Ima Penin Diaz

This is an eBay find and as you can see it was quite derelict. It's the 1968 kit from Revell and was their 1/48 Apollo Lunar Spacecraft. I'll cut out the SIM Bay and scratch build the components and accurize both the LM and CSM. I won't be using the SLA. This kit had an opening panel on the Service Module so that we could the internal fuel tanks ... this will be the SIM Bay. The Heat Shield wasn't included in this eBay find so that will have to be created. The SPS engine bell will need those 3 ribs removed too ... The Command Module had no hatch plus, it will be brought up to a Block 2 configuration. I started scraping off the ancient glue ... The seams are amazing ... but it takes me back to when this kit first came out, I built the whole thing in an afternoon not being concerned with these seams or overall awful fit of the parts. This build will take just a bit longer to complete! I'll be using Resin and PE from New Ware ... That'll do for now ... till next post1 IPD

This looks ... um ... FANTASTIC! The PE really enhances this kit and you've done a terrific job on it!

The decals were made by a fellow modeller on another forum and this set was a Beta test for him. He was creating these 3 or 4 years ago, wanted to check the fit and ... then life got in the way and he hasn't done anything further on 'em. A few years ago, a modeller from UK, his avatar is Saturnapollo created some realistic looking belly tiles, but I think those too are out of production. I'll take a peek at your GB.

...and Done! This was a nice quick build and I quite enjoy building a Shuttle with the Payload Bay exposed. All that equipment offers the opportunity to add detail. I don't understand the modellers who choose to display the Shuttle with the doors closed up ... yes, it's easier, but ...where's the fun? Thanx for visiting! IPD

The decals are a combination of the kit's and JBOT Masking ... ... applying decals ... ... decals for the blanket texture on the tail ... ... the lovely belly decal ... ... time to clamp the doors on ... ... and almost done. IPD

... and continuing ... I marked the sections of the PB. I'll use styrene strips to separate 'em ... Some junction boxes made from bits of styrene ... ... and attached. Along with some PE details. ... added the rests for the RMS, the Remote Manipulator System or the Canadarm. I made a new RMS from tubing. The kit piece is below it. This way I can pose the Canadarm. This is moving right along ... thanx for visiting! IPD

New Ware has some PE for the REVELL Shuttle which I'll use for this Airfix ... the fit should be close ... Some filler after the first sanding ... Plugging some holes for the fuel on the belly ... Using New Ware's PE for the Payload Bay doors ... they look great, but are just a little short. Too bad they'll be covered up with Radiator panels. A map of the bulkheads was supplied for placement of the grab handles ... I cut it out and stuck it on ... This is the Aft bulkhead And Forward bulkhead And the handles are on

Assembling the Orbiter. I should mention that this will be JUST the Orbiter, no SRBs or BIG fuel tank ... Drilling out the RCS thrusters ... Needs just a bit o' putty ... Clamping on the wings ... To fit in the drogue chute compartment, I cut a notch in the tail ... Attached and the seam was filled ... The fit of the belly was what I expected ... a little filing and sanding and it'll look just fine. I fill some seams with small bits of scrap styrene ... Gap between fuselage and wings ... ... filled with styrene strips. I'll wait till they're dry, trim 'em, sand 'em and because the PB doors will be open, it won't even be seen ... The poor fit of the chine will be filed down and sanded ... eezy peezy! Gap filling with scraps on the fwd bulkhead ... ... and puttied ... And that'll do it for now IPD

I've built a few Space Shuttles and they are all poorly made kits, lots of gaps and poor fitting parts, but, I get my funn in trying to make it look ... better. I wanna give this a try ... I would like to have the Payload Bay doors open and an empty Bay ... this kit's PB comes loaded so I'll hafta cut it apart. I'll keep the forward and Aft bulkheads and rebuild the rest ... To form the Payload Bay, I formed a sheet of styrene, by dipping it in boiling water and wrapping it around a tube ... Two styrene circles will add a bit of support to the PB. They'll be glued to the bulkheads. A notch needs to be cut in the aft portion ... EVA windows have to be opened in the fwd bulkhead ... And it's coming together nicely ... ... till next post ... IPD

I increased the size of the base and then took some pix with Lake Ontario in the background ... This is good enough for me ... it's unique, I haven't seen one in 1/24 before and ... I learned a lot from this build ... and I'm quite happy with the way this turned out. Tzulscha, you asked how many of these kits I had, 3. 2 were poorly prebuilt garbage from eBay and one was bought new ... but I have none left and I think the Gemini topic has been satisfied with me! Thanx for tagging along on this build! IPD

Thanx Tzulscha ... the image count didn't even occur to me ... I was trying to find out what the limit for the forum software was before it said "Nope, too many!" Plus these images are larger than my usual, and I don't remember changing the resolution ... But I'll limit the image count to 10 or so. Thanx again! This is Gemini 8 and the colours of the spacecraft, after re-entry, are what I was looking for ... Adhering the Grocery bag plastic to the sheet styrene ... Attaching the lines to the wing ... I made loops out of copper wire to attach the lines to ... First coat of paint ... ... adding the Black bits. It's just Grocery bag plastic painted Gunmetal ... I tend to not use Black paint at all. Rigging the lines from the wing to the spacecraft ... Alright-y then ... the lines are all taut, they're the right length, the spacecraft hangs nicely ... I think it's done! Till next post ...

Experiment away-y-y ... I have nothing to suggest, but, don't apologize for your skills ... nobody's gonna criticize you. This is looking ... just ... fine! On almost all of my builds, I wanted to learn and practice a technique that I had just read about ... so they're all a little rough around the edges, but I learned a helluva lot! So let's see how this solution works out ... if it doesn't, so what? No harm, no foul! Seeing as you've figured out a method for posting pix, how about a few more from the past? What do you mean by 'donor' parts? Didn't the Dragon kit come with the SIM bay? IPD

I sprayed on a coat of Model Master Steel ... and then a coat of Light Grey ... I wanna try to get the effect of having re-entered the earth's atmosphere ... The hatches didn't sit correctly, so I added a few styrene supports ... That's better The decals ... they needed a lot of setting solution and a little coercion to settle into the corrugations ... They settled very nicely I'll also try to replicate the wear on the heat shield ... Getting there ... ... looks good enough! To get that worn, burnt look, I sanded down through the layers of paint ... this is just about what I was looking for. Some paint on the Nose ... Installing the spool ... I added a couple of guides / anchors to the spool because there will be some tension on it ... Main Gear installed ... And with the Nose Gear installed ... And even though it will be suspended, it was nice to see it self supporting ... I had to do a little surgery and add a couple of rods to support the Wing lines ... And then make sure it would support the weight ... That's a lot of images, let's see if it posts ... IPD

Last summer I built up an Apollo 17 CSM in 1/48 ... Dragon's SIM Bay, along with your mods is looking mighty fine! I clicked on your link yesterday and nothing showed up, so, if you changed the link, thanx! ... And just 1 image? I wanna see more! Re your helmets, in 1/72, why not just get a thick clear sprue and sand down a bubble shape? IPD

After a coat of primer I replaced some of the washers that were sanded off previously ... Some of my sketches to try to figure how best to display this model ... Using 1/2" tubing, starting to build the Rogallo wing. With a sheet of thicker paper I started to develop the patterns ... The scale of the 2 subassemblies looks about right. A possible display idea ... To support the stand, I placed a tube of Brass into the styrene tube ... a length of clothes hanger will be the main support of the completed model. Using a sheet of 0.010" styrene the wing is getting assembled ... In an attempt to show some billowing of the 'chute material, I'll try using Grocery bag plastic attached with Rubber Cement. The pencil lines will be my guide for applying stripes of Rubber Cement ... Clamping the sheet styrene to the tubing. You can also see the stripes of Rubber Cement This'll do for now ... till next posting. IPD

Nice to see you all here ... and thanks for the comments! I had just 2 reference pix for the landing gear ... this is the Nose ... ... and the Main Landing Gear. Assembling the hull, I used scrap styrene shims to fill some gaps at the heat shield and other seams ... A channel needed to be built for the lines for the Rogallo wing ... first on the RCS section ... ... and the crew cabin. At the heat shield, a groove was cut in for the lines for the Rogallo wing. To repair a missing chunk in the heat shield, Milliput was stuck in, and sanded down ... I wanted to install a skid plate onto the front of the Nose Gear. ... and done. On the top of the Nose Gear is a spool which plays out line when the Wing is deployed. This is the rudimentary pattern ... A variety of iterations and the final one to the right, made from sheet Aluminium. The spool itself is styrene tubing. And installed. Starting to detail the crew cabin ... ... and with hatches and RCS section dry fit. A dry fit of the MLG and NLG ... I held the model upside down and took the picture ... This is coming together rather nicely. IPD

Not having explored this forum, I just saw your thread and went through it ... You've done a superb job on this model! Taking the Dragon kit ( it's a real shame they couldn't do a much, much better job on their Real Space subjects ) and making the decision to NOT use a lot of resin and Dragon parts to create this wonderful Saturn V was a terrific read for me! The things I appreciate are the problem solving aspects in this hobby and yours is an ex-cell-ent example of this! I hope we'll soon see the horizontal display and be sure to let us know when it wins Best of Show! It's a beauty!

The Landing Gear need to built from scratch, so-o-o ... a little styrene, a couple Aluminum tubes, a spring from a pen ... ... the Main Gear ... ... the Nose Gear ... I used the 1/48 kit's nose gear for a little reference ... and done. ... the Main Gear ... this dry fit indicated that the Gear were gonna be too long, so I shortened 'em ... ... the adjusted one on top. The other one will get shortened too. The new RCS section, into which the Nose Gear will get fitted. I made an inside surface to hold all the greeblies ... Starting to look like something ... Till next posting ... IPD

You are correct ... and here's what inspired this build of mine. It's an image from National Geographic magazine circa 1964 ...

The Gemini spacecraft is one of my favourite vehicles and I had a partially prebuilt one that I bought off of eBay and will rebuild it. The hull taped together ... notice the decals ... well, they'll all get removed later! Note the damage to the lower bit which resulted from disassembling the parts. This version of the Gemini was to return for a landing on Terra Firma, not water, so landing gear has to be built. On the left is the 1/48 Revell kit wherein the landing gear doors were part of the kit. I used this smaller version to create the pattern for the doors and cut them out. Using Dymo tape to make the guide ... ... and the result. With the interior bulkhead dry fit ... I need to determine the depth I can build of the bay. Building the interior walls of the landing gear bays ... ... and done. The eBay model didn't have the RCS portion so I used a piece of PVC plumbing pipe to make a new one ... And filed a bevel onto the edge to fit the kit's hull pieces. Drilled holes for the Thrusters and filled them with Aluminum tubing. ... and added styrene strips to recreate the shingles ... That'll do for now ... IPD

Gentlemen may I assume so? ) Thank you very much for your compliments! These type of rebuilds satisfy me to a great extent! And I'm glad you get some pleasure from viewing the WIPs too! IPD

MarhSH, clay modelling is a skillset unto itself, the type of clay, building an armature and just getting it to look correct, especially a human figure, is not easy to achieve. This may indeed be the better way. Start with a plastic kit and modify the heck out of it. Here's a 360 view of this Captain Gene Cernan model ... I may spray on some 'moondust' and dirty him up a bit ... but I'm liking how this turned out. Many thanx for stopping by and offering your comments ... onto the next one! IPD

The torso and the belt clasp ... made from styrene ... I tried to make the 2 visors work, but couldn't get them to slide ... they are the same size and were just binding ... so I went with 1 visor and painted it ... I painted the inside of this blister pack to maintain the glossy outside surface ... ... and it looks okay ... the LEVA helmet looks a little small, in proportion, but, I'll have to accept this. I would have had to rebuild the entire kit piece ... I made a base, at an angle, out of drywall pieces and plaster, but it wasn't steep enough, so I found a couple small sheets of styrofoam insulation and added it to the bottom to increase the angle of the base ... this will depict Astronaut Cernan on an EVA while walking up a steep slope. With decals and hoses installed ... ... a scratch built hammer to include in his shin pocket ... And almost done ... I'd like to add some 'dirt' to the white suit, but so far, I'm happy with this ... IPD

Thanks Gents ... but let's wait and see how this "sow's ear" turns out ... ... still lots could go wrong ... I wanted to get a material that looked right on the PLSS. I tried household Aluminium foil, Tissue paper soaked in white glue ... and plastic grocery bag. This plastic creased very nicely and looked the part in scale ... so I wrapped the PLSS in it. I also tried a variety of adhesives and found that Rubber Cement, from my old days as a Graphic Designer, adhered this plastic to the styrene, beautifully! It was spray painted with Gloss White ... ... with Decals. The 'velcro' is just first aid tape ... ... assembled ... ... and with the sample bag harness ... I wasn't sure if I wanted to attach a sample bag, but decided to try. I made a pattern and cut it out of household Aluminum foil ... It's a little difficult to make out, but it looks the part ... At the top, on the right side, the attaching hooks are visible ... It's all starting to come together IPD

Many Thanx Gents! The RCU and attaching hardware ... ... and with hardware attached ... The pockets were made from thick Aluminium sheet from a frozen Lasagna pan ... the attaching straps behind the leg are strips of First Aid tape. The buckles are made from styrene scraps. Parts for the check-list on the wrist ... The OPS with flaps made from the thick Aluminum sheet ... back view ... ... front view ... ... the 'snaps' were made from straight pins that were snipped off ... And with home made decals applied ... both the OPS and RCU. ... and with the completed Camera and check list till next posting IPD