Leo's Saturn V

[dhanners]

Excellent detail top to bottom. The stringers add so much.

Re: the Command Module. Yours looks great! In the not-too-distant past, there was a cast-coated text paper by Wyndstone called "aluminum lines," and it replicated the look of the Kapton strips pretty well. It polished up nicely, too. I used it on a 1/48th-scale build of Apollo 7.

I have no idea if the paper is still available. I got mine at my local art-supply store in St. Paul.

[Mechanic]

@dhanners Thank you! I'm curious what base model you used for your Apollo 7. You wouldn't happen to have any pics of it? I love looking at your work.

Starting on the Instrument Unit I first need to fix something. A little back story: When I built this Saturn V the plans show the the upper hydrogen tank upper bulkhead being just proud of the top mating flange. The tank actually needs to be about 3/4" below the mating flange to allow room for the LM's landing pads. When I added my (Udon's) LM, of course it didn't fit. My quick and dirty fix was just to cut a hole in the dome so I could stack the rocket, saving a more permanent fix for a later day. Yesterday was that later day. I started with removing the rest of the old dome and cleaning the interior up a little, pasting in the green stringer panels that I pulled out of my spare and extras pile. Then I made a new dome. Cut off about 1" of the bottom ring of the dome to properly recces the bulk head below the mating flange.

Next I think I'm going to make the cable tray that goes around the top of the IU.


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[Algebraist]

Fantastic work Mechanic and great photos too. Thanks for taking the time to take them. Your Saturn's are great!

Are you tempted to do 1/33 CSM (or bigger)?

Regards

Kevin

[Mechanic]

Thanks Kevin, I'm a big fan of your work! I think it must also be very satisfying to having not only having completed such an undertaking as your Saturn V, but also having it on public display.

I did build a 1/32 CM to test a foil paper I had found some years ago. It gave me a good feel for what working with foil was like and an idea of what I could do with it. I've built a couple of 1/33 airplanes, but I find that size makes it generally tough to find space for. For me 1/48th is a good trade off of size and detail, but I wouldn't rule it out.

BTW, your current project is just amazing!


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[dhanners]

Originally Posted by Mechanic

@dhanners Thank you! I'm curious what base model you used for your Apollo 7. You wouldn't happen to have any pics of it? I love looking at your work.

Starting on the Instrument Unit I first need to fix something. A little back story: When I built this Saturn V the plans show the the upper hydrogen tank upper bulkhead being just proud of the top mating flange. The tank actually needs to be about 3/4" below the mating flange to allow room for the LM's landing pads. When I added my (Udon's) LM, of course it didn't fit. My quick and dirty fix was just to cut a hole in the dome so I could stack the rocket, saving a more permanent fix for a later day. Yesterday was that later day. I started with removing the rest of the old dome and cleaning the interior up a little, pasting in the green stringer panels that I pulled out of my spare and extras pile. Then I made a new dome. Cut off about 1" of the bottom ring of the dome to properly recces the bulk head below the mating flange.

Next I think I'm going to make the cable tray that goes around the top of the IU.


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I used Surfduke’s 1/32nd-scale CSM, with a ton of added detail. Aside from the colored CM, his model includes a separate uncolored page (to be printed on metallic paper) that has the capsule with the correct outlines of the tape strips.

In this case, I cut out the Wyndstone paper to match his tape patterns, and glued them over a capsule I had built.

My model was built as a tribute to Wally Schirra. And since it was Apollo 7, I didn’t have to worry about the docking collar and probe, nor did I have to deal with the high-gain antenna and the capsule’s handholds, except for the one on the hatch.

[Algebraist]

Originally Posted by Mechanic

....I did build a 1/32 CM to test a foil paper I had found some years ago. It gave me a good feel for what working with foil was like and an idea of what I could do with it.

Your foil work looks brilliant Mechanic. It makes things like the CM look amazing. Have you posted about working with foil? I for one (though I am sure there are many others) would really like to know about your experience, findings and tips.

Regards

Kevin

ps Thanks for your kind words about my models

[Mechanic]

Thanks dhanners and Kevin. @dhanners I also used Surfduke's tape pattern for my practice capsules, but for the final one I only scored bigger details that I felt were appropriate for 1/48th. I wish he had drawn a uncolored SM also; printers just don't do a grey-metallic very well IMO. I haven't figured out what to do about the high-gain antenna, I may have to just make it attach with a magnet. Btw, how'd you do the heatshield on the bottom of the SM?

@Kevin I don't know how much I can convey about foiled paper, it's just difficult to work with. It doesn't like printers, it shows every mistake, and it doesn't like glue. As far as working with it goes a lot of care has to be taken when you roll it so as you don't wrinkle the paper. I don't think I've ever actually tried folding it. Scoring it is kind of the obvious workaround for lines and such for surface details. If you glue any pieces to it you have to scrape off the coating. There's the technique of cutting a piece out and replacing it with a pre-printed piece, usually when you are working with circles that you can just punch out. That method requires printing out a 'donor' to cut the pieces from. I have to say this last round I was able to actually get a partial "print" on on the foil, but every attempt it jammed in the machine never getting a whole sheet. My wife thinks it's a problem trying to get past the heated roller.

There's only been one foil paper that I know of that was builder-friendly, Red River. I think most papermodelers know at least something of Red River paper, and anyone that still has any of it covets it more than gold.


Back to the build, I made a ring for the cable tray/cooling duct assembly. As soon as I made it I felt it was too small, so I remade it in a little bit larger diameter. I did the lolly-pop stick trick to make some round stock, cutting pieces to wrap around the cable tray matching up the print on the mating flange. After a little trimming I did a dry fit to make sure the LM Adapter still fit.

I used an image of the IU and shrunk it down to fit in the space. The IU has 24 segments, but Leo only did 18 segments, so I had to do a bit of compromise. I got out my folder of "extras" and cut out about every box shape I could find, pictured here is only about half of them. I also made one sphere and a few cylinder shapes. It took a bit of time to get them all in. Final step was putting in some diagonal struts. (this took me a while to type, and fighting with Cloudflair verification, so I haven't really proofread this. Probably have some typos.)


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[Mechanic]

Building the high gain antenna. I pulled out some samples of mesh fabric, I had one that looked kind of good. But I couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into the paper without making it into a gluey blob, so I ditched that idea. I ended up just taking a print of a high gain that I had in my extra parts stash. I rubbed the antennas with a large ball-end embossing tool until I had descent dish shapes. Then I greebled it up a bit to give it some depth. Removed the mounting post and replaced it with a longer rod and made a mounting box from a quad thruster pod cutting in a slot for the mounting post. I couldn't glue the high gain onto the SM but I had a magnet, that holds the CSM to the rest of the rocket, that was in a spot close enough for the high gain. I put a magnet in the high gain's base and done.


I'm thinking I might do another UHU LM to replace the Udon LM, and fixing a couple of minor issues with the LM Adapter at the same time.
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[ReynoldsSlumber]

Smart use of magnet mounting, on a part that's vulnerable to getting knocked off anyway!
Very cool instrument unit ring, brings the model to life even more.

[Mechanic]

Alright. I built another UHUo2 LM, making this number four. This time I printed it out at 78% reduction and I think this one is the closest to 1/48th or even maybe a bit smaller (as my goal was to make it fit well into the LM Adapter.) Also, I'm not sure how accurately UHU's proportions are and it's a little hard to find good spots to take accurate measurements from.

I'm sorry to say I pretty much had all the same problems in all the same areas. I tried to make mental notes of issues previously, but damned if I could recall them as I built this one. And then I had a few misalignments, but I was able to cover them. They aren't really noticeable unless you look close and/or know where to look. As before I did do the crew compartment, but otherwise none of the other interior components unless I thought it was necessary for structure. As a side note, if you ever build this I'd highly recommend to do it in two builds, one bare bones and one skinned. I literally don't think the skin can come back off as UHU envisioned. Plus I think they really look good displayed next to each other.

And a few shots of the build:


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