I finally finished this 11 years after I started it. It is a 1/24th scale Gemini spacecraft. I used the basic kit, LVM photoetch parts, Real Space resin parts, and SMS decals and it was a very involved kit to build hence I kept setting it aside. Finally a real rocket scientist buddy said he'd like to buy it, about 8 months ago, and I put it back on the bench. I kept hitting stumbling points or creating glitches but finally today it is complete. It looks pretty good but I wish I could have made it even better. There comes a point when you call it done because if you continue you break things, I did a half dozen times which I had to fix.
Also I spacecraft are one of the areas of model building that particularly interest me. I started flying model rockets around 1967 and did that mainly until about 16 years ago and lower leg neuropathy limited my flying activities and I went back mainly to plastic. Here are some of my other space builds too. The Man in Space used the AMT 1/200th kit and then I added the Hasegawa shuttle to it. I bought 3D printed parts from Shapeways to enhance all the pre-shuttle rockets which made a huge upgrade to them. One big one was discrete escape towers on the Mercury rockets, far better than the solid in relief kit towers. The Gemini in the kit was awful and the 3D capsule fit correctly with great details. The Saturns and Apollo spacecraft got some nice upgrades with the 3D parts. On the shuttle I separated the SRBs which were molded onto the tank with standoffs and did a large amount of scratch building as well. I also added an aftermarket set of decals which really set it off nicely.
Also I spacecraft are one of the areas of model building that particularly interest me. I started flying model rockets around 1967 and did that mainly until about 16 years ago and lower leg neuropathy limited my flying activities and I went back mainly to plastic. Here are some of my other space builds too. The Man in Space used the AMT 1/200th kit and then I added the Hasegawa shuttle to it. I bought 3D printed parts from Shapeways to enhance all the pre-shuttle rockets which made a huge upgrade to them. One big one was discrete escape towers on the Mercury rockets, far better than the solid in relief kit towers. The Gemini in the kit was awful and the 3D capsule fit correctly with great details. The Saturns and Apollo spacecraft got some nice upgrades with the 3D parts. On the shuttle I separated the SRBs which were molded onto the tank with standoffs and did a large amount of scratch building as well. I also added an aftermarket set of decals which really set it off nicely.
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