Saturn V 1:144

[Gearup]

Thank you. After priming the new second stage I realized I could have saved some time n the model.  Seems like I could have just taped two empty paint cans together. Over all they are about the same height as the first two stages and are exactly the same diameter of the boosters scaled for 1:144🤪

Also that is not a golf tee, but it is the top section of the launch escape system turned from a 1/2" dowel.  Again the closer I look, the more small fiddly bits I need to make.

Fraser

[Gearup]

Fiddly bits ready to prime / paint. Small parts are easier to paint when double-side taped to popsicle sticks. All carved from maple.
Top to bottom:
6 stage2 ullage rockets
2 stage2 ullage rockets + 3 stage2 h2 feed fairings
2 stage2 h2 feed fairings + stage2 O2 vent+ stage3 h2 feed fairings + 2 stage3 ullage rockets
2 stage3 Auxiliary Propulsion Units + launch escape system rocket motor and skirt
2 stage1 O2 and H2 gaseous line fairings
1 stage2 systems tunnel

These seem to be the major external components that add a bit more character to the rocket. All except the (silver) APU's will be white.

The space race continues!

Fraser

[lastvautour]

Should be able to land a man on the moon shortly. Maybe by year's end??

Lou

[Boomerang]

 Great progress Fraser.

Gordon

[Gearup]

Perhaps. Working on escape tower structure and fitting the second stage in the correct orientation.

[Gearup]

Seems I can't now build a model without some sort of brass assembly. Working on the escape tower and rocket has been a fun exercise that gives me a great amount of respect to wire jewelry crafters. The basic structure of .020 brass for the legs bent into "U"  and set into a square plan with holes drilled in each corner to act as a jig to work with. Made 3 square hoops and soldered them into position at the top. midpoint and 1/4 points of the legs. Actually was surprised ow well that went.  I then added cross bracing using fine wire CA glued into position. That went ok but looked a bit rougher than I liked, but it is strong enough.

The tower had a rocket motor almost 20 feet long with a skirt attached. I turned this from a 1/2" dowel. It looks like a golf tee....

The Command Module is protected during launch with a fiberglass cone that completely covers the CM. The tower is attached to the cone and module in such a way that when the tower is jettisoned during launch it pulls the cone shroud away with it. But if there is an actual emergency, then the CM separates from the rocket and it is pulled away using the escape system with the shroud intact to deflect the blast, then it separates from the CM that parachutes to earth. So many single point failures on this whole rocket, yet they always performed without flaw....
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Having said all that i made the cone shaped shroud out of two layers of paper cut out on my Silhouette machine. By staggering the layers and gluing them to gather it mad a nice cone without hard points. I filled the seam a=nd coated the paper with thin CA glue. The end result felt very strong and fit perfectly over the model CM.  https://owlcation.com/stem/How-to-Develop-a-Cone has a neat simple formula for cones

to assemble the three parts, i used tweezers on stands to hold the parts in place. The tower is CA glued to the cone and the escape rocket is bedded to the frame with hot glue.

So now the structures are complete and painted white. Next is the decals.

Fraser

[Gearup]

On to the masking for the odd patterns on the rocket. They were used to allow tracking cameras to determine the roll position of the rocket as it headed to space. Most effort was in masking the third stage skirt as this is a cone. To keep the markings parallel and vertical, I used a small aluminium angle as a guide on the rocket body. The "V" in the angle gave a true vertical reference any where on the length of the cylinder. Making a tight paper band around the circumference gave the vertical location of markings and components. After masking for the black areas, i had to mask for the silver around the bottoms of the four large fairings. As you know masking a line around a cone is challenging, so it took a bit of time. I also masked the bottom surface for the silver as well. Before spraying the silver, I did go over the surfaces with black primer.

I created paint masks for the "UNITED STATES and USA"  on the silhouette machine. the letters in the United states have lines .020" wide. For the flag and four fin letters, I color printed on printable vinyl and cut them out. I used a normal setting on the ink jet for plain paper and the stars actually came out nicely. If i used a best quality setting, it applied too much ink and the stars became lost.

So after "weeding" the letter, the vinyl mask was applied. I made up overspray makes by cutting an aperture in a piece of bond paper that I applied around the letters and it worked very well. BTW, when pulling off small pieces of tape, masks etc, it is very annoying trying to get the tape shards off your fingers. I use a lint roller from the dollar store to collect these annoying bits from my fingers.....

One of the pictures shows the aluminium angle held to the cylinders with hair bands from the dollar store. Highly recommend getting these for anything you need an elastic for. Also you can see the "transfer " tape being removed from the vinyl letters. this is essentially low tack masking paper that is used to lift the vinyl from the sheet and then to deposit the mask onto the object. It keeps everything in place such as the middle of the letter "D". Works great (BTW called a Counter – The partially or fully enclosed space within a character)


Getting close to launch date now!

Fraser

[lastvautour]

Looks great Fraser. That tower s quite delicate.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Impressive work Fraser. Well done.

Gordon

[Gearup]

Well 50 years ago to the day December 17th, Apollo 17 departed the moons orbit as the last manned mission to the moon. Coincidently I also finished the Apollo 11 Saturn V model.

Here are some pictures of the finished model I took tonight. It was an interesting build to research and I learned way more about the vehicle and the engineers who built it!

Just noticed the first image is numbered 1700. It looks like a family photo of sorts. The only major parts that do not separate are the command module and the command service module. For display it would be too fiddly I thought. Also there is no lunar module....oops.

Resting on the assembly cradle with the stages in order.

This aft view of the five F1 engines is how you can see the remaining rockets today.

A couple of shots with objects for scale. The wooden block GM bus is 40 feet long and the XB-70 is my only other 1:144 model at 185 feet long. At least I had the right colours for both models.

Finally a b&w picture for dramatic effect. 

Regards
Fraser

[lastvautour]

Outstanding modelling skills Fraser. Words fail me to describe how good it is. The B-70 pose gives excellent reference to it's size. This will be extremely difficult to surpass.

Lou

[Boomerang]

Fraser.

Outstanding effort.

Gordon

[Oceaneer99]

Your Saturn V model is fabulous, Fraser. Thank you for sharing the details about making lettering masks using a vinyl cutter.

Garet