Steve's 1:48 Revell Apollo 11 "Eagle" lunar lander

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Well with a few days before the start of the next GB I thought I would get this one sorted.Been in my stash for many years. As a child of the 50's and 60's the space race was something that played a major part in my youth so this model holds some fond memories for me. I built the Airfix lander way back in the 60's and was looking forward to this one. That said what a disappointment. Revell in their wisdom have completely omitted all the plume deflectors from the model. I have circled the parts not included in the model.

So the deflectors and fittings are going to have to be scratch built.
Anyway here are a few of the box art and progress to date.






This is one of 3 Space models I have, the others being the Airfix Saturn 5 rocket and the Revell 1;32 Command Module. I thought they could go to the grand children if they have any space projects at school.

Steve

[pjgtech]

Cool, I remember building the lander (badly) as a kid, think it was Airfix....
Good luck with this one.

[Stefee]

Really looking forward to your build but strangely I built the Revell 1/48 50th Anniversary kit (03701) which has the deflectors and mountings but no base or figures - hope you don't mind me posting a picture of it in your thread so you can see.
I also have the documents showing the different colours of panels as specified by NASA, if you need a copy contact me and I will scan and send them to you.
Good luck with the build.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thats a nice looking lander Stefan, I cant believe they would omit such a key part of the lander, it kind of looks a bit bare without them. I would love to have a copy of the documents if you can send them over. my email is steveball0627@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks.

[Stefee]

Thanks for the compliment. E mail sent with photos of documents.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks Stefan. Just had a look. Very informative.

[pjgtech]

Hawkerhunter, you might want to edit your post and remove that email address, (from a public forum) otherwise you will prolly be getting some dodgy emails!

[HAWKERHUNTER]

A valid point Peter but my email is already in the public domain through other work that I do.

[flyjoe180]

This is going to be fantastic Steve, really looking forward to following the progress on your build

[HAWKERHUNTER]

welcome on board Joe.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Well today I thought if I am going to do some scratch building on the plume deflectors then I might as well give the ascent stage a cryogenic rocket motor exhaust exit nozzle. Although they make this model to separate into 2 stages ,the decent stage and the ascent stage, they don't fit an exhaust nozzle to the ascent part. This is what you get just a flat end where the nozzle should go.

First job was to cut out the hole for the exhaust nozzle. I just used a hot knife blade.

Once cut out I realised that I would have to reduce the lip down by 5mm to allow for the new exhaust nozzle to be fitted without it interfering with the recess in the decent stage. I used a dremel for the sanding down.

I then used the end of a 1:32 F4 Phantom under wing pod to use as the exhaust nozzle.

I put a slight chamfer on the lip of the new exhaust nozzle prior to fitting into the ascent stage.

Next I did some work on the thrust chamber assembly cluster. There are four of these all made up from 2 parts. There is a nasty seam on them and the fit alignment isn't good so lots of tidying up to do.

In order to get rid of the seams I am going to sacrifice the nozzle locating pins on the top side so I can sand down properly. These will then get glued onto the main body but I wont fit the 4 nozzles until the end. That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

Steve

[scottie3158]

Steve, looking good. When I join two halves together on items such as these or cylinders for example i remove the location pins so the two halves can be slid around for the best fit.

[Stefee]

Coming along nicely, yet another difference as my kit had a nozzle - very strange.

[flyjoe180]

That's a very good use of the Phantom cone Steve.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

First thing is a warning. Avoid this model kit like the plague. Unlike the 50th Anniversary version it just lacks detail, no wonder it only cost me £16.99 when purchased.
So the lunar lander does not have smooth sides on the descent stage. The lander is covered in a thermal blanket made up of aluminized Kapton and mylar foils.

In the newer kit the parts come with moulded in undulations but this kit the sides are silky smooth. The idea is you just cover it in gold foil but as can be seen from the photo only 50%of the lander is covered in gold foil, the other 50% is the grey kapton sheeting. Because I think spraying the foil to get the grey parts may be problematic I have decided to give the sides that would be grey some definition.

So to get the lumps and ripples I applied a thin coat of 5 min epoxy resin then crumpled up some tin foil and put that over the top. I then used a scouring sponge to push the foil into the epoxy and once dry I was able to lift the tin foil off the model leaving the now set rippled epoxy in place.

For some reason though after running out of foil I had to get a new roll and when I came to do the top of the descent stage it would not pull off so that foil will have to stay in place.

Next was getting rid of the seam line that ran around the entire ascent stage. Plenty of filler and smoothing off needed.

And now when primed.

Quite a complex masking job coming up now. I have applied a first layer of silver and the painting phase will now be, silver, mask off, green/aluminium, mask off, light grey, mask off and then final coat of dark grey hopefully ending up with something like this.

Thanks for looking

Steve

[scottie3158]

Steve,
The thermal sheeting has turned out really well. I must admit I didn't realise there was so much colour variation.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Cheers Paul.

[flyjoe180]

That's rather complex, but you're doing a great job on the details Steve.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks Joe.

[Richard48]

Really doing well fella.Nice!!!!.
Richard

[HAWKERHUNTER]

thanks Richard

[Jim R]

Well Steve this is certainly a kit I'll avoid. Looks like a challenge. Corrections and additions needed. Luckily it looks like you're up to the task. Coming on nicely.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Cheers Jim. Will do my best with it.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Some progress, bit of a curates egg, good in places. So after applying prime the model was sprayed silver and then masked off for the bare metal joints of the panels bits. Ive highlighted some of the bare metal areas that I am trying to achieve.

So I ended up with this.

Next I mixed up a paint colour to match the greeny tinted aluminium colour of the actual lunar module. I then sprayed over the whole thing and got this.

Next was to then apply the second phase of masking to protect the green ready for application of the grey.

Then the model was sprayed grey and when dry the third mask application was put on ready for the final spray of black.

Black was then applied.

And then when dry all masking removed for final result. Overall quite pleased but its obvious that the chrome bits are a little too thick Despite my best efforts I just could not cut it any thinner so this will have to do.



Quite a bit of tidying up to do particularly around the windows where the liquid mask was applied. I have also stuck a bit of plastic on the decent stage. Dont know what it was for but it will go under some foil to replicate this.


Thats it for now. I thought this was going to be a quick build but it is taking longer than anticipated. The painting alone has taken 4 days so far because for having to wait for paints to dry etc.

Steve