First real build after many many years haha… My 6 year olds newest obsession is Planets, space and most importantly… Space Ships and giant rockets. Some of you may not like the lack of historical accuracy but its going to hang in the boys room so it will be good enough for him!
Time to shake off the rust! I also had to clear out the work bench for room.
Same old top quality from Revell
Didnt have the right green, which I have to admit… was not expecting on the exterior of a rocket. Tried my best to mix something up.
So while on tis forum, the wife noticed me looking at photos of @oortiz10 lamp build and asked me to do the same with our kit. Sooo Ill be changing directions. Ill be hanging the boys rocket from the ceiling witht e first stage in full effect. Im going to partially build the inner portions so that I have support for some kind of wood/plastic rod so I can make a frame for the polyfil and led lights.
Was thinking something like this:
Thats the slow progress so far. Ordered some LED lights so when I get them ill learn how to wire in the remote and test it out. For now I will just get the exterior painted and decals placed.
So plan is to use these 3/16 dowels to have something to attach leds and the polyfil to. Once painted white they should blend in.
I think that is long enough for jet flames and clouds of smoke.
I have this longer center dowel that goes through the inside. I drilled holes for it to pass through. WIll add some strength I think ill loop some fishing line around it before its fully assembled and we can use that to attache the completed rocket to the ceiling for the blasting off look.
The LED lights from Evans Design are in. I think they will add the right look. Getting excited to get this finished up and displayed in the boys bedroom.
Still a lot of touch up on this, plus paint. Since its going to be hung from the ceiling, my son has asked for the lunar module to still be built and put on his shelf.
Yea, a bit more difficult haha. My son already mentioned that after blast off there is less smoke. But I need it to hide the dowles, and LED wires haha. Darn kid, too smart for his own good!
Was out with the family and we visited the dollar store randomly since it was next to where we were eating dinner. Found these baloon sticks and thought they could work in place of the wood dowls. Figured they would hide behind the polyfil better.
For the LEDs I think I am going to hide the 9 volt battery in the section where the lunar module normally sits. I can run the wires down the rocket inside as well.
It will be the only section of the rocket I will not glue in place so it can be accessed to change the battery.
This looks good, an in-flight separation is definitely a different take on it! Here’s mine -
Still not finished - I put it in place to see how it looked & liked it, so it stayed there [8-|]! One day I’ll get round to the decals & the last few parts that need gluing on, but no hurry. The painting on the wall behind it is by my Dad.
How are you finding the kit? I had a job convincing the rocket body it should be round, and used more filler than on any kit I’ve built recently, but it was intended from the start to be a lamp and a conversation piece (which it certainly is!) rather than a 100% accurate rendition.
I look forward to your progress, and hope it goes according to plan [Y]
Hutch, this looks amazing! What was your approach on the stuffing and lights? Did you post a build thread? I would love to take a look.
The kit as far as fitment goes is pretty terrible. Gaps everywhere, and same for me with regards to the body being oblong shape. Fortunately this is going to be displayed in a 5 year olds bedroom and not at any model shows so Im not to concerned with body filler. I do have another kit of the same make, so if I were to do one for real I would have a heads up of what to do.
Thanks, James, I didn’t post a WIP thread, as it was a long project that I only worked on occasionally, over a period of months. I built the lights, smoke, and base as one assembly, and the rocket as a separate assembly, that just sits on top of the first. I used a 1/4 inch threaded steel bar fixed to the base and fixed a clear plastic cylinder (taken from an old garden bird feeder) at the point where the bottom of the engine bells would be, like this -
The steel bar continues up past the cylinder, and the rocket is sort of “impaled” on it.
The lights are mains powered, rather than battery, so the cable was run up the base alongside the steel bar, and attached to the top of the plastic cylinder. The lights were a single strip (about 10 or 12 feet long, I think), with a self-adhesive backing. I fixed most of the lights around the top of this, spreading them out more lower down, so the flame would appear more intense where the engine bells are. The smoke was made from the kind of stuffing used in teddy bears and such like, held in place with white thread wrapped around the outside - this is just about invisible, but does the job nicely. Hre’s a “test flight” on my workbench -
I agree with you, the kit is OK for this sort of use, bit would need a lot more work if built as a “proper” model! I think it’s great that you’re doing this for your boy - I’m sure he’ll love it!
So glad I asked. This is a great way to approach it. I may steal this idea from you. I will be putting in more time on this now that I finished the decorations for his upcoming bday party haha. Apparently rocket building is my new 2nd job lol
So taking Hutch’s idea here and applying a bit differently. Using 3 mm plastic sheets in a cone shape that I will attach to each idvidual rocket after I glue the stuffing (smoke) I think this will look a bit more accurate for our situation. Its not going to be standing in a take off position. More the leaving the atmosphere about to enter space position. I think there is less clouddy puffy smoke and its more jetstream like. Hopefully I can make it look realistic.
