1/125 Heller Ariane 5 - JWST launcher

[Bubbinski]

With the launch of the long-delayed and much anticipated James Webb Space Telescope, on a lark I decided to check Kitlinx.com to see if they had the 1/125 Ariane 5 kit, and they did! I bought it and stopped by their shop since I am local to their area, and picked up their last copy of that kit.

The Heller Ariane 5 was released in the late 1990’s and represents the older Ariane 5 GS, so I made some modifications to make it better resemble the current launcher, including the pipes on the right hand SRB, the Vulcain engine, and sanded off a line on the left SRB’s. The bird is not really dimensionally correct for the current ECA launcher, and my painting of the upper stage area isn’t fully accurate as a result.

I did the best I could, and tried to match the colors used now instead of going with the paint included for the older version (a tannish color for the first stage insulation). It’s almost finished. Oh, and I made my own decals based on graphics I found from the web, and also used kit decals and a spare set of decals from the Revell ISS kit where appropriate.

In progress pics coming up.

[Bubbinski]

And it is done! I present to you the finished 1/125 Ariane 5 James Webb Space Telescope launch vehicle.

[saturnapollo]

Very nice job.

Keith

[Bubbinski]

Thank you Keith!

[Bubbinski]

Hours after JWST’s successful launch, the Ariane 5 model is in its place of honor.