Clear coating is done. The stand is complete. The project is done. Here is the final update.
I sanded the wooden base block and sprayed it with gray primer. Then after that had cured, I drew three chord lines on it. Then I drew a perpendicular bisector for each of those chords. Where the bisectors intersect is the center of the circle. You can see that my bisectors were just a bit off, but since I drew three, I could average the difference and come out with a hole that was pretty close to the center.
I then painted on two coats of flat black paint, then when that had cured I put on a coat of Pledge Clear Floor Finish. Then I put the custom Apollo 15 decal that I had printed on my Alps printer. When the decal had dried I then put on a final coat of Pledge Clear Floor Finish. Above is a close up of the custom decal I made. The colors look better in person than the picture shows. The blue chevron is actually navy blue even though the picture makes it look black.
Now SA-510 Apollo 15, is all assembled and on her stand. She’s ready to take her place in my 1/144 US Manned Launchers rocket garden. Below are a few photos of the details on the finished model.
She now takes her place in my now complete 1/144 rocket garden of all US manned launchers. Below are a couple of pics. That is 1/144 scale IMR ISS model in the background. The members of the garden are Apollo 7 Saturn IB, STS-31 Discovery, Apollo 15 Saturn V, Gemini 5 Titian II, Freedom 7 Mercury Redstone, and Friendship 7 Mercury Atlas. Those models were built over the course of about 6 years. It took me a lot longer to build a project when I was working. Now that I’m retired I have a bit more time to build.
This has really been a fun project. Next up is to finish my 1/144 Voskhod, that is about 90% done. After that I think I’ll do a 1/144 2001 Discovery or 1/72 Millennium Falcon for a change of pace before I do my next real space subject. I have decided that the next Saturn V I do will have the stages separated and I think it will be displayed horizontally to show all the cool engine details.
I’ll be offline for a while since I’m having surgery for a detached retina. But after that, I’ll be back at the bench working on the next project.
Luhman-ations 