Just about there for the main design elements. Lots of detailing to do, and of course there are the fighters….
Jul 232009
Jul 222009
An early Apollo concept. At this writing, bidding stands at $739.00.
This auction is for: an in house hand built scratch model of a lunar take off vehicle by General Dynamics Corp, made sometime circa mid 1960s. Created only for the people directly involved with this particular aspect of this particular space program. Not offered for public or private sale, ever. Wood and aluminum, this is not your standard plastic desk model. Approx. H: 18.5″, with the base 1/2″. The approx. dia: 4.75″. There are some dings as shown, but overall this is a great model, and one not seen on the market much, if ever. It comes apart as shown in one of the pictures, and this is how it will be shipped to the winner. I am listing this with no reserve.
UPDATE: This is very likely an Apollo utilizing the M-2 re-entry vehicle, from Convair’s 1961 study (see comments). I’ve seen *this* design numerous times… but never in model form, always in cutaway diagram form.
Jul 222009
Again with the “Nasa…”
Edit: Auction NOT over, highest bid of $510.00 (didn’t make reserve).
Here’s a lovely old contractor model set from the Apollo Program. Not a Topping Model or a PacMin Model either. This really consists of three seperate models: The CSM or Command and Service Module, the Resource Module, and the two-part Laboratory / Habitation Module. The Command Module is one piece with the Service Module, and does not come off. There is not much I could find out about the Apollo Extension System, except that it never flew in this form and morphed into Skylab eventually…so this is an interesting picture of might of have been. Judging by my careful measuring and computing, this set is in the 1/40th scale. The CSM and the LAB modules are HEAVY. I would say these are made of some sort fo heavy resin and metal with plastic(?) elements. ..it looks like there is no damage, except for some fading on some of the decals, and some of the fuel tanks look like they have maybe been re-glued at one time or another. Some yellowing here and there…but overall, in amazing shape for something they were cooking up over 40 years ago. The CSM slides down on a brass post from the base, and the two other modules have a center female dock for a pin at the top of the CSM. There is a small cone that covers the tip-top, which was a lucky find in and of itself. The pictures really dont do this set justice…Nasa made these for presentation purposes and show and tell, and were not intended for ownership by the general public.
This seems to be a model of one of the designs presented here:
Jul 222009
The Orion Battleship is out the hatch and, for the moment, out of my hands. At some point it’ll be 3-D printed then I’ll get the parts to clean and finish. But that’ll likely be some weeks off yet.
<> So here’s an early look at the *next* model I’m working on… again via CAD. Those of you steeped in Old School model kits should recognize this.
Jul 212009
HERE. `Currently $173… too rich for my blood.
This estate find from a former Grumman Aircraft Co. engineer is an original 1964 Topping style Manufacturer Factory Desk Model of the Grumman G-12A USAF two-seat jet attack aircraft.
Model is made of some type of dense plastic or resin material. Finish is silver with blue stenciled and sprayed canopy areas. Wingspan is 13 inches. Length is 14 inches. There is age cracking visible around the cockpit/nose sub-assembly. There is also an area on the bottom of the fuselage where the silver paint has chipped off.
The underwing ordnance needs restoration. Each wing hard point has a rail with 6 bombs attached. All the rails and their bomb loads need to be reattached to the wing. Also, two of the rails have snapped in half and need to be reglued. Also, the centerline rail is also broken and a section with 3 bombs is missing.
Clear acrylic stand base reads “G-12A Two Seat Version” and has the Grumman logo. Stand base measures 8 1/4 inches long. The stand upright has separated from the base and needs to be buffed out and reattached. The model attaches to the upright by 2 brass locating grommets.
The Grumman G-12 was designed in response to a 1964 U.S. Navy Competition for a replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft. Grumman, Vought, North American and Douglas submitted designs. All the designs had to based around existing airframes to maximize commonality of parts and reduce costs and development time. The Grumman G-12 was based on the A-6A Intruder, and featured a single seat on centerline cockpit, simplified radar, and folding horizontal stabilizers to increase the number of aircraft that could be spotted on a carrier deck. The LTV proposal (based on the F-8) won the competition, and resulted in the A-7A attack aircraft.
The Grumman G-12A model offered here is a 2-seat variant of the G-12 which was submitted to the USAF.
Unlike some desk models made in quantity for production aircraft, only a very few of this type of proposal model was made in-house at the Grumman factory, and distributed only to select individuals. This is one you probably won’t see offered again.
Model is straight out of an old house sale, and is guaranteed to be original.
Still, some interesting photos, including:
Jul 192009
Some parts will not be printed (tubing, platic sheet, etc) and thus aren’t shown here. The long rectangle in the last image is a scale bar… 1 cm wide by 50 cm long.
What this needs is an in-scale Archangel Michael… hmmm…
Jul 182009
All the major parts are modeled, all the important pins & sockets seem to be in place, parts don’t seem to interfere (the RCS units have been moved slightly aft from what’s shown below to prevent interference with the turret bay doors). Some detailing yet to do, and a couple editing checks to make sure there’s nothing stoooopid, then it’s on to the quotation process.
Jul 182009
As often happens, shortly after I published APR issue V2N2 with my guess work as to what the “landing boats” looked like I was given a small photo showing a piece of artwork that actually showed one of them. The artwork was not well presented in the photo, and was from a bad angle to really present the landing boats full configuration, but it was good enough to give me a pretty good idea about what the boats actually looked like. And so I’ve modeled this configuration for the Orion model as opposed to the original “dart.”
Jul 172009
Progress continues of detailing the Orion model, with so far a lot of focus on the primary weapons bays and the doors for the landing boat bays. The CAD model as originally “built” was meant solely as a piece of illustration for an issue of Aerospace Projects Review, so a lot of the features needed to be reworked in order to function as real-world parts. Below are some images… some are renderings, some are simple screenshots.
Jul 152009
The forward section is coming along. The shell is one piece (it should probably
be split into at least two for casting & shipping); the silo doors are recessed;
the secondary weapon doors are “scribed;” one pair of boat doors are open, while
two pair are “scribed;” the primary weapons bays are open. The interior walls &
decks are in place, but need some more work.
