Continuing the Atlas build, I decided that the nozzles had to be modified. The above photo is of an Atlas D restoration. It shows the booster engine nozzles well. When comparing the kit nozzles to the actual, there was just too much wrong. Below is a photo of the original sustainer nozzle from a previous post. The boosters had similar non scale shapes.
I began by sanding off all the external details of the nozzles. I then went through a few iterations of filler-sand-prime to make sure I had a smooth outer surface. I didn’t try to scribe the latitudinal grooves on the surface. Too much work and too many ways to mess it up. Instead I added the longitudinal bands of the nozzles. The bottom one was actually 0.020 half round to make it look more like the real article. Next came two wide bands. I used 0.010 x 0.060 strip to represent them. Plasti-Zap was used to attach them. The below photo shows the half round attached and a strip of the 0.010 x 0.060 just before I attached it.
I didn’t sand all the way to the top. The upper portion of the nozzle will be hidden behind the heat shield.
There appeared to be only two wide bands and then at least five narrower bands. Only two of them will be visible below the heat shield. I used 0.010 x 0.040 to represent the narrower band. Below is a photo of one of the nozzles with all the bands attached.
I took a photo of one of the booster nozzles in the boat tail. It illustrates that the other thin bands would be under the heat shield.
The center sustainer nozzle has a large turbo pump exhaust skirt around the base. That leaves room for only one band visible above the heat shield. Here is a photo of the completed nozzles after clean up and primer added.
While working on the nozzles I also added a 0.010 x 0.040 strip to the top of the capsule adapter. This was needed to provide the proper look for the umbilical covers that I still need to make. It covers up most of the edge of the heat shield of the capsule as well.
That’s it for now. It’s a challenge, but it should make a pretty good replica when it’s done. Thanks for looking. Don’t forget the subscribe button at the bottom of the page if you enjoy what see.
Luhman-ations 