1/48th Scale Saturn V

[StevenRB]

More drain and fill vents with umbilical connector, various antenna and personnel access panel at the top of the SC-II stage.

 

[Jakko]

Very nice work Though I’m kind of wondering by now why you started with a kit at all

 

[StevenRB]

I suspect most who bought this kit built it as is. I saw a project screaming for attention to details being added. I too after settling in thought this was becoming more of a scratch build than not. There's more coming concerning manufacturer issues.

 

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Steven,

Wow!!! First, welcome to the forum and you are off to a great start here!

Second, I didn't know Starbucks served Chinese food. Love the chopsticks next to the cup of Latte (or are they part of the project)...

Lastly, this looks like one giant undertaking and so far, she's looking really good with all the scratch building your doing. Do you have plans to shoot this puppy up in the air when it's done???

Prost
Allen

 

[StevenRB]

Yes they certainly look like chopsticks but those are balsa wood pieces for the systems tunnels on the SC-1 stage. Yes, this is meant to fly on a single Aerotech 54mm dia. motor. The upper section will recover on a 5 ft. parachute while the lower section will come down on an 8 ft. parachute. The motor is a J275-W Aerotech Reloadable Motor System. RMS for short. Estimated altitude will be 1600 ft.

 

[StevenRB]

The aft interstage was originally a two piece resin affair with stringer detail molded in. When placing these two pieces together, I had a 1/2" gap so I chucked them and began scratch building from 0.030 sheet styrene with 1 mm square stringers being individually attached.

 

[StevenRB]

Finished aft interstage with approximately 150 stringers glued on. Drove me nuts this did.

 

[StevenRB]

Using the drawings I began to create the personnel access panel along with drilling out the vent holes.

 

[StevenRB]

 

[StevenRB]

I removed stringer material for the access panel to go into. I determined it would look better recessed into the interstage rather than attaching it on top of the stringers.

 

[StevenRB]

The panel is on and now I've marked off where the vent holes will go. There are two sets of these 180 degrees apart from one another. These will be drilled out rather than using decals to replicate them.

 

[StevenRB]

With spot putty, filing and sanding, these will come out fine once I shoot primer over them as you will see later.

 

[StevenRB]

These are fill and drain vents along with umbilical connectors to be placed near the bottom of the SC-1 stage.

 

[StevenRB]

Umbilical connector for the bottom of the SCII stage.

 

[StevenRB]

Not the best photo, this piece came from Shapeways, one of a number of different manufacturers I've gone to for bringing this to life along with scratch building. Oz Mods and New Ware. I've penciled in the detail to bring it out for the photo.

 

[StevenRB]

The SLA and IU are both from Shapeways. The kit simply gave you a heavy paper piece along with 1mm. stringer material to mark off the four separate SLA panels. As for the IU, the original gave you no further details, just a blank slate.

 

[Mini Me]

What a massive undertaking ..........and Welcome to the forum. It seems you like to live in the scratchy zone, at least in this particular case. Great work on this so far and is Starbucks charging you for storage?
Rick H.

 

[StevenRB]

What a massive undertaking ..........and Welcome to the forum. It seems you like to live in the scratchy zone, at least in this particular case. Great work on this so far and is Starbucks charging you for storage?
Rick H.

No storage as I bring this whole thing in my Z4, either with the top up or down. With the top up I need to break it down into two separate sections which fit in the passenger side. With the top down I can drive with the entire stack as a one piece unit. I get a lot of questions from both employees and customers about this project. Terri the manager has told me that I'm more than welcome. She had stated it becomes a source of taking a customer's time while waiting for their order, to be......distracted while engaging with me. Smart business savvy. Since the virus issue I haven't been able to do this as no seating is still the standing order. Only drive through and walk ins allowed.

 

[StevenRB]

Brass etched pieces, resin upper radiator panels and 3D printed lower radiator panels on the SM

 

[StevenRB]

The third stage with most of the detail.