Heller Ariane 5 1/125 short WIP

[Razorben]

Hi all!

This will be a short WIP of the Heller Ariane 5 in 1/125 scale. I've built this about 2 years ago.
Then it was on display in a Museum in the Netherlands for some time when they had a space exhibition.
First of all a short story about the Ariane 5:

Ariane 5 is a European heavy lift launch vehicle that is part of the Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or low Earth orbit (LEO). Ariane 5 succeeded Ariane 4, but was not derived from it directly. Ariane 5 has been refined since the first launch in successive versions, "G", "G+", "GS", "ECA", and most recently, "ES". ESA originally designed Ariane 5 to launch the Hermes spaceplane, and thus intended it to be human rated from the beginning. Two satellites can be mounted using a SYLDA carrier (SYstème de Lancement Double Ariane). Three main satellites are possible depending on size using SPELTRA (Structure Porteuse Externe Lancement TRiple Ariane). Up to eight secondary payloads, usually small experiment packages or minisatellites, can be carried with an ASAP (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) platform, which make it a very versatile launcher.

Now on to the build!

Boxart


Box with the sprue's


Build up of the solid rocket boosters. Fit of these was very good! Both seams are covered by an external strip on both sides so no cleanup is required!


Build up of the main stage. Only a small amount of filler was required.


Quick dryfit of the main stage and boosters.


Next up was the painting of the main stage. Earlier Ariane 5 had the main stage painted in a sand like colour. Later versions are painted in a blue/grey shade. As this kit depicts an early variant of the Ariane 5 a sand colour was used.


All external tanks and pipes around the main engine are insulated by alu foil. So a little alu foil and voila. Everything around the main engine is insulated.



Next up was the build up of the main Vulcain 2 engine. The vulcain 2 engines always have a very distinct blue discolouring of the engine bell from testing the engine. The use of a Tamiya wheatering set made sure the engine had the same blue colour the original engine has.



Next up is the assembly of the main engine stage.





Painting and decaling of the boosters. The band on the boosters are insulated by gold foil. Fortunatly I bought about 150 sheets of gold foil in the past...
The decals are the only bad thing about this kit as some of the country flags are not in register which is is shame.




And the finished product!






This was a very enjoyable build. Build was fast due to the excelent fit! This kit is really recommended!
I hope you guys liked it!

[shortCummins]

very nice