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Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)


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Hi Manfred.  It has taken me some time to read and catch up on this project of yours.  And that all because of my absence.  Now that I'm done with the things that has been keeping me from my projects, I should be able to hang around the forum more often.  I'm just a little upset about the Photobucket thing and that I have to go back and repopulate Challenger and Discovery.

 

Anyhow, I've been overlooking the conversation about the insulation and rings at the bottom of the SRB's.  Of course you will come up with a scratch way of building them.  I thought I would share with you the parts I had picked up for my Discovery build.  Here's a glance at the items.  Let me know if you can't see the photos, as I'm trying to find another way of uploading and sharing pictures.

 

These are from the New Ware enhancement kit.  I've already used some of it on the Revell orbiter and about ready to put some on the ET.  But that's a lot of work sanding the moldings.  I've got an order in for a new Airfix model.  I'll see how things line up with that before I proceed.

 

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15 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

You'll have to cut up some bare metal foil. It's self-adhesive. I also have some foil insulation tape from the hardware store's hvac aisle. It's pretty thin. I'll be using it on the LM-5 coffin.

 

Hi Joe,

 

how wide is this tape and have you a link? :hmmm:

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Hi Manfred,   it looks like below.  I'm sure you'll find the equivalent at your local hardware's ducting section. You'll have to cut it into 1mm strips using a straight edge and a brand new blade so the edges don't shear. 

 

https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/S-18880/3M-Single-Coated-Tapes/3M-3311-Aluminum-Foil-Tape-2-x-50-yds?pricode=YD055&gadtype=pla&id=S-18880&gclid=CjwKCAiAy4bTBRAvEiwAFtatHPxvzkHKlvuP2ZHW2mt6MDVJOVaXUhuwJlbCTzdeZR3QOlew-OjfxhoCuL0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Let me do some modifications on the wall thickness of the model -- I got a reject message from Shapeways due to the walls being too thin.   I should be able to upload the updated model soon.

Edited by crackerjazz
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18 hours ago, egt95 said:

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Hi Mike,

 

great to see, that your are back on track again, because I missed you and your interesting projects - with photos!!!  yahoo.gif

 

Thanks for the new photos about using the Resin parts of the Newware kit in combination with the Revell Boosters.  :worship:

 

BTW, I have also already considered whether to buy this kit, even though I use the Airfix Stack Kit. :hmmm: But these huge resin blocks have scared me away hitherto, which one has to remove in order to can use the small parts. analintruder.gif


The AFTC rings look great, but the STS-6 Booster had this Instafoam insulation not yet, so I have persuaded Joe for modeling an Early version for me in 3D without Instafoam, which looks great so far. up045518.gif

 

Based on your photo, I have estimated the width of the AFTC strips, which is slightly smaller than 1 mm, right? 

 

Last but not least, I would appreciate it very well, if you could repopulate your Challenger and Discovery Threads with your amazing photos. up040577.gif

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Hello everybody,

 

and so once more back to the photo of the Columbia with the AFTC silver strips in the collection of George Gassaway (without mission number), which after intensive research I can assign meanwhile, which is always important to me, and here with the right source.  cool.gif

 

JKyZ6o.jpg
Source: spacefacts.de

 

After I firstly have scoured through the NASA Media Archive and then the website of Capcomespace in the 3rd attempt at Spacefacts, I finally have found out that it deals with the STS-50 (1992). up045518.gif

 

And through this search, I now know that these silver foil insulation strips on the AFTCs were used at least until STS-85 (1997) and disappeared only later.

 

sts-85.jpg 
Source: spacefacts.de

 

On this photo of the STS-89 (1998) one can recognize even at Hi-Res. no more silver strips with security, i5684_no2.gif I imagine at least with my meanwhile trained silver-strip-eye. cant-believe-my-eyes-smiley-emoticon.gif 

 

3MbNAC.jpg
Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

 

On the other hand, I think that in this photo of the STS-99 (2000), one can easily see at Hi-Res. that there were no silver strips, what then also remained until the end of the Space Shuttle program with STS-135 (2011). up045518.gif 

 

00pp0230-m.jpg
Source: mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov

 

From the intervening seven missions STS-90, STS-91, STS-95, STS-88, STS-96, STS-93 and STS-103 I could not find any reliable photos unfortunately until now, whereby one should not be wondered about the unsystematic numbering of the missions. rolleyes.gif

 

If any of you find usable photos of it, please let me know.  bow.gif

 

Now that's enough of the long AFTC searches, i.e. one photo I still want to show finally, namely this one here, 

 

Wee2Sq.jpg
Source: Library of Congress (HAER No. TX-116-K-21)

 

with an interesting view at the inside of this ring-shaped hollow flexible flame curtain (George Gassaway), and here once more a larger view.  top.gif

 

y7ifUv.jpg

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Hi Joe,

thank you for your great job, I have bought the first couple. 00003423.gif

 

710x528_21941044_12309450_1516451637.jpg

 

Can't wait to hold it in my hands and to have a close look at them. cant-believe-my-eyes-smiley-emoticon.gif

 

Hopefully, Shapeways will soon greenlight it. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
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Hi everyone... I am back. Regarding the Shapeway parts. I would be interested how rough those prints are. I've bought a FDM 3D printer and even if the quality of the parts are good the print lines are visible. So the parts need some sanding and filling. I wonder how the Shapeway parts compare to home 3d printer.  

 

Great work as always Manfred. I don't think I can much add to the universal praise of your build. It's really great stuff and I mean all of the 71 pages. I really enjoy your progress updates.

 

Cheers Ralf

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Thanks Ralf for your nice words, :worship:


yep, the surface roughness of 3D prints still seems to be a certain problem, but I still cannot judge it because I did not have any 3D print in my hand yet. But hopefully that will change soon when I get my first two AFTCs in Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD), then I can say a little bit more. top.gif 

 

As far as I know, the roughness is depending on the print direction and in particular respectively on the layer height. 

 

As written by Shapeways, FUD and FED (Frosted Extreme Detail) are both made of a UV cured acrylic polymer. While both offer high resolution, FED uses a 16 micron layer height to produce incredibly fine features, which I will also use, in order to be able to compare both sorts. up040577.gif

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Hello everybody,

 

a friend of our Raumcon-Forum has sent me a small roll of silver adhesive foil for testing. speak_cool.gif 

 

opGH3z.jpg

 

The foil is so thin that one can hardly measure its thickness (about 0.03 mm), and was of course tried the same time, for which I have cut small 1 mm wide strips with a brand-new cutter knife. 

 

mdrwHM.jpg

 

Q16bmG.jpg

 

which I then glued tentatively onto an Airfix Aft Skirt-Ring, which seems to be a practicable solution. cool.gif

 

vwrBeq.jpg

 

Then I also glued three of these foil strips on the half pipe (right). 

 

caIQer.jpg

 

And finally respectively 24 strips must be glued onto the 3D printed and painted ASTC Rings, which might be a bit of fiddling, but should be feasible.  up040577.gif

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I can tell you that Shapeways Frosted Extreme Detail is so smooth that you will probably not want to do anything to it. However, it's very expensive. Frosted Ultra Detail will leave some frosting texture on one side of the print, which is very annoying. White Strong & Flexible is rough, but can be smoothed with Smooth-On compound and filler primers.

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4 hours ago, crackerjazz said:

0.03 mm, wow. Maybe I should have made the grooves even thinner? The current ones are gonna telegraph right onto the foil and you'll end up with foil strips with grooves in the middle after burnishing :(

 

Maybe, but if you look at this photo, one can see that the seams of the ASTC segments also become apparent a little bit under the foil. top.gif

 

up061032.jpg
Source: georgesrockets.com 

 

Therefore let's wait and see. up040577.gif

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3 hours ago, Hotdog said:

I can tell you that Shapeways Frosted Extreme Detail is so smooth that you will probably not want to do anything to it. However, it's very expensive. Frosted Ultra Detail will leave some frosting texture on one side of the print, which is very annoying. White Strong & Flexible is rough, but can be smoothed with Smooth-On compound and filler primers.

 

I want to believe you, and you can judge it because you know the differences. top.gif

On the difference between FUD and FED I'm already curious too, and the price difference between € 7,14 and € 8,24 is not so huge. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
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Hello together,

 

well, I was rather amazed when I suddenly saw at noon today that the adhesive film strips had detached again from the rounding of the half pipe. analintruder.gif

 

z2W8Qj.jpg

 

Apparently, the adhesive film has certain residual stresses inside, which exceed the adhesive force of the strip after a certain time and lead to detachment.  rolleyes.gif

 

This can be seen on this piece of adhesive foil, which bulges itself to the silver side after cutting from the roll. 

 

Eo6XJA.jpg

 

A similar effect I noticed every now and then on some of the glued strip ends, which did not glue firmly enough and stood out a bit (≤ 1 mm), which I then again had to glue with MEK, and a very unruly end with CA. smiley_worship.gif 

 

The household foil does not have these internal stresses, which is why their strips are still firmly fixed, furthermore they were glued with MEK respectively CA.

 

However, I have to say in hindsight that I had not degreased the half pipe before gluing the adhesive foil strips, which could be the reason, what I will check again tomorrow.  cool.gif

 

Then I had also ordered a Chrome marker (1 mm) at Rai-Ro, which arrived today, which of course I tried out right away. 

 

Around these markers of Molotow a real hype has arisen, whose highly pigmented special ink creates a real mirror effect on smooth, non-absorbent surfaces. speak_cool.gif 

 

At first, however, I could not cope with the marker because I did not know that it was a Pumpmarker, which had to be shaken and briefly pumped before use.  huh.gif

 

While straight lines drawn with ruler are not a problem, using the marker on the half tube was a bit more difficult and definitely needs getting used to, which certainly requires some practice. smiley215.gif

 

Therefore, the first six strips on the right end are certainly not optimal, but at least a ray of hope. top.gif   

 

7aBEjf.jpg

 

So much for the insights from my experiments today.  up040577.gif

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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

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Thanks Mike, this is also a good advice, bow.gif which I have heeded meanwhile, as I will show. :thumbsup:

 

Hello friends,

 

I have also still tried something else. cool.gif

 

At first, I degreased the half-tube with Isopropyl and then glued three new adhesive foil strips.

 

In order to check a possible diameter influence, I also put a strip on my thick Rainbird knitting needle (Ø 8 mm), and lo and behold, there it still glues always firmly, without any signs of detachment, which seems to confirm my guess. up045518.gif

 

G1hcvO.jpg


On the other hand, on the thinner half-tube (Ø 4,7 mm) after a short while the ends began detaching again, rolleyes.gif what can be prevented however by fixing the ends with CA. top.gif

 

iMS8PD.jpg

 

Then I've made another attempt with the Chrome marker, for which I taped a 1 mm wide strip  on the half-tube on both sides with tape (2 mm) and then painted this area by using the chrome marker simply by hand. But after removing the tape strips one can see that the chrome line is still not even, because the liquid partially creeps ugly under the tape. 

 

Besides, this procedure would be pure stress at 24 strips per Aft Skirt ring, smiley_worship.gif except from the fact that the marked strips probably would not have the same width at the end anyway.

 

mWLq7S.jpg

 

But now we will wait for the delivery of the 3D ASTC prints, which I have now also ordered in Frosted Extreme Detail (FED). up040577.gif

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