Further thoughts on the “Wind Tunnel Models” book…

 aircraft, blather, books, drawings, history, models, new products, projects, spacecraft  4 Responses »
Aug 262011
 

After spending yet more time going through my files arranging things in preparation for maybe doing the Shuttle Wind Tunnel Models collection, I find I have north of 500 reports, at nearly 8 gig. Of those, about 250 reports/2.8 gig are of pre-Shuttle program manned lifting entry vehicles and lifting bodies… NASA reports on Dyna Soar, HL-10, M2, X-24, etc. What I’m now contemplating is breaking it up further… a “X-24A Wind Tunnel Models” book,” an “M2F1/F2/F3 Wind Tunnel Models” book, etc. and work up to various aspect of the Shuttle program. By breaking it up, the books become individually more affordable. A dozen books of 30 pages might be better than one book of 360 pages, especially if someone only wants the info on the unbuilt logistics spacecraft concepts.

The books themselves would be largely restricted to the relevant graphics… photos of the models (which in some cases were the actual vehicles), diagrams, cross-sections, that sort of thing. The books would be for people who want to model the designs or render them or… whatever. But the actual *data* simply would not pack into affordable books. So I’m thinking of having a CD-ROM or DVD supplement with all the reports that go with a particular book, available separately.

In any event, these would be fairly low priority publications. Comments welcome.

 Posted by at 8:30 pm

Space Shuttle Wind Tunnel Models: The Book

 aircraft, books, drawings, models, new products, news, photography, projects, rockets, spacecraft  16 Responses »
Aug 242011
 

I have a big fat pile of early Space Shuttle wind tunnel test reports, and it’s occurred to me that they could serve as the basis of an attractive book (or couple of books). I have put together a small, short, hastily-assembled prototype/mockup, downloadable below in PDF form, to give a rough idea of what I mean. Would something like this be of interest to y’all? It would be interesting not only from a historical standpoint, but also or model makers.

If interested, let me know… if I get enough “yes, I’d buy if the price wasn’t insane” comments, then I will go ahead. It’ll be something of a back-burner project, unless the response is overwhelming.

shuttle wind tunnel models proto.pdf

NOTE: the PDF was saved with maximum compression to save filesize, and the illustration s received minimal massaging to improve image quality. This is simply a test to gauge potential customer interest.

 Posted by at 12:32 pm

Air Drawing 2: B-1 Model Drawing

 aircraft, drawings, models  No Responses »
Aug 082011
 

Large format drawing of the B-1A bomber. Scanned at 300 dpi grayscale from a 1/150 scale drawing (Rockwell, dated 1976), presents top/bottom, side, front views along with landing gear details and numerous fuselage, nacelle, wing and stabilizer cross-sections. Intended to aid model builders.
BONUS: Contemporary B-1 publicity material… “B-1 Mission Versatility” brochure, USAF B-1 Strategic Bomber Fact Sheet.
BONUS BONUS: Smaller, equivalent drawing of the B-1B. Shows changes from A to B model.
download order: $5.50

 Posted by at 8:37 am

Skate/Sea Dart

 aircraft, history, models, projects, youtube  6 Responses »
Aug 022011
 

Another film from the San Diego Aerospace Museum archive:

[youtube Z7DcqfFpb4Y]

This one chronicles the development of the XF2Y-1 “Sea Dart,” a supersonic delta-winged jet fighter designed to operate from the water. Interestingly, this film spends a fair amount of time showing the Skate concept, a swept-wing seaplane concept. Back In The Day, analysis was by means of actual testing, rather than computer analysis, and here that meant building 1/10 scale models and catapult launching them over the water. Some of the landings were just plain *ugly.*

 Posted by at 4:53 pm

Whispercraft Revival

 aircraft, models, new products, science fiction  10 Responses »
Jul 202011
 

One of the models I made master parts for Fantastic Plastic models was the 1/72 scale “Whispercraft” helicopter from the movie “The Sixth Day.” This was, IMO, one of my more entertainingly engineered kits, with lots of movable parts and options. Due to financial restrictions, it had no cockpit innards. And due to something happening with the molds and/or the master parts, it had a very limited production run and has been unavailable for some time.

There has apparently been enough interest shown that we are looking at re-releasing the kit, this time with full cockpit details. Also of *potential* interest is releasing a few extra parts to make a military variant. This would be invented out of whole cloth. I created a few clay “mockups” of potential alternate forward fuselage configurations, shown below. These are not meant to be the final designs, but instead are simply quickly-sculpted “sketches” to show possibilities.

If you are interested in a Whispercraft model, let me know via comments. Also, if you are interested in a Whispercraft and find one or another of the “alternate configurations” appealing, let me know that, too. if there is enough interest shown, the project will go forward, and probably with the alternate configuration that there is the most interest in.

First: a “conventional” configuration

Second: a “duck nose” configuration

Third: a tandem-seater like the Mil-24 “Hind”

Fourth: an asymmetrical configuration, like the Boeing AAH entry.

Fifth: a faceted “stealth configuration

 Posted by at 10:17 pm

Hammerhead

 aircraft, awesomeness, models, photography, science fiction, spacecraft  11 Responses »
Jun 202011
 

This is what one model builder did with the 1/72 scale  SA-43 “Hammerhead” kit that I mastered for Fantastic Plastic:

 Posted by at 11:56 pm

1/32 HML?

 awesomeness, blather, models, new products  8 Responses »
Jun 182011
 

A model I’ve wanted to build for *years* is one of the Small ICBM “Hard Mobile Launcher.” There were three different vehicles manufactured by three different companies; the one on my mind is the Boeing variant on non-display at the Hill Aerospace Museum. The time and effort involved in such an endeavor, with dubious hopes of payoff, have kept me from this one.

A recently mentioned, Revell later this year is going to re-release the 1/32 “Atomic Cannon.” It dawned on me that the two vehicle would look good next to each other. But a 1/32 scale model of a 110-foot-long truck would be a big, big thing, and thus kinda expensive. I have recently been making good headway with display models (I will shortly post photos of some recent and ongoing efforts), and so my thought for a large-scale HML would be to produce a limited number as finished display models. I half-jokingly posted this notion to another forum and did get one expression of interest, interest which apparently remained when I mentioned the pricetag. “Interest,” of course, does not count until  money changes hands.

So, my question here is twofold:

1: Anyone interested? The price would be substantial, but less if there are more interested & paying aprties up front.

2: Is 1/32 the right scale? Seems that 1/35 is a more common “armor” scale, and is of course slightly smaller. Wouldn’t affect price a whole lot, but a few inches off the length might matter (about 41 inches for 1/32, about 38 for 1/35). However, the Atomic Cannon is only available in 1/32… and another difficult-to-find and expensive version at 1/40 scale (33 inches).

 Posted by at 1:30 pm

You want this, don’t you…

 aircraft, awesomeness, models, new products  8 Responses »
May 302011
 

Now available… the “C-21 Dragon Assault Ship” model that I mastered for Fantastic Plastic. All assembled and painted, it looks friggen’ AWESOME.

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/C-21AssaultShipCatalogPage.htm

Good, good….

Let the funds flow through you!

This is by far the most complexicated model kit that I’ve mastered, but from the looks of it, it was worth the effort. Now if it turns out that THIS was what was used to insert the SEALs into Casa Del bin Laden…

Even at 1/144 scale, it’s a substantial kit.

 Posted by at 4:09 pm
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