For this years summer school project he decided he wants to do a report/show&tell about the Apollo 11 Mission.
We already got all the info needed for the text-based Portion.
For show&tell he decided to use the old Tamiya 1/70 Apollo Lunar Spacecraft kit, he will do the build and I will do some fixes on the kit and do the trickier painting.
It’s reasonably accurate for the your project unless, again, you’re looking to “super-detail” a historical model. For a 10 year old’s classroom project, it should more than suffice.
You can use gold wrapping paper for the gold foil, but it has to be the bright, reflective stuff, not dull . (I think you know what I mean.) This will be more realistic than just brass paint, which over time looks too dark as it ages.
Something else that is great for the gold mylar portions of the LM is the gold foil from the large chocolate bars. I have a piece of mylar used for the LMs and at this scale, the foil works better. A big plus is that your son will enjoy eating the inside so he can use the foil : ) It is great that you are doing this with him. He will remember this.
The kit comes with a large sheet of gold-foil. Figure it should be enough to cover the bottom of the Command Module too. If not I will take your suggestions.
Just a sheet of foil, no patterns, etc. Hence why the Revell Instructions will come in handy.
Busy covering all the holes for the motor switch, etc at the moment.
FSM’s ‘Great Scale Modeling 2008’ Has the Lunar module in a large picture modeled. It is under ‘Western Canadian Regional Model Contest’ section. The photo is 1/2 a page & would be a excellent reference for your project.
I was kidding, I am sure they will just ask to remove the picture. Besides even if you ordered the back issue by the time it reached you the school project for your son will be long over.
This way you have the reference picture today without fancy link thingys that I don’t understand as my computer kung-fu is weak.
Your confusion on the CSM is coming from there being 2 different versions of the spacecraft. The original, Block 1, was intended for earth orbit operations only. This is why you see a white spacecraft and when you see pictures of Apollo 1, that is the vehicle you will see. This spacecraft was not capable from weight and a number of other constraints to make it to the moon. One of the constraints is that it was not ready from a technical stand point either and that in turn resulted in the pad fire that killed astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee.
The Block 2 model was intended for the moon and had a large number of changes made to it after the Apollo 1 fire. The Block 2 was subsequently used for earth orbit testing as well. The Block 1 was originally used because Block 2 was behind schedule.
The CM has a reflective finish that you can see in photos from the LM after separation from the CSM around the moon. You will also notice the “stripes”. These are from the top layer being applied in pieces which are silver in color. You may see photos of the CM after splash down and the color may look gold. That is a result of the heating from reentry. During flight, it is silver in color. I have used Bare Metal foil for this look. It is available in hobby stores or on line. It is a lot of work but looks great. The other option is to use silver paint.
As far as the LM, that is even more complicated. The LM was an evolving vehicle and each mission’s LM looked different from the prior one. You will notice from Apollo 9 to 10 to 11 the distribution of gold and black on the descent module is significantly different. When I was a kid, it used to drive me crazy because I thought I was misinterpreting the information I had and I would refinish my models. Finally, an engineer from Grumman Aerospace explained to me that they are in fact different and that I was correct each time I refinished the model. Bottom line, pick one mission and paint to that mission.
Also, the blast deflectors were added after Apollo 9 when the engineers saw the heating effects of the RCS thrusters on the descent stage. The are easy to make from cardboard painted flat black. Use a large paper clip to make the mounting bracket.
It can get frustrating but it is very cool as well. If you think about it, humans have not been able to get back to the moon for over 30 years. To our kids, the moon landings are as real as WWII is to many of us…something they read about in their history text books.
Keep plugging with the models and remember to check the references we have provided on here.
