egt95

Well all. It’s been a number of years since I’ve posted on here. Life has been very busy and I haven’t really gotten a chance to work on my projects. Soon I plan on getting back to them. I have kept up on all a lot of your posts and I should say, I’m really impressed with the aftermarket parts, decals, etc. that have been produced over the years. After I finish my fence project, clean the garage out so I can get to my hobby room, I’ll finish this build and continue on with Discovery. I also started a 1/100 scale orbiter model as well. Mike.

Wow. The ET turned out beautifully. The SSME’s will look great once all of the wiring is placed on and watch your step. Hopefully you won’t pick up what you’ve lost in the carpet with your feet. Mike.

Looking good.

I’m glad someone helped you out on that issue. Again, I apologize on not getting back to you in a reasonable amount of time. All of the New Ware parts are still on the trees and in the box as I have been working on sanding the external tank to an exceptable smoothness to secure the parts properly. The photos you posted look really good though. Mike.

Well. I managed to finish the second platform of my tower. Now on to the third. I’m watching closely at LVM Studios as they were working on the launch tower for the Saturn V rocket. If and when that becomes available, that may shift my plans for this project. Of course, I’ll probably be done with it by the time it is available. Mike

I just recently purchased the Dragon 144 shuttle with sca. The cabin part is molded in clear plastic and represents the windows perfectly (in my opinion). There must be a way to replicate it. Maybe Shapeways can come with something. The only problem with it is they molded the star tracker and hatch on both sides. Anyhow. Hotdog has excellent decals. His attention to detail is well above and beyond any of the aftermarket ones. As soon as he gets his stuff together after his move, I’m sure he would be more than happy to print a set for you. Just let him know what orbiter you are dep

I’ve been in a slow process of repopulating my Columbia thread after the big photobucket crash. I didn’t realize how many pictures I posted in it. It has a lot of good photos of that build. Anyhow, while dealing with the windows on the orbiter, things were just not going right. I had tried using the clear plastic to see through but sanding putty scratched it beyond repair. So I decided to just use it as a glue in part. I filled it with putty, shaped the area, primered it, masked the widow areas and painted it with a metallic dark grey. I made a window template with masking tape u

From the looks of your photos, Manfred, the piece turned out really good. I’m glad you caught the discrepancies and relayed them to us. I was about to purchase one. Kind of steap in price though. $75 US. But when I do it, it needs to be right. Oh and by the way. I apologize for not getting back to you on the PAL ramp dimensions from the New Ware products. I recently returned to work post ACL surgery and have been working nights. I’m still trying to readjust to a 3 on 3 off work schedule. Mike.

Wow. Looks like I’m gonna have to build another Airfix stack. The New Ware stack set has a wrap for the intertank section. It’s pretty good with the detail, but I think it’s going to be a challenge trying to adhere it to the plastic. Plus the Revell model (as it is intended for) requires a lot of work sanding down the molded ribbing. I think I posted a few photos in my discovery build. The wrap is very thin. This new piece will definitely make things easier. I will need to buy a few when they are available. Nice job Manfred. The research you do is incredible.

Good luck to you in how you want to tackle this project. I hope you post your progress. I’m interested to see what/how you use the Revell kit. I chose to scratch build for the challenge. Manfred (Spaceman) kind of inspired me to do so. I thought about using the kit also but thought since I would have to put in some scratch build, I might as well just scratch it in all. I bought the paper model for reference as it is a true 144 scale.

I’m not near my hobby room so I’m gonna give it a go from memory. If I remember correctly, the post tubes and the main I beams are about 4 mm. I was going to use 6 mm on both, but I found that they are too big. 4 mm are about right but a whisker too small. Close enough according to the layout provided by the EDU-craft Dimensions. Some of the supporting sub beams are 3 mm and the smaller beams are about 2 mm. That allows me to place in the tubes that zig-zag the outer portion of the platform. Mike.

Manfred. That 40 micron mesh screen would work perfectly. I'll see if I can get my hands on some to see how it would work. In the meantime... I used the screen that I have and gave it the first section a coat of grey paint using my new airbrush kit. It worked well. One day I'll have to practice on becoming a master airbrusher and work on small details as well as weathering. But for now I used it on my platform. I think the paint made it look better than it was when it was black. Another thing I noticed is on the top of the beams

Manfred. At first I thought the same thing about the screen. And then I painted it yesterday. To me, the screen took the paint well and looks pretty good. I’ll get a photo of it up sometime today. I would've rather used the PE products from LMV Studios, but it is scaled to the Revell kit, it’s kind of expensive and right now not available. I had checked into only buying the portion with the tower. Oh oh and I meant “less than .5mm.” Thanks for catching that. Mike.

Thanks for the info, Hotdog. I actually think I have found something that will probably work. Continuing on with my scratch task, I kept running into a couple of SNAFU's. I glued some of the beams to the wrong side of the elevator shaft in which I had to remove and re-glue new beams to. I have also started to put together one of my two Revell towers. Mostly to give my self a little change up while building from scratch. But also to show the difference in size from the various scales that Revell put together in the kit and would it should actually look like in a 1/1

Those turned out really, really good. I need some.

Oh you tease..... Looking forward to seeing how they turned out. Mike.

Thanks Manfred. This scratch building thing can test the patience a little. However, I am pleased with how it’s going so far. I did receive my styrene bulk today, but the sizes were incorrect. I’ll be able to use what I’ve got for smaller sizes. The wire mesh measures at 1mm grid. It will work. I have been looking for something around .5 mm. Since I like torturing myself with scratching, I figured that I will add a little photo etching to the project too. I built a 1/350 Trumpeter U.S. aircraft carrier using photo etch for safety railing and netting. I got good

Well, this is probably a crazy idea. But seeing what I have in the forum, this scratch building concept could turn out really good. I started building the Fixed Service Structure out of styrene. I also ordered bulk pieces that should be here within the next few days. I also wandered down to the hobby shop and bought a few packages of I beams and square tubing to get me started. So here is what I've been able to carefully piece together so far.... I purchased some aluminum door screen for the flooring on the platforms. The mesh weave is still a bit too

I know it would be kind of tedious, but you could try masking the areas you want to draw with the Crome pen. That way you don’t have to stress on keeping your hand straight. Its looking fabulous though. Mike

Rekindling the memories in this build. It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since I started this one. Enjoy.

The good thing about having to repopulate these threads is that we all can take a stroll down memory lane. This was fun one to watch. Mike.

If I remember correctly, I explained at the beginning of this build that it was going to be built with the entire launch pad. This build is probably going to roll on for years (It has started with 2). There is going to be a lot of trial and error going on with tower and the launch pad. Thankfully Manfred's (Spaceman) launch pad build has, not only been and inspiring one to watch, but one that makes every modeler want to try and accomplish. And it comes with as a bit of a tutorial on how to build such a detailed model. I probably won't be able the reach the high bar that he has s

Thanks Pete. It has been some time since I really have posted anything until this last week. I had forgotten exactly where I was on this build. So some of my photos may be out of sequence. So here are a few photos that I recently downloaded from my IPhone. You can really see how the New Ware bulkhead fitted in with a little putty behind it to smooth out all of the wrinkles. Apparently somewhere in the mess of pictures, I lost a photo. I had attached the OMS pods and the aft RCS panels. I then masked the orbite

ugh.....repopulating these photos...

So finally I'm getting back to working on Discovery now. Only after a year and a half of a hiatus, right? Not only did I start a new job and had to go through vigorous training, I managed to rupture my ACL in my right knee. It has only been recently that I've been up and going again. And since I have been off of work for the past few months, I've been able to get things done and back to working on my model projects again. So here we are. The wings of Discovery are attached and the engine bulkhead has been glued and filled in with putty to cover the gaps. I also cut the access