posted 08-06-2016 11:53 PM               

Have a look at this image on earthtothemoon.com for a plaque reference (can't quite read it but I imagine you could get a better pic from the site owner).

posted 08-14-2016 09:23 PM               

We have added one of his F-1 engine "mirror" models. It replicates the engine display as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The second is the Apollo 1 model that has been shown on his thread.

They are amazing to view and Jackie and I are proud to display them front and center in the showcases that are just inside the front entrance. Big thanks for Michael and his work!

posted 09-21-2016 03:56 PM               

When he started, he lived in Champaign, Illinois, not a short drive from here in Guyton, Georgia but okay. When he finished, he was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a significant drive.

If you search you will find that Carlos has built a number of models for the Kollection (1/48 Skylab and a 1/12 CSM scratch build to name a couple) and these two new Saturns are every bit the quality build that his amazing talents can turn out. Included into the models are a few of the 3D parts Michael Key produced in support of the build and it was exciting to get those two working together on the same build.

Jackie and I did not want to even think of shipping these models, so we had determined when the time was right that we would pack up the Tahoe and head west. We left out on Friday, Sept. 2 at the tail end of hurricane Hermine (tropical storm as it passed over our area).

We headed up north and west to see Liberty Bell 7 in the Children's Museum in Illinois, swung by the American Pickers' original store front in Iowa, Minuteman Missile Museum in South Dakota (they let you run 80 mph on those highways, legally), the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Wyoming State Museum (hey, they have a missile base in Cheyenne so there was some space items there), the Texas Air & Space Museum in Amarillo, Texas to see GII s/n 146 Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) on display (they let you go inside)...

...Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma, Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas (Apollo 7 CM on display), Houston to Johnson Space Center and a tour of our own Robert Pearlman's space collection, Infinity Science Center in Mississippi, then home. That was a 5,000 mile driving adventure and those were only the space highlights.

Here are the photos of the Saturns picked up in Cheyenne inside the Tahoe (first two stages together just fit in the back), as well as the new display at home. The photo does not do them justice as the ceiling height is 13 feet — the Saturn V is huge! This has been a dream of mine since I can remember to have all the 1960's U.S. human space vehicles in a large scale, i.e. 1/48. We now have it.

One of the biggest highlights outside of the space-related stops was being at the Dealey Plaza Museum, where JFK was shot. If you have never been and you can, you should. We happened to be there on Sept. 11, which was even more humbling than I could have imagined.

Favorite space story from the trip is a life lesson learner. While waiting for Carlos to get off of work (Carlos is Curator of Exhibits for the Wyoming State Museum, as well as champion Saturn builder) and go to his house for the pick up, we went to his suggested walk to the Train Museum in downtown Cheyenne. We walked into a small pawn shop around the corner from there, as we do just in case there is a stray piece of space memorabilia hiding there.

Jackie reviewed the jewelry case as she does in the quest for a space related pin. A Silver Snoopy is on our list of wanting but not at the current prices out there. Well, she found a pin and it had Snoopy on it. She asked to see it and the lady said it was stamped sterling, so Jackie asked if I thought this was the right pin. Being the expert I am I said no, too small, and I really did not study it close. In my mind the pin should have been about an inch tall and it was not. Jackie suggested we buy it anyway as it was an astronaut after all. It was put back and on we went to the Saturn pickup.

Fast forward to Robert's collection walkthrough and of course he has a flown Silver Snoopy, which Jackie drew to my attention. It was then when my heart sank, I saw in front of me the pin that was not bought in that pawn shop. Added to that feeling, neither one of us could remember at that time just exactly where we saw the unbought pin.

After some serious thought and discussions we did remember it was the Cheyenne pawn shop. We sent an e-mail to Carlos and his wife was able to pick it up at that pawn shop for $4, which they will not let us reimburse I may add. It is on its way to our Kollection now.

Two lessons from that story, one — always listen to your wife, two — when you wife says to buy something that looks like an astronaut refer to lesson one. Jackie found a Silver Snoopy pin in a pawn shop in Cheyenne, Wyoming, amazing!

posted 01-02-2017 11:22 AM               

If the model comes apart in sections, even if there is a designed case for the model, wrap all sections separately including the case as a separate item. Once the complete model is wrapped in small bubble wrap then a second layer of large bubble wrap can be used followed by putting in a box with packing peanuts. Then that box needs to be placed into another box with packing peanuts. In that way if the outside box is abused the inside box is safe and the inside box does not absorb any impact just the outside box.

One more point, there is little need for much tape on the outside of the bubble wrap. I have had people wrap the tape so tight it broke the model. Also, you cannot see the tape and it is difficult to get the tape off the bubble wrap and not damage the very thing it was meant to protect.

Okay, back to the H-1, fixed it up but it was missing a major tube so I built a mock up (see photo) and sent it with a number of photos of a complete model (thanks Scott!) and sent it to Michael Key and he did the 3D modeling of the needed parts sent them to me primed and ready for paint. The last two photos are the finished product.

posted 01-02-2017 11:23 AM               

The photo shows the display, however I could not get them all in so there are four more on each side if that which is seen in the photo. Now every time we leave the house we leave with a launch memory.

Also on that same area we have a photo of Scott Kelly and his plaque for 1000 flights on a F-14 Tomcat.

posted 01-03-2017 12:50 PM               

Very good info on packing/shipping as well. I, too, have received many packages with some sketchy packaging.

posted 01-05-2017 05:30 AM               

When I buy older contractor type models I expect some minimal repairs as the glue is old and parts come apart when bumped around.

My frustration comes when there is some obvious lack of planning for shipping.

I had one fellow package the model poorly and insured it at a high amount because he did not get the price for the model that he was hoping for on eBay. He even proposed splitting the amount with me so that I would "come out ahead" as well.

posted 06-08-2017 09:25 PM               

The Space Transportation Architecture Study and Advanced Launch System (ALS) Studies.

In addition to the long-term goals of the National Space Transportation and Support Study, the government wanted to examine payload requirements and launch options projected over the middle term (e.g., 1985-1995). Toward that end, a jointly funded NASA, Air Force and SDIO Space Transportation Architecture Study (STAS) was offered in June 1985, and four contracts worth approximately $6,000,000 apiece were awarded to Boeing, Rockwell International, General Dynamics and Martin Marietta on 6 September 1985.

posted 06-08-2017 09:26 PM               

Named "Jarvis" after Hughes employee Gregory Jarvis who was lost with Challenger, the initial design used ET-diameter tanks, but no other shuttle elements. It would have been powered by a pair of F-1 Saturn V first stage engines and a single J-1 second stage engine. A smaller hypergolic trim stage would have been used to place up to six GPS satellites, or up to 38.6 tonnes, into orbit during a single launch.

By the end of 1986, Boeing had shifted the design toward its earlier in-line shuttle-derived plans. Using four-segment SRBs, a core stage with a single SSME would have orbited 36 tonnes. A two-SSME core would have launched nearly 64 tonnes. Three SSMEs would have lifted nearly 84 tonnes. Two SSMEs in a recovery module would have orbited 59 tonnes.

With a Centaur G-Prime upper stage, Jarvis would have been able to boost 7.7 tonnes to geosynchronous orbit, roughly equivalent to 15.5 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Although Jarvis was never developed, the Boeing/Hughes relationship eventually spawned an active commercial launch system named Sea Launch.

posted 07-08-2017 12:53 PM               

The plan is to have all the exposed surfaces being aluminum or PVC. That way it can survive the blazing sun here in the Savannah area. The details will be missing the corrugation on the lower end of the mail body as I cannot figure out what would work there so a plain aluminum skin wrapped around a inner skeleton of pressure treated pine.

The LES body tube will go through the tower so the purists out there just turn away. More to come as we move along.

posted 07-31-2017 06:40 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GACspaceguy:
Latest eBay pick up is this LC-39 model.

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