Lorenzo's Space Shuttle

[Lorenzo]

So, yeah. My country used to have this thing called a "manned pace program," and its final phase was a reusable orbital vehicle called the Space Shuttle. There were five of them (six if you count the non-spacefaring testbed Enterprise): Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. Challenger was destroyed by a launch failure in 1986 and Columbia was lost during re-entry after a mission in 2003; both disasters resulted in the loss of all on board, a total of fourteen brave souls. The surviving Shuttles were decommissioned and shipped to various museums around the country. Enterprise resides at the USS Intrepid Air-Sea-Space Museum in New York City, Discovery went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, Atlantis is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Endeavour is on display at the California ScienCenter in Los Angeles.



If I had to choose a vehicle to ride into Space: The Final Frontier SIG, it would have to be a Space Shuttle. I received this kit as a gift and have been saving it until now: Revell's 1:144 Space Shuttle Discovery & Booster Rockets, Revell kit #04736. Product name notwithstanding, this kit actually includes markings for all of the surviving Shuttles, and not just the booster rockets but the external tank (kinda hard to attach the SRBs without an ET, after all) and a not-entirely-accurate launch stand. Scalemates tells me this kit dates back to 1978. That's.... old.

On opening the box, it becomes clear that this kit is really two kits: an orbiter in one bag and everything else in another. First, the orbiter sprues:





ESA spacelab included.


Here's a tip-off that the Orbiter used to be sold separately - a stand.


The windows aren't looking so clear, but since there appears to be absolutely no flight deck detail, I'll probably just paint their inside surfaces black anyway.


Then the rest:





This thing is big, even for 1:144 scale!


Lastly, the decals.


This looks to be a simple kit, if a large one. We are GO for liftoff!

[Stokesy44]

Tasty stuff.

Should look good as a stack on the launch pad base.

[DrSprue]

Oh so cool, love the shuttle and have a few in the stash as well, but not this Revell one. Looks like its gonna be a fun build, good luck, count me in to enjoy as well.

Also, The decals look very detailed!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Let her rip, I am following along too

[Lorenzo]

Starting on the peripherals. The launch pad crawler has eight sets of treads, but they were all very flashy, and after sanding them down I felt that they needed some detail cut back into them. It's tedious, but probably worth doing. Here is one that's half done:



There are some awkward sprue attachment points to deal with:



And I may need to order another tube or two of putty:





ET and SRBs are glued and clamped now. I hope I'll be able to keep them round while sanding down the seams.

[TommyKillander]

That will be an impressive model when completed!

Good luck with the build


Tommy

[TeufelHunden]

Glad to see you jumped right in and started the build. I am a slacker. Good thing I have 3 months to work on it.

[Lorenzo]

Glad to see you jumped right in and started the build. I am a slacker. Good thing I have 3 months to work on it.

I just know if I don't get this done by the end of November it won't get done this year. December is always a lost month for me.

[Lorenzo]

This thing is big, and it has large expanses of plastic that are supposed to be smooth. Supposed to be.

Hmm.

That may prove difficult.

Worked on the SRBs today. Lots of careful sanding to do to eliminate the seams without wiping out the joint rings that separate the segments. Using Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to not only fill seams but to even out some misaligned edges.



Also still cutting in detail on the crawler treads. I hope that will be worth the effort.

[Tomcat64]

It's a pain about the fit issues and sprue gates but great to see this coming together already

[TeufelHunden]

This thing is big, and it has large expanses of plastic that are supposed to be smooth. Supposed to be.

Hmm.

That may prove difficult.

Worked on the SRBs today. Lots of careful sanding to do to eliminate the seams without wiping out the joint rings that separate the segments. Using Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty to not only fill seams but to even out some misaligned edges.

I know how you feel about the seam. I only had one tube to do though, not two. Good luck you seem to be on the right track.

[Lorenzo]

After many delays, I have finally put some color on the External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. The ET has Vallejo Model Air Rust over Gray Stynylrez, and the SRBs have a few coats of White Stynylrez. One of these days, I will learn not to spray white primer onto white plastic. If I were smarter, I'd have used a base coat of gray. With white on white, it was nearly impossible to tell when I had anything close to decent coverage, and as a result I've had to sand some runs down and recoat. Harrumph.



There are still many details to add on these parts, and I haven't yet begun working on the Orbiter itself. Meanwhile, Shuttle Operations have been temporarily suspended due to an O-ring failure:



Oh, the irony...

[Twokidsnosleep]

Indeed the irony
Good tip on the white on white...will use that at the appropriate moment,thanks
I like the rust on the external tank

The o-ring on my quick disconnnect has pinched a bit and has been a bit leaky making the pump turn on out of the blue....but I am still using it. That is ok, right? nothing bad will happen
No wait a sec, that is not good, so I changed it out...hmmm NASA

[DrSprue]

Wow.. looking really nice so far! Thanks for the painting tips as well. white paint always seems to be an issue, with me at least as well.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work on the tank & SRBs and yep, white over white definitely makes life complicated - but the finish on the tank really stands out.

[Augustus]

It's looking great mate!

BTW

So, yeah. My country used to have this thing called a "manned pace program,"

Wouldn't worry about that too much, I can remember when Britain had a Navy!