N1 1/96 [7] - Blok D [1]

So now it's Block D that we're trying to make. Since I recently got the hang of making my own dome shapes and curved cones, I thought that this also was the best way of approaching this stage.
Block D is a torus fuel tank with an oval shaped oxidizer tank above it, which has a "skirt" around it. It has a lot of latticework and it carries the LK lunar lander.

A nice abstract view on the tank dome parts. Yes, I need a new cutting mat. I know.

I used the online shroud calculator to make these beauties:

N1 1/96 [6] - Blok G

Now the big scratch build part of this build begins. When I left you last time, I had finished Blok V, the last upper stage of the official N1. Now all stuff built is inside the LK3 train fairing. There's a complete trans-lunar space train inside of it. The fairing is huge and very long. I made a test version of it out of regular 200 gpm2 paper to test its dimensions.

The straight white top is hollow with a couple of reinforcement discs.

As you can see it becomes quite a huge model already.

N1 1/96 [5] - Blok V - ready!

So, I left you all with the start of the third stage, Blok V, when I did the little Bowie tribute.
Well, Blok V now is finished. The original hull was replaced by a second version, with less deeply embossed panel lines and that worked. Here's a photo of how large this behemoth is becoming. There still needs to be a piece added which is roughly the size of the two upper stages together. the story continues after the jump.

Finished and awaiting toppings. card rings keep the latticework from bending inward.

Beauty shots of Major Tom's capsule

I found a star shaped tealight holder in the thrift shop. Now I could finish the display. I took some extra shots of it just now, so you can see what I did with it. I painted it with Mars black (black with red mixed in it to give it a warmer and deeper shade) and well, this is it.
Expect a N-1 update in the next two days. Until then, here are 4 beauty shots.

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon.
--PK

I think his spaceship knows which way to go... (an inbetweenie)

If there is any pop singer I could be called a kind of a fan of, it is David Bowie. His songs have accompanied me in most of my adolescent and adult life. I enjoy his big variety in styles, his voice and the atmospheres he created on his albums. I was genuinely sad to read of his death. In the past few weeks his songs are in high rotation on my iPod. I must admit, I find his later work, from say, Let's Dance up to Reality not that compelling as the stuff he did before that (except for the Tin Machine albums and Earthling), but The Next Day (2013) is good and especially his most recent, Blackstar, is a remarkably fine album.
I wanted to do something as a little tribute to Bowie and his music, and what other way than to make a small model?
I took a couple of classic iconic symbols out of his catalogue and merged them into one display.

A little back story:
In 1995 I painted a huge picture (more than 4 metres long and almost 2 metres high) of Bowie's Space Oddity. It was used for decoration at dance nights in the quite legendary Vera Club, where I worked as a volunteer in those days. Not long thereafter, the piece was gone. Nicked by someone who appreciated it, I hope. I wish I still had it, I really liked it a lot. I only have some sketches of it left. This also was the starting point of what I wanted to make. It was the first time I started to do research on how the capsule actually looked and what I had to change to make it like I imagined it for Major Tom's spacecraft. It actually restarted my fascination with spaceflight again. Because of this, I started the collection of space books I now have.

A small drawing in an old sketch book of mine. In real life it was really huge. I wish I knew where it is. 
Lyrics of course © David Bowie

The build story is below.