NASA Crawler Transporter 1:87 - Apollonia/TVC-15

[Marco]

And here is more of the main body of the CT. I've cut all the railings for the CT now, and it was good practice for the LUT, on which there will be lots more of these! As someone on Kartonmodell-Forum pointed out, this CT model is lacking the light-coloured top-plate. I have enlarged the top plate from the free CT model by AXM (see the reply by milenio3) to fit this model.
The smaller of the legs on which the tractors will fit are made of wood. The way the model is designed you can decide to let the legs to take the weight, so I'm making them a bit stronger.
One major drawback I find with building this model is the instructions. It is not so much the fact that it is in Japanese but rather that the construction photos were made of a prototype of the model, and a lot of revisions have been made since.

[doctormax]

I must say it is taking shape, A pity they didn't take new photos do as you say to help with the instructions.

[peter taft]

Looking very nice and at great speed too. Look forward to the next instalment

[Marco]

The most recent pictures went missing here as well. So again, here are the trucks:

[Marco]

And here is the assembly for now. The access stairs go in the wrong direction, so I will have to print them again. I have found that this model, although generally quite nicely designed with a good fit of parts, is full of little mistakes like this, as well as the missing top plate, that should have been filtered out in the test building phase. I have the impression that this model was published in a bit of a rush, which would also explain why the instruction manual only has photos of a hastily built prototype.

[Darth Windius]

Originally Posted by Marco

Here's the start of a new big project - the Saturn V moon rocket on it's mobile launcher platform, complete with LUT (Launch Umbilical Tower) and the crawler transporter that was used to transport the whole assembly from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. And I'm starting with the CT. This is the Japanese Apollonia/TVC-15 kit, supplied on DVD and printed on A3 200 grams cardstock to 1:87 scale. The kit was published in 2009, so fairly hot off the press.

SUPERB build, sexy project to follow....

May I know where I can buy these Apolonia kits please?

Thanks, and Congrats

[Txflyer9]

Perhaps NASA could drive it to Washington DC and park on the White House lawn.

[Marco]

Originally Posted by Darth Windius

SUPERB build, sexy project to follow....

May I know where I can buy these Apolonia kits please?

Thanks, and Congrats

They are available for sale outside Japan via www.hwjapan.com. Check out Apollo Saturn with Mobile Launcher (1/87 Paper Model Data):Apollonia Paper Model Museum/HW JAPAN for the Saturn V and LUT, and Crawler Transporter (1/87 Paper Model Data):Apollonia Paper Model Museum/HW JAPAN for the Crawler Transporter. They are not cheap, but I find them very nice models.
The publisher (TVC-15 HOME) has a full list of published models, but doesn't ship outside Japan

[peter taft]

Sorry you lost some posts, but sure glad to see you back with the build - and looking superb thus far. Shame about the issues with the model instructions, but you seem to be getting through those real fine

[Darth Windius]

Originally Posted by Marco

They are available for sale outside Japan via www.hwjapan.com. Check out Apollo Saturn with Mobile Launcher (1/87 Paper Model Data):Apollonia Paper Model Museum/HW JAPAN for the Saturn V and LUT, and Crawler Transporter (1/87 Paper Model Data):Apollonia Paper Model Museum/HW JAPAN for the Crawler Transporter. They are not cheap, but I find them very nice models.
The publisher (TVC-15 HOME) has a full list of published models, but doesn't ship outside Japan

Many thanks, Marco ... And beautiful builds!!!!