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Somewhat recently I began building the 1/200 scale Hasegawa Space Shuttle kit, which I originally purchased in 2014. I'm building it to represent Atlantis STS-135, and will eventually display it with the rockets from the 1/200 AMT Man In Space kit.

 

The orbiter comes very nicely detailed and will need very little work to make it look the part. The boosters and tank, on the other hand, are a different story. They are very basic and missing a lot of key features. The worst part is, the boosters and tank are molded together as one piece, fused together by these horribly inaccurate ribs!

 

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Yikes! What were they thinking?!


DAYS 1-4
12.5 hours
Starting build cost: $35.32

 

I began by cementing the two halves that make up the ET/SRB hodge-podge together. Once the cement was thoroughly dry, I sawed the SRBs off down the rib line to separate them from the ET. I sat the boosters aside and focused on the tank first. Here's how the stock kit tank looks after spending a few hours removing what was left of the ribs, filling the seams, and getting her all cleaned up.

 

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Now it was time to start adding details. I drew up a stringer wrap for the ET intertank, along with various other details, and used my Silhouette cutter to cut them into a sheet of .010" styrene. Here's an image of the intertank wrap going on.

 

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Some styrene strip was needed to extend the feed lines into the stringer area. It's not perfect, but still a big improvement over the bare surface of the kit plastic.

 

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The aft end of the tank received a lot of detailing as well. In the image above, you can see where I added the manhole covers. I beefed up the attachment struts with some styrene tubing, and used a plastic toothpick for the crossmember. Styrene rod was used to add the ends of the feed lines, and a strip of styrene was wrapped around the circumference of the tank. There's a couple other bits in there as well. You can also see where I drilled out the holes for the rods that will eventually connect the SRBs.

 

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I added detail to the backside of the tank as well. These were also cut using the Silhouette cutter.

 

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Here is the tank, with all the details added and ready for paint!

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Since I am not yet ready to invest in an airbrush and learn how to use it, I asked fellow ARC member crowe-t if he would paint the ET for me. I shipped it to him, and about a week later, he sent me photos of the amazing results!

 

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I was completely blown away by the job he did painting the tank for me.

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DAYS 5-6
9.25 hours
21.75 hours total
Build cost to date: $47.32

 

While crowe-t had the ET for painting, I began the grueling task of cleaning up the SRB's. It took four hours to remove what was left of the attachment ribs, and sand and smooth out the seams. What makes the boosters such a pain is the extra care you have to take in sanding between the o-rings so as not to remove them. In the image below is a comparison of the boosters. The one in the foreground has been cleaned up, the other has not.

 

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The remaining five-or-so hours was spent detailing the port side SRB. This included the careful addition of missing ring detail around the various booster segments, scratchbuilding the missing separation motors for the aft skirt, and making the flame curtain out of Milliput. The photo below shows the port SRB with the added details next to the bare kit SRB.

 

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I still need to add the bands of insulation that go around the aft o-rings, but after over 5 hours spent just adding these details, I was burned out! It was time to take a break from the SRB's and start on the orbiter.

 

 

DAYS 7-10
11.5 hours
33.25 hours total
Build cost to date: $59.33

 

It only took about 45 minutes to assemble the orbiter fuselage and wings. This was enough to get me started on creating my own decals. The image below shows me in the early stages of decal testing and creation. They will be photo-realistic, and will cover the entire body of the orbiter.

 

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Here is the modified vertical stabilizer. I used Milliput to add the drag chute compartment, and sanded the angle into the tip.

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The next 7-and-a-half hours were spent filling in all of the unnecessary or inaccurate details, filling gaps, and sanding seams in preparation for the primer coat. Here's how she looked just before getting hit with primer.

 

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You can see in the last image where I had actually gone ahead and sprayed the belly with white. This is because of the awful way they made this kit, using both white and black colored plastic. I could not see the details good enough to trace the pattern for the belly decal, so I gave it a shot of white so I could see it better. The black you see is from heavy sanding after the fact.

 

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I've also begun the tedious task of detailing the SSME nozzles with these tiny bits of wire! I have only succeeded in finishing the details for one nozzle, despite having cut and shaped enough wire for two. Working at this micro-scale requires perfect precision, and I managed to drop a few of these into the carpet, never to be found again. I suppose I'll keep making them until I get all three nozzles finished.

Edited by Hotdog
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Here's how the orbiter looks after getting her primer coat. I went with Tamiya Light Gray to help even out the contrast of the black and white plastic the kit was molded in. The primer made visible a few very small spots on the surface I'll have to fill in before I begin the final painting.

 

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So this is where I'm at so far. Thanks for looking!

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Hotdog, 

 

I'm glad to see you posting this build.  You are doing a lot of work on this one and it's paying off.  This is really a nice kit.  The shuttle's shape looks very accurate.  I can't wait to see it completed with all your photo-realistic decals.  You do an amazing job on your decals.

 

Mike. 

Edited by crowe-t
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This is such an eensy-weensy model ... and yours is looking great! Nice job on the SSME detailing!!

crowe-t ... such a gorgeous paint job on that ET ... WOW-W-W!

 

And Hotdog, you don't really need to use an airbrush, you can get an excellent job with a paint brush, especially at this tiny scale. Start out with a thinner coat and you won't even see any brushstrokes.

 

With your custom decals, this is gonna look like an award winner!

Pete

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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. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

amazing! i JUST returned home to Canada from visiting the KSC, and i immediately started looking for a nice smaller scaled kit of Atlantis to build.. this hasegawa one sounds like the perfect size for me!

 

will you be producing more of those decals? i'd like to purchase a set..

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On 4/23/2018 at 12:43 PM, habu2 said:

Please Please Please tell us you're going to produce those 1/200 tile decals.  I need a bunch !!!

Hotdog,

 

I'm with Habu.  I've got the nice little Shuttle/SCA kit, which would benefit from some extra detail.  

 

Chris

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Enterprise didn't have real thermal tiles.  What it had in their place would be all black, no weathering or scorching.  The pattern around the nose and windscreen is unique as well.

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That was my point. It's probably to much effort to adapt the decals for Enterprise. I am also not sure if the model would benefit in this scale from whole body decals.

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I meant for Enterprise, since it was very clean and a small model would benefit not as much from whole body decals as an later used orbiter. But even so, whole body decals would probably look good for most scales and orbiter configurations.

Edited by ralf
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/21/2018 at 9:05 PM, Hotdog said:

Now it was time to start adding details. I drew up a stringer wrap for the ET intertank, along with various other details, and used my Silhouette cutter to cut them into a sheet of .010" styrene. Here's an image of the intertank wrap going on.

 

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Would you be willing to share your drawings? My wife has a Cricut and I would love to give this a shot.

 

Vern

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't give up the drawings, but I'll sell ya a sheet of the engraved wrap for $15 + shipping. Comes with the aft ET detail like the manhole cover, and the extra rings for the SRB's. Shoot me a PM if interested.

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