Launch 14 - Cooper's Rocket

[xffw45343tg]

Happy Birthday Rich.

 

Take the day off and make rockets!

[TheBaron]

Not surprised to see your art-direction background Rich as my first thought on seeing this was: 'My God, this work is of film-industry modelmaking quality.' Was going to say that this is a towering achievement but then as...umm, well, you know, you're actually building an incredibly elaborate tower, you'll have to make do with a merely 'This is stupendous stuff!'

Tony

[Badder]

Hi Rich,

Hope you are well?

I know what it's like to start on a big project and then get distracted by 'life' to such an extent that the project grinds to a halt, but I was wondering if you are anyhwere near getting it up and running again?

 

Rearguards,

Badder

[Getting Old]

I'm a bit late finding this but the work is absolutely brilliant 

[RichO]

Hey Badder and everybody!!  I'll be back to work on this project shortly.  I've had to much time off, so itchy to get to work on this.

 

  See you soon.

[Timmas]

That's good news Rich. Been wondering what happened to this!

[RichO]

Hey All, 

 

It just kills me how "Be back to work shortly" can turn into months of life getting in the way.  

 

  The move went as well as expected.  Some things made it through the move and some did not.  

 

  

 

The outer fence came apart in the move, but easy to repair.

 

 

The kit bash parts were scattered around a bit in the move.

 

 

The Launch Tower seems to have survived the excursion.

 

 

 

 

The hand built Service Tower is looking good and was designed to move around.

 

  The new work space is still being organized but work should start soon, really this time.

 

Be back shortly but slowly.  Thanks for checking out the WIP.

 

RichO

[Pete in Lincs]

Rich, good to know that you're still with us. I'm looking forward to more from this epic build.

Regards, Pete

[roma847]

Hey Rich,

 

finally you're back my friend and I hope you're doing well. 

 

The time without you was pretty boring here ... 

 

Now unpack all boxes calmly, stay cool and above all healthy for a successful restart in your new home. 

[Timmas]

Glad this is reactivated Rich and it looks like most of it survived the move!

 

Looking forward to seeing it progress.

 

Keep safe!

 

Tim

[bar side]

Good to see you back Rich & that the move went well.  Easy to be away for time with other things getting in the way.  But even better to see this starting up again.

[RichO]

Hey All,  

 

  Thanks to everyone who has checked in to see this start again.  Hopefully I can get some work going here.

 

  Well, way back in July of 2016 I wrote that who knows how long this build will take.  Four frikin' years later and not even half way.  I still have a lot of fun ahead in this build.

 

  I unpacked things this past weekend and was relieved to find everything had moved really good, (see last post).  However, after a year and a half in storage, and not seeing it for that time, I was struck by how bland and uncolorful the pedestal was looking at it again.

 

  

 

  My original vision was to have a pedestal that did not pull attention away from the scene.  I thought the detail of the shadows was enough to for everyone to see what was happening with the base.  

 

  After I looked at this for a while with fresh eyes, I decided that the computer banks needed some color.  So I took the base apart (remember that I built this all to come apart for transport), and separated the panels for cleaning.

 

 

  OK detail, but hard to see under the roof of the tarmak.  After time to clean off the dust and grime of storage, it was time to make all this look a little more like computers of the '60's.

 

 

  Fresh cleaned and a new coat of primer.

 

 

  After getting on line to check out the computers of the 60's.  I found that these were painted in the GO-GO colors that were popular at that time.  Bright crazy colors.......just because.

 

  So keeping all this in mind I tried to paint with a color combinations that looked like the 60's.  

 

 

The first base coat of paint, with wild colors.  The next thing to do is to hi-light all the details, tone down the bright spots, and paint 3 more panels.  

 

  This may take a week or so to get the other panels ready with the base colors.  I'll be back with the finished base colors all together.

 

  Thanks All for watching, RichO

  

  

[RichO]

Hey guys,

 

  I have to paint one more panel to finish the base paints.  The colors in the photos are a bit bright, but the real ones are not that far off the colors.  I was thinking that these are way to bright.  However looking at these through the fence and under the tarmak,  I might just leave these brightly colored.

 

I took this photo to see what this looks like on screen.

 

 

I really could not tell without the fence. 

 

I like this a lot better with the fence and the overhead shadow of the tarmak.

 

 

Bigger.....

 

 

 

I like the direction this is headed.  So I'll finish with the painting, and by the time I have the dark washes and color fading, this will look just right.

 

I'll be back later with the base finished.

 

Thanks All for watching, Rich

[roma847]

Hang in there Rich, the fun of doing handicrafts makes many things easier to bear. 

[Timmas]

Hi Rich

 

It's great to see this and you back again and to see those computers painted up. My dad was a data processing manager in the 60s and he would take me into work sometimes on Saturdays if he had to go in. Those coloured mainframes with their tape discs really bring back happy memories.

 

Looking forward to watching more of this

[Pete in Lincs]

The computers look great. I remember seeing the tapes whirring away on TV shows of the 60's. 

I just had a thought. Remove one computer and add a Coke machine. See if anyone spots it!

Great to see you back at work here.

[RichO]

Timmas and Pete, Thanks for your continued support.  Great comments you guys.

 

Hey All,

 

 The reworking of the base continues.  I have finished with the main computer colors and now need to live with 'em for a bit.

 

  I have reassembled the base and I like the added colors.  A little more working with the tone, and this will be done.

 

 

 

  These photos are in the window light and all is really shinny, but looks good in person.

 

 

  The first assembly of the tarmak in a while.....

 

 

  Now is the time to take toll of the top side damage.  I have packed away all the little things for the build, but now time to see what I have and where the heck am I going.  

 

 I moved the build to a secure location where my wife's big butt wont knock it over again.  Never mind that last comment,... it's safe for a while here.

 

  It's nice to see the tarmak with some of the items again, 'makes me want to put on an old movie and see what I have.

 

I'll be back with more stuff,  Rich

 

Thanks Pete.

 

 

 

 

[bar side]

On 11/9/2020 at 6:01 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

The computers look great. I remember seeing the tapes whirring away on TV shows of the 60's. 

I just had a thought. Remove one computer and add a Coke machine. See if anyone spots it!

Great to see you back at work here.

Makes me think of the story about the early uses of ip addresses to connect a pc to a coke machine.  The6 would send a gofer down to the machine and remotely release cans to prove i5 worked.  No idea if it is true but I heard it linked to Tim Berners Lee & the team at CERN

Edited November 13, 2020 by bar side

[RichO]

You guys are great with the computer stories!!  Coca-Cola hacking, spinning tape reels....all good stuff!

 

  Hey,

 

  I have looked at what is going on with the top side of the build.  I did managed to have some items come loose in the move.

 

 

Mostly handrails and stairs have come unattached.  Not bad at all considering.....

 

 

When I was looking at the Service Tower today, that I scratch built, I had an idea of "what the heck was I thinking?".  Taking a close view, I decided to hold off on starting with the scratch tower again.  I got a strong feeling of intimidation just looking at it, and need to syce my self up in order to started here again.

 

I think I will start off with the new chapter being Landscaping.  I want to start by building the store tanks that can be seen at the bottom left of the photo on page 1 (I can't seem to cut and past to here).  Quite the little storage tank area.

 

I'll be back with the start of the tank storage build.

 

Thanks All for watching, Rich

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roma847]

Hi Rich,

 

I know situations like this when one wants to continue after a long time and have to overcome oneself. But you know, Forbearance is not acquittance. 

 

Do you also want to build the transport vehicles for the gas batteries? 

 

[RichO]

Hey Manfred,

 

  Yes, I will build the transport vehicles and make this scene a bit more crowded with extra copies of trucks and cars and vans and......  I have a number of vehicles that I can copy to make more of and I'm also looking for scale cars and vans.  I have a hunch that I will need to build these tho.   I looked around a bit this morning for scratch stock to use,  I'm ready to start with the storage tanks.

 

I'll start this off slow for now, keep watching,  Rich

[roma847]

  I'm curious about that already.

[RichO]

Hey Guys,

 

  I managed to find some materials that should make the tank build a bit easier.  Finding something that looks the correct size was just a matter of keeping my eyes open for found junk.  All I have to go by for this part of the build is just the above photo.  Everything I build for this part is all just visual guess work.  

 

 

At the bottom of the photo is one of the large trailers that I need to replicate a few more times.  This is the same trailer (white and yellow) as at the bottom of the NASA photo above.

 

  All is being sized totally by eye.  Just looking at the NASA photo and guessing at the proportions.  I'll make adjustments as I build, but I think I'm very close for the three major components of this build.  The trailer (scale set by Revell, and all else to match)  the store tanks, and the retaining wall.

 

 

This location had to be adjusted for the layout, but it all looks good so far, altho the storage build is at the lowest corner of the total landscape layout.

 

  As you can see in the NASA photo, I have all kinds of cool stuff to build.  I need to find or build the round ends to the tanks, but all else that I need, I have, to start this part of the build.

 

I'll be back with some basic construction to get started here.

 

Thanks All for for watching, Rich

 

todays movie, " When Worlds Collide"  1951

[RichO]

Hey everyone,

 

  The landscaping is continuing.  I have managed to replicate some of the transporter vehicles, altho some cleanup is required. 

 

  For the large tank at this part of the build I have found a plastic squeeze bottle that is just the correct size.  For the three smaller tanks, I'm using large size Evergreen tubes.

 

 

In the photo above you can see the many transporters parked around the tarmak.  You can see 4 flat transporters and 9 round ones.  You can see the difference between the two here...

 

 

The typical process,  Legos, mold,  cast,  new transporters...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I have to do quite the cleanup job for all these transporter trailers.  Also there is a complete set of wheels and supports that are installed on the bottom side of all these.  Plenty more to do to get all these ready to paint.....

 

 

 

I'll be back with more vehicle construction.  Thanks All for watching,  Rich

 

todays movie:  Earth vs the Flying Saucers,  1956.

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

1 hour ago, RichO said:

todays movie:  Earth vs the Flying Saucers,  1956.

Classic stuff. Who needs CGI anyway?