With the main bodywork of the aircraft completed last time, I finally got her standing on her undercarriage, in the form a set of ResKit resin wheels—slightly more detailed than the kit parts, with a nice open fork for the rear wheel. The kit parts for the undercarriage legs need a very slight modification. They … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 4
Tag Archives: Apollo
Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 3
At the end of the my previous post in this build log, I was just about ready to glue the big bits of fuselage together. Which went surprisingly well. The cockpit canopy comes in three sections, and that went less well—the side windows were awkward to align properly, and both of them made brief excursions … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 3
Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 2
In my last post, I still had a few bits and pieces of scratch building to do—a stills camera tucked behind the starboard sponson, facing backwards, and some weapons mount points. I haven’t been able to find any good views of the stills camera beyond a couple of glimpses in Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11 … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 2
The Coordinate Axes Of Apollo-Saturn: Part 2
In my previous post on this topic, I described how flight engineers working on the Apollo programme assigned XYZ coordinate axes to the Saturn V launch vehicle and to the two Apollo spacecraft, the Command/Service Module (CSM) and the Lunar Module (LM). This time, I’m going to talk about how these axes came into play … Continue reading The Coordinate Axes Of Apollo-Saturn: Part 2
Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 1
After building Airfix’s old 1/72 scale Apollo recovery Sea King, I swore a mighty oath that I was never going to make another 1/72 helicopter. But I recently got hold of a set of Starfighter Decals’ 1/48 scale markings for the “Old 66” Apollo recovery Sea King, which inspired me to go around again on … Continue reading Hasegawa 1/48 SH-3H Sea King (Apollo Recovery SH-3D Conversion): Part 1
The Coordinate Axes Of Apollo-Saturn: Part 1
As a matter arising from my long, slow build of a Saturn V model, I became absorbed in the confusing multiplicity of coordinate systems and axes applied to the Apollo launch vehicle and spacecraft. So I thought I’d provide a guide to what I’ve learned, before I forget it all again. (Note, I won’t be … Continue reading The Coordinate Axes Of Apollo-Saturn: Part 1
How Apollo Got To The Moon
I’m posting this at 13:32 GMT on 16th July 2019—exactly fifty years after the launch of Apollo 11. It’s the last part of a loose trilogy of posts about Apollo—the first two being M*A*S*H And The Moon Landings and The Strange Shadows Of Apollo. This one’s about the rather complicated sequence of events required to get … Continue reading How Apollo Got To The Moon
The Strange Shadows Of Apollo
In a previous post, I explained how all the manned moon landings were made with the sun low in the sky behind the Lunar Module, so that long shadows accentuated terrain features, making it easier to locate a safe place to land. But this meant that the LM landed facing into its own shadow, so … Continue reading The Strange Shadows Of Apollo
M*A*S*H And The Moon Landings
I’ve got into the habit of checking what the Internet Movie Database has to say about films after I’ve watched them. After rewatching Robert Altman’s 1970 classic M*A*S*H, I happened on something odd in the film’s “Trivia” section at IMDb: The loudspeaker shots and announcements were added after editing had begun, and the filmmakers realized … Continue reading M*A*S*H And The Moon Landings
Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 5
Go to first post of this build log Well, if you’ve been fretting about what was happening with this kit, I can only assure you that I haven’t been frittering away my time. Not been having a lot of fun, either. You’ll maybe recall that I planned to use my own printed decals to put … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 5