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Hi all together, I've seen great Real Space Modeling projects in your forum. Therefore I want to point out you on my major project. I decided for the STS-6-Mission with the Challenger (04.04.1983) as guidance version for my build, as you can see here in the following image of the Launch Pad 39A with the Challenger before the start to the STS-6 mission. Source: retrospaceimages.com To be built is the Launch Pad 39A with Launch tower, Shuttle stack, as well as Mobile launcher platform (MLP) and Crawler transporter (CT). Basic module for my project is the old Revell kit 4911 in 1:144. In addition of the launch tower FSS I will use the Detail kits of LVM Studios. The LVM kits contain photo etched parts (PE) from thin brass sheet metal, with which very finely detailed structures can be produced as well known. For building MLP and Crawler I use the cardboard-model kits by David Maier from EDU-Craft Deversions in scale 1:144. The kits consist in each case of 13 colored building sheets of cardboard (27.5 cm x 42.5 cm) as well as a building guidance on CD-ROM. If you are interested in the beginning of my progress report you can look here in the ARC Discussion Forums. Manfred

Space Shuttle with Booster Rockets 40th Anniversary (05674) 1:144 Revell The Space Shuttle is probably one of the most recognised air and space vehicles on this planet, so I won't go into raptures over its proud history, or the two tragic losses of ships and crew during its long and illustrious career. Officially called the Space Transportation System the main re-useable Space plane, or shuttle was to be launched into orbit with the help of two large solid fuelled booster rockets which would be mounted to an external liquid fuel tank which would supply the shuttles main engines. The solid fuel rockets would descend via parachute to be re-used but the large external tank would be consumed on re-entry. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the first flight of the first shuttle, the eventually ill-fated Colombia, on 12th April 1981, so it's not surprising to see that Revell have rereleased their kit again. The Kit The kit is one of Revell's own toolings from around the time that the first shuttles were bravely scything through the atmosphere into low earth orbit on a semi-regular basis. It’s a product of the 80s, so don’t expect the latest moulding technology, but do expect large expanses of white styrene. The Shuttle & stack are pretty big, and covers a reasonably large area. The box is a large one, and is a top opener, with a fetching painting of the shuttle blasting into orbit on the front. This is a gift set variant, so comes with a pack of paints and a brush, although whether there’s enough of any colour in there to make it through the painting process? Who knows? The Shuttle The shuttle on this set is full kit in its own right with landing gear, a complete payload bay (with arm), landing gear and a stand if needed. However if you are going to be mounting it on the stack then none of these are needed. Unlike its large 1/72 brother the 1/144 kit does not get a cockpit at all. The two fuselage halves are joined with a rear stiffening bulkhead, the rear air brake and the cockpit glass is fitted in. The payload bay doors are hinged so if you wanted to build the interior to show it off then the modeller can do this, otherwise its just a case of gluing them shut. Once this is done at the rear the mounting plate for the main rocket motors goes on, as do the mounts for the RCS jets. The main engines can then go on. The wings can then be assembled and added. Last up the closed gear doors are added, the shuttle is then ready to mount on the stack. The Stack The reason for getting this kit is that it comes with the booster rockets and the tank, and a basic representation for the crawler which transports the stack to the launch tower. The four sides of the crawler base is built up and the 8 sets of crawlers are added, two at each corner. The large single part base then goes on along with two supports. The nozzles for the Boosters are made up and added to the boosters, these are in two halves, a single part nose cone goes on the top. Separation jets are added at the bottom along with the lower mounting points to the external tank. The tank itself is just two large pats which go together, the large vent duct is added along with mounting parts for the shuttle. The Boosters are added at each side, followed by the shuttle then the whole lot can be mounted to the base. Markings The shuttle flew in the usual white on top and black on the bottom, right? Sort of. The different types of insulation that were used on the upper surface varied very slightly between white tiles of a similar type fitted underneath, and large insulation sheets, or batting. The batting was used where heat dissipation and strength wasn’t critical, and you can see roughly where those were by inspecting the raised panel lines on the model. The black high-temperature tiles around the upper hot-spots changed now and again, so if you’re intent on getting it 100% you need to check your references thoroughly. The leading edges of the wings had very strong but brittle grey panels, one of which was breached during launch to later cause the Columbia disaster on re-entry, and then the rest of the underside and wrap-around areas are fitted with black high-temperature tiles that discolour to a streaky grey shade over time, and differences are seen due to replacements glued in place amongst the remaining tiles during maintenance sessions. Some companies have produced tile decals for these models. From the box you can build either Enterprise, Endeavour, Discovery or Columbus from before 1998, or Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour or Columbia after 1998. Markings for the external tank are shown for the original white one, or the later orange one. There are also a number of surface details represented by decals, the NASA Meatballs, an ESA logo or two, and a number of US flags to help you along. The decals are from Zanetti and should pose no problems. Conclusion It’s an old kit, but as we’re unlikely to get a new one any time soon, it’s about the best we’re going to get for the foreseeable future. There is a good quantity of detail included, a really nice decal sheet. It will still require care during the build process however, as it is a big kit made of large and sometimes flexible parts. Take it slow and steady however, and you will end up with an excellent replica of this awe-inspiring part of space exploration history. If you’re going to go crazy and super-detail it, there are a great deal of options open to you. Get your wallet ready! Highly recommended. Currently, Revell are unable to ship to the UK from their online shop due to recent changes in import regulations. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Nothing new but I finally got around to re-instating the images after the Photobucket issues and that has instilled some impetus for continuing with the build. Hi all, I’ve been a member on here for some time without contributing anything of note worthy, but hopefully soaking up some of the great skills and generous advice that are regularly on show. So, I thought it was about time I stopped sponging, put myself in the firing line and have a go at a WIP, so wish me luck! The build is going to be the Revell 1/144 scale Space Shuttle Discovery and Boosters. I picked the kit up quite cheaply a while ago but I must say upon opening the box I wasn’t overly impressed with the contents; a fair bit of flash, poor fitting parts and some odd details, so the lid was quickly replaced and the kit consigned to the darker reaches of the stash. I should add that I’m no Space Shuttle expert/nerd but have always admired the whole Space Shuttle concept and always wanted to build one, but even I could see that, the engine bells for instance are, well, odd to say the least, just a stack of decreasing diameter discs, to me they look like the Master modeller ran out of time and the base form was all that was available to mould. In fact, it was the engine bells that prompted the start of the build, having just sent an ongoing project to the naughty shelf (anything that could go wrong did!) so looking around for something to occupy me for the rest of the evening I started trawling through some collected reference on the laptop and found a good clear image of the rear end of the orbiter and the main motors and wondered if I could use the kit parts to hang a little more detail on rather than go down the aftermarket route. It seems like a strange place to start a build but it was something to do and quite enjoyable, if a little fiddly. The main motor bell was coarsely filed and filled to remove the steps then sanded to approximately the correct profile. The locating spigot was removed and a 2mm thick plasticard rough disc was glued to the top of the bell and sanded to match the profile, drilled and a new locating spigot glued in place. The overall effect is that the bell is now slightly over scale length wise. Now the fiddly bit, gluing eight 0.6mm plastic rod ‘ribs’ around the bell tested my patience, supply of fingers, clamping tweezers and expletives all at once, and this was only the first of three! The pipe work was formed from more 0.6mm plastic rod and 0.3mm copper wire, additionally the inside of the bell was repeatedly scored with a scalpel blade to give a little texture. Not wholly accurate, but much better than the kit original. Now that the Shuttle has moved well and truly to the front of the stash, one thing I’ve started working on is artwork for some home-print decals to represent the heat tiles that are a dominating and essential feature of the orbiter. The artwork is created as monotone vector line art in CorelDRAW exported as a bitmap and the streaking, discoloration etc. ‘airbrushed’ in Corel Photopaint, the tricky part will be ‘mapping’ the two-dimensional print to the kit surface so I figure it’s going to be a fair bit of trial and error with test prints to get the right shape. The sample below shows a test piece for the body flap of the Orbiter, if at the end of the day I can’t make it work I will use some proprietary decals (if I can get any) along with some oil weathering to get the prominent streaking effects caused by re-entry scorching. More later.

Here are some shots from my 2013 visit to the LA Science Museum. A few more here if you're interested: http://www.hanger51.org/aircraft-museums/us-museums-collections/la-science-museum-2013/ A-12 Blackbird by tony_inkster, on Flickr Douglas DC-8 by tony_inkster, on Flickr Lockheeds finest by tony_inkster, on Flickr Northrop F-20 Tigershark by tony_inkster, on Flickr F-104 Starfighter by tony_inkster, on Flickr Shuttle Endeavour by tony_inkster, on Flickr Shuttle Endeavour by tony_inkster, on Flickr

Hi everyone My son Dylan's (aged 9) latest build is the Revell Space Shuttle for a school project on space. The first night of the build, using our traditional kitchen table technique, saw good progress on the shuttle The following night I had to work late, so when I got in and Dylan met me at the front door telling me he had carried on without me I feared the worse. However I'm delighted to say my fears were unfounded, in fact I think he made better progress without me ! As you can see still lots to do but the project has to be finished next week, so it looks like a busy weekend coming up. More later Cheers Pat

I have a 1/72 revell space shuttle model. There are two things i was wanting to get ideas for. The first is the best or most realistic way to make my shuttle look weathered. I have hand painted most of the detail and would like to try and stay away from decals because of this. The second thing is the cargo bay. I would like to add some type of material to it that will make it look like the real padding that is in the cargo bay. Thanks for any hints tips, or suggestions you may be willing to pass my way!

Hello everyone, Haven't posted anything in a while, due to 'technical difficulties' , but here's my latest completion, it's a but rough in a few places and the Shuttle was being a pain because it wouldn't stick to the 747, but I got there eventually. Thanks for looking, Ryan

Space Shuttle - Main Engine, pics thanks to Mike Costello.

Hi, I am new to modelling and this is my first build using any form of modelling kit. I acquired all the paints and materials and set to work. The little time I had after work was spent making this model. I know that certain elements of it are not correct, such as the ribbed external tank, size of the mobile launch platform, the tail service masts etc. I do not have the modelling experience of technical ability to scratch-build also. (I understand that Airfix produce the same scale stack with correct external tank and shuttle shape etc..) and I tried my best with mixing the colours for the external tank, although it is not particularly clear in the photographs. I also used tile decals for additional detail. I would like member's opinions on my first build and my pursuit in the modelling hobby. I enjoy reading the forum and hope to make another model in the near future, perhaps a 1/144 Saturn V?

Space Shuttle - External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. The External tank was the largest part of the Space Shuttle Stack. It was manufactured By Lockheed Martin (previously Martin Marietta). It went through three major stages of development from Standard weight tank to lightweight tank, and finally the super lightweight tank. The orange colour was down to the spray on foam insulation. The Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) The prime contractor for the motor segments of the SRBs and the manufacturer of the vital solid fuel rocket segments was the Thiokol Corporation.The prime contractor for all the other components of the SRBs, was USBI, a subsidiary of Pratt and Whitney. These provided the primary thrust (83%) needed by the space shuttle. Spent SRB's were collected and refurbished unlike the massive external tank. Pics thanks to Mike Costello, from the Atlantis exhibit at The John F Kennedy space Center, Florida.

Hi, I am interested in obtaining the Cutting Edge 1/144 Space Shuttle Tile Decals, unfortunately they appear rare as hen's teeth. I understand that these are out of production since Modelworks are no longer trading. I have been on a popular online auction site to no avail; the 'Warbird' tile decals are however available, but I would rather procure the Cutting Edge decals if possible? I have written to Keith McNeill with no response via his website too. The Ed Bisconti Orbitor Decal Sets appears to have dried up also for one reason or another. I would like some advice if there are any other after market tile decals for the Space Shuttle 1/144 available? If there are any, or if anyone has a set, then I would be very interested hearing from them. Thank you

OV-104 Space Shuttle Atlantis, now on display at The John F Kennedy space Center, Florida. Pics thanks to Mike Costello.

Hi all, Don't suppose anybody has seen some of the warbirds 1/72 tile decals for sale have you? I've got their tile codes (which are the numbers for the tiles) but I need the actual tile decals as I intend to sand off the base tiles and apply a decal set. Secondly, the exterior fuel tank is textured, in filling and sanding the texture is removed, any ideas on a way of creating the same texture or what textured spray I could use? Thanks