X-20 Dyna Soar with Transtage 1/48 (2)

Where were we?
Oh yes. Wings. The X-20 was a sturdy little wedge shaped machine. The paper wings were cut out and with the help of a little dab of water on a wetted Q-tip, traced one time along the back of the paper where the wing needs to be curved works miracles. I should do a little tutorial about that one day.

You can read the rest of this story when you click on the orange text below, saying  "Click here to read the rest of this story!" 

Some more photos of the wingbending business:

little reinforcement and shape-securing ribs inside. It sometimes is convenient to add parts numbers to the cut-out pieces.

A nice snug fit to the hull. All seams were edge coloured with wtercolour pencils in advance.

Now I realised the older print apparently was a little darker than the rest and I cannot figure out for the love of Wallace how that is possible. All of the other printouts were blackish grey, this one is greyish black. Oh well. I already decided this build will be a kind of proof build. I figured out some extra reinforcements that will come in handy with the next X-20 build I have in mind. (more on that later)
It always serves you well to print a model twice in one session. It will provide you with two similar copies in colour and quality. And if you mess up, you can use the spare parts. And they’ll match colour and size. I did mine in two sessions, That's why I got a color difference.

Oh, and in the meantime I also did the nose cone point. Used the kit
part as a template and cut it out of aluminium coloured paper.

Oh and take a good look at the forward facing windows, because...

...now they're gone behind the protective shield the engineers intended to use for re-entry purposes.
I used some excessive force to "bend" the wings up a little to get them tightly fit to the hull. (edge glue)

I reinforced the tails with a piece of card which followed the curvature of the wing's leading edge.

My solution to the open insides of the wing surface facing the manoeuvring surfaces. And that blocky thing on the tail end.

So, the wings were made. I have the feeling some little parts are missing in the kit though. For example how to close up the back of the wings isn’t really clear. I just tried and created some extra parts for it with leftover stuff from a discarded print.
The areas on the inside of the tail end may be covered by the manoeuvring surfaces but I still like them closed up for sturdiness. But do they need to be square or tapered? I chose the latter option.
Also, there are no steps in the instructions about the gear bay door parts. (no numbers)  but I guess with some guesswork people must figure that out.

The steering parts on the tail and wings were easy to make but the little “block” at the tails caused me some trouble. I couldn’t figure out how to place it and the drawing was not sufficient for me. So I just tried something and fiddled until it kind of looked good to me.
The X-20 never was actually realised so for all we know it could have looked that way. The X- 20 was finished. 

Now I got to the transtage. It looks very nice and detailed but I was a little curious about that SLV-5 text. I traced that back to these transtage pictures shown in 2016, This one:

The Martin transtage "found" in a USAF boneyard some time ago, now in use at a NASA research
lab for study of orbital debris. Note the white SLV-5 lettering on the side. Also, note everything else.
Photo: © NASA

I think that one was the transtage that inspired mark to put the SLV-5 markings on his model. This one indeed says SLV-5 on the sides, but that actually is the USAF code name given to the full Titan 3 launcher, not the transtage itself. That was (of course, logically, naturally and aptly) named SSB-10A. Why it is stencilled on this transtage eludes me, but although I like the checkered pattern and all, in the end I decided to scratch build it entirely, using Mark Cable’s parts as templates.

I used heavy metallic coloured paper for the outside. And traced some rivet lines over the surface with an old circular saw blade from my power tool. The access panels were made from other metallic paper.

Shape setting on a plastic cylinder. Upside down. Note the rivet lines. Also, note ribbed insides.
Hardly noticeable when filled with all the coming doodads and thingamajigs.

The inner walls made from thinner aluminium textured paper with some added ribs. The two fuel tanks were hard because of the chrome coated paper I used. The big one came together relatively easy, the petaled back side gave me some work.  I used aluminium tape for the outside because the CA glue left some misting on the edges. The smaller tank was harder to form, especially the petals. The chrome paper was way too thick and sturdy. So I cut the petals off and used a styrofoam ball which I covered in aluminium tape. In the end you won’t see it anyway, because it is facing backwards and is hidden behind all thingamajigs and whatnots of the engine. I wondered why I did all the efforts. Oh well.

Now. Engines. When it comes to engine bells, Mark Cable is king. Period. (Okay, Greelt Peterusma is Emperor. But his are the F1 and J2 engines and those ones are so immensely detailed they are models in itself and a league on their own.) 

These engine bells shapewise are no exception. Apart from being just a little too simple. Just one layer? Come on. The bells are green on the outside. Might be because Mark based it on that very set of photos of the transtage pictured above. The AJ-10 138 seems to have had an ablative kind of bell, which is logical for a hypergolic rocket engine. It might have been green. Green engines. Not really green. Environmentally, that is.

I decided to leave them green. However, after making my own glue strips (in green) and putting the engine together, I made an inner engine bell because the inside is metallic in colour. And I wanted to have a relatively smooth inside. I glued stips around the outside of the inner engine bell. And put them together. Cut off the protruding bits and sanded it smooth on a grinder disk of my power tool.
The inside was then weathered with some watercolour pencil and a wetted brush. After that, the build-up on top of the engine bell was made from regular kit parts. I modified the transition from bell to ignition chamber with a funnel like part, narrowing the opening. Looks better, I think.

The Transtage was meant to be able to restart. Hypergolic fuels are ideal for that purpose. But after orbit insertion,
the engines would have been used at least once. So the insides would be at least scorched.
It really gives the engines some realism. Note the scorched inside.

I really like how the plumbing on the ignition chamber came out.
Note the little "tubes". Hopefully, the other engine will be just as nice.

 
While all that was setting I thought it might be a good idea to put some stenciled scrribbles on the transtage’s outer skin. I discarded the SLV-5 text but I dived into my spare decals box and pulled out some nice numbers and little notes I placed here and there around the outside. The number eight looks nice. a little red text rectangle with a rescue arrow? No idea why but it immediately gives an idea of authenticity. Funny.

Note. Airplane decals on a spacecraft stage. The 8 gives it an SF-look, don't you think?
Also, you can see the 'rivet lines' really well here. Note them.

 
Next up is the trapezium framework of the engines. However, this is it for now. Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Til next time!

Stay safe,

--PK