Athena 2 & Juno II, too! ;-}

[umtutsut]

Gang,

Two weeks, two models finished! Churning 'em out like sausages, I am! (Apologies to Nikita Sergevitch. )

First, a 1/96 Athena 2 designed by Erik te Groen, the launch vehicle for the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission. Because I suck at rolling small cones, I substituted part of an Estes rocket for the tip of the nose cone, and an F/A-18 exhaust for the rocket nozzle. I also added some scrap plastic to produce the small rocket nozzles below the payload fairing.

Next, Erik's 1/96 Juno II, launcher for the Explorer VII satellite. I looked to Estes again for the nose cone, and used a 1/110 Jupiter engine off an old Revell kit; it doesn't look undersized to me. I added tiny antennas made from plastic sprue.

Taken with my cell phone, so the photos ain't eggzackly museum quality. Comments welcome!

Les (Friendly Airplane Asylum & ex-NASA flack)

[richkat]

Great!! They look fantastic, you did a very good job on them, I'm knd of a rocket nut (ask my wife) I have a 1/48 scale Mercury-Redstone, Gemini-Titan, and a Apollo-Saturn V also a 1/48 White Knight-Space Ship One and a Suyuz. About to start on a Mercury-Atlas in the same scale. Love them rockets!!........Rich

[Retired_for_now]

You've been busy - nicely done!

Yogi

[dhanners]

Very good builds and keenly displayed, too!

[WeeVikes]

Les,

Those are beautiful! I absolutely love the displays. Very well done.


Mike

[APA-168]

Beautifully built, and as others have already said, beautifully displayed. A question, if I may: how are the rockets fixed to their bases? This is something I've been wondering about for a while. I haven't yet built permanent bases for my pitiable collection (two Thors and counting) but I plan to start on some tomorrow and I'd like to know how you experts do it. Is there a dowel running into the engine bell or are they simply glued in place? Inquiring minds want to know...

[umtutsut]

Originally Posted by APA-168

Beautifully built, and as others have already said, beautifully displayed. A question, if I may: how are the rockets fixed to their bases?

Using plastic (gasp!) engine bells yields some flexibility.

The Juno II does have a plastic rod secured to the engine bell running into the round plastic stand (the top of a shake-n-bake pancake jug, BTW).

For the Athena, I found a scrap plastic wheel that matched the engine bell diameter, superglued it to the cap, then superglued the engine nozzle to it.

Not sure what I'll do when I have to use a card nozzle. Probably a stiff wire running up into the body. I stuff my rocket tubes with toilet paper for strength, so that should provide some support.

Les (Friendly Airplane Asylum & ex-NASA flack)