Saturn V Paint guide

[Julien]

I have the Airfix kit ready to paint but have been tol the painting guide in the kit is inaccurate.

 

Is there somewhere I can get an accurate one?

 

Thx

 

Julien (who normally does Aircraft)

[cmatthewbacon]

Try here:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/saturn-v-roll-patterns.150541/

best,

M.

[Julien]

9 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Try here:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/saturn-v-roll-patterns.150541/

best,

M.

Thx, @Mike just pointed me to New Ware's site, some other stuff on there I like as well

[Mike]

21 minutes ago, Julien said:

some other stuff on there I like as well

It's a very scary rabbit-hole to go down... for your wallet at least

[cmatthewbacon]

Are they still doing the photo etch launch tower in 1/144 and 1/96? 😜

best,

M.

[Julien]

29 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Are they still doing the photo etch launch tower in 1/144 and 1/96? 😜

best,

M.

Never saw that on there. They do a launch stand for the Saturn V which was tempting, but I resisted. 

[Mike]

30 minutes ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Are they still doing the photo etch launch tower in 1/144 and 1/96? 😜

No, thankfully.  That would be a BEAST both in terms of size, complexity and cost

[Hamiltonian]

Fair enough that the original Airfix and Revell Saturn V's were modelled on the SA-500 test articles, rather than an actual launch vehicle--the kits were pushed out at a time when the test articles were the prime reference. But I've never understood why they couldn't at least update the painting instructions for later reissues.

 

On the topic of New Ware, I found their resin and photoetch parts to be excellent when I made my own Revell Saturn V. But I found one small error in the decals. New Ware provides a mix of black and white axis markers for the Instrument Unit--white to go on the black paintwork, and black for the white sector that appeared on the south side of some Instrument Units. The black marker they provide for this location is  "-Y", but it should (checking against photographs) actually be "+Y". No biggy since it's easily fixed with a sliver of black decal.

(I reported it to New Ware at the time, but never heard back.)

 

The XY axes of the Apollo/Saturn are quite confusing, since they are 180 degrees out of alignment between the launch vehicle and the Apollo stack. I think New Ware perhaps thought the IU coordinates should match the Apollo stack, but they were in fact aligned with reference to the launch vehicle.

 

(I wrote a bit about the complexities of the Apollo-Saturn coordinate axes here, if anyone's wants to know more.)

 

[Eric Mc]

The current version of the Airfix Saturn V kit shows conflicting colour scheme details. The actual painting instructions are incorrect in that the vertical black panels on the bottom stage are too tall. However, the box art painting shows a more correct version of the scheme.

 

In reality, all of the Saturn Vs exhibited slight variations in the schemes as each rocket was a bit different.

 

The best option is to study actual photographs of the real thing - particularly contemporary in-period shots rather than the Saturn Vs currently on display in museums. And beware of images of the SA-500 test article (as pointed out above). It was painted in a different way to actual Saturn Vs.