Bengalensis

The first major priming session done. I ran out of foam blocks and other stuff to rig parts on, and I couldn't do all parts in one go anyway. I wasn't really looking forward to this, but once I got going it was actually rewarding and the result was overall better than expected. Some parts here are now ready for paint, while other, mainly resin parts, will need sanding, fixing and re-priming, and/or outsides sprayed. @Ken Stenzenko Here are the fins and air scoops in not yet sanded primer. As you can see the center rib pretty much disappears in the printing, and light sanding before primer, despite being defined in the model. It will need masking and painting in a brighter metal color.

Lovely build, looking very good Maybe just leave that license plate off until you are done with most work? It must possible to mount it at the very last stage?

I hope you get back to full strength and fitness soon Good to see you back at work bench!

If time allows when this GB comes up I will try, but my work schedule is quite erratic and I have no idea if I'm in the middle of a major project then, or relaxing between two projects. We'll see, but I'll try.

Thanks a lot for all the kind praise guys. It was an interesting project that I still have good memories from building. The rigging was complex, but doing all the correction was far more work. The rigging just took time and patience, quite enjoyable actually as it grew and got more complete with every hour spent. I must admit that the movie has grown on me in later years, we watched it again a few months ago and it again was the best viewing of it I've had. Trumpeter is about to release Titanic in 1:200, and I think I've even seen hints of a large after market detail set coming for it. But this time I think I'll pass on it. I think...

Heller; so many good memories, I've always liked Heller a lot. For me Heller is easily on par with Airfix and Frog for example. Interesting and different choice of subjects, and even the instruction sheets had something special to them. Some models had their quirks, but no worse than others of the same vintage. And then they did it, they released the 1/8 scale Citroen 15 Six, was it in -76 or -77? A dream kit for a kid with some years experience and already pretty good at model building. I looked at it and read reviews about it. But it didn't happen back then. Too much other stuff competing for the little money available at the time... Things are different today. The stash of kits is mighty, since many years. And indeed there is also that big 1/8 box of Citroen in the stash since long, albeit with a newer (less attractive) box art, but the similar lovely old instructions. It's always fascinating to open the box and go through the content, even at my current age. I must build it some day, it has a priority. Will I have the time available when this GB starts? Difficult to know right now. But if I have, it would be a good time to dig into it...

Yes, it's a difficult drug this... While I still had the chance I decided to further alter the profile of the S-IC system tunnels. I have already lowered them some 2 mm, but they are still too high and too rounded. So I flattened them as much as I dared to avoid going through. Then I rounded off the edges and sanded them smooth. They should be a bit lower and flatter still, not to mention having a very fine ribbing along the full length, but this will be the compromise. And when I was going to do the final calculation of the different segment lengths to divide the system tunnels into I discovered another mistake I had to correct. In the last minute. I had completely missed the fact that the two system tunnels have different lengths, with pos. III reaching higher on the forward skirt than pos I. So I had to cut them both and adjust their lengths. At one side of both system tunnels there are some much thinner tunnels, or whatever they are, going from the forward skirt downwards. They are not always easy to spot and they are different lengths, the one near pos. I going down to the aft skirt while the one near pos. III stops at the intertank structure, as far as I can make them out. Again they don't seem to be mentioned in any of the typical modelling sources. I made them from 0,25x1 mm Evergreen strips. And finally I could divide the system tunnels into sections, with new calculations made after I changed their lengths. It has taken quite some studying of references to reach a compromise I'm happy with regarding the different relative length of the individual segments, placing the joints reasonably correct and have the right numbers. I used stretched sprue for this. I still think the detail is slightly oversized, but it looks better than leaving it off I think. Thanks also to @Tomas Bark with whom I have shared some discussion about this detail.

I just drill two holes and remove the material between them gradually with a sharp pointed X-acto blade. You are building both an Apollo and a Skylab Saturn V? That's mighty, I don't think I would have the energy to do all this reworking twice...

I spent a good few hours today doing further research of the S-IC system tunnel sectioning and the third very thin "system tunnel" beside pos. I, but also became side tracked by the clear appearance of two more "vents" at the S-IC intertank structure that I was not aware of. To my surprise they are not present nor mentioned in any of the typical drawings, web sites or instructions dealing with Saturn V, not that I have seen anyway. But they are clearly there, through the Saturn V launches. First we have one lower down on the segment at pos. I. It looks very much like the two fuel vents close to pos. II, so I did it like those. I also realized I had put the five oval vents far too low on the segment, so I had to fill those and redrill them. Then there is one at pos. III, just below mid height. What little I see just looks like hole, more round than the five oval ones, and no shadows cast like the pipe stub at pos. I, so I just drilled a small hole at this point. I'll dwell on those for a while and attack the system tunnels in the mean time.

That probably explains it Here's a posting that talks about the insulation and shows a number of photos of the engines: http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=304 The resin engines I'm using are from saddly now closed operation LVM. When I got them back in 2013 or so they were said to be the ones to use, but then I haven't compared them to any alternatives and this was also some years ago. If you check out @Tomas Bark build of the same kit he have already painted his LVM engines: There are other batted 1/72 scale F1's available from Real Space Models, Martins Models and also 3D-prints on Shapeways, not sure of the quality of any of them though as I haven't seen them IRL. Perhaps I should look at this once again. In the mean time I have just spent several hours at apolloarchive.com and found two more vents on the S-IC intertank that for some surprising reason are never mentioned in drawings or correction instructions, but were clearly present on the real things. Oh well, more work to do...

Thanks a lot Andrés, glad you like the project. Regarding the F1 engines, you are aware that they represent the "batted" engines as they were actually flown (covered in insulation and foil)? They are not the naked engines usually seen in engine photos and modelling.

The stringers under the air scoops have now been repaired. Here it's taped to get a look again. When building the internal structures I didn't want to add any tension to the fairings, so I wound the Evergreen strips around a glass jar, heated with an air gun and cooled in water. Not that they ended up in the correct radius, but they were rounded and much softer to work with. The first pieces glued in place. It will again be a bit simplified on the inside I think. Then I did the round sectioned bracing, the first sections in steel to fix the fairings radius where I wanted it. When done it looked like this. Test fitting with an engine. With the inner details finished off I had this. Hopefully it will do under there when painted. After quite some measuring and test fitting I could add the outer sections of the heat shield. In theory this will fit perfectly together when time comes. In theory that is... I will probably have to do some adjustments and touching up that day. Hopefully something like this. A mock up of the main parts to get some reward after a good days work. I think I'm calling the fairings area done now, at last. I'll just give the parts a coat of surfacer to get a better look.

@roma847 At least I try a little bit to get closer to that level. @Ken Stenzenko Not yet, I think we need at least to see them in primer first. Not sure if I should perhaps ad small scribings in the print to aid masking that center rib? Got a lot of work right now so less progress here. At least the new lower center stringers have been done. The fins are only held with tape here.

The new fins have arrived from printing, and 3D-printing has its limitations, or I'm asking too much. Even with the finest material and best resolution at Shapeways there's still a fine pattern in the surface, and what's more, the resolution is not fine enough to clearly pick out the narrow section between the two main surfaces as the difference in angle becomes too small for the resolution to clearly define. I was still going to highlight that section in a different metal shade when painting, so it's not the end of the world, but still. Furthermore the fins were slightly bent when they arrive. Probably they sag slightly during the printing process. However it was easy to heat them gently with the hairdryer, straighten them and cool them in water to a much better shape. When straightened I lightly sanded them to get rid of the fine surface pattern and they were soon ready for primer. They will photograph better once we have some paint on them. I made all the cut-outs in the fairings for the new air scoops. Next I must attend to the short stringers underneath and of course the center stringers under the fins. This area of the build became much more involved than I had ever anticipated...

That paintwork looks really nice! The same goes for the sculpting, good work.