Did a lot of redesigning and printing today. One thing when virtually fiddling about with kit parts is you have to keep the sizes and shapes right. Something went wrong today when I notices parts were bigger than intended. A lot of work down the drain, especially because they seemed to be all different sizes.
Anyway, we're on track again. I have found out new things and I actually am going to try and build the Titan IIIe. Some parts are rolled up now and await glueing, other parts still need to be figured out. There seem to be some pieces missing, or at least that's what the instructions tell me. Photographs don't make me any wiser. Did the IIIe have small, long aerodynamic fins on the first stage? Anyone who knows, please do tell me.
The prints of the hull structures turned out to be quite good after I boosted the black lines in Photoshop and saturated the yellow tint to some absurdly exaggerated point that, when printed on white paper, it looks just odd, but it looks just about right on the silvery stuff. Great.
The metallic paper itself is thin and has a small, grainy texture. It glues well with white glue but adding a layer of paper to stiffen it is a bit more difficult. I had some trials with the 'misfits' I made earlier and came up with the idea of just rolling a piece of thick paper inside, and push some reinforcement circles inside. It immediately makes the cylinder sturdy and firm and, most important, round.
Beside the metallic paper, I am going to use the silk gloss photo paper I used for the Soyuz shroud to make the big solid rocket motors. All in all, this is hopefully going to be an interesting build. Several kinds of paper and techniques and hopefully a nice, clean and demonstrable model in the end.
Voyager will be made as the necessary side project with this. Might keep me sane.
Pictures will come with the next entry.
PS. This appears to be my 100th blog entry. Party-arty! Wee-hee!
Today I sat in my hands with the styrene kits I still have in my stash of models I can make. The 1/32 X-15 (Hobby Model) looks beautiful. I just can get myself to actually go and make it. Just like the 1/24 Gemini and the 1/12 Mercury. They're all there to start. But I have become completely hooked on paper. They eventually will be made. I am sure of that. And then to think I first started with some paper because I knew of the great doors the paper Gemini of Delta 7 has so I might be able to use them for my styrene version...
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