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I've finished the ET. I used MM Acryl Ochre Yellow for the main color, Polly Scale Italian Camouflage Yellow for most of the piping, MM Acryl Hull Cream for the ET back mount, Polly Scale British Interior Green and Gunship Gray for certain portions of the ET struts, and Aircraft Interior Black for the black areas. Also RLM 23 (red-pink) for the nose ET strut.

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After a few coats of white primer and Tamiya flat white, this bird's almost ready to be masked and prepped for other colors (interior/scale black for the underside and medium or gunship gray for the leading edge, and pearl or gloss white for the rest of the bird for decal placement purposes, then semi gloss on some areas and flat on others for the finishing touch).

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I've had to re-do the white coats on the orbiter and the SRB's because the finish got too grainy - I was holding the rattle cans too far away. But I think I'm okay now. Here's the gray launch pad taken from the Revell kit. I know it's not fully accurate, but I'd rather have the shuttle standing up than on the Airfix stand. Especially if I'm going to place it next to a Saturn V in 1/144th scale (I have the Airfix kit, too).

Justin

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After two days reworking the coat, I am deeply and finally satisfied with the orbiter. It's now gloss white and ready for decals, after I get the black and gray areas all done. I'll also pull off the masks I already have on over the windows. Then I'll use flat coat on the areas that I normally would cover with blankets, covering up the windows again beforehand.

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Well, well....after a whole week's worth of elbow grease, rattle cans, airbrushing, cleaning, and Goo Gone, I've come up with an orbiter/shuttle stack I'm becoming proud of. Here's Discovery just after it was masked with a combination of New Ware and CE Black magic masks (a two day process!) and oversprayed with flat white to "seal in" the edges before applying the MM Acryl A/C Interior Black (and Polly Haze Gray on the RCC nosecap/leading edges). A trick that worked great! Unfortunately I needed to apply a lot of Goo Gone afterwards to get the residue from the masks off (and I placed them on my palms before applying, as directed). But all is well now.

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Here's the orbiter after I finished painting and masking, touching up, and lifting off the mask residue. It's parked next to my ET and boosters...the SRB's have had a few setbacks but I think with some intensive work this weekend they'll be good to go. The paint finish on the SRB's turned out rough, even after a few gloss coats, so I've had to do some sanding and I will redo the finish this weekend.

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I have never seen the Realspace set, I was pleased just to get the CE ones. The orbiter kit costs $80 here, so that is a target for later this year

B)

Mike

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I'm thinking about building the Revell shuttle/boosters kit myself, and figured it wouldn't be so hard, but I just thought of something...Won't the thin black rings around the SRB's be difficult to paint? That's the one thing that concerns me about building this kit, and I was just wondering how you were going to go about it.

Looking absolutely beautiful so far. Incredible job on the ET B) ! My lifelong dream is actually to fly to the Cape to see a shuttle launch someday.

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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Wow...80 bucks! Ouch. I hope you do get it!

As far as the Real Space set goes, it's available at http://www.realspacemodels.com - I don't know if they ship overseas and their stuff isn't available in most hobby shops that I know of. It's a one man outfit based in Florida, run by an enthusiast named Glenn Johnson.

The CE set is a good one and I have several of them in 1/144 and 1/72nd scale. (The OMS tile decals on the CE set are solid black - cutting them up into strips might make them look more realistic, to simulate the tile gaps). I also have a few of their resin engine nozzles and black magic masks as well as a few Columbia fin tips. I'd like Airfix to reissue the kit with a revised cargo bay and a payload for in-orbit display (i.e docking module/Spacehab), and for Airfix to reissue the kit in an orbiter-only boxing.

Justin

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I'm thinking about building the Revell shuttle/boosters kit myself, and figured it wouldn't be so hard, but I just thought of something...Won't the thin black rings around the SRB's be difficult to paint? That's the one thing that concerns me about building this kit, and I was just wondering how you were going to go about it.

Looking absolutely beautiful so far. Incredible job on the ET B) ! My lifelong dream is actually to fly to the Cape to see a shuttle launch someday.

Thanks, James! You should go out there and see it - I got lucky and saw a night launch a few years back. It was awesome.

As far as masking the SRB rings, I'm going to use Tamiya tape and spray them with white to seal the edges just before I spray them black. I'm going to use Int'l Orange for the bottom portions of the three large rings on the bottom of the SRB - as per padding added to those rings to help them survive the ocean impact as the base impacts first.

Justin

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:worship::woo: Great work!

I'm watching you, Dustin! :worship: As you can see in my signature, I also build this shuttle. Now, I've got a very good reference material, thanks!

I stopped work at part with corrugations (ET). I think about build all this part as scratch, but I'm not sure, it's a good idea :blink: As I can see, you used a part from box and made corrugations your self. Maybe I'll go the same way...

I have a great book, "The day, when Columbia does not return" (by Tomas Pribyl) - I'm not sure, that this title is correct, it's simply translation from polish, but I'll check that.

There are many great pics of space shuttles. And this book is my "walkaround" :wave:

Once again - great work!

Pavvel

Edited by Pavvel
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Hey Pavvel, good luck on your shuttle! With regard to the corrugations, just take it a little bit at a time, not all at once, and you should be all right. I used Evergreen .020 x .020 rod for the corrugations and Evergreen .010 x .125 strip for the lining above and below the intertank section.

The http://www.ksc.nasa.gov site's multimedia gallery has been invaluable.

Justin

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Thanks Justin :D I'll build my shuttle as good as possible, so I don't show ma work as long as nobody will remember yours :wave:

This week I'll order SSM engines and decals from RealSpaceModels. And tomorrow I'll go to a shop for a plastic strip.

Pavvel

Edited by Pavvel
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all....a recent update. After I got back to feeling ready to work on the boosters, I tried to get them right by getting a few coats on them, but the earlier problems with the boosters (not all of them from that one night, there was an incident a week earlier where the paint got too grainy) had me basically treading water with no progress. So I have given up on this pair of boosters and have ordered a new Airfix kit from my hobby shop. I'll pick it up this week and build a new pair and hopefully get THOSE right. And then I'll resume work on the orbiter. I've got a long way to go, I hope to get my shuttle finished and in display shape by July 12th, the new launch date for Discovery. But if I don't make it I hope to make it by the Gathering in September (the regional contest in Ogden UT).

Justin

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Hi Brady....yes, you'd better have your Goo Gone handy. Also be sure to stick the mask to your slightly sweaty palm a few times. I don't think I'll be able to reuse my masks....if you're extra careful when peeling them off you might be able to reuse them and as a bonus, they won't be quite as sticky. But again, reusing the masks would be doubtful, particularly the smaller ones covering the small squares between the wing and flaps (not needed if you're doing a pre 1997 orbiter, they had solid black lines where the flaperon hinges were). Therefore, I bought several sets of Black Magic masks.

Good luck!!

Justin

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Brady, I think those 1/72nd decals are now out of production. Meteor advertised a last chance sale on them a month or two back. But you can still get 1/72 decals from Real Space Models, only they won't have the "meatball" on them - use the Revell kit decals for that.

Justin

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  • 2 weeks later...

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