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

[sharunas]

Happy Easter Manfred!

[spacerunner]

Thanks sharunas and also to you,

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,
after my Easter bunny was scampering on, I've picked out the necessary 57 Pins for assembling the Crawler chain,



and so the first 26 Chain links were put together.



As it quickly turned out, however, this arrangement is unfavorable for threading the pins into the Pin lugs, as one needs some freedom of movement for being able to position the tweezers with the pin exactly in front of the opening. That's why I've then switched to a pinning of pairs of the chain links.

But since the threading of the pins did not work right away, as a precaution I've aligned the first Pin Lugs of the pairs something with the drill (Ø 0,4 mm) that made things easier.





Then the pairs were connected to one another, whereby the pins had to be inserted in with great care in order to prevent the 6 mm long pins from jamming or even jumping out of the tweezers.





After the first half of the chain was pinned together this way,



the second half was next in line,



with which finally the first of the 8 Crawler chains was finished.



With it only 7 Chains left over.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

with the 2nd Crawler chain I can make it briefly.

After the Track Shoes were put together again in pairs and the Pin Lugs were slightly pre-drilled,



the couples could be pinned together.



Each time further chain links were added, the middle openings were first pre-drilled again and then these groups were pinned together, etc. ...



until finally the 2nd Chain was done too.



Meanwhile the tedious handling is already easier for me.

[Algebraist]

Hi Manfred. I was just wondering if you intended painting/colouring the crawler tracks. If you are, will you have to take everything apart so the paint does not "clog up" and hide all the wonderful details of the pin assembly?

Regards

Kevin

[spacerunner]

Hi Kevin,

the Crawler chains will be primed and painted in thin layers by airbrushing. In doing so it cannot be ruled out that some of the details may no longer be seen as clearly as a result.
That's why I will have to make a few preliminary tests on a short section of the chain beforehand.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

and that's why I wanted to take advantage of the momentum and have tackled the 3rd Chain on.

Already the separation of the Track shoes and the fettling of the separation points is a rather time-consuming business, in which greatest caution is required because Shapeways' 3D plastic Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD ) is relatively brittle and therefore easily fragile.



Thereby now 3 Chains are already pre-assembled and waiting for the next chain,



where, just for fun, I'll stop the time, because I'm curious.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

so then again I've cleaned the Headset glasses, looked at the clock (12:30 pm), and got started the assembly of the 4th Crawler chain.

12:30 pm: Separation of the 57 Track shoes



12:45 pm: Deburring the Track shoes & pair formation





1:05 pm: Pre-drilling of the Pin lugs & Pinning of the pairs (deburring of the pins)



1:35 pm: Pinning the chain & deburring of the pins

For the pinning these two tweezers were used, whereby the pins were inserted with the wide tweezers into the Pin Lugs, the position of which could be corrected with the pointed tweezers, which were then pushed in all the way to the stop.



At 2:17 pm, after approx. 1¾ h, the 4th Chain was finally finished.



BTW, my preliminary estimate was approx. 1,5 h, so I wasn't that bad at all.

Now half of the 8 Chains are done, wherewith only approx. 7 h of pure construction time lie ahead of me without interruption, but which I will still manage too.

[dhanners]

Stunning work as always, Manfred. This is a gem already, and when it is done, there'll be nothing like it in the world. I think I can speak for my fellow forumites in saying we're honored you're sharing the build with us in such painstaking detail.

Excuse me if I missed it earlier in the thread, but will the tracks actually need to move, or will the model be static?

[spacerunner]

Thanks David for your nice compliments, which stimulate me to persevere and not to give up.

To make the Crawler chains movable, would be absolutely overkill, especially in this small scale, that's why my Crawler will be a static model.