After I picked up my fallen jaw, I turned up the audio to learn that what I was watching was the Soviet Buran space shuttle undergoing its own flight test regimen. While assembly and painting didn’t take much time, gap filling and decaling were the major efforts – not difficult, just time consuming. I did remove the tip of the tail and replaced it with the Cutting Edge fin-tip camera pod that was used to photograph the unique thermal phenomenon that would engulf the vehicle during re-entry. This was primarily up around the areas where the wing chines blend into the fuselage and the area around the beavertail. Unless someone else out there decides to produce these, you're on your own for these resin details and great decals. First on was a primer gray to blend the resin tail to the white plastic as well as the gray Mr. Surfacer with the surrounding hull. Much better than any of my shuttle stacks. Good job of picking up the foam close outs on the ET. Once the fuselage was together and dry, the strength of the bond was proven when I dropped the bloody thing on the floor. Before installing the interior of the cargo bay, you must install the inboard walls of the main wheel wells. In my experience, the only things that I'd paint before assembly would be the interior cockpit area (gray-because you can still see it through the windshield), and maybe the OMS pods. Yahoo ist Teil von Verizon Media.

And what we called the pencil sharpener area under the nose cone.

With the rear plate off, I had a solid place to put my hand and maneuver the model while painting.

Beautiful work Crowe-T. I cemented an Evergreen plastic strip inside one side of the cargo bay doors to provide a solid joint when the doors are closed. I didn’t waste time with detailing the instrument panel beyond a dry-brushing as none of this would be readily visible.

Mounted atop a modified Boeing 747, Enterprise was ‘dropped’ from altitude numerous times to prove the validity of all of the work accomplished to date. I also installed the rear cockpit overhead window at this point.

The one thing that is evident after all of the tile decals are in place is just how light the colors are for all of the tiles. The following day I removed all of the masking and examined the results.

Next up were the wings and tail. I decided to apply the right wing decal intact to see how that worked.

A really beautiful build, thank you for posting this. The high-drag nature of that huge delta wing is one of the big pluses of the Shuttle.

Noting all of the details, I selected and applied the appropriate markings.

The next step was to paint and install the Cutting Edge main and OMS engine bells. STS-107 was Columbia’s first flight after an extended overhaul to install the latest fleet improvements, including the new ‘glass’ cockpit (replacing the variety of gauges with multi-function CRTs). In fact there are four larger thrusters in the nose for that very purpose. Wir und unsere Partner nutzen Cookies und ähnliche Technik, um Daten auf Ihrem Gerät zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen, für folgende Zwecke: um personalisierte Werbung und Inhalte zu zeigen, zur Messung von Anzeigen und Inhalten, um mehr über die Zielgruppe zu erfahren sowie für die Entwicklung von Produkten. After 26 years, Atlantis has been retired along with the rest of the shuttle fleet. The ingenious Soviet designers had installed a fuel cell inside the vehicle and it was feeding the four afterburning MiG-21 engines that were strapped to the rear of the Buran.

This is beautiful!! The housing was fabricated from strips of Evergreen plastic that were laminated together, filed into shape, painted and installed. I've been following you thread on ARC for the better part of two years and know how much work you put into this model.

This set includes a number of options to replicate the variations in tile patterns that the shuttles displayed over their operational lives.

First up was the cockpit and fuselage interior that I sprayed with a base coat of Tamiya Light Gray. Celebrating 21 years of hobby news and reviews. This was overcome with a fine paint brush and a little Tamiya Light Gray.

Columbia was the only Shuttle to receive this camera to date.

After another hour of drying time, I spotted a few bubbles under the decals, but a pin puncture and a spot of Solvaset eliminated those problems very quickly. Since I had to start masking the paint, I’d wait until the next day to move on. Just fly...somewhere. Thank you for your kind extensive informative reply, I can see  lots of practice with the airbrush coming on. It is amazing that once the decals are all in place and snuggled down with Solvaset, you can’t spot any of the problem areas.

With the well walls in place, I assembled the interior of the cargo bay with the forward and rear bulkheads. I masked off the windows with Tamiya masking tape cut to shape. With everything in place and smooth, I applied a coat of Solvaset and set the model aside to see what happens. Answer Save.

I installed the three sections of the left wing decal per the instructions and oriented the outlines for the gear door on the decal onto the corresponding part of the model. Notice: The appearance of U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, or NASA imagery or art does not constitute an endorsement nor is Cybermodeler Online affiliated with these organizations. A project was born. Once again, there were absolutely no problems with working the decal into its final position and responded beautifully with Solvaset.

Vehicle six, assembled from fleet spares, would become Endeavour and replace Challenger.

Once again the paint was dry to the touch within minutes, but it remained a bit tacky for several hours. One of the distinguishing features of the Shuttle is its huge delta wing.