Saturn V, MLP and LUT 1:116 - Apollonia/TVC-15

[Marco]

Oh dear, my latest project got lost! I'm maintaining a thread on www.kartonmodell-forum.de (http://www.kartonmodell-forum.de) as well, so I'll rebuild from there. It's the Saturn V moon rocket, with it's mobile launch platform (MLP) and launch umbillical tower (LUT), printed on A3 from DVD, designed by TVC-15 (Japan). The total height should come to about 140 cm. I wanted to start on the MLP first, but at the time I ran out of strengthening cardboard, and had not found a supplier in Lagos yet, so I started on the Saturn V instead.

[Marco]

I started from the top with the Apollo and escape system with a nice fresh knife. Getting the metallic effect on the CSM was a bit of a headache since none of the metallic papers I tried held the ink (haven't been able to find any of that famous Red River paper in the Netherlands or Nigeria), but finally been able to get the parts on hand-painted paper.

[Marco]

And here is the rest of the Saturn V, with the engines as they come with the kit:

[Marco]

An update to the engines: it was previously noted on this forum that the F1 engines had thermal shields while in action, so I've replicated the effect by creating a texture with electrical wire and thread, and covering with metal foil:

[Marco]

And here is the start of the MLP. I'm building this one fast - not much else to do in Lagos in the evenings at the moment.
A bit of background on the MLP. The model is of Mobile Launcher 1, which was used for 3 Saturn V launches: Apollo 4 (the first unmanned launch of Saturn V), Apollo 8 (first humans in lunar orbit) and Apollo 11 (first humans landing on the moon). Later it was converted with the "milkstool" structure, and used to launch Saturn 1B crew missions to Skylab, and the Apollo launch for the ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project).
After the end of project Apollo the LUT structure was removed, and the MLP was converted into MLP-3 for Space Shuttle missions, and has been used as recently as November 2008 for STS-126.
More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Launcher_Platform_3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Launcher_Platform_3)
It's going to be a big, big model. I've managed to find a cheap stack of cardboard-backed A4 envelopes in a store here that were exactly the right material for reinforcing the structural parts.

[Marco]

More detail on the MLP, including the hold-down arms.
Photos are up-to-date again, fresh material will follow soon.

[Retired_for_now]

Yep - sure beats the night life in Lagos! Great job.

Yogi

[Marco]

And here is the start of the LUT. Since the instructions are all in Japanese, a bit of trial-and-error is involved!

[Marco]

And I'm now building up the tower. I don't find the red colour from my printer vivid enough for the outside of the tower, so I found that a bit of touching up is necessary. Also a picture for scale, with some random bloke I see in the mirror every day :)

[Yu Gyokubun]

When complete this will be a spectacular kit for sure!
I'm looking forward to your progress

[Marco]

And slowly but surely it's building up. Also a shot of Apollo 11 while it's rolling out, which I use for reference.

[jparenti]

Wow! It's great to see one of these kits going together. You're doing a spectacular job, too.
I really want to get my hands on one of their latest, the Saturn V Skylab launcher (technically the Saturn INT-21, I know :D)

[lancer525]

Bravo, Marco! Excellent build, superlative work!

[Marco]

I'm back from home leave, and will start updating again soon.
Strangely, it seems that "HO-scale" doesn't equate to 1:87 at all here! I already noticed that the Saturn V model is too small for that, although I haven't measured accurately yet. However, the new kit that jparenti mentions above is now claimed to be scale 1:116 (Apollo 12 and Skylab 1 with S-IC Building:Apollonia Paper Model Museum/HW JAPAN (http://www.hwjapan.com/sh/APM008.aspx) and still called HO???), which I suspect may be the same scale as my kit actually is.

[peter taft]

What a project.... You are making me go green with ENVY ! This is going together perfectly in your most capable hands. Lovely workmanship. I have thee of TONS works {he designs very well }, and i keep saying i will make a crawler and LUT, but i think i would have to down-scale the S-V model.

[Marco]

I just measured the Saturn V, and scale 1:116 is indeed a lot closer to the mark.

[cardist]

Marco, this project certainly has the Wow! factor. Your work is quick and concise, how do you do it? Thank you for sharing an excellent build.

Bernie

[doctormax]

it looks good, so how the rain there? the wife told me the other day on the phone that it has been very bad in lagos and Port Harcourt the last few weeks with heavy rain?

[NYC Irishman]

Well done Marco

Keep it up

John John

[Marco]

it looks good, so how the rain there? the wife told me the other day on the phone that it has been very bad in lagos and Port Harcourt the last few weeks with heavy rain?

I was away at the time, but Lagos had really bad and late harmattan winds. The airport was even closed for a while. At the moment the place is as normal as it gets around here, but still really dusty.

[Marco]

Over Easter I've been able to build more levels, and now I'm finally on an internet connection that works. I am up to level 13 now. I have also pre-cut the rest of the railings (fresh blades from my home leave!), and I'm now touching up the exterior with red paint as I go, because the printed red colour is not vibrant enough.

[Marco]

Apart from pipes and cables, the tower is now complete. Next will be the swing arms and the hammerhead crane.

[peter taft]

Now that's what i call NICE ! ;) very clean and crisp thus far. Looking forward to the next update :)

[sagittarius]

I love this thread - This is absolutely outstanding model - and your job ;)

[Marco]

Thanks! I've started on the pipes on the outside of the LUT - the best results are obtained with white drinking straws. Photos will follow soon.

[Marco]

And here are the pipes on the side of the LUT, and the first of the pipes at the back. White drinking straws were used.

[peter taft]

Just the job... those straws do the trick, and it looks splendid ;)

[Marco]

Here's the rest of the cables, and a test fit on the crawler transporter.

[Marco]

The Colby hammerhead crane is now also ready. The swing arms will follow next.

[NYC Irishman]

Spectacular work well done

How many sheets were printed in total?

John John

[Marco]

Spectacular work well done

How many sheets were printed in total?

John John

My printer has had busy days: 15 A3 sheets for the Crawler Transporter, 8 A3 sheets for the Saturn V, and 78(!) A3 sheets for the MLP/LUT. However, the sheets for the MLP/LUT sometimes have rather large white spaces, and the the attachment frame and access pathways to the swing arms come in duplicate, so they could have done with slightly less.

[NYC Irishman]

Dear God...78???

Wowch

John John

[Marco]

And here are the first of the 9 swing arms, working from the bottom up in the same way as they are number. Cutting these is a nice way to check if you still have hand-eye coordination...

[Marco]

The rest of the swing arms. The crew access arm (#9) and white room are beautifully designed in this kit.

[peter taft]

Truly stunning workmanship - this is top dollar ;)

[Marco]

The LUT is mostly done, apart from a little extra detail on the LH2 and LOX lines. I'm travelling at the moment, so before leaving I put the whole model plus the Crawler Transporter in it's final position already.

[paulhbell]

Top class build. Well done.

[peter taft]

Phenomenal - Certainly on my very VERY long list of TO DO's... very well done sir ;)

[NYC Irishman]

Nice piece of work well done

John John

[Retired_for_now]

Beautiful work! It even fits in the house (apparently only just fits, however).

Yogi

[Marco]

Beautiful work! It even fits in the house (apparently only just fits, however).

Yogi

About 3 cm to spare to the ceiling :)

[Gideon]

I've got 4 words for this...

Spec... Tac... U... Lar!!!

I'm thinking Pic of the Week.

[peter taft]

I've got 4 words for this...

Spec... Tac... U... Lar!!!

I'm thinking Pic of the Week.

and i'll second that :)

[billy.leliveld]

Ever seen this one?..
Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/4366695)

[Marco]

Ever seen this one?..
Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/4366695)

Ouch, that took a while to access from Nigeria...

I hadn't seen the video in this amount of detail before, that's awesome!

[Marco]

Dusting off an old thread here...

This model has made a bit of a journey itself, though of course not as far or spectacular as the original subject. I was unable to transport this model myself from Nigeria, so I gave it away to an American colleague, who had grown up near Cape Canaveral, and whose father was one of the many people who worked on the Apollo project. He has now moved back to the US, and he has been able to pack and transport the whole thing intact to Houston. The model has now found a new home at an elementary school there.

[spacerunner]

Hi Marco,

what a nice idea! http://scaleworld.forenworld.net/images/smilies/zustimm.gif

Although you have lost a dear old friend, but the kids have found a new one, are happy and enjoy your great model. http://www.raumfahrer.net/forum/smf/Smileys/yabb/cool.gif

http://scaleworld.forenworld.net/images/smilies/hallo.gif

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Look at the excitement in the eyes of those kids. That's just priceless.

[eagleclaw4935]

I agree.Nothing like inspiring kids to do better in math,science and engineering.There may be a future astronaut in that crew.

[earthrise]

Hello Marco,

Thanks for sharing your experiences with building the LUT.
I am about to start building it. Can you tell me something about the paper you used? 120 gr, 160 g or even heavier paper.
Thanks,

Peter Vierhout
The Netherlands
tV,

[eagleclaw4935]

I used 110 wt and had no problems with it.

[Marco]

I printed the parts on 180g paper, but 160g should work fine too.
Good luck with the build, and do share some of your progress!

[spacecraftcreator]

Does anyone know as to where one can find and download these files if available ?

[elliott]

Google was your friend: 1/116 Papercraft DVD: Apollo Saturn w/ Mobile Launcher by TVC-15 | HobbyLink Japan (http://hlj.com/product/TVC00007)
Unfortunately it's been discontinued.

[spacecraftcreator]

Thanks elliot....

[Mechanic]

I bought a set of of the Apollo models, minus the crawler & Saturn V, they are an interesting set but I don't think your missing a lot, they aren't terribly accurate but they don't look too bad from a distance.

[rgmarine]

Great job! I am starting a 1/72 LUT for the Saturn V plastic (ugh) model I built. It looks daunting to say the least. Agree that soda straws and paper/plastic tubing look better than flat printed strips that come with most models.