OK, here’s the final (pending review) Ajax CAD model. Different colors indicate different parts. Light blue indicates clear parts… except for the rectangular hatches on the rear spine. Those won’t be clear. If it looks like I’ve missed something or made a mistake, now’s the time to speak up.
And by “anomaly,” they meant “utterly kerploded.”
Rockets R Hard.
This was the capsule that recently returned from the ISS. It was to be used for an in-flight abort test, but obviously that’s not going to happen. Hopefully they’ll be able to figure out what went wrong. It looked like a friggen’ bomb went off.
Getting close to finished with the Ajax model. Just need to clean up a few bits and do some work on the engine and add some details to the rear of the “spine,” and it’ll be there.
There was some debate about how to deal with the nearly 200 rungs on the side of the vehicle. They are just big enough that simple raised rectangular bumps on the surface would look lame. So the decision as it currently stands is to include two options the builder can choose from. Both build on “troughs” cut in the surface.
1) The simpler option include segments that fit in the troughs and which have molded-in rungs. They simply plug in.
2) The more complex option uses segment plugs with gaps on the side, the end result being that when the plugs are inserted there will be holes in the surface. Into these holes will fit photoetched brass rungs. This will be labor intensive… but the end result should look phenomenal.
Coupled with the clear parts and theoretically easy lightability… this should be a damned spiffy model when finished.
*Something* went wrong during a static test firing of the capsules Super Draco engines. Few details as yet, but this will doubtless set the project back some. Feh.
A piece of Rocketdyne art illustrating something just not quite as possible as they thought at the time: a manned landing on Saturns moon Titan. This dates from prior to (quite likely a decade prior to) 1968 and depicts a terribly 1950’s rocketship standing on its tail in the nicely transparent air of Titan, with Saturn clearly visible in the sky above some modest lower-level atmospheric haze.
This almost certainly does not depict an engineering study, but is simply the result of an aerospace artist at Rocketdyne being let loose to create some PR images.
A model I CAD-mastered for Fantastic Plastic has finally been released… the 1/288 scale Max Valier “Raketenschiff” from 1929. This was a very art deco “rocket ship” designed as a hypersonic trans-Atlantic passenger transport. It was never much more than a notion and some art, but it’s always been a concept I’ve been fond of. Its design is a combination of zeppelin and Colliers Ferry Rocket. Go to Fantastic Plastic and buy a couple.
For no good reason other than pure curiosity I gathered together all of the “Zaneverse” stories I’ve written and totaled up how many words they have. Assuming a standard of 300 words per novel-sized page… it turns out I’ve cranked out around 1,200 pages. This surprised me and initially impressed me; then I realized that Stephen King could probably bang out a 1,200 page novel in a single drunken weekend and I promptly became less impressed with myself.
The question remains what to do with it all. For a year I tried going through a literary agent to get “Novel 1” published, but he turned out to be a bit of a disappointment (apparently health issues… shrug). One of the short stories was submitted for a sci-fi anthology… but I never heard back, not even a notice of receipt of the manuscript, never mind an acceptance or rejection. Grrr. “Novel 0” is something I’m currently hacking away at, and it is specifically intended to *not* be published; it’s weird and from a literary point of view not needed, in much the same way the “Solo” movie wasn’t needed. However, having the origin story of the main characters put down on paper (so to speak) will help me keep things straight. Plus, I just wanted to do it.
Anybody know any literary agents who might want to be in on the ground floor of the next publishing powerhouse, sure to leave Harry Potter in the dust? Self publishing is always an option, but given that I have neither skill nor talent in the area of effective self promotion, that’s not terribly appealing.
Latest update on the Ajax, showing the location of ladder rungs on the surface. On the final model these will likely be molded-in raised rectangular solids. At 1/200 scale, the rung would be *really* tiny (they’re about 1/12 of an inch wide and of course much thinner than that) and could only be done via photoetch; and while that has the potential to look spectacular, holy crap it’d be a nightmare.
Also: note that there are a number of parts shown in light blue. These are parts that are meant to be cast in clear resin. The fuselage and wings are hollow, allowing ready access to clear parts for those who wish to light the model with LEDs. The walkways are “troughs” with the “ceilings” being separate flat parts to be cast in clear. The main parts of the walkways need detailing and will not have the open doorways.
An early-ish Convair illustration of the potential weapons and other payloads to be carried by the B-58 bomber, both in the centerline pod and under the wing roots. Note not only ballistic missiles but also several recon options, and a “bomb bay pod” giving the aircraft a payload of several gravity bombs, presumably nuclear.
I have uploaded the full resolution scan of the illustrations to the 2019-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to $4 and up subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Well, here’s another bit of bummer news for the day…
Turns out tall narrow things standing unsecured on the deck of a barge in 8 to 10 foot swells? Not so secure.