Space Shuttle Cutaway-winter project

[spaceflightengineer]

I'm going to be following this project closely, as no one has tackled it to the extent I've seen of your project even this far. Your revised RealSpace SSME's kick major butt- very nice stuff. I was a bit jazzed when that cutaway toy came on the scene until I realized it was, well, a toy and not as thrilling when looked at up close.

There are a lot of options and variety in the crew module layout- especially if talking the mid-deck and if early missions (OV-102 and 099 versus say much later MIR and ISS missions). I'm a fan of the OFT missions (1 thru 4) and 5, 9 with OV-102 due to interesting equipment layouts that made the mid deck more cramped and "interesting" both on orbit and on the ground. Ditto the inclusion of the slightly modified SR-71 seats up front on the flight deck (...really wonderful for removing skin from knee caps). BTW- if someone were to utilize any available to scale after market 71 seats without trying to outfit them further, you'd have a good representation for their use on shuttle.

Since you are doing the aft- are you going to leave one of the 2 access hatches off so as to allow viewing? Or perhaps that and one SSME removed? (In addition to flight deck over head panels my 6 foot 4 inch frame did battle with piping in that area often. (I worked orbiter comm, NAVAIDS and instrumentation enginnering and two of those interfaced with virtually every section of the vehicles). Best of luck and fun!

BP

The Aft section is next. This is gonna be a bear! With all the piping, hydraulic and electrical systems, I'm not sure HOW I'm gonna do it, so we'll see.

I scratch built the SSMEs a couple years ago using the Real Space engine bells and scratching the rest.

These are the parts for the inside framing and the Thrust structure itself. As the left and right sides will be seen, I have to build both sides of the fuselage structure. The RHS side will be attached to the kit fuselage and the LHS will be 'see'thru'. I'll also cutaway the OMS pod and the centre support is shown here.

The Thrust structure, SSMEs and the body flap, which will either be partially cutaway, or entirely. Not certain yet.

That's it for now. I've been at this for just a couple weeks ... only a few months to go.

Thanx for looking in.

Pete

[K2Pete]

BP, the aft end, port side, will be cutaway and the 3 SSME's will be attached. Two with all the details and one, the far one, just the engine bell. I'm hoping with all the plumbing inside we won't even be able to see the 3rd engine's non-existent guts.

 

Here's the OMS pod with some plumbing and fuel tanks. I've drilled out the RCS thrusters on the kit and will replace 'em with styrene tube, with the ends thinned and "fuel lines" attached.

 

 

The Aft fuselage showing what'll be cut away.

 

The RHS showing the structure installed.

 

In order to attach the new wing, I had to cut off an embossing for the kit wing and make a patch.

 

The MLG bay has a bevel to it, and I needed to add a couple shims to make it perpendicular so the wing'll attach to it.

 

The wing and elevon parts.

 

 

I figger I'm now about 7% of the way thru this build ... but what a hoot.

Thanx guys for all your comments. I really appreciate 'em.

Pete

Edited January 19, 2018 by K2Pete

[richter111]

Just spectacular work, been watching it since the beginning, and learning more every time you post!

[spaceflightengineer]

Seeing the new postings of he model aft walls with stringers made my head and knees hurt. Waaay before STS-51L and most of the parts that became Endeavour (they were orbiter spares) were brought to Palmdale for "storage", yours truly had to do checkouts of coax already mounted (at Downey) in the lower forward fuselage. Knees like to slip off stringers, bleed, and BlahX3. (Also, in the built orbiters with crew modules dropped in I learned to not look forward to the main UHF antenna check out [belly mounted]- because those same pesky stringers near the 6 inch gap of the CM aft bulkhead (Xo576) and the next bulkhead (Xo582) were a pain in the bunny suit.) Your OMS pod is very cool- can't wait to see the RCS mounted with plumbing in the stingers I never had much to do with the OMS/RCS but small rocket engines always are impressive- even when not being fired. Are you by any chance going to have a loose or removable forward RCS module (I dealt with that a lot- since so much of the microwave landing system wavegudes went under that; there's a lot of detailing possible in there. BTW- are you going to uber-detail the MLG wells? The right hand MLG well was used as an access way into the payload bay while in the horizontal (a fastener held knockout plate is there). Thanks again.

BP

BP, the aft end, port side, will be cutaway and the 3 SSME's will be attached. Two with all the details and one, the far one, just the engine bell. I'm hoping with all the plumbing inside we won't even be able to see the 3rd engine's non-existent guts.

Here's the OMS pod with some plumbing and fuel tanks. I've drilled out the RCS thrusters on the kit and will replace 'em with styrene tube, with the ends thinned and "fuel lines" attached.

The Aft fuselage showing what'll be cut away.

The RHS showing the structure installed.

In order to attach the new wing, I had to cut off an embossing for the kit wing and make a patch.

The MLG bay has a bevel to it, and I needed to add a couple shims to make it perpendicular so the wing'll attach to it.

The wing and elevon parts.

I figger I'm now about 7% of the way thru this build ... but what a hoot.

Thanx guys for all your comments. I really appreciate 'em.

Pete

[K2Pete]

BP ... needless to say, I'm beyond envious of your work experience on the Space Shuttle.

 

I won't be detailing the MLG wells, but I may add some brake lines to the MLG itself. One, the starboard, may be deployed, the other, will be in the retracted position. The NLG won't be seen at all.

 

The FWD RCS will not be removable, but I'm just now working on the plumbing and making the nozzles, so half of the RCS will be viewable.

 

And I have a question for you ... the flipper doors over the Elevon hinges, are they one unit per elevon, or are they a series of flipping panels? To be clearer, on the outboard elevon, are there 7 individual doors / panels, or is it just one long door / panel?

 

And a quick little update, here's the Payload Bay doors. I had to patch the kit's hinge openings and also build up the interior of the door structure. I thinned down the forward half, including the edges, with files and sandpaper then glued styrene strip. The forward 'half' (with structure) will be exposed, the aft will be covered by the radiators. The starboard door has the edges thinned down and will have the latches and radiators on it. I've already attached the 'latches' to the port door.

 

 

 

Thanx guys.

Merry Christmas :)

Pete

Edited January 19, 2018 by K2Pete

[niart17]

man, it's just getting better and better. you gonna do a payload? it would be really cool to do a payload that has some cutaway elements as well. i know it would add a heck of a lot of time to your build, but hey, what's one more winter right?

Keep them coming.

Bill

[K2Pete]

Thanx Bill!

But no payload cutaway ... at least not on THIS model. The Payload Bay itself will be cutaway to show fuel cells, wiring, hydraulics, ribs / frames, thermal coverings ... and like that. Not every line mind you, but a general idea as to how this vehicle is all laid out.

At this point, I'm still just blocking in the main subassemblies. The detailing is gonna take, like you said, another winter! ( more than likely!) I'm doing the aft structure, and the forward RCS sub-assy's currently. I still haven't decided how to do the Crew Module. So there's still a lot of decisions to me made on this project.

Pete

[K2Pete]

I'm getting happy! For weeks now, l've been trying to figger out how to build the crew module. Do I ... sand down the cannibalized 1/72 cockpit to fit? ... vac-form the 1/100 Tamiya cockpit 3 or 4 generations to build it up to fit inside the 1/72 fuselage? Do I ... heaven forbid, scratch build it?

 

Well, while I was rooting around my pile of plastic found objects, I ran across a water bottle. Looked at it and came to the realization that its profile closely matched the Crew Module's. So ... I guess I was gonna scratch build it. And so I did. I'm happy because the rest of the build was waiting for this subassembly. The structural ribs couldn't be attached because I need to know the dimensions of the Crew Module that they'll support, the fuselage can't be buttoned up till the interior structure was completed and so on and so on.

 

Here's the Aft Bulkhead with window screening applied to mimmick the structural details. Those are the little RCS thruster nozzles beside it.

 

Here's a couple reference photos of the crew module.

 

To get the forward conical shape I simply wrapped some .020 styrene sheet and glued it, trimmed and sanded to shape.

 

Some of the parts. The cannibalized cockpit in the foreground was too wide by a 1/2 inch and after filing and sanding I didn't think it was gonna fit anyway. I also had to modify all the interior parts to fit this narrower shape ... The Aft Bulkhead is just a sheet of styrene cut to shape.

 

 

 

The Startracker bay has been installed in this one ... as well as some details on the aft bulkhead.

This module will need to be detailed and painted before assembling the rest of this project.

Whew ... let the fun begin!

Pete

Edited January 19, 2018 by K2Pete

[Jay Chladek]

Okay, I've had enough!!!

"WE'RE NOT WORTHY! WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!!"

It is scarey how good this model is looking.

[niart17]

ahhh, the old waterbottle crew compartment module trick. of course. dude, how many times did you have to look at that picture with a water bottle sitting there before you said, "hey, that's the shape"? i don't think i EVER would have connected those two. GREAT JOB!

Bill

[Youngtiger1]

Pete, your crazy...using water bottles...lol I think you're the first to do this...pretty cool man. As for the model itself, I'm speechless. Just one word...SWEET!!

Mike

[K2Pete]

Here's a bit of an update.

 

But first ... Mr Chladek, you are to blame for inspiring me. It was 4 or 5 or maybe 6 years ago that I was perusing Starship Modeler and came across your 1/144 shuttle. You had pix of reworking the cockpit windows. I was amazed. I must've looked at it 45 times always thinking "I didn't know you could DO that!" Bye the way, I'd love to see that model completed ... but YOU were my inspiration for returning to this hobby ... with a vengeance. Thanx!

 

So here's the Crew Module, still only about 50% done, but getting there.

This is the mid deck, just parts so far. Um, that's the toilet on this side of the airlock.

 

The Crew Module is taking shape. The thing with the water bottle is I don't hafta worry about placing the windows. The clear bottle comes with 'em!

 

The mid deck with some paint, some seats and sleeping bags on the far wall.

 

 

 

 

The Mid deck and Flight deck dry fit into the Crew Module.

 

... with the Airlock

 

... and with the aft bulkhead.

 

I'm planning on cutting out a portion of the hatch side so all the effort with the interior will be worth it.

 

The Crew module has almost 200 parts. There was, and is, a helluva lot of fartin' around with this sub-assembly, but, man, I'm like a little kid again! I got a lot done over these holidays, but the progress is gonna slow down a bit for the next little while.

 

Thanx again for taking a peek and especially for your comments!

Happy New Year gents!

Pete

Edited January 19, 2018 by K2Pete

[richter111]

Looking better every time I check in on the thread!

[spaceflightengineer]

Don't forget there is equipment bay 3B between the port side of the airlock and the toilet (aka "the slinger"). That bay was effectively used like a closet- it had a black box in there (for the Ku Band deployable TDRSS/RADAR antenna) but otherwise ended up being a place to strap down a spare CPU on early missions (amongst other odds and ends). (That toilet looks excellent, BTW.) It was the only mid deck equipment cabinet without lockers in front of it. (It was also large enough for a certain female flight crew member to hide in during FAT [final acceptance test] of one particular orbiter; she had a penchant for practical joking.) BTW- the final painted surface color for things like that equipment cabinet and close out/debris panels is flat white- leaning toward a slight cream- not super bright white. After each mission it was interesting to see from just one mission's duration the common push off points for zero-G maneuvering- that were obvious due to the filth from human hands (just like common use areas here on earth). I don't know if modeling the filth would register in scale.

I am curious why you chose the internal airlock configuration vice external. After a certain period of the program the airlocks were moved out into the payload bay (starting with the MIR missions? or ISS perhaps- I don't recall [but suspect MIR]) to become an integral part of the transfer tunnel/docking tunnel.

BTW- another tidbit of info- before I joined the STS program, when they were doing zero G flight testing of the slinger in a see-through plexi cabinet so the, uh, "functions" could be documented, the test subjects for female functions were volunteer USAF nurses. A Quality Controller at Rockwell who had partaken in these flights informed me that on the final day of tests, unbeknownst to the entire team the entire stable of fillies had used lipstick and other makeup to, uh, decorate their naughty areas in faces, designs, etc. o help end the research on a lite note for the whole team. It reportedly brought quite bit of hilarity to the otherwise severe project.

...looking forward to more progress reports! BP

Here's a bit of an update.

But first ... Mr Chladek, you are to blame for inspiring me. It was 4 or 5 or maybe 6 years ago that I was perusing Starship Modeler and came across your 1/144 shuttle. You had pix of reworking the cockpit windows. I was amazed. I must've looked at it 45 times always thinking "I didn't know you could DO that!" Bye the way, I'd love to see that model completed ... but YOU were my inspiration for returning to this hobby ... with a vengeance. Thanx!

So here's the Crew Module, still only about 50% done, but getting there.

This is the mid deck, just parts so far. Um, that's the toilet on this side of the airlock.

The Crew Module is taking shape. The thing with the water bottle is I don't hafta worry about placing the windows. The clear bottle comes with 'em!

The mid deck with some paint, some seats and sleeping bags on the far wall.

The Mid deck and Flight deck dry fit into the Crew Module.

... with the Airlock

... and with the aft bulkhead.

I'm planning on cutting out a portion of the hatch side so all the effort with the interior will be worth it.

The Crew module has almost 200 parts. There was, and is, a helluva lot of fartin' around with this sub-assembly, but, man, I'm like a little kid again! I got a lot done over these holidays, but the progress is gonna slow down a bit for the next little while.

Thanx again for taking a peek and especially for your comments!

Happy New Year gents!

Pete

[Jay Chladek]

Thanks for the great words Pete. I am honored. I am glad my own work inspired you and others as indeed I got bit just as hard by the bug to do a shuttle model back then as you did with this project. Nice to see both of us had success (I know yours will be successful, judging by the work I see already). As for how that 1/144 shuttle turned out:

I have other images of it, but this is what I've currently got loaded. Some high res versions of the images I took of it got lost in a computer crash in 2005. I used the same strip styrene technique with some modifications to improve the windows on a Monogram orbiter for my 1/72 shuttle stack. You can check it out here:

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l31/JMCh...ttle%20STS-117/

I decided not to post the images to this thread since I don't want to hijack yours Pete. This is your moment to shine man! And you are doing it VERY well.

Bruce, as for the mid-deck airlock, Columbia kept it all throughout its life. When it got back from STS-107, the plan was to remove it to configure the orbiter for ISS docking so it could be used on logistical resupply missions. Of course it never got to that. The fact that it still had an internal airlock made it perfect for at least one mission to launch a payload that took up the whole bay, and that was the Chandra X-Ray observatory in 1999. Last time I checked, Pete was doing this as a model of Columbia after I mentioned that the other orbiters had them removed for the MIR and ISS docking flights. Besides, doing it this way will save the need to do the ODS docking adaptor and external airlock in the payload bay.

[K2Pete]

Hey BP ... what about those flapper doors over the elevon hinges?? What can ya tell me?  

 

Jay, I'm happy to see you completed that little shuttle. Looks pretty good!

 

Here's sort of an update. I just wanted to see what this looked like with some sub-assemblies dry fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it, just a quick peek. I guess I'm now about 8 or 9% complete  

Pete

Edited January 19, 2018 by K2Pete

[SBARC]

WOW!!! This is progressing beautifully!!! ILOVE the progress you've made so far.

[superbullfrog36]

Very intense project. I like very much. I don't thing i would do something like this. I have two Space shuttle kits and i am going to build them as Columbia and Challenger. One thing i have been thinking about is building a 72 scale International Space Station. But this is just one of many idea's that pop in to my head from time to time.

Frank

[Face]

dude that is freaking awesome

[spaceflightengineer]

I guess somewhere as I followed your progress I missed that you were doing orbiter 102 ("Columbia"), so of course it's "airlock in". I started to have some heartburn with the idea AXAF taking up the entire p/l bay but then recalled it was atop an IUS. The s/c itself was a tad under 40 ft in length. When I first saw the bird at Redondo (at TRW, during the Ball instrument package being integrated) it certainly seemed it could fill the PLB! (It was upright in the vertical test stands).

I am not certain what variance, at what stage of 102's history you intend to represent- are you going to show the SILTS pod atop the vertical stab? (Yours truly worked the engineering integration and checkout of that subsystem after the orbiter [and me!] returned to Palmdale post-STS-9.) Sorry if the info I am asking about is redundant.

Your dry fit shots show one of the OAMS tanks falling out- I-eeee! :^P If I was doing a cutaway, I think it'd be fun to do the cutaway of the STS-6 OAMS pod that had the burn-through, where you could see from the cutaway side out to the front of the pod (that burn through penetration was about the size of a fist). Man! That dry fit looks so very impressive.

What is it you want to know about the flappers? It was not one of my systems but I was around them a lot.... (I was also UNDER them for a few days- when I had to check out DFI temp sensors being left on board Columbia [it would remain the "dev" orbiter] and I and one of our dedicated techs crawled between the carbon-carbon tubes with heat guns; not all so technical, but any time I could crawl around in the guts...].) BTW- because we at the salaried professional levels were not supposed to do our own pic taking (the theory being we would know areas of interest to those nasty commies), I don't have as much as I'd like to have done. I have an extensive set I took of the 099 (Challenger) roll out prep, a few odds and ends of Discovery (103) & Atlantis/104 at Palmdale, and a set I took of 102 during that post-STS-9 OFT equipment removal/orbiter lightening mod phase (including a prized shot of a younger, studlier me in the CDR's SR-71 seat :^O ).

BP

Bruce, as for the mid-deck airlock, Columbia kept it all throughout its life. When it got back from STS-107, the plan was to remove it to configure the orbiter for ISS docking so it could be used on logistical resupply missions. Of course it never got to that. The fact that it still had an internal airlock made it perfect for at least one mission to launch a payload that took up the whole bay, and that was the Chandra X-Ray observatory in 1999. Last time I checked, Pete was doing this as a model of Columbia after I mentioned that the other orbiters had them removed for the MIR and ISS docking flights. Besides, doing it this way will save the need to do the ODS docking adaptor and external airlock in the payload bay.

[dpwatson]

Wow this build has come along quickly!!! Amazing work. This is one cool model!

David

[Jay Chladek]

I heard the AFRSI got pounded by extreme aerodynamic forces on STS-6 (hence the reintroduction of a lip of LRSI tiles to the front of the OMS pods) but I didn't know they also had a burn through. Wow. I know STS-9 experienced a burn through as well as it exposed the graphite skin of the pod. If it had burned completely through, it would have impinged on an OMS fuel (or oxidizer) tank and it would have been a BIG problem. That is what lead to the OMS pods getting a patch of HRSI tiles in a spot on front of the OMS pods. Windtunnel testing revealed that a disturbance in the plasma flow around the nose chines just behind the crew cabin (such as from a "urine sickle" in the waste water discharge chute, such as what Discovery had on its first flight) would result in a temperature hot spot on the OMS pod. Hence the TPS modification there.

This model is coming together VERY well IMHO. Seeing it all integrated together is quite an inspiration. It is nice to see you have the desire to go this hard on it Pete!

Edited January 9, 2010 by Jay Chladek

[spaceflightengineer]

Uh, forget about the SILTS pod question- I re-looked at the dry fit shots and saw it- looks good AND correctly shaped (I've seen others

that were not shaped accurately). ...while working on that, the top was off most of the time and it always reminded me of the torpedo-shapoed

spaceship baby Supes was sent to earth in, in the old syndicated "Superman" series!

BP

I guess somewhere as I followed your progress I missed that you were doing orbiter 102 ("Columbia"), so of course it's "airlock in". I started to have some heartburn with the idea AXAF taking up the entire p/l bay but then recalled it was atop an IUS. The s/c itself was a tad under 40 ft in length. When I first saw the bird at Redondo (at TRW, during the Ball instrument package being integrated) it certainly seemed it could fill the PLB! (It was upright in the vertical test stands).

I am not certain what variance, at what stage of 102's history you intend to represent- are you going to show the SILTS pod atop the vertical stab? (Yours truly worked the engineering integration and checkout of that subsystem after the orbiter [and me!] returned to Palmdale post-STS-9.) Sorry if the info I am asking about is redundant.

Your dry fit shots show one of the OAMS tanks falling out- I-eeee! :^P If I was doing a cutaway, I think it'd be fun to do the cutaway of the STS-6 OAMS pod that had the burn-through, where you could see from the cutaway side out to the front of the pod (that burn through penetration was about the size of a fist). Man! That dry fit looks so very impressive.

What is it you want to know about the flappers? It was not one of my systems but I was around them a lot.... (I was also UNDER them for a few days- when I had to check out DFI temp sensors being left on board Columbia [it would remain the "dev" orbiter] and I and one of our dedicated techs crawled between the carbon-carbon tubes with heat guns; not all so technical, but any time I could crawl around in the guts...].) BTW- because we at the salaried professional levels were not supposed to do our own pic taking (the theory being we would know areas of interest to those nasty commies), I don't have as much as I'd like to have done. I have an extensive set I took of the 099 (Challenger) roll out prep, a few odds and ends of Discovery (103) & Atlantis/104 at Palmdale, and a set I took of 102 during that post-STS-9 OFT equipment removal/orbiter lightening mod phase (including a prized shot of a younger, studlier me in the CDR's SR-71 seat :^O ).

BP

Bruce, as for the mid-deck airlock, Columbia kept it all throughout its life. When it got back from STS-107, the plan was to remove it to configure the orbiter for ISS docking so it could be used on logistical resupply missions. Of course it never got to that. The fact that it still had an internal airlock made it perfect for at least one mission to launch a payload that took up the whole bay, and that was the Chandra X-Ray observatory in 1999. Last time I checked, Pete was doing this as a model of Columbia after I mentioned that the other orbiters had them removed for the MIR and ISS docking flights. Besides, doing it this way will save the need to do the ODS docking adaptor and external airlock in the payload bay.

[Army_Air_Force]

This is going to be a stunning model when complete. Looking forwards to following the progress.

[tornado64]

wow !! only just noticed this build , very impressive i'll be keeping an eye on it !!