After completing the entire Saturn V stack, top to bottom, I had one small additional component to complete—the Lunar Module. This sat invisibly inside the Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter during launch and translunar injection, and was revealed only when the SLA panels were discarded during the lunar coast phase. The LM that comes with the kit … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: Lunar Module
Tag Archives: Spaceflight
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 2
Last time, I described how I needed to extensively modify the front and back ends of the Revell S-IC stage, using resin parts from RealSpace and New Ware, combined with some custom decals and a little scratch building. Next, I needed to assemble the component parts of the stage—the fore and aft skirts, the intertank … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 2
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
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 1
Having completed the S-II Aft Interstage for my previous post on this build log, I’ve now progressed to the Big Beast of the S-IC. This stage is composed of Revell’s usual combination of moulded cylinders for the skirts and intertank, and printed styrene sheets to be rolled into cylinders for the tank sections. The stage … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 1
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Aft Interstage
Having completed the S-II stage, I’ve worked my way down the stack as far as the S-II aft interstage—a ring structure interposed between the first and second stages to provide clearance between the S-II’s rocket engines above and the dome of the S-IC’s liquid oxygen tank below. We can see it being dropped astern in … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Aft Interstage
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Stage – Part 2
In my previous post of this build log, I eventually got the heavily modified parts of the Revell S-II stage assembled, and had replaced all the kit fairings with more correct versions from New Ware. A good coat of white paint brought all the disparate parts to the same shade, and then I added the … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Stage – Part 2
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
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Stage – Part 1
In histories of the Apollo programme, the S-II stage of the Saturn V is often referred to as “troubled”. There were difficulties with weight reduction that led to a delay in delivery of the first functioning S-IIs. That may be why Revell’s rendering of the S-II is so poor—it’s clear, from the paint scheme and … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Stage – Part 1
The Myth Of The Starbow
Thus, with all Einstein numbers of flight [velocity as a proportion of the speed of light] greater than 0.37 a major dark spot will surround the take-off star, and a minor dark spot the target star. Between the two limiting circles of these spots, all stars visible in the sky are coloured in all the … Continue reading The Myth Of The Starbow
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