Apollo 13 LM-7 Aquarius

[Wichita]

Made rendezvous lights by cutting pieces of lollipop stick and chrome paint. Made the tank brace using lollipop stick wrapped with chrome colored self-adhesive film.

[Wichita]

Added parts 339e and 339f to the sides of the coffin. They are covered with aluminum tape and black coated aluminum foil.

Part count to date: 732

[Wichita]

Part 340 EVA handrail has been prepared by painting with gloss white but will be installed later to avoid damage from handling.

Part 341 is the grab handle but I made one using a paper clip in a previous post.

Part 342 is the uppermost EVA handrail attachment point which I covered with aluminum tape.

I scratch built additional EVA handrail attachment points using black aluminum foil, but since these are custom parts I am not including them in the part count.

The Alignment Optical Telescope shield was scratch built and installed on the IMU cover (coffin).

Part count to date: 735

[Wichita]

Parts 331 and 343 are S-Band in-flight antennas (one in front and one back). The parts are small cones but on the real LEM they are a cone shaped helix. Instead of using the kit parts I took strips of paper and twisted them around tweezers, coated with superglue to stiffen up, attached to a round base, painted flat black, then mounted on gold wrapping paper. They will be installed later in the build since they are so delicate.

Part count to date: 737

[kevin1975]

Please don't tell me its taken you almost 6 years to build your LM!! Lol..i saw you started back in 2014. Now I'm getting discouraged on starting my command module haha looks great by the way!

Kevin

[Wichita]

Yes, it has taken me a few years and I still have more to go, but the end is in sight. I chip away at it when it works well for me so there has been no rush. After all, it is just a hobby. I work on it because it relaxes and refreshes me, so I have not been concerned with how long it has taken. While the finished model is the goal, the real enjoyment has been the building process. Once I am done the finished model will just sit on the shelf, but it will bring back good memories of how much fun it has been to build!

[luro1964]

Well said. Doing the same at the moment. Taking my time with a big build because it is relaxing and I know how much I will enjoy it when it's all done.

[Wichita]

Made vents by punching small discs of heavy thickness aluminum foil and shaping it into a curved shape around a dowel. Because the foil is pretty rigid it keeps its shape pretty well. Attached them using Micro Liquitape.

Using the thicker aluminum foil gave me an idea. I wanted to take another try at the S-Band in-flight antennas using the foil. Instead of painting which might flake off the metal, I colored it using a sharpie. And instead of starting with a straight strip of foil, I cut it into a 90 degree angle. After twisting it on the tweezers it held its shape great! I super glued it onto discs of gold wrapping paper for the mounts. I am much happier with the results. I took a picture of them beside the ones made from paper strips for comparison.

[dhanners]

Lovely solution for the antennas! Great work....

[spacerunner]

Cool idea, one just has to find a way ...