Delta II 9725H MER-A Spirit 1/96 ETG

[ETG]

I haven't visited this website for a long time. I gave it a quick look and guess what.....? ;-)
Build logs like this always inspire me to get back to working on my models and make more. Nice to read someone
mentioned the NOAA Delta rocket. It was available on the old Lansbergen site, but since all Delta rocket
are being overhauled big time, I kinda forgot this one. I'll put it up soon, provided my new job leaves me some
time to work on it. I recenty got a new job. More responsability, more studies, more money (that's not so bad),
less time for paper modeling. I promised myself not to start any other new model before I finished most other
(older) models. Updating the Deltas proved to be a much bigger job than I ever thought. Updating sometimes
means almost totally redrawing the model from scratch....... Especially if you discover more and better info and
finding errors on your models which really need to be taken care of.
Paper modeling is slow, but not dead, yet. I'm still here. Sort of.

Good job PK, love the stringers.
Are you using a circle cutter to cut the rounded parts? If not, I highly recommend it. I always include small crosses
to indicate the center of the circle, the pivot point. In combination with a little sanding you can obtain an
almost invisible seam.

Cheers,

Erik.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Goeiedag Erik!
Nice to hear from you again. I really liked building this Delta. I didn't use a circle cutter or a compass, the circle cutter I have is incredibly useful and I use it a lot but for the curved parts here it wasn't practical, since my cutter has a ø 10mm center part where it rotates around. I think I have a steady enough hand for cutting these parts freehand. The Tintin rocket I built had these small crosses too, and there too I did it all freehand. However, it is great you add them.
I really liked the engine detail and the relative simplicity it al comes together. Good job on the design!

[Retired_for_now]

It's the detailing, and your explanations of the (found?) materials used that is really inspiring!
Yogi

[dhanners]

It is great to hear from you, Erik, and I think any model you offer, your legion of fans will gladly build. Your models are always well-researched and nicely engineered.

In an ideal world, I'd like the Delta II that was the launch vehicle for NOAA-N Prime back in '09.

[ETG]

....working on it, Dave !! ;-)
Looking at my drawings, I suddenly remembered why it sometimes takes so long for me to finish a Delta rocket.
Apparently, not all fairings are identical. There are details such as hatches and other stuff. Since I have the bad
habit of trying to render these things as accurately as I possibly could, I spend a lot of time looking for good
pictures, showing the exact position of all of these details. That's why this particular model still isn't finished.
And to this day, I still haven't found pictures that can show me the info I'm looking for.
If you are happy with a slightly less accurate model, I'll be glad to upload it soon. But since good reference info is
hard to find anyway, I wonder how many people will notice the "flaws" on my models ! ;-)
Unless you work for Boeing and you are the guy who builds these fairings......... |-(
I also found out that the small print at the bottom of the rocket (Part A) is placed in different positions on different
rockets. The vertical print, under the numbers 1 through 9, is not always identical. I decided to leave it as it is. If I
really start counting rivets, I'll never get a model done, ever.
Since I never had any complaints about it I decided not to worry about such details.

I hope I can find some time to work on it, this month.

Cheers.

___________
Erik.

[Retired_for_now]

Erik, have you seen this site? Kennedy Media Gallery
If it launched from KSC you can search for any photos of either the launcher or mission using the "expendable launch vehicles" selection box. Usually has plenty of photos from the arrival of the bits and pieces, through assembly, to the launch. 659 photos/captions for the MER missions on the site; just 71 for NOAA-N prime..
Yogi

[woods170]

Originally Posted by ETG

....working on it, Dave !! ;-)
Looking at my drawings, I suddenly remembered why it sometimes takes so long for me to finish a Delta rocket.
Apparently, not all fairings are identical. There are details such as hatches and other stuff. Since I have the bad
habit of trying to render these things as accurately as I possibly could, I spend a lot of time looking for good
pictures, showing the exact position of all of these details. That's why this particular model still isn't finished.

I once asked one of the engineers working on Delta II about the fairing hatches, after I got a tip on the NSF forums. Long story put short:
Almost each fairing is unique for a given payload. Not so much in general shape and size, but in size and location of the hatches to access certain parts of the payload after the payload has been shrouded in the fairing.
Apparently, part of the payload design process is to design the fairing access-opening sizes and locations as well.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Now that's a really interesting thing you tell there, Woods170. That will take up a lot of engineering time. And at the same time it makes the rocket stand out in adapting itself to each of its payloads. Every rocket is customized, so to speak. wow.

[ETG]

Thanks Ronald. Sigh........ I knew it........ Well....in that case, some of my models will be inaccurate, because if I can't find pictures of the shroud,
all around, I'll have to make an educated guess of where the hatches are.
Evwn KMG's wonderful library doesn't answer all of my questions.
Oh....Yogi...KSC's website has been my source of pictures for over 12 years now ! ;-) Where do you think I got all of the other info from? Should KSC
ever close down their gallery I might as well stop making Delta rockets !

Cheers,
Erik.