Ballpoint Pen Bombers

 art, awesomeness, drawings, history, humor, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 232024
 

This is a little outside the usual for APR, as it is satire rather than actual aerospace design. But I thought it appropriate nonetheless; I remember dreaming up just about the exact same ideas when I was twelve. There was something about the design of those pens that just *screamed* for them to be envisioned as spaceships and missiles and whatnot.

The full-rez scan of the article, and a few more bits, been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace histgory, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 11:29 am

Minis visualized

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, CAD diagrams, Hmm..., models, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 192024
 

Here are some hypothetical subjects for metal casting as “minis.” I have three pages (standard 8.5X11) of diagrams, all depicting possible subjects at the size they would be at the stated scales. First page shows what I consider a number of interesting designs… not at a constant scale, but size.

 

 

 

Second page depicts a range of Project Orion vehicles again at a roughly constant size. Constant size means, hopefully, a consistent cost.

 

Third page shows two sets of 8. The US Bomber Projects #1 set has 8 bombers at roughly constant size; US Fighter Projects #1 set has the fighters all at the same scale. 1/285 at least used to be a kind of standard for wargaming, though I’m not sure how widespread it truly was.

 

Sets like USBP01 would probably all be at about the same price, but those like USFP01 might vary since some designs at quite a bit bigger. What I’m kinda hoping for is the individual minis being about $25 each, while the 8-sets be about $100 each. Thoughts?

 

These are of course not the full possible catalog, nor would all these here necessarily come to pass. And scales/sizes could vary substantially. A lot of it would depend on actually trying them and see what works, what fails spectacularly.

 Posted by at 7:47 pm

Little Metal Excelsiors

 art, awesomeness, models, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 162024
 

I’ve achieved a measure of success with getting metal casting up and running. I don’t intend to make too many of these NX-Excelsiors; they’re practice. But I have some spares and can make some more. Anyone interested? Say, $20 plus postage? It is my intention to make some NCC-2000 Excelsiors, and then some NCC-1701-B Enterprises.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:03 am

Metal casting

 art, awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., models, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 062024
 

Some thirty or so years ago I took a stab at casting small parts and models in metal… my very early 1/144 lifting bodies, X-20, etc. The results were sad, so the project was abandoned. For reasons that evade me I’ve recently decided to try again. Materials available to me today are much better… high temp silicone, low-melt temp no-lead alloys, a cheap electric melting pot (rather than a massive cast iron ladle and a blow torch), and I’m slightly more skilled, slightly less stupid. Still, it’s disconcerting when it works right out of the gate:

 

 

For those not old enough and nerdy enough to recognize, these are parts from the mid-80’s FASA NX-2000 Excelsior miniature. The flash seems to pick up the crystalline structure in the surface much more prominently than they appear in reality, and there is clearly a flaw with the mold on the underside of the saucer. But otherwise they came though not only with no flash but also fully filled, no bubbles. I’m quite pleased and more than a little baffled. Immediate success is unexpected.

 

What to do from here? I’m not going to recast the FASA ships; this was just a test. However, I might take a stab at some *different* ships (NCC-2000, NCC-1701-B are obvious choices). But mostly I have an unaccountable urge to cast entirely new minis. I don’t think there’d be a market, but *I* want them… gaming scale Orion nuclear pulse vehicles, Dyna Soars, F-108s, etc. are the sort of things I’d have blown my allowance on back in the 80’s.

 

Next up… gotta acquire a good 3D printer.

 

 Posted by at 7:45 pm

Starship launch 3 videos

 awesomeness, history, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Mar 172024
 

Giggity:

And…

 

Said it before: this is some sci-fi stuff right here.

 

From one perspective, this was another failure. The booster failed at the end… it had difficulty with engine restart for the final landing burn and either kerploded just before hitting the water, or smacked into the water going *real* fast. Starship itself broke apart during entry. So both recoverable stages failed to demonstrate recoverability. But it *did* achieve the low orbit that was intended. It demonstrated the ability to serve as an expendable launch vehicle. An incredibly capable expendable launch vehicle, much more powerful than even the Saturn V. It could start throwing massive payloads into orbit even while attempting to perfect recovery. Large numbers of Starlinks, of course… but also large numbers of, say, Brilliant Pebbles, or tanks of water, or rolls of sheet aluminum and beam builders and PV arrays.

 

 Posted by at 5:08 pm

Rockwell Space Station: 1982

 art, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 072024
 

Published in a magazine in 1983, this artist depiction shows a concept for a 1982 space station by Rockwell. Clearly of the same *kind* of station as the eventual ISS, this is a simpler, smaller construct. However, it also includes a “cargo bay” modeled aft that of the Space Shuttle, allowing payloads (what appear to be temporary science modules) to be readily transferred back and forth.

 

 Posted by at 4:32 pm

More stuff for ebay…

 aircraft, eBay, models, projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 062024
 

But not on ebay yet. If any of these are of interest, let me know.

 

 

 Posted by at 12:26 pm

Must-have coffee table

 art, awesomeness, blather, history, Hmm..., models, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 242024
 

Fortunate is the man who has this coffee table. Fabulously wealthy is he if he has a woman who looks at that table and thinks “that’s awesome, I picked the right guy.”

 

It’s a spectacular piece, and I kinda really want one. However… before I’d plunk down money I don’t have for this sort of thing, I’d demand some improvements. From a distance it looks great, but in the closeup shots you can see the pretty strong layer lines. This appears to have been filament-printed, and little effort seems to have been made to smooth out a lot of it. But as a prototype, it’s fantastic.

 

It’s also interesting to point out that with 6 years worth of Star Trek to choose from, the stuff people *really* seem to like, to the point they’ll spend time, money and effort on, is the TOS and TNG stuff. A similar coffee table using the 1701D bridge? I can definitely see it. Ops from DS9? Meh. Bridges of NX-01 or Voyager? *Maaaaybe.* Kelvinverse Enterprise bridge? Unlikely. STD or SNW bridges? Literally no.

A lot of that is because the TOS and TNG designs were brilliant, while the later ones have been kinda bleh. But also, TOS and TNG are beloved. The shows themselves inspire interest in the designs. nuTrek inspire little more than dismay and fatigue.

I’d be interested to see a kickstarter for a production run of these, with the layer issues dealt with. Pretty sure it’d be far beyond my means, but I’d wish ’em well.

 Posted by at 4:33 pm

First Lunar Outpost artwork

 art, awesomeness, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 202024
 

In 1992 NASA had a flurry of PR about the “First Lunar Outpost” concept which would see the US return to the moon using large lunar landers launched by a single Saturn V derived heavy lifter. A fair deal of concept art was released; much of it used the relatively new technology of computer generated imagery. Five of these images recently appeared on ebay as 16X20 prints; what the heck, I went ahead and bought them. They arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised at the production quality. They weren’t simply printouts glued to cheap foamcore, but instead are very glossy, hard plastic bonded to higher quality foamcore.

I believe I’ll have these professionally scanned and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers.

 Posted by at 3:46 pm

Stuff on ebay

 aircraft, eBay, models, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 172024
 

I’ve posted some stuff on ebay… an Atlantis 1/72 AH-56 Cheyenne model kit; E-Wing and TIE Defender “Action Fleet” ships; Diamond Select/Art Asylum Classic Tricorder, Classic Science Tricorder and Classic Medical Tricorder.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415910192

    

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415908169

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415908230

 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415908285

 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415908336

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256415908399

 Posted by at 1:51 pm
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