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

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

now the flu has still caught me yet,   wherefore this week is not much happened, but nevertheless, I would like to give a short update.  

 

But in any case, I have now come up with a new and relatively flexible mounting technique.  

 

In doing so, the ring line is received in the rear small opening of a clothespin, which is then clamped into the vice. In this opening, the ring is easy to turn, which makes the step-by-step CA gluing of the clamping rings enormously easier, since the rings can be reached optimally from all sides, without instantly to risk the breaking off of fragile parts somewhere.

 

At first the last four-part clamping ring still followed,  

 

 

 

 

before it went on with the six-part clamping rings.

 

 

And the procedure becomes even more flexible, when the clothespin is clamped into my smaller Proxxon vice, 

 

 

which I can also put on the side or place upright as required.

 

 

 

Although all this looks almost like a children's game, the whole handling needs getting used to and is not completely harmless, as one quasi always juggles with raw eggs.   

 

But gradually these sequences become more and more familiar too, and in my little box there are still a lot of clamping rings, whereby I almost have the impression that it would become no less but rather more.  

 

But fortunately, this impression deceives and it goes slowly but surely forward, because all takes a lot of time.  

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

after the first side has been completed, follows now the oblique on which there are two six-part clamping rings on either side of the 36" inlet pipe, as can be seen here, 

 

Source: NASA

 

of which the former is already glued. 

 

 

When searching for the most favorable clamping position for the stepwise gluing of the clamping rings, the line must be re-clamped several times. 

 

...

 

...  

 

 

On the following straight piece also sits a pipe support, but which has no clamping ring, as one can see in the first picture.

 

 

And so it goes around the corner to the inner part of this ring line, where on the front and rear each a four-part clamping ring sits and in between them three six-part rings. 

 

Source: NASA

 

 

The faded markings had to be re-drawn several times.

 

 

 

And then finally the last mark was reached, 

 

 

and this clamping ring also glued.  

 

 

But then followed the total disillusion like a bolt from the blue, because that was nevertheless also a six-part clamping ring and no four-part ring ... and I felt me in the wrong movie.

 

But this can happen to you, when the concentration slows down in the evening and one should rather stop building and better go to sleep ... what I then also repentantly done.   

 

Today I had to strip off the clamping ring heavy-heartedly which was replaced by a four-part.

 

 

 

Thereby the one ring line now is finally complete, and so tomorrow I can leap with fresh courage on the clamping rings at the ring line behind the LOX-TSM.  

[spaceman]

Hello together,

 

even though my flu still has me down pat persistently, I would nevertheless like to show some pictures of the progress of the last days. But it does not help, and therefore keep smiling and bite teeth together.

 

Now for the gluing of the first clamping rings on the ring line behind the LOX-TSM, and here is the overview of the arrangement of the 14 clamping rings with three four-part and 11 six-part rings.

 

 

As can be seen in the picture, it first started again with a four-part clamping ring behind the TSM, followed by a six-part and a four-part ring.

 

 

 

And then there are four six-part clamping rings on this strand.

 

Source: NASA (Google Street View)

 

Now half of the clamping rings on this ring line has been made, and my little box has now emptied quite nicely.

 

 

 

And now there remain only seven clamping rings on the other half of the line, which I also will still create.   

 

That's it for now.

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

and now to the final spurt of the clamping ring chapter, which has occupied me long enough, where now these two six-part clamping rings on the SRB Blast Shield follow.  

 

Source: NASA

 

 

 

The arrangement of the following five clamping rings can be clearly seen in this picture (right strand), where behind the bow a six-part clamping ring is followed and then a four-part and three six-part rings.  

 

Source: NASA

 

 

 

 

Therewith this crazy chapter has finally been done,   because this Sisyphus work of the tricky 28 clamping rings with a total of 150 screw connections was extremely exhausting and moreover very stressful.

 

 

And so I have now to relax and regenerate a little bit ...  

[crowe-t]

Incredible job Manfred!  I think it's time you have a drink after finishing all these tiny details. 

Mike.

[spaceman]

Thanks Mike, 

 

yep, that was a bit much and therefore I'd like to drink a toast with you 

 

Cheers!

 

Edited February 23, 2017 by spaceman

[K2Pete]

Well done! Take a well deserved break ... give your eyes a rest ... regenerate your mental energy ... 

This certainly looked like a Sisyphus-ian effort ... my congratulations on enduring this effort and Manfred, please enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done!

 

This subassembly looks superb!   

[spaceman]

Thanks Pete for your kind words, 

 

for a long time this SSWS pipe labyrinth had been like a nightmare for me,   which is why I have pushed it to the back of my mind as long as possible before I finally had the courage to start. 

 

That's why I am now completely happy and satisfied as well as a little bit proud that I have made it and not given up, which is really a great feeling.  

 

[Vidar_710]

Models in their own right!

 

Nicely done.

 

Tracy

[spaceman]

Thanks Tracy for your nice compliment. 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

after a welcome pause and deflection by various winter sport world championships last week, I will now return to the base and have been busy in the meantime again with the Water Bags, which also belong to the SSWS. 

 

Source: flickr.com (Jen Scheer)

 

I have already reported on the task of this sub-system a long time ago where you can read once more again.

 

Whether these water bags were already red and yellow, or uniformly red in the early missions such as STS-6, I have unfortunately not yet been able to find out.  On this older picture here, it looks as if they were uniformly red at the time. Perhaps someone of you knows the answer.  

 

Source: capcomespace.net

 

To warm up, I have looked around again and followed up some details, which I noticed during the analysis of the clamping rings again and again. 

 

These are, on the one hand, these rings on the anterior four outlets of the two ring lines, which one can zoom within the panorama pic. 

 

Source: NASA

 

And then there are also several fastening hooks for the yellow water bags suspended around the SRBs,

 

,
Source: http://www.youtube.com

 

which can be seen on these pictures,

 

Source: flickr.com (Jen Scheer)

 

and are marked here.

 

Source: NASA

 

At first I have tried the rings and searched for a suitable insulating sleeve to cut off thin discs, just as I had made the transport rings on the covers of the Rainbirds between the H-beams. 

 

While I was able to use a Ø 0,7 mm sleeve at that time, these rings had to be even smaller with Ø 0.4 mm, so I wanted to try it with my smallest insulating sleeve (Ø 0,5 mm), what certainly would be still a little too big.  

 

 

And then I remembered PE Bolts and Nuts by ABER of different size, which I had bought earlier, which should be suitable, if a suitable diameter were thereby. 

 

Source: ABER

 

These are bolts and nuts in increments of 1.5 mm - 1.25 mm - 1.0 mm - 0.8 mm - 0.6 mm up to 0.4 mm, , which however are so tiny that one can hardly see them in the last two rows.   And from these nuts I then have drilled out the first two (right) with my smallest drill with Ø 0.25 mm, 

 

 

and then cut out, which should become even better. 

 

 

And then I tried again with a smaller cutter.  

 

 

But how to fix this tiny ring onto the 18'' outlet, which is sitting on an insect needle (Ø 0.25 mm), which can not be held in place with the most pointed tweezers. 

 

 

That took a bit longer and was pure stress, which is why I almost wanted to give up. 

 

For this I have dabbed a tiny CA droplet to the bending and then tried to place the ring, which was sitting on the tip of the needle, so carefully, and at the same time pull out the needle, so that both do not glue together.   

 

After several failed attempts, it actually worked well, and the result looks pretty good as I find.  

 

But whether I should really do this effort, I do not know yet,  if so, then I would have to come up with a better gluing handling.  

[my favs are F`s]

Well, if you will watch the diorama with some sort of magnifying glasses when it`s ready - yeah, probably it`s worth adding all these tiny things. Otherwise I doubt that they will be visible at all, and you may even forget about these small things.... with so much larger objects in sight. I mean, they are like slightly larger dust particles. This is beyond craziness, according to my taste :))))

[spaceman]

Yeah, therein is a shred of truth, and sometimes I also doubt myself.

But even though I love these tiny details, somewhere should be a border, maybe it's a kind of modeling madness ...  

 

Edited March 3, 2017 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

in the meantime, I have a tough time of it with the rings, because I do not give up so quickly.  

 

Here are some more or less well done rings together with the needle (Ø 0.25 mm), which I can safely forget in order to hold the rings when gluing. 

 

 

On the macros, these midgets still look quite grippy, therefore here for the relativization a shot from normal sitting position. And therefore the handling is only possible with the headset-magnifying glass, of course.

 

 

And also the solution with the Pattafix tip on the toothpick is not the yellow of the egg, because sometimes tiny remnants of Pattafix stick to the ring, which can be removed only badly, without the ring thereby perhaps tear off again.

 

Therefore using a toothpick with a tip made of a masking tape is much more suitable for this purpose, with which the ring can be gently taken up, in order to be able to deposit it over the CA droplet on the outlet arc, where it should then glue.  

 

 

And this technique has then worked well with the following ring, as one can see here.

 

 

And so it went on with the two rings at the outlets on the inside of the ring line (right circles) behind the LOX-TSM,

 

Source: NASA

 

which can be seen here. 

 

 

And strengthened by this partial success, I now also want to equip the outlets on the ring line behind the LH2-TSM with these rings.

 

Well, and then I've experimented with the hooks for the lateral Water Bags.

 

Source: NASA

 

To do this, I have initially put simple plugs of lead wire (Ø 0,3 mm) in pre-drilled holes on a dummy.

 

 

And these are two hooks, to the left of my thinnest rods (Ø 0,3 mm) and right of brass wire (Ø 0,3 mm),

 

 

 

which are still too high with 1 mm and have to shrink to half. 

 

Since I'm not enthusiastic about the result, I have to outbrake myself now and will cancel these hook tests.   In addition, the fragile outlets could break off during pre-drilling, what I would not risk at all.  

 

With these details, I am moving in the border area of what is doable with reasonable effort, because they are so tiny that one can hardly recognize them, which is why the effort is not worthwhile.

[spaceman]

Hello friends of the rings,

 

although this fiddling is getting slowly but surely on my nerves too, I must still pull through the four rings at the outlets of the other ring line, earlier I give no rest.

 

 

But that was once again a hard patience test, especially since the handling while gluing these tiny rings even with my cool tape tweezers was really stressful, because it didn't release the rings occasionally at the crucial moment.

 

But then the two rings on the outside of the ring line were finally done.  

 

 

But even taking photographs of this bulky pipe skeleton is not a simple matter, and it is also quite time-consuming, if one wants to represent the details sharp, because it depends on a favorable perspective as well as the light conditions.

 

 

And since for good macros one has to approach as close as possible, one must be careful, in order not to bump with the Digicam somewhere and even to damage.

 

 

 

And so to the outlets on the inside of the ring line,

 

 

here something more from the proximity. 

 

 

Now, both ring lines are finally finished and could be painted.

 

 

Of the rings one can hardly see anything from this perspective, but they are completed, wherewith this chapter is finally finished.

 

 

So far for today.

[K2Pete]

You are ... truly ... the Lord of the Rings!!  

 

My first thought when I saw you replicating these microscopic details was ... "you ... have ... got ... to ... be ... kidding!!"

I don't know how you can even see-e-e these details on photos ... not to mention finding a solution and then building them ... in 1/144!!

 

You are, Manfred, an amazing modeller!     

[my favs are F`s]

...did i saw the word "paint" within the lines...

Awesome!

[spaceman]

2 hours ago, K2Pete said:

You are ... truly ... the Lord of the Rings!!  

 

My first thought when I saw you replicating these microscopic details was ... "you ... have ... got ... to ... be ... kidding!!"

I don't know how you can even see-e-e these details on photos ... not to mention finding a solution and then building them ... in 1/144!!

 

You are, Manfred, an amazing modeller!     

 

Thanks Pete for your nice compliments. 

 

Speaking of the Lord of the Rings, , but at the moment I feel more like the Lord of the Eye Rings ...

 

Yeeeaaahhh, this SSWS pipe labyrinth was a very hard nut, but now I'm glad I have cracked it.

[crowe-t]

Manfred, 

 

There are NO words to describe how AMAZING your SSWS came out!  You've captured details that most will never even see.  Wonderful job!  

 

 

BTW, they sort of look like crabs sitting there in the open. 

 

Mike.

Edited March 13, 2017 by crowe-t

[spaceman]

4 hours ago, my favs are F`s said:

...did i saw the word "paint" within the lines...

Awesome!

 

Yes, it is, but I mean airbrush of course.

 

 A few small things I still have to add, but the guys in the paint department are ready for battle and only have still to test their new spray gun.  

 

I'm only wondering what is better, whether I airbrush the ring lines and all the pipe supports individually and then glue all together, or whether I first should glue all the supports to the pipes and airbrush all together ... 

Edited March 11, 2017 by spaceman

[spaceman]

13 minutes ago, crowe-t said:

Manfred, 

 

There are NO words to describe how AMAZING your SSWS came out!  You've captured details that most will never even see.  Wonderful job!  

 

 

BTW, they sort of look like crabs sitting there in the open. 

 

Mike.

 

Thank you Mike for your nice words,    I'm also amazed about this final result. 

BTW, that is the destiny of too small details, but the crabs can not be overlooked. 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

after all the clamping rings have been installed now, the question now arises about the further procedure with regard to painting (airbrush) of the ring lines, about which I have been tinkering for a while.

 

I am not quite sure whether I should glue the supports before painting (possibly with MEK?), or whether I paint all the supports and the ring lines first separately and then glue the supports ...  

 

 

 

Here is once more an elder picture with all the supports, but still without clamping rings.

 

 

With the clamping rings, the interspaces there will inevitably become even narrower.  

 

 
To glue the supports previously and then completely paint the whole skeleton with all the supports would certainly be the less expensive method.

 

However, I have doubts whether one reaches with the Airbrush jet into the small interstices between the sickle holders and clamping rings, or whether they could possibly clogged, which of course should not happen.  

 

For this I have here a macro image of the place conditions between the ring line and the supports, whereby the distances between the sickle holders are about 1.5 mm, between which the clamping rings (0.5 mm) sit, whereby one should not be deceived by the real proportion.  

 

 

Otherwise, I would have to airbrush the supports separately, possibly only from above, and the ring line with the clamping rings at least at the bottom, then gluing the supports and airbrushing once more all together ...

 

All in all a pretty tricky decision to a guaranteed stressful procedure, that I must meet now, which is why I am curious what you mean, or what you would advise me ... 

Edited March 13, 2017 by spaceman

[crowe-t]

Manfred, 

 

It seems like it will be easier to glue it all together and then airbrush the paint.  I can't guarantee it but I don't think you'll have any trouble getting in all the crevices with the airbrush.  Of course spray in light coats but the air pressure should allow the paint to make it into all those areas.    

 

If you do paint the parts separately you will most likely have to re-spray some areas after you glue it together.  

 

Mike.

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by crowe-t

[spaceman]

Thanks Mike for your helpful comment,

 

maybe that is the best way, and so I will try it. 

[Vidar_710]

Finish it then spray it. That way you don't make more work for yourself having to remove paint to properly glue components. An airbrush will get the paint where it needs to go.

 

Tracy