archybean
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Posts posted by archybean
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Weather might have been a factor too ...
-Gregg
Could be...it has been a low ceiling here since early evening yesterday
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I'll tell you what though, having spent half my morning up at Jabara this is quite the local event. I'm sitting in my car on the side of the road waiting for take off. There are so many other cars waiting here too. City police and state troopers are blocking close access, about the closest anyone can get is a mile away to stop and watch.
The Dreamlifter is just a beast sitting there on the runway. The Tarmac isn't too far really away from Webb road and it just dwarfs everything.
News reports say it's supposed to take off at noon local (which is now) but I'm not holding my breath
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Continued:
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Continued:
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I was able to go the event on Sunday. Unfortunately a pretty massive rain storm settled over north east Kansas and only one plane was able to try and fly while I was there; Herpa Wings DC-3. It took off, flew around and landed on its first lap. The pilot did a little showmanship on one wheel. There were two C-17's that came in for some cargo, and also an F-18 came through. The -18 pilot was gracious enough to give somewhat of a show since nearly everyone stay on the ground. Organizers have already announced the event will return next year. Hopefully better weather will let people fly!
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Back to the recovery compartment. I've moved to the interior section where the main and reserve chutes lived. I was able to get the sidewall to fit the tight radius (green arrow) but I'm having difficulty getting the radius to follow all the way up; it just flares out at the top (blue arrow). The triangular piece was pretty straight forward to create, with angles underneath. The bolts/rivets were cut from .035" rod and dipped in Tenax and placed to cure; same with the bottom of the chute sections.
Rough dry fit:
The first pieces of the next level of stringers have been put on. I think the other side and top piece to connect the two sides will have to be put on after painting, as they would hide areas I'll need to paint.
And with the recovery compartment dry fit in with the pressure vessel:
I'm having the hardest time to the the rivets on the recovery compartment. They need to be smaller than the others I've gotten on so far, but the .020" rod is just too small for me to get on. If anyone has some suggestions I'd appreciate it! I wish I had a Waldron precision punch to get the smallest discs punched from sheet instead of trying to cut the same size rod.
As always, suggestions appreciated!
David
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Got some tedious progress on this. I took a break from the recovery compartment to work on some of the interior. I made the periscope housing and the beginnings of the control panel. Since the original one corroded away they replaced it with plexi to hold the instruments that remained. It was colored to correspond with the original.
I'm not entirely pleased with how the cutouts ended up on the main board. It also needs to be bent a little at the top, so I need to find some way to heat it to get the proper bend. I'm thinking about trying to find a small magnifying glass lens, probably plastic from a little kiddy one, to use as the "screen" for the periscope.
Here's the couch. I cut off the arms from the kit and also what I assume was the leg rest. I drilled out the other four restraint slots. Based on the SEDR and pictures I took I crafted the correct leg supports. I also added some styrene to the sides to give more accurate look there.
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Title pretty well sums it up. Anyone going to be there?
I'm making the trip down from Wichita to go with my brother who lives in Dallas. Hoping for a good time!
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Made some decent progress on this guy. Got the basics of the recovery compartment made. The stringers were made from angles and strips. Shorter stringers were made for the pressure vessel. I still need to make the next level of stringers for the recovery compartment. I also made from .010" styrene sheet the remnants of the aluminum panels on the outside of the recovery compartment. These were made from sketches I did looking at the real one. Then I made copies and taped them on the panels and very carefully cut them out. I then taped them on the outside of a 2" coupling PVC and let them sit in boiling water for a few minutes. It was then run under cold water to help keep the shape. They still need to be filed down to get a more rounded edge.
I think I'm going to give the outside a break and move on to some interior bits. I need to make the periscope tube and control panels from scratch...as the kit pieces are wrong for LB7, and are crap, and it'll need to have some corroded areas as well.
And off to the pictures!
As always, comments and suggestions appreciated!
David
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And now for the pictures!
Top view showing inner hull and small pressure bulkhead with hatch:
Top view showing inner hull and small pressure bulkhead with periscope hatch:
Interior view:
Periscope hatch:
Hatch opening and exterior skin patch:
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Still going on this project...made some pretty good progress I think. I'll hopefully get some pictures up tomorrow. I've got the inner pressure vessel pretty well roughed out. Also have the upper bulkhead cut out. Nothing is glued together yet as I'm being as careful as I can making sure it is all going to work.
I do have a couple stumbling blocks right now. I need to find something I can make the lower bulkhead from. I'd love to vacuform something, but have neither the equipment nor money to make my own. It is a portion of a hemisphere 5.3 inches in diameter. I think it would be easiest to start with a perfect hemisphere and cut it down to the size I need.
My other one is finding the dimensions and radius of the inner shield behind the large bulkhead.
I'm having a lot of fun with this, I've never really done much scratch building...and this is a lot of it.
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spaceman, the holes are 1/16" diameter.
I got the sanding pads out and the inside all cleaned up now. Next is on to the inner pressure vessel!
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Well, it has been way too long between updates on this project. I've been doing copious amounts of research and photo documentation of the display at the Cosmosphere. Lots of measuring the kit and referencing the David Weeks drawings told me the thickness of the model is almost as thick as the gap between the inner pressure vessel and outer skin. I'll be using styrene sheets to create the inner vessel. In order for the outer skin to look thin enough I had to use my Dremel to thin it out. Silver parts are areas to thin:
Still have clean up work to do with sanding it, but it will look that much more accurate with the gap between.
I also used the pin vise to hand drill the 192 holes I ended up with on the bottom of the heat shield retaining ring. Gotta be a lot more holes than that on the real one, but it is just going for the illusion of it. Kinda irritated they're not all aligned in the middle...but with everything else going on, especially with the landing bag going to be there it shouldn't be too noticeable.
I tend to not do things small...I did my entire 1/48 B-58 in foil. Not Bare Metal, but kitchen foil and Mona Lisa glue. This is still my biggest, most involved build ever. Aside from the main shell I think most of it will be scratch built.
Feedback welcome!
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Here is an impromptu shot from my driveway in Wichita 2.7.13 of the ISS. I remembered it would be visible at the last minute and had about 3 minutes to get my camera set up on the tripod. The station is slicing right through the head of Taurus, with Jupiter to the right, and Orion on the left. You can see that it is heading into the shadow at the top of the picture as it is dimming a bit.
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Today I got to meet with Jim Remar, the president of the Cosmosphere, to talk about the Liberty Bell. We chatted some about what I was doing and he was able to answer a lot of questions regarding the capsule and Mercury capsules in general.
Here are some shots I found on the internet of Greg "Buck" Buckingham, the lead restorer on the project, with the capsule showing the pressure vessel without exterior panels. Pretty good shots showing the struts:
Jim said prior to the shuttle, NASA didn't have in mind longevity...that craft and suits were made to be used once. They've been having a hard time especially with the suits to keep them from falling apart. The Mercury capsules were built with quite a few different materials, not all of which were compatible (more on that later). The interior part was constructed from titanium, aluminum, and stainless steel which wasn't painted. The exterior panels are made of Inconel, which was not painted either. Based on my picture and observations it is a dark charcoal. I don't see any sort of blue to it, but it is definitely lighter than black:
During the restoration when they took the exterior panels off there was still insulation remaining. What pieces they were able to salvage and preserve went back into the craft when it was reassembled. Not everything that came off was able to go back on, due to the deterioration of the connection points. Especially behind the instrument panel. When the dissimilar materials sat in the salt water the reaction that took place turned LB7 into a battery, and that is where the corrosion came from. It turned out to be a blessing though, as when the pieces corroded it encased itself from further deterioration.
The only documentation they used were the NASA SEDR manuals. That pretty well boggled my mind that was all they used. They didn't have any line drawings or blueprints. Jim checked with their collections person and was able to track down the restoration photos for me to look through. He told her he had a researcher in. I'm not just a model builder, but a researcher! Looking through those was pretty amazing and brought up some more questions. They did the restoration in the actual museum part in full view of the public to watch. There were lots of pictures of the technicians working; on the couch, on the instrument panel, of Buck taking pictures of the pieces.
Some of the pictures that popped out were the dye canister, which was still releasing dye after 30 years on the sea floor; a picture of the explosive hatch igniter (there was no conclusive proof to support if Gus hit it or if it prematurely blew); and a serial number to a parachute, which turns out was the main recovery chute still attached to the capsule with its straps still intact. The heat shield had deteriorated away, but the debris field was evident from it.
Every little piece of gunk or corrosion that was cleaned off the capsule was kept, and they put it all in one container when they were done...a 55 gallon trash can!
All in all it was a very informative sit down, and I thank the Cosmosphere for allowing me to look through a tiny portion of their archives.
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Well, one kiddo got sick last week, and the baby is sick this week. Not to mention the holidays the scheduling got redone. We're now meeting January 4.
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Hello!
I'm slowly working on the Atomic City 1/12 kit as the Liberty Bell as it is displayed in its case at the Cosmosphere. I'm a member there and this Friday afternoon I've got a meeting with the COO and at least one person (I don't know who yet) who helped with the restoration. Is there anything specific you guys would like to know about the restoration, Liberty Bell specifically or Mercury capsules in general that I can ask for you?
David
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Does anybody know anything about the kits mentioned in the title? They're 1:1 scale of old flint lock pistols.
I was able to acquire a number of them and am trying to learn more about them. They are 3 different types, a French wheellock, Arab moorish, and Dutch flintlock.
Thanks
David
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The timing was honestly the worst part. I was going to resign later this year so I could stay at home with the kids so my wife can go back to work. We're also trying to get my photography business going, so hopefully I can get that going too. Things are still more or less going with the plan, just not the right time. We were just peeved about losing insurance weeks before Lilly came. It took all of those six weeks to get mom on SRS insurance, in fact the card came a couple hours before we left for the hospital. They could've waited just 3 weeks to lay me off and she would've been born under the insurance I already had, with all of our deductables met.
But I am getting unemployment and as a family we're getting other assistance. We are making the best of the situation as we can. Sucks during the moment, but already I'm so glad I was able to be home with mom during the last weeks of the pregnancy. It very well could be the best thing that ever happened to us, we just need to take it a day at a time.
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Hello!
Lots of big changes here lately in my life.
On August 10 i was laid off from my architecture job. Walmart is one of the clients, and they kept cutting fees in an effort to save money (and live better...at least the stock holders) so unfortunately I was one of two on our team to be laid off and one of four in the office to be let go. The timing couldn't have been worse...as we were 33 weeks pregnant at the time, and insurance was cut off four weeks before the due date.
One upside for that though was being able to get a model done I'd been working on to donate for an event at the Cosmosphere. It was called Operation Blackbird, and they had 17 pilots and RSO's there for the event. I built the Testors 1/48 and mounted it like the one in their lobby.
Here it is at the event with some of the autographs on it. I was very pleased with the way it turned out, and the pilots I talked to seemed genuinely impressed with it. Unfortunately...I didn't get to stay very long as my wife wasn't feeling so pleasant.
She'd been having contractions since week 28, so I had to duck out and miss out on most of the event and chatting with more of the pilots...but that's alright, because on Tuesday the 25th of September I got to welcome into the world my very first 1:1 scale model! Lillian Ruth was born at 2:27 pm. Both her and mom are doing great.
Here she is 20 minutes after birth:
And me holding her 48 hours later right before we got to come home:
After my wife's first pregnancy of 22 hours of active labor and 4 hours of pushing, Lilly was a dream at 7 hours of active labor and only 3 minutes of pushing! Our doctor only got there 5 minutes before birth, so our amazing nurse almost got to do the honors. Lilly had a bit of a problem that night as they had to suction her tummy to get rid of some amniotic fluid that normally would be squeezed out in labor. But other than that we are all doing great! Happy to be home and working on getting things into a new routine.
So...it sure has been an incredibly emotionally draining yet rewarding in the end 6 weeks. I'll be busy helping Lilly out as I'll be staying home with her when mom is recovered and goes back to work. I honestly have no idea when I'll even get to look at a plastic model, but I've got an amazing addition to my wonderful family so it doesn't really bother me. But I know I will be lurking around here.
David
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Hi all.
Got a long shot here...does anyone have a Monogram 1967 Corvette 1/12 scale? I'm working on a build and I'm missing one part. The oil sump pan. Would anyone have the kit be willing to let me borrow that one piece to make a resin copy?
Thanks!
David
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I venture to guess the engines are very underpowered if they have to drive it on a truck to its destination...
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Awesome shots, what lens and filters did you use? I think you have some nice prints in the making.
Tonal
I attached my N ikon D300s to my Celestron C6N 6" reflector telescope for prime focus. Turned the telescope into a 1125mm (750mm focal length x 1.5 crop factor) lens. I used a Baader solar film filter to be able to see the sun. I also used my shutter release to trigger the shutter without shaking the whole setup.
Oops! Boeing cargo jet lands at wrong Wichita airport
in General Discussion
Posted
Whew! She's off with plenty of runway to spare. Disappeared pretty quick into the clouds but flew right over me