Hi Everyone,
I thought it would be cool to share the building process of my Dragon Saturn V (1:72). I’ll come back to this post every week or so with an update and some pictures. Hope you enjoy it.
I ended up ordering my Dragon Saturn V after building the Airfix 1:144 version. The Airfix was my first serious build in something like 20 years and my modeling skills were a bit rusty. Anyway, I enjoyed the whole process but wasn’t happy with the end result. First of all, after I had completed the model I realized that I had painted the black stripes on the first stage too far up (thanks to the Airfix instruction sheet, which is wrong…). Secondly, even though is was a nice model it was just too small…
Hoping that 1:72 scale might result in a more ‘impressive’ model (size does matter when it comes to a Saturn V) I ordered a Dragon Saturn V. It arrived two weeks ago but has been sitting in my study unopened (too busy at work). I finally have some time off so here we go…
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The box… big obviously. Some nice graphics, images of a finished model on one side and some computer renderings of the various stages and components on the other side. It does say on the box that the Lunar Module Adaptor is NOT transparent even though it actually is transparent…!?... anyway...
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Inside the box… plenty of parts. All molded in grey. I haven’t opened the bags yet but the parts look pretty nice and detailed.
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Parts outside the box… plenty to do! Both the lunar module adaptor and escape tower assembly (including the bit that covers the command module) come as transparent parts
At this stage I am not too worried about how to build it but more about how to paint it. When I build the Airfix 1:144 I used a grey primer (from the local hardware store), which worked great except that it took a lot of white to cover it. I went through 3 or 4 cans of Tamiya white spray paint and for this monster I probably need another three hundred cans! So am planning to switch to a lighter (off-white) primer and probably use my airbrush… we’ll see.
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The other issue so far is “what colors should I use for all the internal parts and rocket engine assemblies?”. I did a bit of research and it was a bit confusing. Not all Saturn V-s on display seem to have the ‘correct’ colors (unless they changed color between builds). For example, the thank on third stage at the Space and Rocket Centre Huntsville is painted green while the original assembly photos from the Sixties show aluminum and zinc chromate yellow. It seem that the Saturn-V at KSC has the most accurate colours. There are lots of nice photos of the Saturn-V production and assembly on the web so I'll browse around a bit more (thought this page by John Duncan was worth a look: http://www.apollosaturn.com/markings/mguide.htm)