1/72 Revell Space Shuttle Orbiter W.I.P. Done! w/Photos

Hey thanks Steve and Chris! Yes the little man has been complaining that his ladder is 1/48 scale and a big step for a 1/72 person. Hey, it was all I could come up with in the spares box. And Chris, close on the color, SW Custom Sage Green which dries ultra flat in minutes and really blends in the wooded scene. Hmm, it might actually work on aircraft! I do have plenty. lol. 

Max

The house project keeps getting extended as I find more water damage and have to fix things before I can continue to paint. Two additional days of repair has left the little man restless as I am not working on his shuttle project. First things first I tell him, I've got to take advantage of this weather. Now I see him watching me on my project. I don't know if he's inspecting or just trying to make me feel guilty.

Just a quick report for your entertainment.  

Max

Max, that is a hoot. Thanks for the laugh.

I can almost hear him saying: "Uh Max . . .   You missed a spot"

QC guys    

Hodakamax

The house project keeps getting extended as I find more water damage and have to fix things before I can continue to paint. Two additional days of repair has left the little man restless as I am not working on his shuttle project. First things first I tell him, I've got to take advantage of this weather. Now I see him watching me on my project. I don't know if he's inspecting or just trying to make me feel guilty.

Just a quick report for your entertainment.  

Max

 

That is an AWESOME perspective shot! LMAO!! I think he's trying to take your ladder lol!!

Another potential deviation occurring here. The little man is not happy. I did promise him we'd finish the shuttle first but I did buy yet another weird 1/1 kit at a sale yesterday. I've already posted it under acquisitions. It's a vintage 1971 Hodaka flat track racer which are great money pits but entertaining to build. All fun!

As for the shuttle project I've been studying the re-entry weathering and testing different things to get the effect. I've ordered a Tamiya weathering kit to see if I can replicate some of the effects. Since the tiles aren't accurate at least I hopefully can get the look of a used orbiter. Another factor for this effect is that a large number of tiles are replaced after each flight and the mix creates a checkerboard pattern. I'll strive for a after-first-flight look is the plan to get out of that one, lol. We'll see.

OK, small report on too many projects. At least I'm not bored in semi-retirement. Drat, I even have to work as a photographer today which I at least recieve income for my silly projects. Onward!

Max

Max, that looks like a definate deviation. The little man will be jealous. 

Whoa! Check it out! A Space Shuttle re-entry kit that the little man and I have been waiting on. Well, just one of many delays and excuses but I've never been a quick model builder anyway. This house thing is a legitimate excuse and the new vintage road racer motorcycle W.I.P. has begun on the Hodaka motorcycle forum at hodakaforum.com on the chat group under The 2 the Max Project. Another long winded project I'm sure, usually good for a year or two or until your billfold gets empty, lol.

Back to the re-entry kit. A bit scary and lots to try. I'll hope I can make this work or at least fake some suggestion of heat, wear and tear. The black tiles streak shades of gray and the white areas are sooty and rust color streaked in most pictures. I'll start on the two pods shown first to see how easy it is to fix mistakes. We'll see, I always say.

Back to work, now my wife's Camry has the service light on. Yet another necessary thing on the to-do list. Cheez, the life of a do-it -your-selfer. How else would it be done right?

Onward and be patient, launches are often postponed for various reasons, lol!

Report with excuses,

Max

Hey Max, we are on the same wavelength or something. I bought a similar weathering kit for my Seaview. It is different colors, but it is the same sort of kit. I bought it just last week. Too funny.

I am wishing you luck, and I am looking forward to see how it works out for you.

A brief report and another thing to put on our "don't do list". The shuttle re-entry kit is working good but a learning curve is being worked out. The final finish on the model is Model Masters flat lacquer in a spray can. It has a nice shuttle look and a tooth for retouching as in weathering, re-entry and the tile texture. If you get too much soot or streaking, most of it can be removed with a dry cloth or even more with water on a Q-tip. Rubbing alcohol seemed like something to try and it removed the soot along with the lacquer flat coat. All repairable and part of the learning curve experiment process I guess and something to put on the list.  

Short report, weather great! Time to work on the house project which is kinda rewarding. Like modeling, sections are done right and when finished give one at least some pride that you can do it yourself and the result looks good. At least that's the thought process to get me through this mess. LOL! Onward and thanks for looking!

Max

The pod on the left has the faint sooty look that I'm after but I wiped though the lacquer coat. Learning here. Another shot because the little man wanted to be in the picture and this does show the subtle effect that I'm trying to achieve.

The shuttle project needs some rain or Kansas heat to drive me inside. I did disassemble the vintage racer project to make it fit in the stash. What a mess. These 1/1 projects are so big you just work on them a piece at a time. Another great day in Kansas as was yesterday. Lots accomplished on the distracting outdoor house refurbishing project. Lookin' good though.   All is well even though I'm still behind, lol. Be patient!

Max

A rainy day in Kansas. Back to the VAB. I needed a break from this one old guy painting an entire house by himself and being honest, I have been sneaking a little time in on the motorcycle project which is de-cruding at this point. I did finish up detailing the 52 cargo bay door hinges last night. Boring. This morning I mounted the radiators inside the doors. My that chrome paint does jump out! One radiator on each side is glued allowing the second one to hinge out. I think it's time to finish up the decaling and spray things flat for the re-entry treatment which seems like it's going to work.

Reporting again,

Max

I was kinda curious when you would take a break from all those distractions lol. 

That chrome looks great BTW.

Yay! Nothing like decals to fire you up on the project! The little man is probably smiling also although it's really hard to see what's going on with that dark visor thing. I'll let the decals set overnight and maybe get some flat lacquer on most parts tomorrow. Fun!

Max

Hi,

It looks like its in the home stretch now 

Pat

This morning it was time to finally attach the wing to the fuselage. A little scary but I practiced it several times. I discussed all this a while back but today was glue time. For as floppy as it looked it fit remakably well with a bit of juggling and some clamps. I also hung on with both hands for several minutes to insure a really good fit. I think I'll leave all of this alone for the rest of the day!

Max

It is looking great! 

Nice job Max.

Steve

PS: Happy Independence Day weekend...

Hey Steve and Pat, Thanks for the comments! Now I'm starting to play with the re-entry look. All new to me. Some of it is looking like what I'm after. Some pictures show shuttles looking a bit rough after return. Still messing with it. Check it out, it's a start!  

Max

Hey Max, I like that effect! Good job. I am smiling here. It looks really good.

The little man must be elated!

Hey thanks Steve! All is good when it makes you smile.   There's still minor stuff to figure out like the final display. Something like this might be the way to go. I'd started to make a couple of stowing cradles as I was going to have the arm in the stowed position but this configuration looks kinda cool. Anyway the cradles will give me display options. Still fiddling.

Max

A bit of nit-picking here. This pod assembly is on par with the poor windshield design. The booster ports seem to be an afterthought. Not that it's not a clever kit of the time, but this is a viewed area that needs better detail. Try as I might I just couldn't make different size ovals look round with a brush. I finally used a drill bit to round the holes and make them the same size. Details ,details.  

Max 

Whoa! This is fun! I finally wore out the applicator in my Shuttle re-entry kit. This could go on forever, lol. The craft will be displayed on its landing gear so most of this won't be seen anyway, but it was entertaining. I always build clean models but space shuttles actually do look a bit worn. Gotta go with the flow. I was actually sizing up the gear assembly when all this got started. The model is heavy and the gear looks somewhat fragile. I think this should be saved to the last step. This is all a little clumsy as the model has a 8" tall tail. I've got it supported on gallon size paint cans for the moment. Reporting.

Max

So you're not going to hang it up somewhere at a glide angle? 

That looks great :)

M. Brindos

So you're not going to hang it up somewhere at a glide angle? 

 

Hey Mike, Lots of display options on this one. I need at least one cargo door open to show the payload. If you open both doors you can't see the decals and tile detail on the sides. It also has a bad seam on the front bottom where the fuselage and wing parts meet. Flying, it wouldn't have the gear and doors open at the same time. It looks like the best display is going to be parked with one cargo door open and the top of the cockpit off to see the interior.

I did fab some supports for the robot arm to display it in the stowed position. It does also look cool snaking about. All options. I must say that this is certainly an entertaining kit!

And Pat, thanks as always for your comments!

Max

Rain all day, a quiet fourth of July. Fireworks rained out, hot dogs on hold. Not as bad as it sounds, the shuttle had a good work day as did I. Details finished, engine cluster done, landing gear down. Little man happy. Here's some progress shots and it's almost time for final photos. What fun and we did need the rain! lol. 

Max

It is so frustrating for to watch this, Max. I've got my shuttle kit calling to me, but I've already got kits that need to be worked on and finished lol!

You are making this look so freakin' awesome!

Wow the kit is turning out great.  Though that picture of the little spaceman on the upside down body is actually a little disturbing.  With the blue background it almost looks like the craft ditched somewhere 

Just playing here. The little man was showing some serious wear from all the exposure during the build and house painting supervision and it was time to spruce him up a bit with fresh paint. Like I had dropped him dozens of times trying to balance him for all of those silly shots. While I was putting a fresh gloss white on the little man's helmet I noticed another little man from the past watching me from the Space part of the museum. It was the 1/72 X-15 pilot from my days of silvery decals and pale faces. Time to fix him also. Yikes, he sure wouldn't pass Mike B's face test. A new white gloss helmet and shiney black visor plus a face wash improved him immensely! Also time for a comparision shot of the first winged rocket spaceplane to the last one to fly and return from space. The little guys agreed and the historic shot was made!

Hmm, I think it's time to replace the X-15 with it's silvery decals. I think I can improve on it from my attempt from the past. This is an important part of Max's Historic Aircraft Museum as I actually walked up to that one of three and looked in the window. No touching they said, but I guess two inches counts, lol.

That's the fun report for the day, photo session soon. 

Max

Hey Max, very very nice. I really love how the weathering turned out. The model looks as if it has been through re-entry. I love your X-15 too. It looks awesome. I will have to put that on my bucket list of models to build. And of course, it was nice of you to spruce up the little man. He deserves the attention. He has been working pretty hard for you.

You do nice work sir. I give you five stars out of five.