1/144 Apollo 11 & R-7

[ChrisCummins]

Hello all,

My name is Chris and for my first model I'm going to build an Apollo Saturn V!

So this isn't truly my "first" model - I used to really enjoy throwing together (literally) 1/35 tanks as a kid, but after a 10+ year hiatus I feel more equipped to actually produce a nice finished-result; I'm more patient, and crucially, less poor. ;-) I'm going to use this thread to document my progress and overall experiences as a new modeler, and will no doubt have *many* questions. Hope to speak to you all soon!

Thanks for dropping by,

Chris

[ChrisCummins]

First, an equipment check. After a huge amount of background reading and prep, I went out and bought the following:

Airbrush

The over-arching theme of this build is that I'm going to do things the "proper way", so that meant forgoing the rattle cans in favour of a proper airbrush. The initial setup cost of airbrushing is huge, so I settled for a cheap AS-186 set, with an E420 spray booth, and a Scott respirator.

Paints

I'm going to use Alclad's white and black primers, and their range of metallic finishes to paint the bare metal sections. I have Revell aqua colour and humbrol acrylics to provide top coats.

General construction

The usual suspects of X-Acto blades, needle files, wet and dry paper in grades 240-2000, pin vice, and revell poly cement and modelling putty.

Once I had all the gear, it was time to start the build! General advice seemed to be to complete each stage in turn, so the first step was cleaning up and prepping the S1-C with those massive F1 engines.

P.S: Some of these early photos are not in chronological order, hence the dry-run of the full stack in the background ;-)

[ChrisCummins]

Step 1 - Cleanup

After the soapy wash, I gave each of the parts a thorough inspection. The kit really shows its age - the copyright stamp is from 1968(!) - and each part would require a huge amount of clean up prior to assembly. This is a pretty typical example of the amount of excess plastic to be found on most parts:

After a lot of filing and cutting, I turned my attention to assembling the thrust block of the S1-C. The kit comes with with a display base, which is a thoughtful addition, but it in its half-hearted attempt at replicating the launch platform, it almost entirely hides the actual F1 engines, and uses a pair of clips to hold the base in place:

These had to go, so it was out with the plastic cutters and needle files for my first bit of "real" modelling work! As it happens, the spacing between each stringer is exactly the width of my needle file, so it was just a case of going slowly and filing away the excess:

Now to the underside. This piece has a lot of injection molding artifacts that needed filing down. First, I removed some unwanted protrusions from the outboard engine coverings:

I then put a big slab of blu-tac in the base to help lower the center of gravity. Now that I no longer have the stability of the clip-in base, I'm going to have to rely on this model being stable while freestanding.

The engine baseplate has a raised grid pattern in it. My guess is that it was an attempt to model the pattern of rivets and panels that can be seen in this reference photo, but it seemed exaggerated, so I decided to sand it smooth.

Then, there's the case of the actual fit of the two parts. It really confuses me as to how bad this is. I can only assume these protrusions are intentional (they even appear in the instructions drawings), but they leave a huge gap where the two parts meet:

My approach here was to slather on a good amount of putty after assembly, which could then be sanded smooth:

The last step prior to assembling the F1s was to level out the base:

Cheers,

Chris

Edited January 23, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[John_W]

Love the reindeer onesie

[RichO]

Nice build so far. The reindeer looks so thrilled! "bout how it is at my house.

[triumphfan]

This looks very promising Chris. I admire your logical approach to planning your build, it looks like your skills are also going to help make this a great model.

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Steve.

[ChrisCummins]

Thanks John, Rich, and Steve forums like this have helped give me a great head start, but my definite lack of experience is a bit of a problem - this is my first time working with: airbrushes, putty, wet n dry, decals, resin, space models, etc etc.... I ordered an Airfix Vostok (the "& R-7" part of this thread title) which I plan to test out all of these new techniques on, but it's yet to arrive.

While the reindeer is not overly enthusiastic - she has been very supporting in my new choice of hobby, and has proved resilient to the gentle poising of resin dust and cellulose thinners that I've been filling the flat with!

Cheers,

Chris

Edited January 23, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[ChrisCummins]

Step 2 - The resin

Having read about the limitations and inaccuracies of this kit, I got in touch with Martin of Martin's Models, who produces a number of resin parts for the Saturn V in this scale. I ordered the full suite of parts, and exactly a week later I received an ice cream box full of my made-to-order replacements.

So this is what £30 worth of Martin's time and materials gets you:

Apollo

The most glaring inaccuracy of the Revell and Airfix kits is that their Apollo ship is both too small, and has an incorrect design of the service module. Martin's replacement is noticably larger than the kit version, and the detail seems very nice.

SIVB thrust block

This replacement thrust block adds extra detail, including additional helium spheres which are lacking on the kit version.

SII tank dome

The kit includes an incorrect tank dome, and this replacement adds some nice extra detail.

SII thrust block and J2s

The kit second stage is abysmal. As in, not just inaccurate, but physically impossible. This corrects that with a nicely detailed set of J2s.

Batted F1s

These replacement F1s add the thermal protection system that was used for the flight versions.

I'll review these parts properly as I work my way through the assembly, but my first impressions are that these are a nicely detailed set of parts which adds a sense of craftsmanship to the kit, but will require a lot of pre-assembly clean up. The excellent level of detail is let down by some significant shortcomings in the molding quality. Many of the parts show signs of air bubbles trapped in the mold, and all of them will require filling and sanding. The F1s in particular will need a lot work, and as you have already seen, I decided to stick with the kit's engine base as the resin version is frankly bland.

I'm happy with my purchase, Martin's a great guy and I would recommend these parts to anyone else looking to fix some of the inaccuracies with the kit, but they will require a lot of skill to do them justice. Still, I suppose anyone who's willing to pay over 100% of the kit price on replacement parts will probably not shun some extra sanding

Edited January 27, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[ChrisCummins]

Step 3 - Test run of F1s

One of the benefits of having the resin replacement parts is that I can use the old kits parts as practise. So with that said I hastily glued together some F1s, set the compressor to 14psi and loaded up some Alclad gloss black!

The airbrush was a joy to work with, and was a lot more forgiving then I expected. After curing, I went ahead and loaded up some Alclad aluminium and laid on some very thin coats, followed by a very thin wash of black oil paint in white spirits to bring out the detail. I'm pretty happy with the finished result:

It's going to be a tricky balance trying to get the paint job correct. While I don't want to make it look weathered, I think the model would easily end up looking flat and toy-like if I just went with solid black/white/silver colours. I'm going to experiment with off-white and off-black top coats for the paneled areas.

Edited January 27, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[ChrisCummins]

Sorry for the deluge of posts; this is around 3 weeks worth of work. After this you're all up to date!

Step 4 - Test run of Service Module

I want to emulate the colour palette of this reference photo, where the service module has a smooth metal appearance, the radiators are a definite off-white, and the command module looks almost mirror-like chrome.

After assembling and sanding the kit service module, I masked off the radiators and layed down a couple of layers of Alclad white primer, followed by a top coat of Revell aqua colour white with just a drop of leather brown mixed in. This was followed by a very light of wash of brown oil paint and white spirit. After masking that off, I started painting the rest of the service module.

This is where I had my first failure. I applied 2 coats of Alclad black primer, building it up in thin layers as before. However, unlike the gloss black, this had a much grittier finish when applied, and even after polishing with 2000 grade wet and dry, still had a mottled appearance. If anyone with airbrush experience can weigh in on what I may be doing wrong, that'd be greatly appreciated! I'm too new to this to narrow down the problem since there are so many variables at play (air pressure, distance to model while spraying, amount of double actioning, etc).

This is what a coat of gloss black looked like over the mottled primer:

Despite appearances, the finish is absolutely smooth to the touch, it just looks powdery.

I went ahead anyway, and this is where I had my second failure. I wanted to rush to get this test completed today, so I applied two thin coats of Alclad polished aluminium without allowing adequate curing time of the primer. I just about got away with it, although the mottled effect of the undercoat has seeped through:

Then came my biggest mistake. After applying a top coat over an uncured primer, I thought it would be interesting to see whether a black oil wash could bring out the detail of the RCS thrusters, so I went ahead and started applying a thin wash, and it absolutely obliterated the paint job. The white spirit completely melted the partially-dried layers of paint, leading to an ugly grey gunk.

In the interesting of posting my failures as well as successes, here is what the affected area now looks like:

My first lesson learned the hard way: don't disregard proper paint drying time! I'm not too fussed since this was only a test and it isn't the piece that I'll be using on the actual model, but it's a concrete reminder that this hobby requires patience.

Cheers,

Chris

Edited January 24, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[Eric Mc]

Depending on how accurate you want the model to be, you might want to repaint the white radiator areas of the Service Module.

If you look at photos of the actual Service Modules used on all the Saturn V flights (manned and unmanned) you will see that the white radiator pattern is very different to the pattern shown on most kits. This is because nearly all of these kits emerged before the real hardware was actually finalised and most of the early Apollo images released by NASA (1962-ish through to 1968 or so) tended to show Block I Service Modules - which had much larger white painted radiators.

NASA only flew Block I spacecraft on unmanned missions and all were flown on Saturn IBs. The only planned Block I mission was the ill-fated Apollo 1. After the fire which killed the three astronauts, it was decided that no manned missions would use Block 1 spacecraft.

The original AIrfix releases of their Saturn V and 1B rockets featured inaccurate Service Modules but the re-tooled recent releases (post 2011) have corrected this and now show much more accurate Block II Service Module features.

[colbee2004]

A word to the wise, my son did a Saturn 1B recently and found it far easier to paint the whole model black first, then followed by the white as if you get any bleed through on the masking it's easier to touch up black over white. Hope this helps.

[Eric Mc]

On the other hand, painting white over black is very hard too.

[Caerbannog]

As you wisely invested in some Tamiya tape for masking (your second pic) I guess you eliminated bleeding to the minimum. If you want to reduce the risk of bleeding any further you can spray another layer of the base colour after the masking - this second layer can seal the masking (if this layer bleeds you will not see it) and only then spray the contrasing colour for which you applied the masking.

By the way. I only sand resin in the sink using wet sanding paper and a bit of detergent or constand water flow to avoid the nasty dust.

The CM was covered with aluminum tape stripes - that is why it has this polished shine. When building a 1:32 CM you can replicate this with aluminum foil or tape cut in thin strips but at 1:144 Alclad Polished Aluminum will be a good way.

[TheStig]

Wow, you've certainly dived in head first for your first model after your hiatus! A huge spacecraft, resin, and alclads! Love your enthusiasm! Good luck!

[Eric Mc]

On the launch pad, the Command Module was completely covered by the Boost Protect Cover - which was made of fibreglass and painted white.

[Starfighter]

I built the Dragon 1/72 Saturn V last year, and I bought a set of David Weeks drawings to enable me to add extra detail to the model ( There being hardly any to start with ! ) I heartily recommend these, although they cost $60 - ish from the US, but well worth the investment. However, with the resin set that you've bought you should be OK detail - wise. I'm looking forward to see how you get on with your build, and if you need any info on the CSM markings for Apollo 11 just PM me and I'll see what I can do.

[ChrisCummins]

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice, it's really appreciated and very useful!

Depending on how accurate you want the model to be, you might want to repaint the white radiator areas of the Service Module.

That was the kit version of the SM with the incorrect Block I configuration. For the finished model I'll be using Martin's resin Apollo which is a Block II with (to my knowledge) the properly positioned radiators.

If you want to reduce the risk of bleeding any further you can spray another layer of the base colour after the masking - this second layer can seal the masking (if this layer bleeds you will not see it) and only then spray the contrasing colour for which you applied the masking.

Thanks, that's a great tip that I'll be sure to try! The biggest problem I've encountered so far isn't paint bleed so much as getting the masking tape aligned properly. Those long straight edges and 90 angles are very unforgiving; I can totally understand why New Ware makes pre-cut airbrush masks.

I built the Dragon 1/72 Saturn V last year, and I bought a set of David Weeks drawings to enable me to add extra detail to the model ( There being hardly any to start with ! ) I heartily recommend these, although they cost $60 - ish from the US, but well worth the investment. However, with the resin set that you've bought you should be OK detail - wise.

I did seriously consider those as I think they look great, so I'm glad to hear they worked well for you. I ended up not getting them solely because I figured I have to "draw the line" somewhere with my budget. Certainly if I were to take on the 1/72 version I'd order a set, but alas I don't think I have the space to store such a beast!

Cheers,

Chris

[ChrisCummins]

Part 5 - Airfix Vostok

It turns out this kit isn't too easy to track down after all! I finally managed to get my hands on one, which arrived the other day. Unlike the Saturn, this will be an almost entirely OOB build, and I'll turn a blind eye to many of the inaccuracies of the kit, instead simply focusing on getting a high quality finish and practicing the techniques I'll need to complete the Saturn.

Here's a snap of all of the parts (minus the base, and 3-4 bits which fell off during cleaning):

So progress on the Saturn is going to take a backseat until I've completed this little kit, which I think will make a nice companion piece to the Saturn once they're completed and standing side by side.

[ChrisCummins]

Step 6 - New Ware Decals

In addition to Martin's resin parts, I also ordered a set of replacement decals from Tom of New Ware:

Saturn V

Here is a comparison of the Revell decals (top) with Tom's (bottom):

The set includes a lot of markings which Revell don't include, including many small details for the service module. Other notable differences from the kit version includes a different shade of red and typeface for the big USA/United States lettering, and slightly different proportions for many of the images.

R-7

A comparison of the Airfix decals (top) with Tom's (bottom):

Many of these markings are tiny, but sure enough you can clearly see accurate-seeming Cyrillic if you squint hard enough. Some of these labels are barely legible to the naked eye, so I'm expecting some challenges in applying them!

As before, I'll give a more detailed review as the build progresses.

[ChrisCummins]

Step 7 - R-7 construction

I've chosen to use the kit to depict the Soyuz TM-31, as I think that it represents a nice milestone in space history (it flew the first crew of the ISS, and returned the first space tourist back to earth); although apart from the colour scheme, this decision is fairly arbitrary since the kit is pretty inaccurate and I don't have decals for any of the flight markings. On with the construction!

I used micro clamps to hold the boosters together after gluing. With hindsight, this was a very bad decision!

The clamps exerted a much greater force than was required to hold the pieces together, and warped the parts quite significantly, creating big gaps in the seams which needed a lot of filler and sanding:

I used the opportunity to sand down some of the unwanted surface detail. Since there's no real "interior" for the R-7, almost everything can be constructed prior to painting. Here's what we have to work with:

And here's a rough-n-ready comparison shot for scale - the full Soyuz stack is significantly smaller than even the first stage of the Saturn V!

And that's most of the assembly done. As you can see in this photo, the engine nozzles have a different metallic shade to the engine mounts, so I'm going to paint them separately before gluing them in place. Here's a shot of the primed metallic regions, featuring the dozens of tiny engine nozzles, the first stage, and the four boosters masquerading as joints

Cheers,

Chris

Edited February 1, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[ChrisCummins]

Step 8 - Painting the R-7 boosters!

This is the photo I'm using as reference:

To be best of my reckoning, there's three distinct sections:

1. Booster base - Highly polished mirror finish.
2. Engine nozzles - Metallic grey.
3. Engine nozzles (interior) - Matt red.

Starting with the engine nozzles, I applied a thin layer of Alclad Aluminium:

Then, the boosters. Two coats of Gloss Black Base over a black primer (this photo is very overexposed, but it's hard to trick my phone into photographing shiny black!):

After 24 hours, a single coat of Alclad Chrome:

I'm sorry that this thread is starting to sound like a bit of an advert for Alclad, but I have to say these metallic paints are exceptional. Even with my total lack of skills, the finish is amazing. The chrome kicks off so much light that photos of it looks like a JJ Abrams movie

I delllicately glued the nozzles in place:

And finally did my best attempt at hand painting the nozzles with some Humbrol 60. While it still needs a second coat of the red, I'm really happy with the results, it has exactly the finish I was hoping for:

Despite my shaky hands I managed to get the nozzles painted without too many slips ups, although I think I could have made my life easier by changing up the order of painting. What do you guys think?

Cheers,

Chris

Edited February 2, 2015 by ChrisCummins

[Eric Mc]

You do need to be careful when using photos of rockets for reference. Often, rocket stages and their engines etc look a bit different during preparation for launch compared to (say) what they look like sitting on the pad. Often, items such as engine bells will sometimes have protective coverings on them during the assembly and stacking process which are removed later on.

[ChrisCummins]

You're very right Eric, I made one serious blunder already - many of the photos I've been using depict the Soyuz's in transit, and none of them had the little winglets at the base of the booster. As a result, I trimmed them off the kit. Looking back at a photo of a Soyuz in flight, I now realise the winglets should in fact be there, they must just be attached/deployed after assembly! So my Soyuz has clipped wings

Cheers,

Chris

[RichO]

Your painting sure looks good in the photos!!