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1/72 Saturn V


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10 hours ago, Ken Stenzenko said:

Yep, and just imagine what I spent at Shapeways for two Saturn V's.!

Yes, it's a difficult drug this... 😎

 

While I still had the chance I decided to further alter the profile of the S-IC system tunnels. I have already lowered them some 2 mm, but they are still too high and too rounded. So I flattened them as much as I dared to avoid going through.

 

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Then I rounded off the edges and sanded them smooth. They should be a bit lower and flatter still, not to mention having a very fine ribbing along the full length, but this will be the compromise.

 

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And when I was going to do the final calculation of the different segment lengths to divide the system tunnels into I discovered another mistake I had to correct. In the last minute. I had completely missed the fact that the two system tunnels have different lengths, with pos. III reaching higher on the forward skirt than pos I. So I had to cut them both and adjust their lengths.

 

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At one side of both system tunnels there are some much thinner tunnels, or whatever they are, going from the forward skirt downwards. They are not always easy to spot and they are different lengths, the one near pos. I going down to the aft skirt while the one near pos. III stops at the intertank structure, as far as I can make them out. Again they don't seem to be mentioned in any of the typical modelling sources. I made them from 0,25x1 mm Evergreen strips.

 

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And finally I could divide the system tunnels into sections, with new calculations made after I changed their lengths. It has taken quite some studying of references to reach a compromise I'm happy with regarding the different relative length of the individual segments, placing the joints reasonably correct and have the right numbers. I used stretched sprue for this. I still think the detail is slightly oversized, but it looks better than leaving it off I think. Thanks also to @Tomas Bark with whom I have shared some discussion about this detail.

 

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The first major priming session done. I ran out of foam blocks and other stuff to rig parts on, and I couldn't do all parts in one go anyway. I wasn't really looking forward to this, but once I got going it was actually rewarding and the result was overall better than expected. Some parts here are now ready for paint, while other, mainly resin parts, will need sanding, fixing and re-priming, and/or outsides sprayed.

 

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@Ken Stenzenko Here are the fins and air scoops in not yet sanded primer. As you can see the center rib pretty much disappears in the printing, and light sanding before primer, despite being defined in the model. It will need masking and painting in a brighter metal color.

 

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A few more priming sessions done and I have now reached the stage where all parts are sprayed. Except the S-IVB helium spheres that I have still not made... All major external parts will need thorough sanding, some minor fixing here and there (mostly on the resin) and a second session later on. Everything else is ready for light sanding where needed and then painting. It took some time to get here...

 

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You know you've done a good amount of primer/surfacer spraying when the far corner of the paint boot look like this...

 

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It's nice to see everything in one single grey color. Suddenly all modifications and different materials blend in and all the work done falls into place.

 

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I even managed to spray the main S-IC section. It was of course way too large for my usual paint boot, so I had to resort to my 1/1-scale workshop (not 1/1-scale Saturn V's though...) to get room to maneuver and a slightly larger spray gun.

 

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Lots and lots of fine sanding to be done when these have fully cured...

 

I even managed to get some real paint on some parts.

 

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I've been painting the smaller parts away as much as possible the past week, only airbrushing so far, as I want to free up my foam blocks, clamps and sticks for other projects coming. I will admit that painting is not what I enjoy the most in modelling. Not that I find it difficult technically to achieve nice and smooth results, but deciding what colors I want to end up with and how to reach them doesn't come natural. On this project I also seem to spend more than 50% of the time studying pictures and trying to understand what it is that I see and what I can trust as correct and what to dismiss when it comes to colors (surface treatments), except for the obvious white and black exterior. So far it seems that much of what I see on the preserved and displayed Saturn V's of today in this regard isn't how they looked when assembled for launching back in the days. So it's guessing, testing, redoing and then thinking enough is enough.

 

Here are the fins after masking and painting the center rib.

 

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And a few snapshots of the work area over the last few days.

 

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5 hours ago, Ken Stenzenko said:

Really coming together now. Your paintwork looks great and really blends everything together. Those fins look nice. I sure wish I had picked up a set of those F-1 engines before he stopped production.

Thanks a lot. If the fins look OK I can put them up at Shapeways.

 

Have you checked how the current alternatives for batted F1's look? I suppose I think of Real Space resin set in first place, the photo in the web shop isn't that clear. Then there is Martins resin set, the photo where they are painted looks better than the naked resin. Not sure if there is anything else in resin today?

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7 hours ago, Ken Stenzenko said:

The fairings look great under a coat of paint. Did they come up ok and no visible lines from the 3D printing? I'd be up for a couple of sets of fins if you make them available on Shapeways etc. Really nice seeing this all come together.

I'm very happy with the surface of the fairings now; there are no traces from the printing left. But as we saw it took a lot of tricky surfacer sanding. It was indeed possible, but I would not do it again.

 

I'll make sure the fins and airscoops show up on Shapeways, I'll let you know when they are.

 

I thought I would not need to draw and print any decals for this project, but no. Once again my old XP-driven OKI/Alps DP-5000 had to come out for a piece of text for the Instrument Unit.

 

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The decals are 1 mm high.

 

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Absolutely inspiring thread! this will really look amazing once complete. just spent the past 30 mins browsing through all your detail work and it is fantastic. 

 

I have an Airfix Vostok kit that has been sat in the loft for years  that may need to go on the workbench next after all of these motivating pictures!

 

  @Bengalensis - in the 1/72 scale is it possible to find many other launch vehicle kits?  Ive done a 3d print of a falcon 9 at 1/48 scale but that was too large, but ultimately i would like to do a display case full of all sorts of rockets, starting with V2's, an Energia or 2 (perhaps one with Buran and one in heavy cargo mode), an N-1, but is 1/72 too big to try all this in? would i need to devote half the room to display cases at this scale lol?

 

Then get REALLY ambitious and show some future/alternate reality options,  perhaps model up a Jupiter class rocket or even Sea Dragon, along with a Starship and SLS rocket. but again, perhaps i am shooting a bit too high for doing this all in 1/72! 

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5 hours ago, Kushan_Farsight said:

Absolutely inspiring thread! this will really look amazing once complete. just spent the past 30 mins browsing through all your detail work and it is fantastic. 

 

I have an Airfix Vostok kit that has been sat in the loft for years  that may need to go on the workbench next after all of these motivating pictures!

 

  @Bengalensis - in the 1/72 scale is it possible to find many other launch vehicle kits?  Ive done a 3d print of a falcon 9 at 1/48 scale but that was too large, but ultimately i would like to do a display case full of all sorts of rockets, starting with V2's, an Energia or 2 (perhaps one with Buran and one in heavy cargo mode), an N-1, but is 1/72 too big to try all this in? would i need to devote half the room to display cases at this scale lol?

 

Then get REALLY ambitious and show some future/alternate reality options,  perhaps model up a Jupiter class rocket or even Sea Dragon, along with a Starship and SLS rocket. but again, perhaps i am shooting a bit too high for doing this all in 1/72! 

Thanks a lot, glad you find the thread inspiring, then I have paid a little back to what I get from this forum.

 

I'm certainly not the most knowledgeable when it comes to available space kits, but there are more in 1/72, especially if you go for resin kits. But a large collection in 1/72 is quite a commitment to build, and it will take up considerable space if displayed well. I also think you will find more kits of full launch vehicles available in 1/144, which might be more manageable if a large collection of many vehicles is the goal.

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@Ken Stenzenko Here there are now my fins and air scoops uploaded, just scroll down a little: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/brusefalt-model-parts

 

I've put on the first tiny decals. Not much to show really, but at least decals are now on to a few parts. Another small step. Tomorrow I'm off to collect the flat 2K clear I hope to use, so I can make some scrap tests with it.

 

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I have also sanded the S-IC and S-II forward skirts and the two interstages ready for paint, and also sprayed the insides.

 

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Just read this whole thread... an impressive amount of work and dedication. Learnt a bit about the Saturn as well...

 

One question that kept coming to mind was 'did you need the Dragon kit?' You seem to have done all the hard work, along with using the best bits and bobs from aftermarket folk. How feasible would it have been to have scratched the basic shapes and then done your detailing on them - like the stage you built with the PVC pipe...?

 

Look forward to seeing the finished article.

 

Matt

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11 hours ago, Mattlow said:

Just read this whole thread... an impressive amount of work and dedication. Learnt a bit about the Saturn as well...

 

One question that kept coming to mind was 'did you need the Dragon kit?' You seem to have done all the hard work, along with using the best bits and bobs from aftermarket folk. How feasible would it have been to have scratched the basic shapes and then done your detailing on them - like the stage you built with the PVC pipe...?

 

Look forward to seeing the finished article.

 

Matt

Many thanks.

 

It's tempting to dismiss the Dragon kit itself (not counting the spacecraft on the top, which is available as a separate kit) and most of the resin parts completely. I couldn't use many parts as they were, some I just had to bin. But making the major structure entirely from scratch, and the using 3D-prints and some occasional resin for all details would would probably be more work and not cheaper.

 

It depends a bit what source one could find for pipes of the perfect diameter. Acrylic or hard PVC comes to mind. The diameter would preferably have to be correct and neither size is standard or even available in the professional industry of plastic pipes I'm active in, with d140 and d90 being closest but both in need of correction. Altering the diameter of a short piece is one thing compared to altering the full length. Some cones would also need to be swept. And then all the stringers, lots of Evergreen packages. Nothing of this is of course impossible.

 

However, building the whole thing from scratch, not using the compromised kit or compromised resin parts, and executing that job with great care all the way, could give a model with even better precision and accuracy than I'm getting here. If I would do a second one, which I don't plan to, I would like to raise my ambition further, and that would mean scratching the whole thing, yes.

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Thanks for your answer.

 

I suppose that my main thrust was that taking Dragon, the resin aftermarket stuff and your work, you've shown the most attention to detail and accuracy, and not in a way that would have been prohibitive for Dragon to have followed - just look at the details on their armour kits....

 

I once saw a kit reviewed of the German V2. I can't recall the make or scale, but the interesting thing was that the body was 'blown' from HDPE in the same way that plastic drinks bottles are. It was apparently perfectly usable and provided a lightweight but very strong basis for the main body....  I suppose vac-forming provides the other route. Alternatively, work from the size of pipe you can obtain and scale the model to fit.. :)

 

Anyway, back in the here and now.. lovely work and will follow through to completion..

 

Matt

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On 27/11/2019 at 16:22, Mattlow said:

I once saw a kit reviewed of the German V2. I can't recall the make or scale, but the interesting thing was that the body was 'blown' from HDPE in the same way that plastic drinks bottles are. It was apparently perfectly usable and provided a lightweight but very strong basis for the main body....  I suppose vac-forming provides the other route. Alternatively, work from the size of pipe you can obtain and scale the model to fit.. :)

I saw a V2 kit in some larger scale a number of years ago that had vac formed, or possibly blown main body parts, and interior detail with tanks and pipes. Could it be the same? Parts looked good in photos. Unfortunately I was undeceive and missed out. Can't remember what maker it was...

 

Another major step done; the surfacer of the S-IC and S-II main sections are sanded to paint ready finish. I also painted the tank domes in some basic color.

 

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The inside details of all three stages forward skirts have also been painted. After some detail painting on the tank domes the forward skirts can be glued to their respective stage. White and black painting coming closer.

 

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Coming together nicely.

 

I just ordered one from China off of evilbay. $19.00 and free shipping.

 

Yeah, probably never get it but for that price I had to try.

 

Had a similar deal on the 1/72nd P.1000 Ratte.  Sat in Chinese Customs for a couple months before I finally got my money back.  This guy has a 91% rating on over 800 sales so we shall see.

 

 

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21 hours ago, philp said:

I just ordered one from China off of evilbay. $19.00 and free shipping.

That's good, I'd say the Dragon kit, with all it's problems, is well worth $19.

 

All three forward skirts glued permanently in place, and some surfacer sprayed around the joints and the system tunnels, that will need a little fine sanding when cured.

 

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There are a few small pipes that still need to be fitted to connect the tank domes, but I'm waiting with those until after masking and painting is all done.

 

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I also sprayed the first flat clear coat, or rather semi flat or satin. I tried a totally flat first but it didn't look right to me. Also got some paint sprayed on the six J2 engines.

 

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I've spent a good part of the weekend detail painting small parts and sub assemblies. Quite relaxing.

 

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I think the Command and Service Modules are now ready for decals. There's a surprisingly huge amount of tiny decals to apply to these two.

 

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Batted F1 engines.

 

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J2 engines and the S-II heat shield.

 

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S-IVB thrust structure and the Instrument Unit.

 

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Smaller parts ready to be fitted.

 

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The Lunar Module is a project in itself if done properly using various foils etc. Since this one is folded up and will spend most of the time hidden inside the all white SLA I'm doing it a little bit easier using paint. The Descent Stage is sprayed in Alclad gold and then I applied a thinned mix of yellow and orange clear to simulate the darker gold. Now trying out matt black paints.

 

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I've been quietly following along during the construction because I didn't have much to contribute other than how neat it all looks. But the primed and then painted sections are spectacular. You definitely seem to be on a roll now!

 

Will 

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