Airfix Shuttle Launch

[MalcolmR]

Airfix space shuttle.

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01 From 1600 century sailing ship to 2000 century spaceship.

Now I've never built a space shuttle kit before, strange as it seems, but I did buy the Airfix kit a long time ago and it's sat in my stash for years. Part of the reason for this was the thought of doing the shuttle tiles. Looked at getting tile decals but could never find any at the right price or to fit the Airfix kit so decided to bite the bullet and paint them myself. First, I put the Orbiter together as I thought that this would be the hardest to get right paint wise. I first added tile effects to the orbital manoeuvring system pods. (OMS) as photos seem to show them covered in rough looking blankets so covered them in a textured metal foil. (Think I should have used a slightly thinner foil but will live with it)

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02

The wing leading edges were masked before starting the tile effect. To do the underside tiles I bought some CX008 Fine Grey Mesh from “Scale Model Scenery” and temporally taped a piece to the bottom of the orbiter with masking tape. Now it was time to get the “Halfords” grey primer out. This was sprayed quite heavily to the undersurface of the orbiter and the mesh was pressed into the paint until the paint starts to dry whereupon the mesh is removed to leave an impression of the mesh on the kit undersurfaces and left to harden.

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03

Now I added a bit of tile effect to the rest of the orbiter. This was done by adding some Tamyia tape to create some slight panel effects and again using the mesh on the nose area to get a rough looking effect with the Halfords paint. All masking removed and the upper surfaces given a coat of “Halfords white primer.

Now to start getting the tile colours. The first step was to give the Halfords grey undersurfaces a wash with thinned “Humbrol” 67 dark grey paint and dapped/dried off with some toilet tissue. The result was so good I left it alone to dry.

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04

After drying the wing leading edge masking was removed, and I started to add some more detail painting to get the effect of the photos I was using. This was done using black oil paint.

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05

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06

Happy with the undersurfaces I did some variations to the white areas and added the black details (actually “Humbrol 67” a dark grey) before adding a wash to the upper white panel lines that I had added to the bay doors earlier plus the fuselage sides. Decals added to the orbiter.

Ribbing added to the external tank (ET) and the rest of tank textured by using liquid poly cement to give a rough foam appearance. ET now painted with a mix of yellow/mustard paint.

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07

Boosters glued together and sprayed Halfords white primer followed by Halfords Appliance white. Detail painting done and decals added.

In an attempt to add some movement to the model, I bought some 36mm acrylic tubing and some bright white fairy lights, the plan being to mount the shuttle combination as if it had just been launched. The tubing was fitted to the bottom of the boosters and sanded opaque and given a light coat of “Halfords” white primer to create the effect of the boosters firing/burning. Then some “Scenic Waters wave effect” added to the acrylic tube to roughen up the booster exhausts to create the effect I wanted. A base was made from an old fridge plastic shelf drilled to take the acrylic tubes and wooden dowels to support the shuttle combination. This also allowed the lights to be fitted for access to the switches. The fairy lights were wrapped around the doweling so when the combination is fitted it was hoped the effect was of the shuttle launching. I plunged moulded three RS-25 rocket booster motor flames, and these were fitted to the kit obiter nozzles. Now everything was brought together to complete my take on the Airfix box art.

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May the fun continue.

[daveF]

Love it!