Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)

[Spaceman]

Hello friends,

after the Flour coating with the Rice flour, I can now show the images too.

Here the Intertank Dummy already hangs in my tried and tested Flour chamber,

and is waiting for the UHU glue spray mist,

which has covered it here after some turns from all sides.

And then followed the generous Flour coating with the rice flour by using a sieve,

whereby the flour was pressed smoothly between several times with the finger, which this time everything went much looser from the hand.

Finally, the loose flour was removed by tapping at the rotating rod,

so that everything could dry thoroughly first, and then the excess flour could be brushed off.

Now I can also present the pictures after brushing off the surplus flour, which have pleasantly surprised me,

because now the proportions of the SOFI-Patterns fit much better to the diameter of the Intertank, which results in a completely different and more realistic look of the texture,

especially since the floured surface looks much finer and smoother this time, which is certainly due to the finer Rice flour.

And if I now imagine this structure with primer and painting, then this should presumably give a quite acceptable overall picture.

And then I carefully subtracted the Maskol bonnets from the Ramps,

whereby I had to realize that the ramp, glued onto the tape strips (left) had no proper hold and has gradually peeled off during unmasking.

Consequently, the splices for the Ramps should be exposed before the Flour coating and covered separately either with a piece of masking tape or with Maskol and then the Ramps to glue only after Flour coating.

Here for comparison a small photomontage of the new SOFI Pattern structure in the original image of the ET-8 during the Roll-out, which shows that it looks not so bad, right?

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Jester)

And with these positive impressions, I can now continue with a clear conscience.

[Thierry90]

Amazing work

[Spaceman]

Thanks Thierry for your compliment.

Hello everybody,

for masking before Flour coating, I need a stable and secure solution, either with masking paint or tape, especially since I have the cover problem as with the Ramps even with the other ET add-on parts, such as with the ET/Orbiter Interface Attachment, this is the rear support structure of the orbiter with the different vertical and diagonal struts,

as well as the LH2/LO2 PAL Ramps, etc.

The Airfix solution of this Interface attachment, on the other hand, looks a bit more modest and therefore is not quite realistic,

so there some scratch building is needed.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

and since both Airfix and Revell did not consider these two Umbilicals in their kits, but at least should be hinted, therefore here another view showing the connection of all lines and cables between the ET and the Orbiter Doors.

Source: NASA

And who wants to follow all the details exactly, can look at this drawing and even find some dimensions, whereby it should be noted that the struts are shown here without TPS.

Source: System Definition Handbook SLWT - Vol. II

For the further building process, it will become useful to model the ET/Orbiter Interface Attachment incl. Umbilicals separately and to glue it only after the Flour coating, priming and painting of the ET. Then I need to mask only the connecting areas of the two Longerons as well as the foot points of the vertical struts.

Then follows the mounting of the LO2 Feedline as well as the Ice Frost Ramps with the two GH2/GO2 Press. Lines and the Cable Tray on the LH2 tank, as well as the installation of the GO2 Press. Line along with its Ramps and Cable Tray on the LO2 tank.

And only at the very end the complete and painted ET/Orbiter Interface Attachment are glued and the corresponding line connections adjusted at the interfaces.

So far to the theory, that wants to be well considered. I just hope that this can also be realized in practice.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

to get in advance an idea of the size of the two Umbilicals, which I want to scratch, I reduced the drawing to 1:144 and cut out the Crossbeam with the Umbilicals and Cable Trays and put it onto the Crossbeam of the Airfix ET.

And now one can see how small these miniature parts are that always look so huge in the photos.

Here is a photo in daylight.

And matching it I have a great photo of my friend Scott “Shuttleman” Phillips (see arrow), standing as young but then already about 1,80 m large greenhorn next to a Original LH2 Umbilical, which shows the true size of this part.

Source: Scott Phillips

Mighty impressive, right?

By the way, Scott Phillips has been busy for quite some time with two very interesting projects in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon landing, which is imminent.

Source: NASA

Since I’ve supported him a bit, I was also let in on, but I had to promise him not to reveal anything, as it should become a surprise.

Here one can see Scott and his wife Dianne in the workshop of the creators before the internal unveiling of the “Corpus Delicti”.

Source: Scott Phillips

Only so much in advance, it has something to do with historic wood …

[Johnnych01]

Binge catch up and all that tape detailing is paying off …it looks super

[Spaceman]

Thanks John, it’s a challenge dealing with such a lot of unknown details and then scratch building all this stuff, which is very time-consuming.

[Spaceman]

Hello folks,

to this question I also consulted my friend DaveS (forum.nasaspaceflight.com), who also had some interesting photos in stock, like this one,

Source: NASA

on which unfortunately one cannot see this interface of the LH2 Cable Tray that interests me, as it is obscured by the Vertical Strut as in most photos. But at least one can see more of the arrangement of this gray ‘distribution box’, which apparently has such a function.

Afterwards, I’ve continued to search for the interface myself, and as one could already see in this photo,

Source: NASA

the LH2 Cable Tray seems to run diagonally upwards at the point A, possibly to this ‘distribution box’, as it also appears in this photo of the ET-8 (STS-6).

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)

The matter got a bit clearer to me when I saw this photo of the ET-119 (STS-121) zoomed in,

Source: NASA

on which one can see at the point A the continuation of the gray LH2 Cable Tray, but which not directly leads to the ‘distribution box’ but apparently to the Vertical strut.
And then suddenly the penny dropped, when I’ve again checked this photo again and asked DaveS for it.

And on this image detail of ET-122 (STS-134) one can see this interface almost even better.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Jester)

And finally, DaveS confirmed my guess and sent me this detail photo of the ET-125 (STS-122), whereat the orientation is a bit difficult to see at first glance.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DaveS)

Who wants, can first try to find one’s way before it goes on with the further course of the LH2 Cables, as they still did not arrive at the LH2 Umbilical …

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

okay, I admit that this photo by DaveS takes some getting used to, and I also took some time to find my way, although I’ve already seen many similar photos, but not yet with opened cable tray.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DaveS)

What strikes all these photos is this ominous ‘distribution box’, which initially looked orange-brown, as here at my mission STS-6,

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)

or here at STS-47.

Source: georgesrockets.com (George Gassaway)

Only with the later missions it looked then gray, as in the following picture. As one can see, from this ‘distribution box’ this yellow marked covered LH2 Cable Tray seems to branch off, which then on the front of the Crossbeam runs to the other side to the LH2 Umbilical.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DDG40)

The confirmation for my guess came then with this great photo by Scott Phillips, whom I’ve also consulted, here with the front TPS covering removed.

Source: Scott Phillips

And with that the hitherto searched interface of the LH2 Cable Tray gradually becomes clearer, which I have circled here yellow, which discharges into the TPS cladding of the Vertical Strut.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DaveS)

And, as I’ve learned by now, not only the LH2 cables run inside the LH[sub]2[/sub] cable tray, but also the LO2 cables, which was not clear to me yet. But as I learned from DaveS too, the cable trays that time were named after the ET tanks (LH2/LO2) and say nothing about the cables running in it, but what one has to know.

And by this picture-in-picture montage will hopefully become clear, where this place is located, whereby this image is rotated 90° and the TPS cladding on the front of the Vertical Strut is open (blue arrows).

In the next photo one can see the opened LH2 Cable Tray in front of the crossbeam with the cables running into it, which lead to the LH2 Umbilical,

Source: Scott Phillips

as well as here the cable harnesses laid in the opened knee of the LO2 Cable Tray.

Source: Scott Phillips

And so I now know about how the cable trays and other lines run, and thus can try to scratch-build this ET/Orbiter Attachments accordingly.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

but this is just one side of the ET/Orbiter Interface.

But the other side on the Shuttle has to fit too. And therewith it looks pretty poor on the Airfix Kit,

because the two Orbiter doors are not present, let alone their deepenings in the opened state, just like one needs it for the Stack (ET/Orbiter).

Source: NASA

The least would therefore be a solution in which one could glue a Decal or a paper printout of the two doors in the opened state onto the appropriate place, which would look a bit better, namely something like here.

It would be even still better, of course, if the two deepenings were really brought in, however, and then glue the Umbilical decals into, or simply the printout, and the two doors in between, what I could imagine.

This is what my friend Mike (egt95) did in the ARC forum on his STS-1 stack.

Source: arcforums.com (egt95)

But since this place at the finished stack on the MLP can not be seen anyway, glued decals/printouts without the openings, but with glued doors would actually suffice.

In the meantime I started with the modification of the Airfix-Longerons, which protrude anyway and do not rest on flat. These are these stripes on both sides at the end of the LH2 tank, on which the oblique Thrust Struts and the Vertical Struts are mounted, because these parts do not look like in reality, as one could see already on this well-known photo of the ET-8.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Jester)

For me, it seems, that the SOFI patterns has been leveled in this area, with only the front wedge-shaped part is supporting the oblique strut.

And this I have modified by sanding off the Kit-Longerons accordingly, whereby now the front slant ramp must be filled accordingly.

And here I have tried to adapt the TPS cladding from the Newware Kit, for which I had to sand off approx. half of the lower block of the Airfix-Strut, however, whereby the lower part of the Resin-cladding seems too clunky to me, which is why it still has to slim down a bit.

But every beginning is difficult, just do not panic …

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

who wants to know more about the ET cabling as well as about the Cable trays and their Thermal Protection System (TPS), here one still can find some interesting information.

Source: System Definition Handbook SLWT (Lockheed Martin)

Source: System Definition Handbook SLWT (Lockheed Martin)

As one can see in the first picture, it was distinguished between Internal and External LO2/LH2 Cabling.

But there is another important interface, namely the ET/SRB interface between the ET and the SRBs, about whose cables, sensors, etc. the separation of the burned SRBs has been activated.

And unfortunately, this interface with the associated Cable Tray is also missing in the Airfix Kit and therefore also needs to be scratched.

In this photo of the ET-8 one can see the transition of the Cable Tray from the vertical strut to the SRB Support, where the wiring passes through the Upper Attach Strut.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)

This also makes it clear what these strange extensions at the end of the vertical strut mean, which I have noticed time and again.

Source: nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)

These are the cable ends running from the root point of the Upper Attach Strut to the Aft ET/SRB Attach Ring (see previous picture).

And these are those cables that can be seen in this photo, which can be seen at the bottom of the SRB Cable Tray in the previous image,

Source: NASA

and then run into the booster via the Upper Attach Strut.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

although there is now clarity about the [SRB struts/color, I still have problems with the shape of the Vertical strut of the ET/Orbiter Attachment, because the lower part of the Newware TPS-Facing looked a bit too clunky, why I’ve dealt with this assembly once again and have analyzed further photos.

For this I have repeatedly compared these two photos of the ET-8 (STS-6) and first tried to reconstruct the contours of the struts and to bring into agreement, which is not so easy, because the images were taken from different positions and thus certain details are partially obscured.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (Jester)

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (woods170)

In particular, the two yellow and blue marked areas have puzzled me, whereby the yellow marked wedge-shaped foot looks somehow different than the one on the Newware strut. Whose chunky form is more akin to the struts used in later missions, as seen here in STS-134 (ET-122).

Source: NASA

Irritating is also the lower contour directly at the yellow arrowhead in the first image, which does not belong to the strut, but to the flattened SOFI pattern area of the Longeron, which is illustrated in this image by the yellow contour.

Furthermore, it can be seen from the blue dimension arrows that the lower foot part is not wedge-shaped as the Newware part.

And with this the vertical strut gets this blue drawn contour with a flowing transition to the SRB Cable Tray, which extends to the Upper Strut.

This still leaves this question mark at the blue marked recess from the first picture open, which one unfortunately cannot see in this last view.

This wedge-shaped part seems in my opinion to be a part of the TPS facing which has been retrofitted, this recess probably having been finished later. In contrast to the SOFI Spray applications, these TPS parts were molded separately and mounted individually, just like the Intertank Closeouts.

And these are now the estimated dimensions for the scratch construction of the Vertical Strut, which show that especially the chunky foot part of the Newware facing does not fit the mould of the ET-8 and therefore has to be modified.

As reference dimension (yellow) was used the diameter of the rear part of the Thrust Strut, which is 16,6" at the original, which roughly corresponds to 3 mm of the Airfix part.

[Dioramartin]

Forgive me if I’m displaying profound ignorance, but presumably this entire tank-base assembly incorporates both attachment structure and release (from the Shuttle and boosters) mechanisms. That curved plate that vexes you – could it be part of the latter?

[Spaceman]

Hi Tim,

yep, this interface between the ET and the SRBs is quite complex, which makes it somewhat difficult to understand the belonging of the individual components.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

I’m still dealing with the rear ET/Orbiter Attachments, especially since besides the adaptation of the Newware Kit parts, also some things of the Airfix Kit have to be corrected or modified.

What looks so nice and vivid on the Reference detail photos,

Source: NASA

is in scale 1:144 unfortunately everything much smaller and therefore does not appear so readily feasible by Scratch-building.

That’s why I’ve put on the orbiter, and as one can easily see, there’s a hell of few place to accommodate the LH2/LO2 Umbilicals and associated Cable Trays as well as GH2/GO2 Press. Lines.

And thus immediately to a curiosity of the Airfix kit, after which the GH2 Press. Line directly discharges into the LO2 Feedline (see the small hole just before the bow), which in reality would be a disaster of course.

While the GO2 Press. Line is correctly laid and leads to the LO2 Umbilical, the GH2 Press. Line runs below the Crossbeam to the other side to the LH2 Umbilical.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DDG40)

Here are two other views with the still too chunky TPS cladding of the Vertical Strut, which I have sanded so that it fits better into the picture.

And now more details come into play, which also want to be accommodated. These are the Diagonal Strut, as well as the LO2 Feedline/Umbilical Support Brackets, of which there is also one on the other side of the bow, but which is missing,

as one can see on this image.

On this drawing one can indeed see the different versions of these LH2/LO2 Feedline/Umbilical Support Brackets very nicely,

Source: System Definition Handbook SLWT (Lockheed Martin)

however, it should be noted that all these parts are provided with a TPS cladding, which must be taken into consideration when scratching them.

Source: NASA

Source: NASA

These two rings here are needless, because they do not exist on the real LO2 Feedline,

as one can see on this image.

Source: forum.nasaspaceflight.com (DDG40)

On it one can see the last two (out of five) LO2 Feedline Supports with the rings in front of them, which are missing at Airfix, excepting the ring in the next picture, but after that nothing like that comes up before the LO2 Umbilical.

And finally to the chunky TPS cladding of the Vertical Strut,

which I slimmed down even further (right), as one can see here.

Now I have still to modify the left strut and its cladding accordingly, so that both sides look identically.

For a better idea of the true size of these parts I’ve put my Cent coin on the tank.

And with some patience, I then have placed the coin on the Crossbeam, so you have a good comparison with the size of the Umbilical Plates.

I hope so.

[Spaceman]

Hello everybody,

now I will start scratch-building of the LH2/LO2 Umbilical plates, which look quite nice on the drawing, but in 1:144 these are only about 7 mm x 5 mm small plates, for which I have used Styrene (1 mm). Normally, 1,5 mm thickness would be more correct, but it should be remembered that the upper part of the Umbilical Plates protrudes into the orbiter openings, whose recess I want to avoid, because this place will not be seen later anyway on the shuttle Stack. That’s why I’ll use 1 mm thick platelets on which then the orbiter rests flat.

Source: NASA

Since I have to take into account the distance to the Orbiter during testing the small Umbilical plates and tiny Cable trays, I’ve considered a small stencil (1 mm Styrene, which is much easier to handle.

On this stencil I have drawn the openings for the ET/Orbiter Attachment as well as for the two LH2/LO2 Feedlines from my scaled down drawing (1:144), as well as have cut out small paper stencils of both umbilicals.

After the plate fits quite well already the red ones are the Cable trays,

now follows the production of the two Umbilical plates, whose drawings I have glued with transparent tape on the 1 mm Styrene plate.

In order to be able to cut out and file the small plates, I first drilled the holes (Ø 3 mm) for the Feedlines and plugged in rod plugs, so that the templates can not slip during handling.

And then I cut out the little plates, whereat I’ve always compared it with the contours of the two umbilicals in this larger photo, because the parts are really tiny and also difficult to hold, which was much facilitated by the inserted holding rod.

Source: NASA

And then I’ve carefully cut the contours of the stencils with the diagonal cutter and then gradually filed and ground the final shape all around, which was quite tedious.

Then I started with the LO2 Umbilical plate.

Then the holding stopper could finally be removed,

and this is now the finished part.

And in the same way followed the production of the LH2 Umbilical Plate.

And these are the two finished Umbilical plates,

which can now be test fitted on the Attachment.

And as one can see, the two parts fit quite well with the attachment.

And now a look ahead to the outer LO2 Support Bracket, which is missing on the Airfix Feedline which I have drawn red.

Source: System Definition Handbook SLWT (Lockheed Martin)

Little by little the squirrel earns its keep with difficulty …

[Johnnych01]

Some seriously lovely work and methodology on the interface mechanism… You also have a great quantity of close up reference images as well… Having those is sometimes half the battle won …

[Spaceman]

Thanks, John.

Because of my attention to detail, I’ve often wondered whether it’s curse or blessing?

And good Hi-Res. reference photos are indispensable for scratch-building. In other words, an absolute must-have!

[Spaceman]

Hello folks,

for an even better overview when fitting and assembling the Umbilical plates and Cable trays I have made the same template of Acrylic glass (PPMA), which now allows the total vista, what is certainly an advantage when handling.

Okay, I could have come to that already earlier …

Then I’ve been dealing with some filing and sanding work, first I had to sand the Vertical Strut of the ET/Orbiter Attachment on the LH2 side for the TPS cladding of the Newware Kit and had to modify the Resin part still a little bit. And then there was also the associated Longeron, which had to be modified too.

Since the outer LO2 Feedline Support Bracket was missing anyway and the inner did not quite fit and was a bit too small, I’ve scratched both Support Brackets new. It should be noted, however, that both brackets look similar, but have not the same shape. The inner bracket is a bit lower,

because the Diagonal Cross Strut runs over it and needs the appropriate space, as onecan see on this image.

Source: NASA

Afterwards I’ve sanded off the two unnecessary wide rings at the end of the Feedline. As one can see here, I have to smooth the line around the stub yet, which has to be removed anyway after the tests and its hole must be filled too, because in reality there were neither the two rings nor this holder.

Last night I did not notice the nicks, but even all the more so in daylight.

These are the modified parts,

whose seat on the ET I’ve tried next. And as one can see, they fit quite well so far.

Now I’m going to modify the too short LH2 Feedline Support Brackets, and then it goes on with the tricky Cable Trays with all due respect.

But scaremongering does not apply!

[Spaceman]

Thanks guys for looking in on me again.