Go to first post of this build log So, much masking later, I got the black, silver and red detailing done on the body of the helicopter. Gad, that’s hard work on something with so much rivet detail—very difficult to mask effectively without one pesky rivet being right on the edge of the masked region, … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 4
Tag Archives: Apollo
Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 2
Go to first post of this build log I’ve just been watching the second episode of season four of Fringe, which features a serial killer whose apartment is stuffed with plastic model kits, for no reason that involves the plot. In fact, no-one comments on it. They’re just there, in the background on all the … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 2
Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option
Gene Kranz is the most famous of NASA’s Flight Controllers, having led Mission Control on both the Apollo 11 first Moon landing, and the Apollo 13 crisis. This, his insider memoir of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo years, was published in 2000. As an Apollo buff, it’s odd that it has taken me fifteen years … Continue reading Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option
Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 1
This one is pure nostalgia. There are much better Sea King kits around, but this is the one I built as an Apollo-obsessed child. It’s about 40 years old—a chance find on eBay. The instruction sheet really did get that yellow, inside a sealed box. A sticker on the lid gives its original price as … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 1
Martin Caidin: Marooned
Not a series of novels, but two rather different novels, by the same author and with the same title, written five years apart. Martin Caidin (first) wrote Marooned in 1964. The novel concerned the fate of an astronaut trapped in orbit by the failure of the retro-pack on his Mercury spacecraft. I encountered it in … Continue reading Martin Caidin: Marooned