Space Shuttle Discovery YG Publisher No.130 in 1:33

[A. Pirling]

The many pages with the components of this extraordinary cardboard model
can be divided into three groups:
Components for the two solid fuel boosters,
Parts for the large main tank
Parts for the shuttle

Extensive detailed drawings are available for each group.
The few written instructions are unfortunately in Russian.
Hopefully I can overcome this linguistic hurdle with the help of linguistically skilled
model builders.

Looking over the detailed drawings I can only congratulate myself in hindsight
I can only congratulate myself that I ordered the very extensive lasercutsats along with the building sheet. I would never have been able to make the many almost tiny components to be reinforced myself.

The lasercut parts are in two cardboard thicknesses:
Most parts are cut from 1mm cardboard, a few from 2mm cardboard.

Already at this point I would like to anticipate a point of criticism, about which I will say
will say more about later: For the huge bulkheads - diameter up to 28 cm - for the main tank, a 1 mm thick cardboard thickness is simply too small in my opinion. This will have to be remedied on my own initiative!

Also at this point I have to warn clearly against the gunshot marks on the laser parts!
Who is not careful and washes his hands thoroughly,
will be annoyed later about the stains on the cardboard of the actual components.

]

[A. Pirling]

Dear friends of cardboard modeling!

I am very pleased about your interest in my new project.

Yes, it will be a really big model when it is finished.
This will probably take quite a long time.
Especially the orbiter consists of a lot of parts.
The sketches alone are spread over four DIN A 4 pages.

In the meantime I started building the space shuttle.
The two boosters are finished.
Also the ET has reached its full size.

Now I am working on the orbiter.
There, too, the three engines are already completed.

Then it's time to work on the canopy.

Once again I would like to point out
that the English text was created with the excellent translation software Deepl
created. My English learned in school is not sufficient.

Greetings

Adolf Pirling


Some more pictures of the sheet

[A. Pirling]

In order to get used to the construction method and readability of the sketches of the designer
Cherkashin, I want to start the overall model with the construction of the boosters.
The experience gained in this process will certainly help me to finish the further construction stages
with the other stages of construction. At least that is my hope.

So I'm going to start bravely!

Already the boosters have a total length and width of 137 to 11 cm each.
I start with the part S06.
Already with this part you should get used to write down the part number on the backside.
and use a small file to indicate where the top of the part is.
Otherwise, the danger of mixing up the correct sequence is simply too great!

[A. Pirling]

The component has two transition strips each - SO6a and SO6b. Frame 702 is inserted at the top,
underneath frame 707 is inserted.
Unfortunately, this is where the first problems arise:
If you close the large component SO6 correctly and insert the transition strips correctly,
the frames have too much air at the top and bottom.
When I talk about frames, I always mean the laser-cut parts.
It can't be the outer skin, because all the other components / construction rings
fit together very well.
How this annoying error could have occurred during the production of the laser frames, or whether I made a serious mistake, is a mystery to me. However, it continues with all further formers over the whole length of the booster.

[A. Pirling]

I helped myself by lining strips of cardboard inside.

And immediately I had to worry about another problem:
The 2 x 701a and 701b, which are 2mm thick, just don't fit around the S06 component.
Without further ado, I cut open the three rings at one point
and fixed them to the part in a way that I can hide the gap later with conduits.
can hide the gap.
From my point of view this is already at the beginning of my work two discrepancies too much!

Hopefully not too many more knocks will appear.

I would also like to note that "Ellegun" encountered the same problem when building his SATURN V from the same publisher and in the same scale.



The further assembly of the booster is done in the usual way.
With this length of the "tube" it is not so easy to bring all rings exactly on top of each other.
After all, you don't want to create a banana,

With the ring around component S05, the problem of too small inner diameters arises again.
This time, however, you have to grind out the inside of the rings in order to make them fit and to
to be able to slide them over component S05.



I work my way to the combustion chamber.
From my point of view, the construction is much too simple.
I guess they had to save money to keep the overall size of the model within limits.

[A. Pirling]

The construction of the external tank (ET) will continue at this point.
To be able to deal with the giant thing at all,
I will approach the construction of the main tank in several single assemblies.
One time it will be up to five rings, another time only one or two rings,
which I will build and glue together at once.
For the components U0 1 to U04 I could use the existing laser cut formers as they were delivered. As the diameter of the frames increased, I had to decide whether to stick with the 1 mm frame thickness.

With a diameter of almost 30 cm for the largest formers, the thickness of the laser cut formers is much too thin in my opinion. Probably these formers would lead to unsatisfactory results for the fuselage rings!
Doubling up was out of the question for me. I had to find another way to increase stability.
Then I remembered that I had several balsa wood rods. I chose the length of the rods and then cut them so that there was some air at both ends to the outer skin.
The sticks could be fixed well with glue on the frames. I then installed more rods crosswise.
From my point of view, this procedure worked very well.
The frames get their necessary stiffness. The balsa adds only insignificantly to the weight. Another positive effect is that it is easy to hold the individual rings - and later whole groups of rings.

The original ET has a length of 46.88m and a diameter of 8.41m.

[A. Pirling]

Special attention should be paid to components U08 and U09.
U09 consists of three parts that are to be glued to U08.
The sense of this constructive procedure has not become quite clear to me.
Is it to create a better optical effect, to show off the corrugated structure of the
of the outer skin in the original?
With flat components, this works quite well.
With curves, tensions can arise between the two components,
because there are different radii.
I tried to minimize the problem by always creating the curvature while gluing the two parts together. I did not succeed in doing this everywhere.
Can you see this on the model?

For frames 603 and 607, note the metal struts U19cR/L and U10cR/L to be installed
for the transitions from the ET to the shuttle.

Since I didn't have 1 - 1 ½ mm bendable wire, I cut pieces from shirt wire hangers. Hopefully my braces will not prove too thick later.

[A. Pirling]

Moving on to the lower connection between the ET and the Orbiter.
Before I started with the original parts,
I first built this assembly from a copy of the parts.
The sketches from the construction sheet and some photos of the transitions at Wikipedia
have helped me.
I am still not 100 percent through the whole layout.
Hopefully the rest will open up for me in time.

[A. Pirling]

I was very surprised that all parts fit well to each other and to the metal struts on the ET.
metal struts on the ET.
However, I found the thickness of the original cardboard for this assembly to be too thin.

The ET gets its top. U01 to U04.
After attaching the lower fuselage sections U 14 to U 18
the ET has reached its full length.
Unfortunately for me this means that it can only be stored lying down,
because I'm afraid that the thin walls of the bottom parts
might not withstand the weight of the huge "monster".

[A. Pirling]

In the meantime, the construction of the ET has progressed so far,
that now it would be the turn of many lines.
I would like to postpone this until later.

Thus the shuttle would have to be tackled.
At the moment I am very reluctant to do this.
With the sketches to the shuttle there are many references in Russian.
Even if the construction should be clear from the sketches,
I don't want to risk it without knowing the meaning of the hints.

Before I start working on the shuttle,
I would like to add a few small things on the two boosters.