N1 1/96 [4] - Blok B - done and on to Blok.. V!

Blok A topped off with Blok B amongst its colleagues. Both stages are still not glued together.

Yes, that Cyrillic alphabet is a funny thing. A, B and then comes V, of course. What else? Some people even say it isn't V but W. But that's just in which part of the world you live.

No, not Blok S. It's Blok V. Let's not make it more confusing, PK. 
The curved pieces actually are the third stage's engines.

The previous post mostly dealt with the trouble I had with the fairings of Blok B. They were too sturdy and buckled too much when curved. I replaced the original parts with thin paper, reinforced with a rolled up part inside. That worked well. I also did the other greeblies on the hull, knobs, cable runs and al that. The engine section went together easily. This is a great model, its parts really fit and the model also look the part. The last parts that went on were the reaction control system thrusters, They could roll the rocket and perform small course corrections during the ascent. The original parts didn't look as tight and flush as I wanted so I remade them out of coloured paper.

Of course, in macro nothing looks flush any more.

...But it really looks great. The greeblies make it a real looker. 
The long cable run isn't yet completely glued, the top still is loose to be able to add the latticework.

Eight engines would have pushed the N1 higher up after Blok A would have been jettisoned. Unfortunately, this never happened. All N1's exploded before the second stage could start its job. The last (4th) one even merely seconds before staging. It was all blamed on KORD - the system that was used to keep all of the 30 first stage engines running synchronously. There was more that was wrong, but the KORD system became the big culprit.

a beauty shot in the January sun.

So now it's Blok V. I am doing a couple of jobs simultaneously to keep myself from getting bored. 

The latticework is double sided. So it's very thick paper. 500 gram per m2. 250 gram already is a drag to cut. So I take it easy ad just cut a few triangles a time and then put it aside to do some other jobs. 
The roller is a great asset to evenly glue two sheets of paper together without annoying buckling of curling. After glueing it still goes under a couple of heavy weights to cure.

The N1's third stage, Blok V, has a peculiar property. Its engines are embedded in a heat shield. High up in the atmosphere, the width of the exhaust flame is much wider because of the lack in pressure at that altitude. because of that, the flame could damage the systems of the rocket close to the engines. To prevent that, the stage uses a heat shield to protect the fuel lines and pumps from the flames. The Saturn V also had a heat shield like this on its 2nd stage. But the N1's third stage also jettisons the lower part of its hull exposing the piping underneath to the elements. Bus also shedding extra weight. By looking at the (accentuated) texture of the heat shield I presume they used a kind of tiling of some sort as a protective layer.

And again, some more cutting of triangles from the lattice.

Adding the parts in which the engine bells will be placed.

Also, I have started working on the hull of Blok V. I messed it up the first time round, the picture here is of the old hull part. I was a bit too enthusiastic with my embossing tool and the hull showed too much angular features after glueing. So it was reprinted (in the copy shop, to maintain the same colours and gloss) and now awaits cutting. I just finished the engines and the heat shield, more on that in the next post.
See you soon, 
--PK