starseeker

I've always wanted to follow Mat Irvine's build from his space modelling book, but to get the Plastruct/EMA parts here in Canada would be about $75US. Sigh. That makes this tempting, but if they used the dimensions shown on that drawing on the Fantastic site, the thing would only be 7.7" tall. Also Fantastic's shipping to Canada is often nearly as much as the kit itself. Sigh.

For anyone looking for adventure, there is an excellent series of Youtube video tutorials on how to make your design your own lighting effects:

Which shuttle are you modelling and about what year is it that you're modelling it as?

The only way I can think of to build this, is just to put the biggest pieces together, and start sanding. I'll look at it as being the same as building a flying model rocket, having to fill and sand and fill and repeat endlessly until the last traces of the spiral in the cardboard tubes have disappeared. And then you add all the surface details. This will be very much like that. Except that it will be 4 smaller rocket models (the boosters) and one large rocket model (the core). Oh, joy. So I cemented the all of the largest pieces together as best they'd fit. Which is pretty ugly. Some warm water to unwarp some parts will be neseccary before I can bring everything together. As you can see, there are several places all over the parts that haven't been molded completely, leaving some depressions in the plastic. Up close it's difficult to tell in places whether something is flash or actual detail. Sanding or lathing everything smooth and round is probably the easiest (and only?) way to get a good start on this build. If it ever does get built, it will make an impressive addition to a 1/72 collection. Here it is next to my languishing Horizon WIPs: Makes you realize that the Vostok booster that so spooked the Americans into thinking that they were way behind in the missile/space race was really nothing more that four Redstones strapped to to an Atlas or Atlas-and-a-half core. Actually dead simple in retrospect, and reliable enough to still being used half a century later. Also makes you realize ,looking at the size of the Mercury capsules, just how small the individual components of the Soyuz capsule must be. In 1/144 scale, everything just looks tiny. But as scales increase, you can start to get a better comparison. Well, thanks for looking, and back to Bedlam!

Okay, Imjur links have to have the "imj" deleted from the ends of the link to work. Photos in the post above, and (with luck) below, will give you some idea of the incredible crudeness of this kit. The surfaces of the parts is rough and flaking. The runners could be best describes as masses of flash embedding occassional model parts here and there. I debated on the best angle of attack and decided to just assemble as many of the large sub-assemblies as I can, then sand them all completely smooth, rescribe any panel lines, and add either the kit's small parts, cleaned up, and/or scratch my own details as needed. There may seem to be large mismatches in the joints in the photos, but the plastic is so thick that even sanding it by 50% would still leave the parts thicker than most 1/32 aircraft or 1/25 scale auto kits. I'm not going to worry about the models surfaces as they're hopeless. I'm actually thinking that the parts might be most easily smoothed in my lathe. That would also true them round. Even just joining the parts tightly, never mind how they match on the outside, is difficult, as all the large pieces are different thicknesses throughout their length and breadth. I've used a motor tool on the insides of the parts to get the inside edges reasonably close to the same thickness all along the seams so there aren't gaps all along. Even using strips of styrene as reinforcements along the seams wouldn't work otherwise, as the seams wouldn't meet. It will be an interesting challenge, to say the least. Maybe it's time to get back to the Burans?

Hi, all! It's been a long time since I last posted, but it's -25C outside and modelling season has begun again. I've made only a little progress on my Buran build (actually started a second one, so nothing to report there yet. Thought I'd start another kit in my queue just for the fun of it. A 1/72 Soyouz. From a Third World manufacturer called Mach 2. What? They're French?? As in the same country that producess the Heller Constellation?? I don't believe you. I've found only one other build of one of these on-line, and that was Mat Irvine's. I should have realized that, that wasn't a good sign as I now suspect Mr. Irvine is required by the Courts to build every real space-related kit that has ever or will be manufactured. Otherside, why would he have built this? Tho' what crime this punishment fits, I never want to know. Mr. Irvine said that this was a bit of work. I'll go out on a limb and say that this is the single worst model kit that I've ever encountered. And I built the big Moebius Seaview model.

This is really brilliant! I'd love to see it parked next to the 1/72 Monogram full shuttle stack.

Progress, as promised, is spotty, but there is some despite other projects getting in the way. Here's a photo that better shows the slight droop of the repositioned elevons, and the opened rudder/speed brake. Meanwhile, a lot of repeated filling and sanding, I think all the gaps are finally filled. They look worse than they really are, as most are either quite thin or quite shallow, at least after many being filled with thin styrene strip. But there are a couple significant ones along the nose bottom and at the joins at the intersection of the fronts of the wings and the nose. The elevons, top and bottom, needed some extra work to smooth out the cuts and the filler strips. In the meantime, started adding some of the aftermarket etch. The etch will add significant detail all around and seems a really good thing to have. It is very fine and a little difficult to position and secure. Fine tip tweezers are very much needed here. Note that etch parts 28 and 29 seems to be reversed on the etch parts layout. The instruction illustration shows them on the proper sides. Wonder how much more I can do before I need to start priming and painting?

This is beautiful. As it happens, instead of doing any actual model building last weekend, I dug into one of my storage boxes and pulled out six 1/144 shuttles and four (two of which I never knew I had)) 1/72 shuttles from the 1980s, all in various stages of build. Some had once been finished, but a decade later just didn't look good enough, and were stripped back down, and others were barely started. Took two days to get all the parts and broken bits sorted and bagged separately. And then back into the storage container. For now. The 1/144s at least may be next up on my to-do list, as they've been waiting way too long. I'll be following your work with much interest. It's looking great so far!

Not much progress here the last couple of days. I can't find any information on how the Burans elevons worked, but since the Buran was pretty much a copy of the US shuttle, I figured they very likely worked just the same way: hinged at the bottom edge and sliding out from under the flexible covering on the top edge. Which means that the top edge of the elevon would have to be extended slightly. I separated the inboard and outboard elevons from each other and I used strips Evergreen along the upper edges of all four pieces, .020 to the inboard elevons and .015 for the outboard elevons, just so their trailing edges wouldn't be perfectly lined up. So that their top and bottom edges would still be reasonably flush with the wings, the elevons were stretched to be a little thicker, by a thickness of .020 styrene stuffed into where there would have been an even joint at the side. Now there's an exciting picture. And here's another, oh, joy. Once the gap was stretched a bit, I fit a wedge of styrene into the other side to close it off, as the edge will probably be visible. And once all four elevons had been re-attached, seams and gaps everywhere were filled and sanded. And since I was using up some Tamiya White Ever-Shrink as my filler, filled and sanded again. And filled... again. Which is where I am now. Watching putty dry. I also slit the rudder/speed brake, into 4 pieces, added the inevitable strip of evergreen as a wedge to the cut edges, and cemented it in an open position, top pair very slightly offset from the bottom at the trailing edges, Again, so as not to look too perfect. Noticed that the payload bay doors are evenly divided into 4 segments. On the decals I drafted, according to the tile map I was using, the rearmost segment was actually wider than the evenly-sized forward 3. This also matches the tiles on the hull sides and appears to be accurate on the few photos of the Buran landing. I filled the recesses with .010 x .020, I think, which filled the gaps perfectly. Ark's decals, as far as I know, match the molded details. But seems to me that I thought Ark's decals were too short to fully cover the doors. I could be wrong - it's been a while. But w/o filling the gaps, the divisions on my decals would obviously not match the molded-in divisions. Sanding the gap filling styrene, noticed the the kit's pair of open doors have ripples running length-wise all along them. Possibly from having all the detail molded onto their inside surfaces. As the outside won't really be visible with the doors in the open position, I'm not going to bother trying to smooth them. Enough filling and sanding, already!! I hope.

Thanks for all the kind words. And, no, I have no idea what they were thinking with the arrows. But, Michael - your suggestions might not be too far off the mark. I was just just trying to figure out how the Buran elevons worked, and came across this photo of the US 747 carrier's shuttle mount in my shuttle files.

This morning, putting the fuselage together. Really straightforward, as long as you treat this as your basic limited run kit. First up, since this will be an in-orbit model, the landing gear doors needed to be closed. As with all the joins in this model, everything should be reinforced to insure something doesn't crack along a seam later. Removed the tops of the wheel bays to make it easier to fit strips of styrene inside to support the bay doors. Took a surprising amount of sanding before the bay doors actually fit. Attached them from the outside first, then quickly added strips of .040 x .080 to one of the long sides from the inside, pressed the long side of the strips and doors from the inside up against the flat side of 6" steel ruler so that the seam was smooth from the outside. Repeated with the other side of the door, then added strips inside the front and back of the wheel wells. Also added strips of styrene to the top and bottom of the nose, which would be a particularly uneven and fragile join otherwise. Added two strips of .040 square inside the top of the base of the tail, to help pull it together, and to the inside front edge of the wing/fuselage bottom, another particularly weak and (in dry fitting) uneven joint. The port side of the payload bay had been cemented into position early on to get a good fit and add strength to the assembly as I worked. Now cemented together the upper hull halves, clamped the joins with tape and CA. While all that is curing, I pulled together the gap between the starboard payload bay wall and that side of the hull. There was a considerable gap all along, and a difficult warp at the front end. I found a sturdy straightedge (an 8" file) and clamped the hull (via the file) and the top edges of the payload bay together. Pressure must be put only the top edges of the payload bay or the bay edges will warp. Avoid clamping the fine detail inside the bay edges or the detail will likely be damaged. And now it's just a matter of letting everything cure for a day or so before fitting the the lower wing/hull into place. It's a very tight fit to get the landing gear doors into the slots on both sides of the payload bay but with gentle flexing, it can be done. And it leaves just a slight uneven-ness along the leading edge seam of the wing. Much easier to give that a quick hit with a sanding stick than try to fill the gap between the hull and wing root. Also note that I've removed the speed brakes from the tail fin and the ailerons from the wings before assembly. Photos of the US shuttle in orbit often show the speed brakes open in space and sometimes the ailerons slightly relaxed. I have no idea why. Maybe those hydraulic systems are relaxed once the spacecraft is in orbit? I'll definitely open the speed brakes slightly, if for nothing else than visual interest, like this model will need any additional visual interest? I don't know about the ailerons yet, but it's nice to have the option. Next up, sanding the wing to fuselage joins. Tho' on the Round 2 Galileo. Again. Oh, what fun that's been. But that whole other story, best left alone.

Thanks, all! I'm really touched that you like it.

Beautiful builds! Wow! Your Mercury escape tower looks better than the one in the kit. I'm just building my Redstone and Atlas versions now and freely admit that putting the escape towers together was a horrible experience. As for your Atlas locator pins not fitting into their corresponding holes, I had the same problem. Ended up using a pin vice to enlarge the holes so that the pins would fit. That you backed up the joint with styrene can only be a good thing. That plastic is thin and there won't be much strength in the joint otherwise. I backed up both the Redstone and the Atlas, fearing the joints would crack if handled too freely. Or just sanded. As for the Atlas, those "panel lines" seem engraved just way out of scale. I read someone who filled the panel lines with stretched sprue and rescribed them much more lightly, which is what I plan to do. Except I'm an utter disaster with stretched sprue, so I'll use Plastruct .010 strip or rod. Either fits perfectly. I'm not even sure panel lines are appropriate for the Atlas at this scale. Just different shades of Bare Metal butted together should look perfect. If you can buy any Bare Metal that isn't wrinkled so badly that you can salvage pieces large enough to fit any of those panels. Your WIPs are an absolute joy to see! Thank you!