Ariane 5 ECA with Planck and Herschel 1/96

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Hi friends.
It's been a long time since I posted a work in progress and even some time since I posted some work at all. So here is something new.
I started building a new rocket. I realised that apart from the tiniest rocket in the collection (Blue Streak) I didn't have any European rocket in the ménagerie. So I thought an Ariane 5 would be a good addition.
So after some research I got to work. First, the virtual drawing board. Ton Noteboom's version as well as David Brown's remake lack the detail I wanted to add into the model. I redid some parts and recoloured a lot. The pure white of the fairing and boosters (EAP's - it's French after all, mes amis! EAP stands for Étage de Acceleration à Poudre - Powdered acceleration stage - heh!) was changed into an off white colour like the real stuff. I also redid all of the logos on the EAPs and the fairing got some extra pictures added like the specific version I am to make.
So we start below, the main engine, the Vulcain 2 engine. Meanwhile, I rolled the part which would make up the hull of the first stage. I embossed it lightly to get the insulation tile structure in the paper. It is 270 grams paper so very thick and sturdy. It already had the grey colour of itself.
I used fast printed versions of the original models as templates for this and all of the engine base structure. I scratch built the ribs on the cone and added two glass marbles which happened to have the right size as helium pressure vessels, wrapped in aluminium tape. I made the top tank dome out of metallic coated paper.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Next up was the interstage. I also gave it a reworking in Photoshop. I added some details and coloured it in the same off-white colour as the rest of the 'white' parts. The second stage was next.
Very hard to find good pictures of the thing. Lots of exploded views and so on but not a lot of detailed drawings or photos of the thing itself. Finally I found some and got to work.
I draw a lot during my builds. One reason is to get acquainted more to the model and its structures, another one is to solve problems during scratch building. I found out a lot about the second stage. It hasn't got an actual cone structure as an engine base but a cone shaped collar with a small tank inside. A latticework in between helps the structure to keep steady.
This tank ends in another, bigger tank, more or less encapsulating the smaller one. It's a little like the Russian sometimes make their tank structures in rockets.
This tank has a flattened top on the tank dome to enable the payload to rest upon the stage. But around it is a little toroidal structure, whether it is to seal off the tank dome or has another function is unclear to me.
But it needed me to rethink the fairing part. The white band I imagined was part of the fairing, actually was the top of the 2nd stage. I now had no rim left to attach the fairing to. What to do?
Time to think while I was making the engine greeblies and all the rods of the lattice structure.
Drawings helped here in the end, too. I think I will double up the lowest white band on the fairing. With a little ring around the inside just above it, I will be able to keep the fairing (in one piece) in place and cover the white band on the 2nd stage. This way it will be easy to take it off and show the payload. (And yes, if you can decipher my handwriting and translate Dutchspeak a little, I intend to use magnets in this build.)
The payload, well, that's for another post, hopefully coming soon.

[Retired_for_now]

Nice! You're well on your way to doing a complete design from scratch - looking forward to that too.
Yogi

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thanks, Yogi. A complete scratch build? Who knows?

[Retired_for_now]

Scratch build with your artistic documentation, parts sheets, instructions, display pages, ...
Yogi (looking forward to more competition in the download section)

[Paper Kosmonaut]

I often fiddle and mess around with paper parts and try to modify them. But it all is done on the fly, by eyeballing and only just sometimes by computer. When scratch building the little bit of art academy artist that's left in me suddenly takes the helm and makes me do things like those engine section ribbing. It's scissors, not Xacto. Pencil, not Photoshop. To make it co into the downloads section I'd have to make copies of it before glueing it onto the model. Even that car I made for the F1 engine started out as an on-the-go kind of build. I still have to finish the sheets for uploading them here...
But maybe you're right. Maybe I should try and keep track of what I am doing with redesigning and adding stuff to models and make an add-on set for it to go online...

[Lee Anne]

I believe it was an Ariane 5 launch tower that I came across the other day. If interested, I'll try to find it again. May have been on Lower Hudson site.

[merzo]

Hi Jasper

I understand what you're saying .. He who does not know the exact scratch building dimensions. Just build arguing so good! Very hard after him to reverse the sizing process.
I use the "Gagarin launch pad" was planned by hand, I'm in big trouble sharing the

The building is interesting.

*Seems perhaps the EASA and Roscosmos effect.
Maybe the D grade rethink? As if we would see the same in respect of the new Orion

interest merzo

[umtutsut]

Originally Posted by Lee Anne

I believe it was an Ariane 5 launch tower that I came across the other day. If interested, I'll try to find it again. May have been on Lower Hudson site.

Here 'tiz: Index of /ariane_platform

Les (The Voice of Authority -- VoiceofAuthority.net - The Voice Stylings of Les Dorr, Jr.)

[dhanners]

Great work, as per usual....