Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)

[Revell-Fan]

Originally Posted by spacerunner

Thanks Dan for your kind words, but that would be overkill.

I LOLed extremely! If you think that would be overkill, then please explain to me, what are you already showcasing in this thread?

[spacerunner]

Thanks Marcell for your nice compliment, I'll try my best.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

before we speculate here any longer, I have very interesting pictures of my friend Michael (mk310149), who has built David Maier's Launch Pad (1:144) from paper. And so you can a lot more recognize than on the previous light and shadow pictures, even though some details are indicated in a conventional manner only by clever textures.
And as you can see easily, the elevator shaft has actually this inclined wall running up to the PCR.


Source: papermodelers.com (mk310149)

However, this wall is no more detailed behind the stairwell, which is why the doors are missing,


Source: papermodelers.com (mk310149)

or one has to imagine it behind the pipes.


Source: papermodelers.com (mk310149)

As you can also see, the stairwell is interrupted only in the top three floors and has stairs, the lower four floors do not, but are only hinted at. But the stairwell has seven floors, and the different frame-division also corresponds to the original, so at least the elevator shaft problem is likely to be clarified.

And now I also have got the confirming by my friend James (NSF-Forum) that the elevator shaft "lobby" was triangular and the Revell model is totally wrong in this regard, which was to be expected.

[Revell-Fan]

Originally Posted by spacerunner

As you can also see, the stairwell is interrupted only in the top three floors and has stairs, the lower four floors do not, but are only hinted at.

This is a very fine model but the transition feels a bit strange. I guess it was done to simplify the build but it would have looked better if the other levels had been equipped with a complete stairwell, too.

[spacerunner]

But with these and similar transitions one has to live in the Paper Kits of David Maier, because the whole Launch Pad is far too complex, but in this stairwell it is pretty wicked, I fully agree with you.

Therefore, the right part of the staircase is not correct, but merely hinted.
Now I have actually found in Capcomespace a few great drawings, finally to obtain a clear overview of the PCR and the elevator shaft with the inclined wall, which provide the final proof.

As you can see it, one comes out of the elevator shaft into this triangular "lobby" and then passes through a doorway, which is not a door but an open entrance, directly into the PCR, which is a Clean Room. And in this wall I have indicated one of the doors, which should give it there.


Source: capcomespace.net

I think that these are emergency exit doors, which are closed normally, but through which you can reach via the stairwell down when the lift should have a disaster. For what should the staircase otherwise be good?

And in this drawing can be clearly seen also the platforms in front of the elevator shaft with the doors, where upon the platforms seem to be a bit too large, possibly from an early concept phase of the Pad history.


Source: capcomespace.net
I hope that's about it on the subject elevator shaft.

[spacerunner]

Hi everybody,

and therefore the modified lift shaft should later once look something like this, of course, with six doors in the inclined wall.
And on top of the RCS Room Floor there must then be also a Cut between the elevator shaft, the RCS Room and HER, what I'm going to sketch sometime soon.

[spacerunner]

Hello friends,

today I will continue with my FSS investigation of the Revell Kit. This has therefore lasted a little bit longer, because for the necessary dimensions of the Tower structural elements in addition to the Pad 39B Dismantling plans I had also to rummage in the old LUT plans.

But for that I now have a good overview, I want to present now.

For the FSS frame construction Standard steel beams were used, their configuration can be found in the AISC standards (American Institute of Steel Construction). These include among others a wide range of H-, I- and T-beams, etc., whose designations first getting used to, especially since in the US there is no metric system, but all dimensions are in feet and inches, and you have to convert everything. But this later more with concrete examples.

First, again looking back on some already discussed scale facts.

The lateral parts of the Revell Tower are 447 mm long, which corresponds with a tower height at Level 295 of 75.3 m and a scale of 1:168, what is the reference standard for my launch pad.



While the lateral parts in Revell's kit new edition now all have the same structure construction, in the old kits there were on the west side between Level 175 and Level 215 these two cross beams (red), apparently to install the Emergency Egress Sytems (EES), but which does not exist and, consequently, so are not required.



And so now to some details of the FSS-frame structure, whose construction over the entire height from Level 75 to Level 295 is almost identical in the Revell kit, which is not true.



The changes from floor to floor are indeed barely noticeable, but still present.

Both the lateral spars (welded square tubes) as well as the outer frame supports decrease upwardly both in cross section as well as in wall thickness.


Source: Troy McClellan

The lateral spars have shortly above Level 240 a transition from square tubes (Box Columns) to H-beams (Wide Flange), and are changing from H-beams (W14x193) to I-beams (W14x61).


Source: Troy McClellan

So much for today, next time I'll show then the deviations of the Revell's profiles of the frame structure in detail, what is something special then.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

and thus now in detail to the FSS frame construction, which is undersized by Revell and quite simplified. And as we have already noted, all FSS levels are too low, due to the 7.5 cm too low height of the tower (1:168).

And now to the individual structural elements of the frame structure, the dimensions of which I found with two exceptions in the 39B Dismantling plans after a long search. And this concerns specifically the edge lengths of the upwardly tapering square tubes (Box Columns) at the foot of the tower and at the transition to the W-beams above Level 235. But I was quite glad to have found at least two box dimensions in the central region.

So I calculated the edge length of the box-spars at the bottom of the tower from this picture based on the height (30'') of the first frame support W30x99,


Source: NASA

and the corresponding edge length of the spar at the transition from this picture based on the local frame support W24x76.


Source: NASA

And therefore still to these two profiles after the transition, which however, are not gradated in the Revell kit.
While the W14x193 is a typical H-beam with a square cross section (15,5''x15,7''), the following part W14x61 (13,9''x10,0'') corresponds more likely to an I-beam.

And so this looks in detail, whereupon I again have indicated the scaled 1:168 values next to the relevant profiles, and to the right the dimensions of the Revell parts. I hope that the details are still to read and the colors are not be too confusing.

What should one immediately notice is the fact that all Revell frame supports from top to bottom have the same height of 4.2 mm, and all diagonal struts the same diameter Ø 1,9 mm. During the struts in the lower part to Level 135 are slightly undersized, in the upper part they nearly correspond with the actual conditions.



The deliberate cross section reduction of the frame supports however Revell has less well implemented upwards.

It is similar with the side beams, which have the same cross-section from the bottom up to the transition and do not taper towards the top. And that is in fact already a clear difference, because these huge square tubes taper from approx. 760 mm edge length (2'4¾'') at the bottom (wall thickness 90 mm), after all, just over half to approx. 356 mm (1'8½'') at Level 235.



But the really most serious deviation from reality represent the railings, because they are lot too strong with Ø 1 mm, what might find less attention. However, one must say that these diameters can not be realized by means of injection molding, but rather probably only with PE parts.

So my mission of inventory making of the greatest deviations of the Revell kit in my view would now almost complete with mainly.
How one should deal with it, will have to be shown therefore, and everybody has to decide for itself.
Therefore just another approach to the diagonal struts in the lower section to Level 135 that I'll probably replace entirely.

[DanBKing]

The amount of research you are putting into this project is outstanding!!

[spacerunner]

Thanks Dan,

believe me, I would have also wished less effort, insofar this Revell kit is actually an imposition but at the same time an attractive challenge, if you do not only want to build it OOB.

But meanwhile I love this "beast" and will struggle through this crazy stuff.