Soyuz FG 1/96 #4

A little gloss layer over the tank.

The business end.
Officially - and I looked in to this whether I could do that in this model -
the orange part is jettisoned after ignition leaving the engines in full
sight with the metal plate acting as a firewall. But the aft shroud falls away in
three parts so that was a bit hard to realise and thus I left it like this.

Stage three is ready for mating with the lower parts. It took a while to get the details all ready but there it is. Four nice engines, four vernier engines and a nicely detailed hull structure. But what is a Soyuz rocket without an actual Soyuz on board?

Hmm. Nice.

I enlarged Alfonso X. Moreno's Soyuz 104% to get an 1/96th sized model. I tweaked the appearance a little bit and even though I know the blankets have a bit more smoothly silk-like look, I am quite pleased with the result.

After the break some more detailed photos of the Soyuz. Now I'll finish the two other strap-on boosters ans then I'll do the shroud. Still am working out how this will be constructed, since Leo's kit doesn't provide a two-part opening shroud. More about that next time, I think.

the KURS radar antennas are scratched from brass and thick card - and paint.

The antennas and the solar arrays are folded for the trip up.

The ingress hatch was made from a carefully punched out part of silver paper.

About that ingress hatch: When entering the spacecraft on the platform before launch, the kosmonauts have to step through a hatch opening in the aerodynamic shroud, just above the bulge where the periscope is. They then, one by one, enter the hatch of the orbital module (the ball on top of the Soyuz). Inside, they have to carefully lower themselves into the capsule itself. There they have to strap themselves in the seat. First the left and right seat are occupied, lastly the commander comes on board, who has to close the hatch and then takes his place in the middle seat. When the Soyuz returns, the orbital module (and the engine section) is jettisoned and after landing the passengers leave the capsule  through the top hatch, which first was between the capsule and the orbital module.

Some additions to the rear of the engine section makes it a little less flat.

I also was quite pleased with how the docking mech turned out.
I used the silver tape for that. Stuck it to the back of the original part
and then cut it out and turned it inside out. The camera pod next to the
docking ring has an actual little lens, made from a small clear silicate
moisture sucking ball. Some accents were made with a silver sharpie.