwhile, like KAMAG, belongs to the TII Group, which facilitated the arrangement of several axes in a row, wherewith the production of multiple-axle heavy-duty vehicles began. The hydraulic pendulum axle is still the main principle of modern heavy-duty transport worldwide.
Source: tii-group.com
In my modified Scratch concept, I planned to design the driver's cabs and the modules on the front and back as individual components, for which I rescaled all detailed views again based on the reduced width (40 mm) between the side walls.
These are the designs for the modules on the front (top) and back covered with the corresponding detailed views,
and these are the prepared parts for the modules, which can be glued under the ceiling between the side walls of the transporter after building.
And I will now still design a similar part for the two Driver's cabins.
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#2147 by mike robel on 19 Feb, 2022 13:34
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Good stuff, Manfred. You are quite the space-archeologist in unearthing various specimens. And then your ability to craft great looking stuff with imaginative solutions. Are you going to learn to do 3D printing or continue to import those capabilities as needed?!?
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#2148 by roma847 on 20 Feb, 2022 00:09
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Thanks Mike for your kind words.
As one can see, the trend is moving more and more in the direction of your own 3D printing. That's a great thing if one can both 3D modeling and print yourself. But if I were to deal with it as well, I would not have valuable time to finish my long-term project at some point.
But these 12 Pendulum axles of the Payload Canister Transporter, each with two twin wheel sets, would be predestined for 3D printing,
Source: tii-group.com
unless one of you was interested in the job and had the time.
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#2149 by roma847 on 22 Feb, 2022 07:37
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Hello everybody,
here is a small video addendum for all interested guys who want to see such a heavy-duty transport in action, which would be unthinkable without these ingenious Hydraulically supported Pendulum axles.
Such heavy-duty transports are really incredible,
especially since you not only have to use powerful Trucks but also Self-propelled platform vehicles in combination with Transport swivel bolsters, so that you can get around tight corners with those overly long colossuses. 
Source: SCHEUERLE
But for the Payload Canister the "small" Transporter is enough, that the NASA at KAMAG had commissioned in 1979.
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#2150 by roma847 on 22 Feb, 2022 20:06
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Hello everybody,
and this is now the layout for the Driver's cabs.
Then all edges and adhesive folds of the parts were carefully pre-scored,
folded,
and finally glued the parts together, like here the I&CS/F&GS Modules for the back side (left), as well as the ECS Module for the front side,
and here with the associated Driver's cabins.
And so the parts are then arranged under the ceiling panel and between the side walls of the transporter.
The next thing to do is to continue with the Pendulum axles and Twin wheel sets.
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#2151 by roma847 on 25 Feb, 2022 21:53
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Hello friends,
and so now to the Pendulum axles of this 48-wheeled monster transporter, which inspire me with quite a bit of respect.
Source: Space Congress Proceedings 2. - 1980 (17th) A New Era In Technology (W. H. Rock)
On this image of a similar transporter one can see the arrangement of the axles with the twin wheel sets more clearly.
Source: tii-group.com
In principle, the structure is meanwhile clear to me, but now it's about the practical implementation by scratching, which I've been fiddling around for a long time ...
Finally I came up with the following simplified solution.
First of all, I need the 48 wheels, which I then have to conjure up somehow on the Pendulum axles.
For this I have the cut out wheel discs in a 1st Variant glued to balsa wood (2 mm) and laboriously cut off all around with a razor blade,
which is not exactly a cakewalk, which is why I have to think of another technique for this. 
For the continuous holding of the twin wheel sets, I also transferred the wheel set contour under the side wall onto Balsa wood (2 mm),
and roughly sawed them out just as laboriously with a mini saw.
After that I have as a 2nd Wheel variant punched out small round blanks (Ø 7 mm) from cardboard (1 mm) with a hole punch and glued them together, which is easier to do than the Balsa carving.
For a more accurate prototype, I also punched round blanks out of Styrene (2 mm), which was quite an ordeal and therefore cannot be used for series production.
These twin wheel sets are provisionally placed on the holder, which looks too unrealistic to me, since this holder should already have a certain ground clearance.
So I shortened the lower part of the holder a bit so that the wheel sets protrude a little bit,
which I like already better.
And so I would try it now with twin wheel sets on both sides of the holder to see how it looks then.
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#2152 by roma847 on 27 Feb, 2022 23:02
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Hello everybody,
after the two holder beams for the 24 twin wheel sets have been completed,
I have now fixed the two side walls with magnetic holders and then glued them to the cover plate (Styrene 0,25 mm).
Then spacers for the driver's cabins and modules were glued on,
which were only put down temporarily.
Then the end strips (0,25 mm x 1.5 mm) were glued to both front sides, Then the end strips (0,25 mm x 1.5 mm) were glued to both front sides,
as well as the carrier beams for the wheel sets adapted.
Next I have to tackle the wheel production, ie scratching of 48 single wheels, which then must be glued to 24 twin wheel sets in order to glue them finally onto both sides of the holder beams.
In view of the terrible war in Ukraine, I would like to send a solidarity greeting to the Ukrainian people fighting for their freedom:
„You'll never walk alone“
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#2153 by roma847 on 01 Mar, 2022 12:35
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Hello everybody,
today it got down to the nitty-gritty, i.e. punching wheels & spacers till the cow comes home ...
For the 48 wheels I used a hole punch (Ø 7 mm) to make a total of 96 discs from Cardboard (1 mm) punched, which required two hammer blows per disc on average. Then I had to push each disc out of the hole punch with a nail, which all in all was quite an ordeal ...
For making the spacers (Ø 4 mm) between the twin wheel sets from Styrene (0,5 mm) I used my Punch&Die Set, and Styrene (1 mm) was used for the discs (Ø 4 mm) between the wheel sets and the holder beams.
So that the cardboard discs lie exactly on top of each other when gluing them together, I used an angle as a stop, in the corner of which they were fixed and could not slip.
This way they could be aligned with the tweezers from both sides and pressed together perfectly from above.
Then the 24 wheels, to be attached to the support beams, were painted black on all sides, which was a stressful fiddling.
The remaining 24 wheels were only blacked on the back and around the circumference after gluing the printed cover disk.
Next comes the assembly of the wheels on the holder beams and the construction of the twin wheel sets, for which I need a clever jig with which I can position the wheels exactly and glue them together.
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#2154 by roma847 on 01 Mar, 2022 21:45
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Hello everybody,
before I get to my special jig, some preparatory work had to be done for the following step-by-step construction of the twin wheel sets.
The planned buildup can be seen on the right side of the holder beam. First, the inner spacers (1 mm) are glued to the beams. The inner twin wheels are then glued one after the other, to which the middle spacers (0,5 mm) were previously glued. And lastly, the outer twin wheels are glued on, which completes the twin wheel sets.
For the centered gluing the discs onto the holders my good sense of proportion has been enough.
But for the exact gluing of the inner wheels I have considered the following jig.
To do this, the holder beam was first fixed to a metal support sheet with magnets, onto which I then placed a try square as a stop for the inner wheels, exactly at the upper edge of the wheels, on which I marked the position of the wheels on a tape strip.
After gluing the middle spacers (0,5 mm) onto the inner wheels, I thought that it would be easier for assembly if I glued the twin wheels together instead of gluing the single wheels one above the other.
I then did the same thing as before, by using a larger try square as the stop only.
Then I carefully glued on the twin wheel sets,
wherefore I used CA.
And with that, the outside of one holder beam is equipped with twin wheel sets, which means that a quarter of the transporter's wheel sets is done.
Since my concept for the construction of the wheel sets has proven itself so far, I can now confidently turn to the outside of the other beam,
whereby the assembly of the twin wheel sets on the insides of the holder beams should certainly become a bit trickier.
But let's wait and see ...
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#2155 by roma847 on 03 Mar, 2022 19:33
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Hello everybody,
and now, the same way as done already before, for mounting the wheel sets on the outside of the other holder beam, which is why I can be brief.
Since the inner spacers (1 mm) were already glued on, the prepared twin wheel sets could be glued on straight away.
Since the wheel sets are still missing on the other side, both beams needed a standing support for a first test.
Next, the still missing 12 twin wheel sets were made.
However, for the assembly I had to modify my previous jig a bit so that the twin wheel sets already glued to the back of the holder beam cannot be damaged.
That's why I laid the holder beam on the larger stop bracket, which left the twins hanging in the air on the underside and nothing could happen to them. As a stop, I then fixed the small angle with the markings on it using various magnets and shims, which I fiddled with for quite a while until everything was stably aligned and in the right position. 
The gluing of the twins then went in the usual way as before,
which then completed the first of the two holder beams,
and could now stand freely on its 12 twin wheel sets.
And in the same way, the second holder beam was then equipped with the remaining twins.
And then it was finally time, and the two holder beams with their total 48 wheels were finished after long and painstaking detailed work,
so that the transporter platform could be tried on, which looks pretty good so far.
Next, the two driver's cabins and modules can be mounted.
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#2156 by roma847 on 06 Mar, 2022 17:47
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Hello everybody,
now that the 24 twin wheel sets have been mounted on the support beams, the driver's cabins and modules can now also be glued at the front and rear side.
This was followed by a first fitting of the holder beams, what looked well so far.
Then I carefully provisionally set up the two holder beams and checked their all-round distances.
So far, so good, but now they finally had to be glued, which couldn't be done out of hand, which is why I had to think about a suitable fixation.
However, when I re-measured, I noticed that the two side walls were no longer exactly vertical, but had tilted slightly inwards, what couldn't stay that way.
In order to be able to correct this back to the correct inner dimension (40 mm), I made a recess in the middle of both beams,
into which I wanted to glue a suitable square profile (4 x 4 x 40 mm) as a cross brace after gluing in the holder beams.
Gluing in the beams themselves was then a tricky thing, because I had to ensure that the wheel sets didn't touch the wall, but that a certain distance (0,5 mm) was maintained.
To do this, I had to do several things at the same time while gluing, i.e. immediately insert spacers (0,5 mm) and the cross brace and fix the beams from the inside with magnets,
but what worked well at both sides. 
After that was done, I've taken a deep breath and was happy about this partial success, especially since the transporter is taking real shape more and more,
here the view onto the front side with the EPS Module,
and here onto the back with the I&CS und F&GS Modules.
Since one can hardly see any of the interesting details like the pendulum axles & wheels, I kept an eye out for a few more details that I could still scratch.
And I've had a few things in the back of my head for quite some time that I want to take a closer look at.
As can be seen from this drawing, in addition to the well-known modules in the middle of the transporter, there is also still the Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS), consisting of two Diesel engines-generator modules, as well as Distribution and control panels.
Source: NASA Conference Publication 2342 Part 2 (M. E. Donahue)
And these EPS Modules can also be seen on this photo of the STS-6,
Source: retrospaceimages.com (STS-6)
and also in this photo by James MacLaren when you know they are there, although you can only see the front corner.
Then there is apparently another control panel in the form of this small box at the front behind the driver's cab. However, this faintly recognizable part directly in front at the driver's cab still puzzles me, which I will hopefully solve.
Source: 16streets.com/MacLaren
That's it for today.
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#2157 by mike robel on 06 Mar, 2022 23:33
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Just superb work Manfred. If I ever get to Germany again, I shall have to make a pilgrimage to your house.
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#2158 by roma847 on 07 Mar, 2022 00:06
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Thanks Mike for your nice compliment,
I would give a warm welcome to you at any time.
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#2159 by roma847 on 07 Mar, 2022 13:21
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Hello everybody,
and so first of all to the EPS Modules, which can be found in detail on photos of the later missions, which should be similar in structure to those of the early missions.
Here is a photo of the transporter during the STS-135, the lower area of which I have therefore adopted for my EPS and scaled accordingly.
Source: NASA (STS-135)
To the right you can see the small Panel at the front behind the driver's cabin, which I first took from the MacLaren photo, but which is too blurry for me, which is why I looked for a different template. 
Here you can see the outwardly visible area of the EPS Modules, which is completely sufficient for the optics.
And this is what the front small panel box looks like,
whose location I recapitulated from this photo of the STS-125.
Source: NASA (STS-125)
In this image you can also see this previously unknown object, but which I could also identify based on other photos, wherewith would also solve this riddle.
As you can see without a doubt on this STS-135 photo, this is the rear-view mirror and its bracket, which must be correspondingly large and must protrude more outwards than usual so that the driver can also see the 18 m long transporter completely to the rear when maneuvering. 
Source: NASA (STS-135)
On my scale (1:160), the rear-view mirrors should therefore be 3,5 mm x 1,5 mm and thus about twice as large as the rear-view mirrors of the Astrovan, which should therefore already be feasible.
However, I'm still not sure whether I should really do this gimmick with the filigree holder (Ø 0,1 mm) ...
Here are the current pictures of the transporter,
and here for comparison the original outfit of the KAMAG transporter that I started with.
And finally for today a little preview of the vehicles on the Diorama,
which makes me confident.
