[K2Pete]

So I woke up this rainy Saturday morning and thought, "Man, do I hafta have a l........ " ... ooops ... I mean after that I thought, I wanna build this kit! I bought it when it was re-released a couple months ago and built it when I was a teen all those many years ago.

I found my old 1996 issue of FSM where the 1/48 CSM / LM was corrected by Glenn Johnson and I'll use that as bit of a guide.

I don't know yet which mission I'll build, but I'm leaning toward Apollo 17, 'cuz I've got the other LM's built and I wanna put the folded up LRV on the LM ... but I won't hafta decide till much later.



I do-o-o know that this will not have the exploded side and I'll put the SM's guts in only for support, but I will try to accurize the CSM and LM. And the LM has the folding legs, and I'm gonna see if I can both accurize it and keep the legs foldable ... we shall see.

I recall building this whole thing in a Saturday afternoon while listening to WKBW radio, with Sandy Beach, the DJ, and hearing the Beatles just released "Hey Jude", almost all afternoon.

This model will take a little longer.

Here's the box art and the old magazine.





The sprue shot of the Service Module. This will need some sanding and re-working to get right





This is gonna be a fun one ...

Pete

[John Duncan]

Wow, Pete. If you keep on buiding you'll have more LMs than NASA did back in the day!

Super work there and looking forward to following this one.

[Rob T]

This is a cool project Pete. I love your collection so far.

Rob

[Vince Hoffmann]

Wow, nice collection! I built the Monogram LM years ago and I put a lot of effort into correcting the kit problems and I have always wanted to build another one. I especially like your CM/LM stack, that is very impressive!

[Youngtiger1]

Oh, here we go again. This is going to be another show stopper Pete. I've always liked the CSM/LM but I want one in big scale. Few weeks ago, I was at the Museum of Flight up in Settle WA with a friend and I was in a awe over their space collection. They have of of the CSM hanging from their sealing with the luna 4x4 under it. I don't know if both of them were replicas or real things but it sure was awesome.

Mike

[K2Pete]

I've been busy sanding and patching the CM and SM ...

Here's the Heat Shield at the bottom of the Service Module before patching ...



And during the patching process and afterwards ...









The SPS (Service Propulsion System) engine skirt needed some TLC too ... I scraped off the 3 bands and filled in the seams on the inside. I also thinned down the edge of the engine bell.





The Service Module (SM) has to have some details removed. They'll get replaced along with the other details.







The Command Module is just a little off as well.

[K2Pete]

Here it is before.
The umbilical 'bump' needs to be removed and rebuilt, but on the opposite side, the 2 side windows need to be lowered and the hatch reworked.





The many RCS engines will be replicated with Aluminum tube.



I'm scribing the hatch on the new 'hatch' patch.



This is the new side window which needs to be rebuilt too.



The CM needs a little more work done to it before I can start detailing it, but I'll probably work on patching the LM and the Launch Escape System tower at the same time.
I don't know yet if I'm gonna rebuild the Blast Protection Cover or just attach the LES to the CM ... decisions, decisions, decisions ...


Thanx for your comments guys! And Mr Duncan, I've been using your website to research this model too. Thanx!

Pete

[stevenichols]

That's alot of work but she's lookin good so far, I know what you are capable of and look forward to seeing this built.

[niart17]

Goodness man! You're a machine. I can't even imagine trying to keep up with your build rate and quality. Amazing work.

I see you're having to remove pretty much all surface details off the service module and that brings up a question I've always wondered about modeling the CSM. Would it be easier to try to find the appropriate size tubing and just start with a completely blank but trued cylinder? I know taking the kit parts and making them better is half the fun, but I've seen so many modelers whittle them down to bare cylinders. Is it an odd size that would be hard to find a source for, or is it just the fun (and economic sense) of using the kit parts?
Just curious.

I can't wait to see this one. It's gonna be good.

It seems like the shuttle's retirement and all it implies has really sparked the interest in space modeling. Hopefully that will translate to a new interest in human space travel from the youth and the days of "Houston, the Eagle has landed" can be relived. Who knows?

Bill

[K2Pete]

Thanx very much Steve!

Bill ... on this kit, the outside diameter is 3 3/8". I don't know if plastic plumbing piping comes in that size, but starting from scratch is not a bad idea. I tried that when I built the little Tamiya 1/70 stack as well as the Revell 1/96, by wrapping the SM with sheet styrene and building all the details up. The builds themselves are here on ARC somewhere.

The Tamiya 1/70 Apollo CSM



The Revell 1/96



And you're right, for me, the fun is taking the kit part and whittling it and augmenting it to make it a little more accurate. In addition, I get a bit of satisfaction from looking at what I started with and what I built .... like looking at a sheet of plywood and building a nice piece of furniture and comparing 'em. And after it's built, it goes in a box never to be seen again, until the next contest. But if one wanted to build the unflown Block 1 vehicle, there's no need to scratch build anything ... it's already there.

Nostalgia plays a bit of a role too, 'cuz I built this same kit over 40 years ago and being able to compare what I built then and the ridiculous amount of time I'll spend now, really makes me smile ...

[bubble]

Great work Pete !!! ,a lot of accurate details you made on this kit .

[DutyCat]

Wow...Looking good. I have that kit in the stash as well, but I am leaning towards building it in the stacked configuration.

[K2Pete]

Thanx gents!

Gil, this'll be built as a stack as well, but I would ideally like to be able to remove, and play with , the elements!

I rebuilt the hatch and scribed the hatch outline. The interior window is round and the exterior one is square with round corners. I've also rebuilt the side windows and repositioned 'em. I also removed 1/8" from the top of the CM and recovered it with a piece of styrene.



The Telescope and Sextant were given a little attention too.







This is the inside supports for the new umbilical housing.



And a dry fit of the CSM so far.



I wanted to show this photo of a Block II CSM reference photo. This is Apollo 15 and I still need to add the support belts around the big engine bell, plus all the different shades on the Service Module got me interested, not to mention all the rivets and bubble textures on the SM as well. In addition, the Mylar striping on the CM doesn't show up at this viewing distance, so I'm not gonna show it either, unless I can figger out a much more delicate manner of showing the barely discernable strips.

And the colour of the SPS seems more accurate too, grey instead of the gold-ish colour.



The LES is next (I'm leaning toward building a BPC (Boost Protective Cover) to attach to the LES ... but I'll give 'er a little more thought. There's not too much info on the LES as to whether it was reworked from the Block I to the Block II, so if any you can give me some advice, it would be most appreciated!

I'm guess I'm only about 30% or so complete on this portion of the kit, but this is so much fun!

Pete

[K2Pete]

I decided to build the Boost Protective Cover. I always wondered how one would do this and it was fairly straightforward and took only about 13 hours or so.

I made a paper template, then transferred that template to styrene and then built it up. Needless to say there was a heckuva lot of fussin' and fartin' around to get it to fit ... and I made 'em 3 or 4 times.





The kit's tip, to the right, will be used on the top of the BPC.



Gluing the seams of the two parts.



And almost done! I used the pix in the book Virtual Apollo as my reference for this.





The Reaction Control System thrusters on the SM will be re-built too. I stacked 3 scrap pieces of styrene, glued 'em, and cut 'em apart and will just file and sand till they look right.





This really is fun!

[crowe-t]

WOW Pete, This is incredible so far! Your scratch building is top-notch and you really enjoy doing it.

I have to say that the scratch building is my favorite part of modeling. I love seeing how I can re-work a kit's inaccurate part(s) and make it into something better.

Mike.

This post has been edited by crowe-t: 01 May 2012 - 06:03 PM

[Jay Chladek]

The Block 2 LES structure wasn't all that different from the Block 1 (mainly because they only certified one type of LES). I think the only real visible changes made were to the bottom of the truss structures and a couple tunnel rails that run up the sides of the LES around the yaw motor port on one side). The BPC changed a bit, but it looks like you have that situation well covered already.

I must say, with Dragon's 1/48 CSM kit now out, I kind of wondered why one would go to all this trouble. But, correcting the Revell kit can be fun if one knows what to do and has the skills to do it (and your bodge skills are already superior to most other modelers). Besides, I'm still taking notes anyway as I have to add the optics ports to the back side of the CM same as you and I've also been pondering doing an open SIM bay (if not, I'll do the ship as Apollo 8 probably).

[K2Pete]

Thanx a lot Mike! Scratchbuilding really does make my day. I went to a model show a couple weeks ago and had a Master Modeler, whose models I really like, give me a few pointers on painting. And while we were chatting, he asked about the materials I use to build a model. After I listed 7 or 10 different materials, he said it would be interesting to display one without any paint or surface finish. And it really appealed to me, as the painting aspect is more like work. There are a couple of figure painters in this forum, whose work is superb ... I just don't enjoy doing it nearly as much. But slapping some styrene bits and pieces to each other to indicate some details ... I LOVE it! So I'm thinking of doing a Lunar Module with no foil or paint ... just to display it at a show.

Jay Chladek, on 01 May 2012 - 06:34 PM, said:

The Block 2 LES structure wasn't all that different from the Block 1 (mainly because they only certified one type of LES). I think the only real visible changes made were to the bottom of the truss structures and a couple tunnel rails that run up the sides of the LES around the yaw motor port on one side). The BPC changed a bit, but it looks like you have that situation well covered already.

I must say, with Dragon's 1/48 CSM kit now out, I kind of wondered why one would go to all this trouble. But, correcting the Revell kit can be fun if one knows what to do and has the skills to do it (and your bodge skills are already superior to most other modelers). Besides, I'm still taking notes anyway as I have to add the optics ports to the back side of the CM same as you and I've also been pondering doing an open SIM bay (if not, I'll do the ship as Apollo 8 probably).

Thanx Jay. I used Mr Mackowski's SIM Apollo CM book for some reference too, and he has a mention of the LES that the Block II was almost the same as the Block I so I didn't do too much to modify it.

And I must admit, I got my hackles up a bit when I read this ..."I must say, with Dragon's 1/48 CSM kit now out, I kind of wondered why one would go to all this trouble." I had to wonder myself, if one of us is missing the point of buying a plastic model kit. I'm not a fan, at all, of any of Dragon's Real Space kits, and correcting an old kit seems to be part and parcel of this hobby, across all subject matter. And I must admit to not understanding the 'modeler' who has hundreds of unbuilt kits stacked in his basement ... it's not a criticism, I just don't understand it. But when I buy a kit, I buy it to build it. It's no trouble, it's the FUN of it. Either way, no harm, no foul Jay!

... and "Bodge skills" Jay? Is that a Nebraska-ism or a British-ism? Thanx Jay ... I think ...

And here's a page outta the Virtual Apollo book showing the BPC (Boost Protective Cover)



The BPC is just about done. I cut out the allowance for the Umbilical cover and then built the attachment points for the LES truss. I also added the 'skirt' around the base of the cone.











And I added a few 'details' to the top of the LES's canard. The LES is just a dry fit.





This part is done. Onto the next subassembly.

Thanx for looking in, gents.

Pete

[x3mperformance]

Amazing Pete...

Only one thing to say.
This is true modelling, in it's finest.

And i like the idea about the unpaintet surface, to show just how much work, there has been done, to get to the result.

You make me want to go home and build my own model, and to go to my best and some, doing it.

Rene'

[VA-115EFR]

Nothing to say but

[bubble]

Look,s great Pete !! , that book ( Virtual Apollo and LM ) is becomme very exspensive

This post has been edited by bubble: 04 May 2012 - 03:20 PM