1/48th Scale Saturn V

[StevenRB]

Scuffed up one end of the engine tube for attaching the metal two piece engine retainer with JB Weld.

[StevenRB]

You can see the lip inside the retainer which the shoulder of the engine casing end closure butts up against.

[StevenRB]

And the screw on retainer trapping the engine from moving in either direction.

[StevenRB]

Scratch built air dams going on either side of the fin shrouds.

[StevenRB]

Umbilical connector and drain and fill vents for the SC-1 stage

[StevenRB]

More drain and fill vents with umbilical connector, various antenna and personnel access panel at the top of the SC-II stage.

[Guest]

Very nice work Though I’m kind of wondering by now why you started with a kit at all

[StevenRB]

I suspect most who bought this kit built it as is. I saw a project screaming for attention to details being added. I too after settling in thought this was becoming more of a scratch build than not. There's more coming concerning manufacturer issues.

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Steven,

Wow!!! First, welcome to the forum and you are off to a great start here!

Second, I didn't know Starbucks served Chinese food. Love the chopsticks next to the cup of Latte (or are they part of the project)...

Lastly, this looks like one giant undertaking and so far, she's looking really good with all the scratch building your doing. Do you have plans to shoot this puppy up in the air when it's done???

Prost
Allen

[StevenRB]

Yes they certainly look like chopsticks but those are balsa wood pieces for the systems tunnels on the SC-1 stage. Yes, this is meant to fly on a single Aerotech 54mm dia. motor. The upper section will recover on a 5 ft. parachute while the lower section will come down on an 8 ft. parachute. The motor is a J275-W Aerotech Reloadable Motor System. RMS for short. Estimated altitude will be 1600 ft.

[StevenRB]

The aft interstage was originally a two piece resin affair with stringer detail molded in. When placing these two pieces together, I had a 1/2" gap so I chucked them and began scratch building from 0.030 sheet styrene with 1 mm square stringers being individually attached.

[StevenRB]

Finished aft interstage with approximately 150 stringers glued on. Drove me nuts this did.

[StevenRB]

Using the drawings I began to create the personnel access panel along with drilling out the vent holes.

[StevenRB]

[StevenRB]

I removed stringer material for the access panel to go into. I determined it would look better recessed into the interstage rather than attaching it on top of the stringers.