1/144 Airfix Space Shuttle

Gallery Article by Angelo M Picardo on Mar 27 2012

 

 

When I heard that Airfix were re-issuing their Space Shuttle, I had to get one. 
I had built one when it was first issued, but that ended up being strapped to a firework rocket and being launched into infinity and beyond! 

I decided to read up on the model and, from articles on the ARC's Space Forum, I found that it would need some work here and there to make it more accurate.
Most of the work was done on the external tank.

The ribbing needed to be added to the inter-tank section as it is absent, Airfix have tried to represent it with decals, but it's too 2D even in this scale.

Other detailing work involved adding the bracing to the various pipes that run from the tank to the Orbiter, and adding other missing items to the tank.

I also attempted to simulate the textured surface on the tank caused by the insulating material.

I copied the method I read about in the articles on the forum, that is softening the plastic with liquid poly cement, them roughing it up with a broad flat, stiff brush.

The result is a subtle texture, which doesn't show up too well in the photographs.
The various shade of rusty oranges, browns and tans were mixed from Tamiya acrylics using as many colour pictures as possible for reference.

 

Click on images below to see larger images

To detail the orbiter, I attempted to simulate the thermal protection blankets by applying small squares of masking tape to the relevant areas of the shuttle.
This was very time consuming, but gives a reasonable representation of the special covering.

The model was painted with Tamiya acrylic white, matt and gloss, as I find this does not tend to yellow like some other paints. 

The Orbiter had the main engine bells replaced with resin ones from Realspace Models which have more refined details of the ribs and piping present on the full size bells.
I Used a combination of kit decals, Realspace Models and I was able to obtain the now out of production decals by Cutting Edge.

This last set has decals simulating the tiles that protect the underside and other parts of the craft from the heat of re-entry.

The Realspace Models decals provide marking for the Solid Rocket Boosters that are not on the kit's sheet.

From reading various books I found that shuttles varied in appearance from mission to mission, and I was finding it difficult to get a complete view of one orbiter, tank, booster combination, so I cheated! 

I cherry picked various details I liked and modelled them on my shuttle.
So apologies to the shuttle experts out there for the lack of purity of my shuttle.
I decided to model the orbiter Atlantis as she flew the final mission and I wanted to commemorate this with my model.

Angelo M Picardo

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Photos and text © by Angelo M Picardo