This has been one of my "bucket list" builds.
I've wanted to tackle it for years but the vacuform wraps and nozzles always held me up. I do some vacuform canopies but nothing this detailed.
The Skylab kit was available from 1972 through 1981. It stood 24.5" tall and retailed for $4.95.
After Centuri was absorbed by Estes, the nose cone showed up occasionally in some Estes kits.
To see the original Centuri instructions: CLICK HERE
I ordered the Thingverse parts (CLICK HERE) from a commercial 3D printing company. The 3D parts were smooth and well produced but fit the Estes, not Centuri tubes. This required some shimming of parts.
This build is going to be different. The first few posts will cover adjustments so the mismatched parts will fit together. This happens sometimes when making a clone model.
Just some food for thought. I've got the Skylab on my clone list as well along with the Enerjet Athena and Centuri Orion. To that end I recently ordered a set of Saturn wraps from Estes to part out for detail wraps. Apparently they sell them for those &$/;)#! moments in building a Saturn booster. May not be exact as to what was used for the originals but close enough I guess.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that this particular model isn't really a scale model (likely falls into "fantasy scale" category), "close enough" will probably be OK. I'd be apt to change up a few details and paint scheme -- mostly based on what is seen in real spacecraft. For example, I'd likely paint the "solar panels" a dark blue, and have parts of the main body decorated with a gold foil (to simulate appearance of portions of the lunar module and Skylab space station).
DeleteA possible variation might be to change up the scheme for a "Russian" version -- perhaps in an overall blue-green or grey color (based on appearance of a Soyuz spacecraft and Soyuz rocket), and petal-like ends on the "docking ports" (as seen on the docking adaptor for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project).