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1/24 GEMINI under the Rogallo wing


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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!

 

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Note the damage to the lower bit which resulted from disassembling the parts.

 

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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.

 

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Using Dymo tape to make the guide ...

 

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... and the result.

 

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With the interior bulkhead dry fit ... I need to determine the depth I can build of the bay.

 

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Building the interior walls of the landing gear bays ...

 

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... and done.

 

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The eBay model didn't have the RCS portion so I used a piece of PVC plumbing pipe to make a new one ...

 

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And filed a bevel onto the edge to fit the kit's hull pieces.

 

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Drilled holes for the Thrusters and filled them with Aluminum tubing.

 

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... and added styrene strips to recreate the shingles ...

 

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That'll do for now ... 

 

IPD

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     Ive seen the real deal in books and articles before. Ive read it was a good idea but in practice was kind of a disaster. I think I remember something about the parachute. It was to be aerofoil in shape, to help the capsule glide back to earth ? Makes you wonder if thats where the idea of para-gliding came from ? Seeing as Im a fan of Gemini capsules I'm going to follow this build. 
 

Dennis

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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 ...

 

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... the Nose Gear ... I used the 1/48 kit's nose gear for a little reference

 

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... and done.

 

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... the Main Gear ... this dry fit indicated that the Gear were gonna be too long, so I shortened 'em ...

 

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... the adjusted one on top. The other one will get shortened too.

 

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The new RCS section, into which the Nose Gear will get fitted.

 

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I made an inside surface to hold all the greeblies ...

 

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Starting to look like something ...

 

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Till next posting ...

 

IPD

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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 ...

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... and the Main Landing Gear.

 

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Assembling the hull, I used scrap styrene shims to fill some gaps at the heat shield and other seams ...

 

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A channel needed to be built for the lines for the Rogallo wing ... first on the RCS section ...

 

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... and the crew cabin.

 

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At the heat shield, a groove was cut in for the lines for the Rogallo wing.

 

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To repair a missing chunk in the heat shield, Milliput was stuck in, and sanded down ...

 

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I wanted to install a skid plate onto the front of the Nose Gear.

 

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... and done.

 

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On the top of the Nose Gear is a spool which plays out line when the Wing is deployed. This is the rudimentary pattern ...

 

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A variety of iterations and the final one to the right, made from sheet Aluminium. The spool itself is styrene tubing.

 

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And installed.

 

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Starting to detail the crew cabin ...

 

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... and with hatches and RCS section dry fit.

 

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A dry fit of the MLG and NLG ... I held the model upside down and took the picture ...

 

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This is coming together rather nicely.

 

IPD

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After a coat of primer I replaced some of the washers that were sanded off previously ...

 

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Some of my sketches to try to figure how best to display this model ...

 

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Using 1/2" tubing, starting to build the Rogallo wing.

 

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With a sheet of thicker paper I started to develop the patterns ...

 

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The scale of the 2 subassemblies looks about right.

 

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A possible display idea ...

 

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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.

 

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Using a sheet of 0.010" styrene the wing is getting assembled ... 

 

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In an attempt to show some billowing of the 'chute material, I'll try using Grocery bag plastic attached with Rubber Cement.

 

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The pencil lines will be my guide for applying stripes of Rubber Cement ...

 

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Clamping the sheet styrene to the tubing. You can also see the stripes of Rubber Cement

 

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This'll do for now ... till next posting.

 

IPD

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I sprayed on a coat of Model Master Steel

 

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... and then a coat of Light Grey ... I wanna try to get the effect of having re-entered the earth's atmosphere ... 

 

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The hatches didn't sit correctly, so I added a few styrene supports ...

 

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That's better

 

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The decals ... they needed a lot of setting solution and a little coercion to settle into the corrugations ...

 

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They settled very nicely

 

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I'll also try to replicate the wear on the heat shield ...

 

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Getting there ...

 

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... looks good enough!

 

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To get that worn, burnt look, I sanded down through the layers of paint ... this is just about what I was looking for.

 

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Some paint on the Nose ...

 

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Installing the spool ...

 

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I added a couple of guides / anchors to the spool because there will be some tension on it ...

 

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Main Gear installed ...

 

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And with the Nose Gear installed ... 

 

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And even though it will be suspended, it was nice to see it self supporting ...

 

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I had to do a little surgery and add a couple of rods to support the Wing lines ...

 

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And then make sure it would support the weight ...

 

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That's a lot of images, let's see if it posts ...

 

IPD

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I have to say, that looks like an absolutely terrifying way to land a space craft.

A lot of extra weight too. Not too surprising then, that the system was never adopted.

 

Nice build btw.

I quite like the weathering.

Umm, how many of these kits do you have anyway?

 

Side note:

Maybe don't load quite so many pix on a post?

It took ages to load the photos and there were maybe half a dozen that were just links.

Nice pix tho...

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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 ...

 

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Adhering the Grocery bag plastic to the sheet styrene ...

 

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Attaching the lines to the wing ...

 

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I made loops out of copper wire to attach the lines to ...

 

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First coat of paint ...

 

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... adding the Black bits. It's just Grocery bag plastic painted Gunmetal ... I tend to not use Black paint at all.

 

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Rigging the lines from the wing to the spacecraft ...

 

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Alright-y then ... the lines are all taut, they're the right length, the spacecraft hangs nicely  ... I think it's done!

 

2v2JUJzCSxAnAAS.jpg

 

Till next post ...

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I increased the size of the base and then took some pix with Lake Ontario in the background ... 

 

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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!   :thumbsup:

 

Thanx for tagging along on this build!

IPD

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