johnlove_mk_II

Cult Tv Man has it for preorder too.

Wow. That's certainly intriguing. Hopefully it's not too "Dragony" in execution ... if it's reasonably accurate I'll certainly be down for one. Just found this link noodling around.

Thanks mp44tom. I had to put the project aside for a while but I'm actually looking to start back up soon ... and I'll probably move this back over to the "Real Space" section when I do.

A bit of a bear, these things. It's taken a little while to get to this point but I'm pretty close to finalizing and sending the parts off to Ponoko for cutting. It won't be an exact representation, but it should be robust and will hopefully look the part. Still need to sort the equipment boxes and other trust structure details ... but hey, it IS progress. Also the S-IC forward skirt details arrived this weekend from Shapeways. I think they turned out pretty well. I have a few little details to work through, then I will start the final assembly of the S-ICs.

S-IC forward skirt details - continued Finished modeling the equipment boxes and LOX vent line parts. I was planning to print one set of these at Shapeways and then cast all the ones I would need in resin. I was thinking that it might be more cost effective but it turns out it’s only going to be $17 bucks to print them all. So yeah - I'm just going to print them all and be done with it. Hope to see them in the next week or so. S-II - Getting started and thrust structure ideas As I've mentioned previously the S-II will be a rather piecemeal affair. I will be using the k

Finished the second skirt interior and cobbled together the ODOP antennas. I'll attach them after I complete adding the extra stringers to the interstage and the S-II aft skirt. (I'll want to sand them all so they're uniform.) Now there are two. ODOP, telemetry and range safety antennas.

The last month was busy for me with birthday parties and work trivialities … but we’re back at it, nose to the ‘stone. Been struggling with the laser-cut interface ring parts. The first set had a little fitment issue so I had another set cut. This time I added a doubler to help stiffen them but unfortunately these too were slightly off and out-of-round. I’m guessing the styrene does shrink a little more than I was expecting. I went ahead and cut the parts with the Silhouette and they came out far more accurately. So yeah ... some progress.

Very nice!

Thanks guys. I'm trying not to be too critical, especially with these, but ... you know. 😉 Didn't get to work very much this weekend, but I did start on the skirt interiors. Had to remove some vertical "guide" plastic doodads and then lay in the structural rings and vertical "stiffeners". Still need to add the little diagonal struts that attach to the interface ring and center ring.

Just decided to proceed with the LOX bulkheads as they are. They look a little off, but with the added details they don’t look too bad. Besides, they’ll be tucked away out of sight for most of the rest of their existence. Adding the various access ports and whatnot. The bulkhead placed inside the skirt with the interface ring. Not horrible.

I can see what you mean. They do curve, just not nearly as much as they should ... and at the angle the photo was taken, which is almost straight on, they do look really wack-a-do. I think that since the dragon part is not so much ellipsoidal as it is spherical, that's what makes the weld curvature less pronounced. But yeah, I'm already thinking of creating a balsa plug and vac-forming properly shaped parts.

S-IC Forward Skirt Interiors - LOX tank bulkhead The weld lines look low ... but with the weird "Dragon" parts, I'm afraid thats as good as it gets. Here's one of the Marshal built S-ICs bulkheads for comparison. Started adding the "weld" details to the tank bulkheads yesterday evening. The original bulkheads were made up of 16 gore sections, 8 base sections and 8 apex sections. The "Dragon" parts only represent the welds that go from apex to base so I used styrene strip to add the missing horizontal welds. As I was adding them it wasn't looki

That SIM bay is magic. Well done.

This is sort of a housekeeping post. I've been working on tying down details and how to proceed with construction ... so fair warning, there's not a lot to see here. All planning and no construction make Jack a dull boy. S-IC Forward Skirt Interiors - The interior plan is set ... Shapeways parts are ordered I think I've got my forward skirt research pretty much squared away. I tell ya, there's nothing like piecing together details from close-up photos, that darn stage lifting fixture is always in the fricken' way. The structure of the forward skirt is pretty in

Thanks ApolloMan. Indeed, those are Evergreen strips. The application is rather tedious, but I think the end result is worth the effort. If only Dragon had taken the time to get it correct in the first place. As far as the separation motors around the interstage. I understand that they discovered that the rate of separation at staging was higher, or sufficient enough, where they were considered to not be absolutely necessary. The resulting weight savings allowed for things like more fuel for the LM descent stage, SIM bay experiments in the Service Module and Lunar Rovers and such.

Finished up adding the forward skirt umbilical details. Moving on to the interiors. This part is done. Two S-IC stages. Cool beans.

Strange. I went in and relinked the image and it looks like it's showing as it did before. All big like. S-IC Forward Skirt Interiors - the kit tank parts are rubbish. Go figure. Still working on the forward skirt interiors and, of course, that means a 1:1 drawing of the kit parts and their relation to the parts I wanted to produce. Measured out the skirt and it's a few millimeters longer than it should have been. I could have trimmed it down to the correct size but I didn't bother. Interestingly, and I think it's been covered elsewhere, the skirt cylinders are slightly

How about now. Google Photos might be up to shenanigans ... me thinks.

To anyone who might be interested ... I've moved this over to the 50th Anniversary 1st Lunar Landing Group Build for the construction of the Saturn Vs.

S-IC stringers are done ... mostly. Just need to add a few things here and there ... vents, antennas and umbillicals. The umbilical and service access door will go here.

S-IC Forward Skirt Exteriors - stringer tedium continues Plowed through about 64 stringers this morning before I had to tend to some adult stuff. Won't be long before I can start working on the forward skirt interiors ... More and more ... S-IC Forward Skirt Interiors - more planning and more 3D modeling Still working out the interior structures and detail plan. Started work on the LOX vent assemblies. Still looking for some detailed photos or diagrams, but I think I've got the general shape down. A series of tubes.

I really like those figures. Well done.

S-IC Forward Skirt Exteriors - stringer tedium continues Earlier this week I removed stringers and mapped out part placements on the second S-IC forward skirt. Tonight I’ve started the process of attaching the laser cut parts and all those extra stringers. I’ll try not to bore you with the details, but this is what I’ll be working on for the next few days. Raw laser-cut parts ready for clean-up and a pile of styrene strips for stringers. Parts and stringers being added. S-IC Forward Skirt Interiors - planning and 3D modeling So I'

Moving the Saturn V portion of my Grand 1/72 Launch Vehicle Extravaganza here for the group build. Planning on representing the Apollo 16 LV. Here are some Dragon Kits … along with a New Ware detail set for the CSM/LM and some awesome decals from Space Model Systems … plus I’ll be adding a lot of my own goobery scratch-build parts.

Here's some not so compelling progress. The stringers are complete on the first S-IC forward skirt ... moving on to the second one.