Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Saturday 14 May 2022

Apollo 11 Command and Service Module; Apollo 11 Lunar Module

 This is for Sir Hugh at conradwalks.blogspot.com


These two models were built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. 




Command and Service Module

I was a bit disappointed with the Command and Service Module because the clear panels had small manufacturing imperfections and getting a good finish on the Command Module's clear panel seams  risked damaging the panel. I did enjoyed building this model but could have made a better job. 

The Command Module instrument panel with decals applied.


Lunar Module

The real Lunar Module was pretty rough-looking affair so the painting was easy - it's meant to look  imperfect. Jim McDivitt said that when he first saw the LM he thought it looked like a 'piece of junk' but it was in fact a brilliant piece of engineering (which he knew of course). In March 1969 McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart took the LM on its maiden flight in Earth orbit as part of the Apollo 9 mission and, following the explosion on board Apollo 13, the LM became a lifeboat for the crew.

 Some photographs I've posted previously:

USS Voyager




Space Transport System (STS), commonly referred to as 'the Shuttle'




The Saturn V - one of two I've built so far.

Building the first Stage



The final result



The stages shown separately









5 comments:

Sir Hugh said...

Brilliant. A lot of work. Your painting looks good I particularly like that rust with its realistic variations. Did you mix paints for that or perhaps used some pigments?

afootinthehills said...

Thanks - I'm glad you liked them Conrad. I don't recall having to mix colours to get the lighter brown parts but I'm unable to confirm that because I can't find the painting instructions. The brown or orange colour seen on the real tank is a reaction of the initial creamy-coloured foam insulation to sunlight, so the colour varies from launch to launch. NASA stopped painting the tank white after the first two test flights to save weight and cost.

afootinthehills said...

I notice the orginal comments box has reappeared.

AlanR said...

Wow. Very professional.

afootinthehills said...

Thanks Alan. I’ve got six or seven others to be built but can’t motivate myself to get started!