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Revell 1/144 OV-099 Challenger


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And another one! I've had a 1/144 Revell stack for the better part of three years. I did the same as Endeavour back in 2009 but I was never really happy with it. I gave the orbiter to a good friend who has it on his space shelf and kept the poorly painted SRBs and ET for myself but knew I always wanted to retry it. 

 

Because I've had this for so long, I had a lot of time to figure out which mission and orbiter to do. Just last week, I was picking up some stamps at the post office for some thank you cards from my wedding. The lady behind the counter started showing me all the different stamps available before bringing out the Sally Ride set (of course our thank you cards were sent out with these!). I then recalled in 2016, when I visited the Smithsonian to see Discovery, seeing a case of Sally Ride artifacts and mementos and being exited to see that. 

 

15055890_10155549702469408_7438880636206

 

Well, obviously I think doing Challenger for STS-7 is like, fate or something. 

 

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I've pulled the reference images from AXM Paper models for help on the orbiter, SRBs, and ET detailing.

 

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I've had to consider whether or not I want to do tile decals, which tile decals, where to get a set of names as Revell doesn't include Challenger and Columbia (can anyone explain this? It was always bewildered me). RealSpace has the names and other details, and it seems only Warbirds and Lake County have black tile decals, with Lake County having the early orbiter white TPS decals as well that would be appropriate. Has anyone used Lake County Spaceport's decals before? I don't think I've ever seen them used here.

 

I'm also likely going to go for the New Ware Revell Shuttle, Tank and Boosters detail set for this one. I've been reading through crowe-t's 2011 thread on his excellent STS-133 Revell stack and New Ware details for inspiration and what I can expect.

 

For those that have built the Revell stack, do you do anything in particular to remove the horizontal ribs? Is there a special carving tool one uses for this or is it really just a matter of careful sanding?

 

Well, like before, more to come!

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It's nice to see a Revell stack being built.  I actually prefer the look of the Revell shuttle.  The cockpit's window area seems to have a more accurate shape than the Airfix kit.  

 

Thanks for the compliment.  I don't think my pictures show anymore since PhotoBucket started charging.  I didn't pay for their service.

 

I just shaved off the ET's horizontal ribs with a razor saw.  I think it took about 10 minutes to do at the time.  It wasn't pretty so I have to use a sanding stick to clean it up and some putty but it wasn't difficult.

Edited by crowe-t
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1 hour ago, mkjm said:

...., where to get a set of names as Revell doesn't include Challenger and Columbia (can anyone explain this? It was always bewildered me). 

 

It was a marketing decision. Those decals are available in the aftermarket.

 

I don’t mean to sound flippant but I thought the reason would be obvious.   

 

Godspeed to the crews of Challenger and Columbia on their respective last missions.

 

 

Edited by habu2
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17 minutes ago, habu2 said:

 

It was a marketing decision. Those decals are available in the aftermarket.

 

I don’t mean to sound flippant but I thought the reason would be obvious.   

 

Godspeed to the crews of Challenger and Columbia on their respective last missions.

 

 

Not so flippant at all! It just seemed always a weird choice to me, when modelers often build a ship that has sunk, or an ace fighter plane that has been downed in battle, we deal with subjects that can at times be brutal and revells decision to leave out the names of Challenger and Columbia always seemed more a slight than not. To me anyways. 

 

1 hour ago, crowe-t said:

It's nice to see a Revell stack being built.  I actually prefer the look of the Revell shuttle.  The cockpit's window area seems to have a more accurate shape than the Airfix kit.  

 

Thanks for the compliment.  I don't think my pictures show anymore since PhotoBucket started charging.  I didn't pay for their service.

 

I just shaved off the ET's horizontal ribs with a razor saw.  I think it took about 10 minutes to do at the time.  It wasn't pretty so I have to use a sanding stick to clean it up and some putty but it wasn't difficult.

 

I have your thread pulled up and they still show for me! I'm probably going to screen shot and print the thread for posterity just in case though. Your work is fantastic and I enjoy reading through how you came up with fixes for the various inaccuracies like the OMS pods.

 

That's for the insight on the ribs, I'll have to see about getting a razor saw to hopefully make short work of them.

 

I really like the Revell stack, it's generally readily available below $30, it's inaccuracies aren't uncorrectable IMO, and the fit is...okay. I've never built an airfix stack, one day I'd like to, but I've seen other builds where the wings meet the fuselage and it always seems like a nightmare of a fit. But a few pictures never tells the whole story, I'd like to get one in hand. But I've got some builds that need to be finished before adding any more!

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I would like for the windshield to fit a lot better, but, oh well. Aside from that the Revell 1/144 orbiter is good enough for me. At the moment I don't remember if there is a kit of the stack stashed in the back room's closet or not. 

But there are several of just the orbiter.

Haven't gotten around to acquiring one of Airfix's yet and sure would like to. (but see closing sentence)

One thing which was done out of an abundance of caution, okay, outright paranoia, I'll admit it, was to reinforce the fuselage half seams with wide & flat strips of styrene glued over them from the inside.

Remember to leave room for bulkheads to fit.

Once I didn't. 

Oops.

Figured the reinforcement would stop me from inadvertently applying enough pressure to crack the seam while filling and sanding and filling and sanding again.

 

Decided to do the cockpit windows airliner model style and not transparent.

Partly because of the poor fit of the transparent part and partly because there's nobody home on the flight deck.

True, in this scale the windows are something like 11 point font size and you aren't going to be counting the pilot figures' eyelashes,

but I like to have people in there to give a sense of size and proportion to the vehicle.

 

And with the trajectory my health is currently on, most are started but none of them may get finished, oh well, such is life.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've decided that this kit will likely go on an Edu-Craft MLP (maybe the crawler as well, have not decided). I've debated on whether or not to have her in a launch position or in a roll-out configuration with the red OMS and SSME covers and the protective window covers on the cockpit. I think it would make for a very interesting look all things considered, kind of like this:

 

800px-Challenger_1A.jpg?1544480672764

 

This project is slow going with all of the others going on concurrently, but I've made a little bit of progress. I used blue painters tape to 'protect' the sides of the Revell ET on each side of each rib, and using a Dremel and grinding wheel went over each rib. There was still some edge that needed to be sanded down following this procedure of course, and it is not easy to keep the tank half still while grinding (also thank goodness for safety glasses!). I've dug a little deep in some parts of this tank half, but some milliput should fill that nicely. This is the tank after hitting it with some 320 grit:

 

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I've also sanded off the intertank stringers. This kit is going to be fitted with New Wares' orbiter, SRB, and ET detail kit for Revell which come with wraps. This half is for the most part smooth and finished save for the putty filling.

 

Crowe-t, did you remove all of the the detail from both ET tank halves on yours? I'm trying to determine if I need to strip both sides bare but the New Ware kit details are somewhat vague on if all of the piping needs to be gone for the detail kit pieces (I assume so but I want to be cautious).

 

As always, more to come!

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