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Features of this kit include:
- 3 different skill
levels. Instructions allow you to assemble kit in
the following skill levels, depending on your skills and
how much time you wish to spend: 3, 4, 5.
- Parachute recovery
- Silk screened, water slide
decals
- Decals for 4 different rounds
provided
- Instructions provided for 3
different levels of the Launch Escape Tower (easy involves
a printed wrap that looks like a tower, complex involves
assembling a tower from 44 fabricated parts)
- Instructions provide for 2
different types of stabilization (removable fin unit or
adding nose weight (Not provided) to make the scale fins
work) - IMPORTANT:
See note below)
- Launch lugs provided, but kit
is suitable for use with a Pop Lug or Piston Launcher (not
provided)
- Custom tubes for scale
accuracy
- Staggering amount of detail
information provided to satisfy the most discriminating
scale modeler!
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A
couple of important notes about this kit offering:
- This kit includes
components to assemble a removable Fin Unit for
stability. It is possible to make this model
stable with the scale fins with the addition of Nose
Weight (NOT included).
- IMPORTANT: The
instructions for this kit imply the inclusion of Nose
Weight. A last minute decision was made to
remove the nose weight from this kit requiring the
builder to supply their own ballast material.
You will need about 19 grams of weight. We have
found that small lead beads (shot) work well.
- This kit includes a launch
lug for standard pad use. This kit is also
suitable for use with a Pop Lug (NOT provided) or a
Piston Launcher (NOT provided)
- This kit provides 3
different methods of building a Launch Escape Tower.
- Easy (Skill Level 3):
A printed paper wrap with the tower drawn on it is
cut out, folded and attached to the nose cone.
- Hard (Skill Level 4):
Plastic rods are provided to be cut and glued into
a replica of the tower (total of 45 parts)
- Master (Shill Level
5): Instead of plastic rods, you can use two
different gauges of nickel
plated wire (NOT provided) and solder up a tower
under a magnifier.
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Enjoy
the photo album below. Clicking on a thumbnail image
will bring up a full size image in this frame. Hit
your browser BACK button to return to this page.
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One
of the original sheets from Jay March's NARAM entry.
On this sheet you get some of the history of the Saturn 1B
and the specific round that Jay modeled.
Additionally, in the lower right of the sheet, Jay
attached some of the unfinished detail parts to highlight
the work that went into detailing this build. |
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This
is a close up of the detail pieces on the above sheet |
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This
shows one of the later proto types on the pad for a test
flight using the scale fins. 19 grams of nose weight
was added to the nose cone resulting in a fairly high
center of gravity (CG) allowing the fins to do their
job. This will result in a much lower flight than
using the removable stability fin unit, but looks much
better on the pad and in flight and can help you earn more
points during competition.
Note that this proto is using
the easy (paper wrap) version of the launch escape tower |
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We
have proven good flights with all recommended motors.
You want to take extra care when preping the recovery
device as this model is quite heavy when balanced with the
nose weight. A failure to get full deployment of
your parachute will likely result in damage to the model. |
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This
is an overall photo of Jay Marsh's build that he sent to
me shortly after his win at NARAM. For those of you
wondering where the Production #4 version of our kit is,
it is in Jay's hands as a thank you for the help he
provided in getting the scale details of this kit nailed
down.
The level of detail and
craftsmanship in this build is nothing short of
staggering. |
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This
close up of the mid-section (SIV-B stage) highlights much
of the detail Jay put on this model. In this photo
you can also see his team number T-121. The
lettering was done with dry transfer letters. |
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One
of the things I like about this photo is that it shows
actual motor nozzles in the Ullage motors. This was
done by using a paper wrap to go around a short length of
wire insulation (with the wire removed).
Brilliant! But this gives you an idea of just how
much detail you can add to even a small scale model such
as this. |
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Now
for the fun part. The CSM and Launch Escape
Tower. As Kathy has often commented, "You are
going to tick off a LOT of customers with that
tower..." Look closely at the details on the
tower, the reaction control thrusters on the SM and even
the various fairings on the
capsule itself. Incredible. |
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Getting
a little bit closer to show the detail. The tower
part of the Launch Escape Tower was fabricated using two
different gauges of nickel plated wire, soldered together
into the tower. The Reaction Control Thrusters were
made by cutting out different layers of paper, in the
proper shape, and glued up in layers. This is the
method that we provide in this kit. (NOTE: We also
provide decals for this detail, for an easier assembly) |
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This
photo shows you the decal sheet that is provided with this
kit. If you look at the "UNITED STATES"
decals, you will note that there are 8 of them when only 4
are needed on any particular build. Upon closer
inspection, you will see that the 4 on the left have a
white rectangular background. These 4 would be used
for rounds that have black fuel tubes while the other 4
(clear background) are for rounds with white fuel tubes. |
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This
photo is from one of the proto type builds while working
on the details for instruction figures. This photo
shows the scallop shroud being slide over the cluster of
fuel tubes arranged around the central motor tube. |
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This
is the figure that resulted from that photograph.
This will give you an idea of the level of detail and
quality of the documentation provided with this kit. |
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A
sample of another figure from the instructions. This
shows the completed tower section of the Launch Escape
Tower assembly. NOTE: This entire tower sub-assembly
is only .4" (4/10ths of an inch) tall... |
