Having pretty much wrapped up the Descent Stage, I started work on the Ascent Stage. I started painting with the mid and aft section of the LM. I painted it Model Master Acryl Aluminum. I then painted the panels that were black with Vallejo Model Color Black. When that had dried I went back and scraped the paint off where the panels met. Next I covered the black areas with some Vallejo Matt Varnish to protect the paint. LM-4 was the last LM to have the overall Aluminum finish. All later flights had one type or another of anodizing.
Then I started applying foil where it was needed. The below photo shows the bottom of the stage. Later flights had gold/orange kapton applied here. I tried to get some wrinkles in the foil but I didn’t get as many wrinkles as I would have liked. The lower half of the RCS quads were also covered in wrinkled foil. You can also see that I’ve glued in the Ascent Stage engine nozzle. The inside is not painted since it will not be seen when the model is finished.
Below is a photo of the left side. I painted the interior black since I was not doing an interior and the front and rendezvous windows would allow viewing of the interior.
The left side had a small area that needed some details. I used gold and dark orange foil sections and one small rectangular area was painted Tamiya Japanese Navy Gray, which has a slight greenish gray tint.
That just about finishes this sub assembly. This section has a lot of small antennas that will be added after the front section is glued on.
Next I started on the front section. First I applied some gold foil to the frame of the front hatch. The two semi-circular sections were then given three coats of Tamiya Transparent Orange. Next I attached the rendezvous radar and painted the supports Vallejo Black. Note the flashing beacon light. It is a New-Ware photoetched part and the outside circular area was painted Vallejo White. I then pooled some Vallejo Clear Varnish in the center to somewhat model the glass light bulb that was there.
This photo shows the completed dish section of the rendezvous radar. The rendezvous radar pointed aft when stowed. There is more black to be applied plus some foil around the RCS quads and the front hatch. When I complete that I’ll install the handrail that leads up to the top of the LM. The inside areas that may be visible through the windows were also painted black.
That’s it for now. Still a bunch of small stuff to complete, but the finish line is in sight.
Thanks for looking.
Luhman-ations 