Posted by John Mitchell
on November 4, 2009, 4:42 pm
86.21.36.253
The dark evenings are here and I've finally started modelling again. First out of the cache is the Highworth-Mountford 1/1250 kit of the Saturn V - Apollo stack with it's launch tower. I've been putting this of for months due to the etch brass parts. I've never tried to assemble this stuff before and frankly, it scared me a bit.
The kit is very straightforward, with only a few parts. I assumed that the launch tower would be a major job and the Saturn V vehicle(being a single piece casting) would be quick and simple. Wrong. In fact, the reverse proved true, with the launch tower being built and painted in a couple of hours and the rocket being a nightmare which took several days, and still isn't to my satisfaction.
The photoetch tower is in two sections, and each folds neatly along a straight edge (I used a steel rule). I didn't fancy using superglue and decided to solder the edges and the sections together. If you run flux at the corners then "spot solder" them, the whole thing can be fixed together very quickly. The beauty of solder is the ability to simply melt it and try again if things go wrong.
I painted the tower with Games Workshop Orange acrylic - the kit instructions specify Humbrol 100, which is probably technically correct but I think looks too dark in this tiny scale. The crane cab looked a bit too long for me when compared to photos of the prototype, so I shortened it by about 3mm. A distinctive feature of the launch tower, which is missing from the kit, are the fuelling pipes running up the tower side. Adding these was very simple job using some Slaters polystyrene rod. I suppose you could always use fine brass wire as an alternative. The topmost platform which supports the crane was slightly miscast on my example and has been replaced with one cut to size from 20 thou polycard.
Some photos show a yellow warning box around the flame pit under the rocket. Initially I did paint this in, but I thought it looked a bit too "bright" and now it's been removed. The launch complex base is painted with Revell Aquacolor Medium Grey which seems to closely match the blueish grey used by NASA.
Painting the Saturn V caused more than a few headaches. The black and white colour scheme is SO familiar I probably hadn't really given it too much thought. The instruction sheet diagram is a also a bit vague about the exact placing of the black roll markings. To make things worse, there were several variations in roll markings which related to all sorts of technical things to do with a particular launch and mission. The markings on the S-IVB stage seem to be different for every launch. I spent many hours doing internet research and finally came up with this "typical" set of patterns and is most like those used on the S-IVB number 509 of Apollo 14.
I made the roll pattern painting too much like hard work by trying to be clever and incorporating some home-made decals alongside extensive masking. The results are very iffy indeed and the whole Saturn V casting is scheduled for a strip down and repaint. On reflection, I think it would be much easier to mark out the patterns with a pencil and simply paint them on with a fine brush. I'm also not totally happy with the white metal escape tower attached to the command module. It looks a bit too solid to my eyes and perhaps I should have replaced it with some fine brass wire?
This is a very satisfying model to build and I'm well impressed by Mountford's use of tech brass which really "makes" the finished model. You can obtain the model in kit form, as here, or assembled and painted, from Martin Brown at waterline-ships.co.uk .
What surprised me was how small it is in 1/1250 scale, being only just over 4" tall. I always think of the Saturn V in launch spec as being gigantic (363 feet tall, 3500 tons) but most of the ships in my collection absolutely dwarf it. For a ridiculous comparison, here's a HobbyBoss USS Arthur Radford ready for launch.
I hope to see more space vehicles in this series. A Mercury-Redstone would be nice, or a Gemini-Titan. A Shuttle, obviously or even Gagarin's Vostock. In the meantime, I'll have to make do with some conversions. I think the final Saturn V vehicle used to launch Skylab in 1972 is definitely possible. If I can find a 1/1250 Shuttle, I might even try a "never was" model of the proposed winged Saturn V flyback booster - what a monster that would be!
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