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Space Shuttle restoration


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Last year my little brother found, and returned to me what was left of my old beat-up 1/72 Monogram space shuttle I attempted to build, and then attempted to destroy out of frustration when I was a kid. There were enough parts left somehow to inspire enough of a spark to start this project. With the covid19 quarantine leaving me with little to do and little to blow money on, I have followed several of you down the  rabbit hole that is 1/72 space shuttle super detailing. The ultimate goal is to turn my trashed orbiter into a super detailed Discovery, and eventually stack it on the boosters and tank that this kit originally did not have. 

Edited by 1981
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  • 2 weeks later...

So here she is in all her glory. Dirty, dejected, shot full of BB holes. Some of the raised line panel details are still visible. Nothing lines up right, and some disassembly and reassembly will be needed throughout the project. My budget is $1000. I took a side job doing some product photography to pay for the cost of the project. The original dream was to simply spruce up this orbiter and slap it on some SRB's and a Tank that I thought wouldn't be too hard to get a hold of. Many lost Ebay auctions later, I would learn that getting your hands on a stack is not easy or cheap. From there I would use the stack to model various art projects I have been day dreaming about for years. Then... one day I stumbled upon 'Homer's' tiled beanie cap on Shapeways.com and it was a slippery slope from there...

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Edited by 1981
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Hi 1981, I had hoped you'd post this thread on the RealSpace forum, but I'm glad I found you here.

You can post many images in one post, but you need to join a photo storage site ... it just saves you the effort of opening up a new post for every image ... I feel you're going to be generating a LOT of images.

 

I've done a couple of Shuttles and if you need any info, just ask any of us! My builds are on the Real Space forum if you're curious.

 

This is gonna be fun to watch come together!

Pete

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Hey there K2Pete, I am trying to figure out how all this works. It took me a while to figure out how to link to Flickr. I also can't seem to figure out how to post from my phone. When you say Real Space forum, is that thread affiliated with 'Real Space Models'.com ? I will try to master the art of multiple photos without posting some many times at once. 

 

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As I began to get deeper into the project, my brother surprised me with the Flight Deck set from Homer's spare parts. I had no intention of putting a flight deck in this thing, and also was going to build it with the bay doors shut. But, once I got the flight deck, I was blown away by the detail,  and subsequently discovered these forums. I decided to go all-in and have the option of swinging the bay doors open. In the mean time I finally landed a win on Ebay and scored a Monogram stack that came with some older detail parts, many sheets of after market decals, and a spare Revel Orbiter.  

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By the time I had found the forums, I had already gone ahead with putting some of the 3d parts together by trial and error. I made some of my own mistakes, fitment was a struggle, and a lot of risky re-work had to take place. The more I worked to learn the parts, the more I realized that perfection was going to be a difficult target to achieve with this build. Considering the state of the orbiter, I will have to do my best and use this a learning process for a future build which will take more time and patience, and by the looks of it will also have more parts from you folks available than are currently available. The goal here is to get a good looking result for my old nostalgic shuttle, and learn how to really go to town on the next one.  

20201027_225656

Once the paint starts hitting the 3D parts, life begins to take shape. This stuff gives me goose bumps. 

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Later on I would discover that clean parts, and effective primer are key for the 3D parts. Also, prepare to do some VERY light sanding with 1000 grit sand paper to help remove some of the printer lines. 

20201027_230050

No the sheet styrene patches over the BB Gun holes inside the 'R' wall of the fuselage. These will cause some head ache later when trying to fit the payload bay back into the Orbiter, causing more surgery. 

20201030_202323

... More Goose Bumps. 

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1981 ... the Real Space forum I'm referring to is the one where Homer is posting right here on ARC ... it's all Space stuff.

And this is really coming along nicely!

 

And your photography skills are showing too ... nice pix! You're making Homer's parts look GREAT!

 

Pete

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K2 Pete, you are the hubble guy. It's an honor. I came across your build on a google search several months ago. Awesome. So check this out.... a few years ago, my mother in law brought me this box of documents. I will have to get the back story again, but basically the contents of the box is a massive amount of years of someones work on  hubble. There is an incredible amount of data in here. Over-head transparencies, hand written notes, all kinds of stuff. 

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