N1: 7K-LOK on its way!

Whoopsie. I was on a roll and I forgot to take progress pics. Sorry!
But what is more important: it looks quite good. And that is what counts. I am not making paper stuff for this blog. I make a blog about my paper stuff.
Anyway.
I used an AXM designed Soyuz for the 7K-LOK moon orbiter. (LOK= Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl) I extended the service module and redesigned the longer and wider engine skirt, using the shroud calculator you can find in the sidebar. There was a new engine section needed so that was also made in this same calculator. All cone-shaped rings. Very handy machine. Thanks to whomever designed it. I really love using it.

The upper part of the 7K-LOK is almost similar to the Soyuz. It's just the docking piece on top which is very different. Here's where I am now, some more pictures below.

N1-L3 in progress

It seems like there isn’t a lot happening at the moment, but it actually is the opposite. It even has been quite turbulent the last two weeks. And not in a nice way, unfortunately.
However, it doesn’t mean there isn’t some time to do a little paperwork now and then. But just a little. Far too little to make a post about. So it really had to accumulate to make a good full post. And here it is.

I still am working on the N1. Such a time consuming build (I started this build mid- November 2015!) perhaps might gets tedious now and then but I got the spirit back a couple of weeks ago. Slowly the thing turns into what I wanted it to be in the first place, albeit as a static model which isn’t made for taking apart to demonstrate. Here's a complete overview in one picture, the rest follows below:

Yes, you see it right: up on top is the complete LK lander,
berthed in its shroud on top of the Blok D stage.

The ongoing story of the N-1

Man, this is a troublesome rocket, isn't it? Just like the real thing, I keep struggling with this launcher to make lift off successfully. Still, there are things I could try with it. It just has to be a looker. It's so huge and impressive. And the model is so good.
So today I had a couple of hours of spare time and I had an idea. I first wanted to do it the simple way but that apparently is not the way to go with the N1. So, I cut off about 45mm of width from the piece I printed earlier, which was way too large. I thought it was a waste to throw it all away so now what we're going to do is this:

There is going to be a 4,5 cm wide window all the way up to the escape tower, so you can see what is inside. I also cut open the inner fairings for the Blok D and LK to be shown.
In the copy shop I bought some transparent sheets to go behind the cut-out part of  the outer fairing and keep the innards visible.

There was some stuff happening...

...But it didn't go as planned. The past weeks I have been having a couple of setbacks with paper modelling, It just doesn't go as I want it to go. I worked on Paperpino's rolling cylinder circus, which went quite well but all the little cylinders get either stuck or fall off. Frustrating. Might be because of the reduction in size and/or the paper thickness. Anyway, the automaton itself works fine, the rolling part went wrong. It is a nice thing to build, though. I still want to do some more toy stuff like this.

So much fun to make, yet still not working...

I started with finishing the N1 today, but now it appeared the very meticulous definitive print I made on photo paper of the white top was much too large. I thought I was smart to use A4 sheets with carefully rearranged parts of the fairing but well, of course Photoshop makes it all larger. Back to printing it on 80 gram paper and test until it has the right size.
The N1 needs a nice tight and semi-gloss fairing to fit the rest. The rocket is quality and needs the top to be that too.

Up next are a few options:
- Something with a what-if I already have in my head for ages. a Diorama with the X-20.
- The fabulous SF Cosmostrator designed by Jason Sutton
- a redo of the most beautiful rocket in the world, the Saturn SA-5 with more detail and better paper

My mind now says Cosmostrator, but perhaps it will be something else. I have to buy some shiny paper for it, . 

The Cosmostrator. It's the iconic rocket from an East-German/Polish SF movie from 1960.

Hopefully, there will be something on the cutting mat soon. But there are a lot of things going on here, mostly private stuff, which might cause me to take it all a bit slower and it might take a little more time until I am back model making.

I saw a peak of people visiting my blog because of Rosetta and Philae's mission and final reunion on the surface of comet 67P this week. Nice to see there is interest in such missions. I also think ESA did a tremendous job keeping the public interested in the mission by making these wonderful cartoons about their journey and the progress they made in investigating the comet, and of which the last one which also made my eyes a little misty:

Both probes - and ESA - did a great job.

Well, see you all soon.
--PK