1/32 LM 5

[snichols]

I wouldn’t use the burgundy color, if you look at pictures of LM5 on the moon and in flight you can see a reddish tint from the Kapton in some pictures and in some you cannot but mostly I see an orange red and not a true red color.  Looking at two builds, one of  Dave Carlton’s LM deconstructed and David Senechal’s both 1/24th scale and both amazing I noticed two distinct colors represented for the 5 mil Kapton by both modelers, one red and one orange.
 

I had that feeling  when I went to foil the areas around the hatch but did it anyway so here it goes and hopefully I’ll get a more competent application this time and it pays to keep your patterns !

 

 Now that I’ve applied two panels of the new color look at the last few pictures,  depending on lighting and viewing angles it actually appears to be the same color as the burgundy.

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by snichols

[snichols]

I first have to say that for the 5 mil Kapton on my previous builds this was the color  used , next up are the strut crossmembers  then they get  reattached . Luck was on my side as  I was able to tuck all the new foil under existing panels. 
The rear portion of the strut was initially done with the correct color.
 

Edited July 27, 2023 by snichols

[snichols]

I managed to successfully re-apply the foil so now it’s time to continue on with the ascent stage interior. I have two figures from Max, a set of decals from EVA models and the desire to do some converting. Cockpit interior is a mix of scratch build with Vincent’s parts, panels 1-3 are on the way here as is 2d figure. I had no intention of producing an interior initially so it’s not going to be 100%.

 

The last two pictures show how Neil looked prior to the conversion, I also gave both commanders side and LMP side storage bags an oil paint wash to accentuate the details.

Edited July 27, 2023 by snichols

[SpacecraftGuy]

Wow, a  beautiful thing, indeed! Now that you see it with the hatch open, I think you'll see how much you'll be able to see of the cabin mid and back. One of the great things about a scale LM interior (and probably more so in larger scales) is actually demonstrating just how tiny that interior space was. Just try to string up two 1/32 sleep stations in there. And imagine just how claustrophobic it must have been for the longer duration surface stays. And cold. And noisy. 

 

A masterful and beautiful build!!

[snichols]

On 7/28/2023 at 7:47 PM, SpacecraftGuy said:

Wow, a  beautiful thing, indeed! Now that you see it with the hatch open, I think you'll see how much you'll be able to see of the cabin mid and back. One of the great things about a scale LM interior (and probably more so in larger scales) is actually demonstrating just how tiny that interior space was. Just try to string up two 1/32 sleep stations in there. And imagine just how claustrophobic it must have been for the longer duration surface stays. And cold. And noisy. 

 

A masterful and beautiful build!!

Thank you brother, I see you’ve been busy too and your CSM is looking good!

 Once I realized how much of the interior that was visible with  an open hatch I was a tad upset I didn’t plan more thoroughly , a lesson learned. Speaking of available cockpit and midsection space, can  you imagine living in such a confined area surrounded by such a hostile environment ,it would  not be on my top ten list of things to do and those guys were made of steel. 
 

I did try to save money on parts and made a huge mistake ordering the figures which were produced in the versatile white plastic which is way too grainy to work with. To just get the material smooth enough to paint , Mr. surfacer pretty much erases all surface detail , another lesson learned but I’am a little happy with Neil and wish I would have spent the extra dollars for the better material. 

 

 For those Eagle eyed viewers I haven’t added the apple to the purge valve on the front of the suit, OPS actuator cable and a couple other items   and I almost forgot, visor is painted to mimic the pattern on the floor.

Edited August 3, 2023 by snichols

[bubble]

very nice steve , looks great this progress 

[snichols]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:30 PM, bubble said:

very nice steve , looks great this progress 

Thank you Mr. H , it’s so good to see you here again and your work is legendary.

 

Ascent stage cockpit is now finally completed so now  its time to re-paint Buzz’s visor to reflect the changes made inside the cockpit, silver window shades and the charts that are clamped to the AOT. All parts have arrived for the midsection and I’ve started to do some scratch building where I should have completed work before I closed everything up. 

Heat shield Kapton also needs to be replaced on the midsection and hatch is operable inside cockpit,  I used two brass  mini nails for the hinge pins. The COAS monacle aligns perfectly with the landing point designator reticle in the commanders window, not sure if luck or skill but betting on luck.😜
 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by snichols

[SpacecraftGuy]

10 hours ago, snichols said:

not sure if luck or skill but betting on luck

If 9,999 other things are pure skill, it's a safe bet that that one is as well. That visor is insane! And while the fwd section is photo-realistic (or you have access to Lisa Simpson's miniaturizer), my very favorite thing is something I've never seen before: the charts. Somehow that puts it right over the top.

 

Just read Michael Collin's Carrying the Fire for my Apollo 11 week read this July. He mentions how worried they were about accidentally bumping switches in the confined spaces of the CM, especially as they changed clothing. Your first photo above - can you imagine two of them trying to suit up and put on their PLSSs side by side in That space, with the walls around them made of foil? Amazing photo. If only Max Grueter made a pair of astronauts sleeping in their hammocks to try to hang inside there somehow, above ascent engine cover and the helmets stowed on the floor. 

 

The ascent stage coatings on the mid also look photo-realistic. Outstanding. 

[snichols]

On 8/4/2023 at 8:37 AM, SpacecraftGuy said:

If 9,999 other things are pure skill, it's a safe bet that that one is as well. That visor is insane! And while the fwd section is photo-realistic (or you have access to Lisa Simpson's miniaturizer), my very favorite thing is something I've never seen before: the charts. Somehow that puts it right over the top.

 

Just read Michael Collin's Carrying the Fire for my Apollo 11 week read this July. He mentions how worried they were about accidentally bumping switches in the confined spaces of the CM, especially as they changed clothing. Your first photo above - can you imagine two of them trying to suit up and put on their PLSSs side by side in That space, with the walls around them made of foil? Amazing photo. If only Max Grueter made a pair of astronauts sleeping in their hammocks to try to hang inside there somehow, above ascent engine cover and the helmets stowed on the floor. 

 

The ascent stage coatings on the mid also look photo-realistic. Outstanding. 

Well thank you sir, after a tough week I can call the midsection interior complete with minimal scratch building which consisted of the engine cover, storage bags behind the commanders section,  and the copper conduits on each wall. I forgot to mention in the previous post that the checklists on the AOT are a bit dark as the real computer printouts  were pretty lightly printed, I tried making my own but they looked like blank paper. 
 

As far as being cramped we used pup tents in the Boy Scouts on our hikes at times and they were very cramped, getting dressed inside was a real pain so I can imagine the LM had the same feeling only 100x worse. 
 

Figures need final highlights with some mistakes made on the interior but for the out of sequence construction it didn’t turn out badly. I have to replace the gold foil on the bottom of the midsection , it shows a seam that’s actually a piece of heat shield foil and I doubt I’ll cover the back portion of the forward section since once it’s attached to the midsection it probably  wont be removed that  often. 
 

The last two pictures show the corrections using Testors acrylic dimensional paste which is great stuff .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by snichols

[snichols]

I have to apply  final highlights to  Neil’s suit yet and start the base but the LM itself is completed, happy with the final result and hopefully I won’t find to many issues with it while looking at the pictures. First issue was the the brown colored umbilical and access panel connector which are now lightened . I also noticed an error with the S band and VHF antennae booms, the coatings need to be wrinkled so they are now being corrected.

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by snichols

[bubble]

Top work Steve !!! very high detail work 

 

[snichols]

Thank you everyone and thanks bubble for taking a look and commenting on this build, it’s now complete and this is the last entry into the build log. 
 

Base was fun but quite a bit of research went into it also. The descent stage engine distributed 1k lbs of thrust out of a  bell that had an area of 2730 square inches which translated to 6 oz’s of pressure per square inch that meant not much scorching on the landing site. I also read the paper on soil mechanics and didn’t realize Mare Tranquillitatis bordered the highlands which was only 50 km  away , most of the regolith from Tranquillity base consisted of basalts but the discovery of non mare lithologies was an indication of breccia’s which produces a lighter color regolith seen in the highlands so I used a lighter color gray under the regolith simulant with more on the way to sprinkle on the footpads so technically it’s almost done😜. 
 
Eagle had a pitch of 4.37 degrees on the +Z axis and a 0.33 degree roll on the +Y axis that you can just determine in some pictures. I might dry brush a little burnt umber over the black scorch mark at some point . I haven’t been to an IPMS event since the 1996 NATs In Va. beach and received a plaque for a 2d place(non spacecraft build) but I believe it’s time to change that . 
 

I see a small indentation on the bottom of Neil’s PLSS ! , I applied so much filler and checked it a number of times and to see that ….. oh well time for more I suppose. 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by snichols

[Ret]

Really amazing work - thanks for sharing the build progress - fascinating to watch and learn!

 

-Ret

[crackerjazz]

What a beautiful display piece!    You did all that in what would be my planning and putting off stage, haha.   I hope you wouldn't mind but I might have a bunch of questions when I get back to building mine.   Also, I don't think I'd be able to build an interior as beautiful as yours.  I might actually have to leave that off entirely as it seems overwhelming just thinking about it : )    But congrats on completing a stunning model and hope to see more of your work.

[snichols]

On 8/24/2023 at 9:06 PM, Ret said:

Really amazing work - thanks for sharing the build progress - fascinating to watch and learn!

 

-Ret

Ret thank you for your interest and posts, your comments really make those long days worthwhile and it’s nice to share the same interests with others.

 

On 8/25/2023 at 4:49 PM, crackerjazz said:

What a beautiful display piece!    You did all that in what would be my planning and putting off stage, haha.   I hope you wouldn't mind but I might have a bunch of questions when I get back to building mine.   Also, I don't think I'd be able to build an interior as beautiful as yours.  I might actually have to leave that off entirely as it seems overwhelming just thinking about it : )    But congrats on completing a stunning model and hope to see more of your work.

crackerjazz  thank  you too for your posts and interest, had it not been for that  amazing start on your LM build  I may never have started or completed mine. I think it may be time for you to revisit it soon because I was quite impressed with your work and techniques and I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. 
 

You may want to take a look at  the 2 Facebook groups Space Modeling and Historical Space Models, the  work there is truly amazing .

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by snichols

[Lunokhod 2]

Great job you did on this model. It is always a pleasure to see my model coming into shape even with improvements like all the panels around the ascent stage. A beautiful model.

Vincent

http://spacemodels.nuxit.net/

[Ricardo Salamé]

On 6/18/2023 at 11:05 AM, snichols said:

Thank you so much!

 Here’s an update with the Ascent stage, I’ve built LM ‘s before but the attempts fell far short and as I said I wanted to finally dedicate myself to building one correctly so I’ll show what I’ve accomplished.

I didn’t want to use the printed colored paper patterns provided by Vincent  for the ascent stage shingles as I’ve done in the past so I used plastic sheet dimpled with the rivet patterns taken from Vincent’s coatings guide. The foil that outlines each panel worried me simply because BMF doesn’t stick all that well so I had to make  sure the joints fit together precisely while still maintaining the wrinkled appearance of each shingle. I used CA directly in the center of each panel to tack it in place then carefully secured the rest of each panel using CA and a toothpick. 
 
Next up was the color dilemma,  so Testors acryl flat gull gray was mixed with Tamiya sky and when I tried Tamiya semi gloss for the correct sheen afterwards it only made it more dull. To get the correct semi gloss sheen visible on the anodized aluminum I had to use Krylon  acrylic gloss clear  with each  rivet being painted with a toothpick. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rivet looks amazing. They really highlight the model. You make a fantastic job with this LM!  No you raise the bar again.

Thanks for shearing the pictures!    

 

Regards

 

Ricardo

 

[Nasa man]

Hey there - big fan of your work on the 1/32 Meens LM. I was wondering about the amber colored foil on either side of the surface egress hatch. Where did you get that? Also - the ascent stage windows. Can you tell me about where you got the decals? And, the ascent stage light? Where did you get that or is that just made from whole cloth. Thanks. AND - again, great work. 

Edited September 19, 2024 by Nasa man

[SpacecraftGuy]

An absolute stunner!!

[snichols]

On 9/18/2024 at 8:05 PM, Nasa man said:

Hey there - big fan of your work on the 1/32 Meens LM. I was wondering about the amber colored foil on either side of the surface egress hatch. Where did you get that? Also - the ascent stage windows. Can you tell me about where you got the decals? And, the ascent stage light? Where did you get that or is that just made from whole cloth. Thanks. AND - again, great work. 

Well thank you very much, building  this LM model was a lot of fun but a ton of work and Vincent really did all the hard work creating such a beautiful model. It’s unfortunate that Shapeways is no longer in business which  led me to buy a 3d printer (2 actually) and you know the saying “when one door closes”. 
 

Product  used around the ingress/egress hatch  are candy foils and I’ll look for the manufacturer. All markings are provided on Vincent’s webpage were he has the instructions listed, the window reticles were etched then given a white acrylic wash to accentuate the reticles. Ascent stage light is a Shapeways part that I modified by etching the vertical and horizontal lines on the  face then detail painting ending  with washes. 
 

8 hours ago, SpacecraftGuy said:

An absolute stunner!!

Thank you so much! 

It was quite the challenge but a lot of fun!

 

Edited September 20, 2024 by snichols

[CaptainObvious]

That's an astounding result! The attention to detail is crazy.

Just awesome work. 
-co

[snichols]

On 9/21/2024 at 4:03 AM, CaptainObvious said:

That's an astounding result! The attention to detail is crazy.

Just awesome work. 
-co

Well thank you sir I appreciate you taking the time to post and your  interest in my work!

[Nasa man]

On 9/20/2024 at 6:27 AM, snichols said:

Well thank you very much, building  this LM model was a lot of fun but a ton of work and Vincent really did all the hard work creating such a beautiful model. It’s unfortunate that Shapeways is no longer in business which  led me to buy a 3d printer (2 actually) and you know the saying “when one door closes”. 
 

Product  used around the ingress/egress hatch  are candy foils and I’ll look for the manufacturer. All markings are provided on Vincent’s webpage were he has the instructions listed, the window reticles were etched then given a white acrylic wash to accentuate the reticles. Ascent stage light is a Shapeways part that I modified by etching the vertical and horizontal lines on the  face then detail painting ending  with washes. 
 

Thank you so much! 

It was quite the challenge but a lot of fun!

 

Is it this Orange foil?

https://confectioneryhouse.com/collections/candy-foil-wrappers/products/6-x-6-in-orange-foil-candy-wrappers

 

When you say you etched the windows - you mean by hand? To be honest, every time I look at your model I keep hoping it is really a 1/24 scale. It would make me feel a lot better about mine.

[snichols]

20 hours ago, Nasa man said:

Is it this Orange foil?

https://confectioneryhouse.com/collections/candy-foil-wrappers/products/6-x-6-in-orange-foil-candy-wrappers

 

When you say you etched the windows - you mean by hand? To be honest, every time I look at your model I keep hoping it is really a 1/24 scale. It would make me feel a lot better about mine.

Yes that’s the foil and is exactly where it was purchased from,  I’ll include some construction pictures of the windows too so get a brand new sewing needle and chuck it up in your pin vise and go to town. I used a set of 32d scale LM decals and traced the reticles from them, applied a wash of white acrylic paint let it dry then sanded off the residue. 

[Evan Deverick]

I love your details. Would love to know more how to achieve.

Evan