1/144 Revell Space Shuttle Stack - STS-133 - Discovery

Gallery Article by Michael Scarola on Mar 4 2013

 

 

This build is based on the 1/144 Revell Space Shuttle stack kit and depicts Discovery's last mission, STS-133. As many of you know the 1/144 Revell Shuttle stack kit has quite a few issues to overcome. First of all like other various Shuttle kits this one was first produced in the late '70's before any shuttles flew so it needs some updating to depict one of the later missions. 

I'll start with some of the kit's obvious issues that require 'fixing'. The External Tank (ET) has raised bands that don't appear on an actual ET with the foam applied.  I started by removing the bands and sanding down the inter-tank's ribs. The ribs were replaced with Evergreen .75 mm strips on the front and backsides.  Evergreen (.025" spacing, .020" thick) V-Groove sheet was applied to the sides of the inter-tank.  I chose to leave the existing feed lines on the front and added the straps and frost ramps using .5 mm and other various styrene strips.  The 'L' bracket mounts at the tops of the SRB's were removed.  I inserted 3/16" styrene tubes in the location of the SRB's 'L' brackets to accept 1/8" brass rod that's run through the ET's inter-tank and epoxied into the SRB's. I painted the ET with a mix of Polly Scale Rust, SP Daylight Orange & Reefer White as well as some UP Armor Yellow added to the mix for some of the lighter details.  The feed lines are painted with Testors MM Acryl Gunship Gray and lightened Aircraft Interior Black.

The SRB's segments received extra bands that aren't present on this kit as well as added details on the upper/lower skirts, cones and systems tunnels.  They are painted with Testors MM Acryl Flat White for the main sections and a mix of flat white and Testors MM Radome Tan for the upper/lower skirts, cones and systems tunnels that run down the sides.  They were clear coated with Testors MM Acryl Semi-Gloss on the white sections and a mix of Testors MM Acryl Flat Clear and Semi-Gloss for the cream colored areas.  The insta-foam is made using Squadron white putty and painted with a mix of the Polly Scale Rust and SP Daylight Orange. 

The Revell kit's OMS Pods are a bit too boxy in the front and too angled in the rear.  To fix this the fronts of the orbiter's OMS Pods are re-shaped and the angles on the rears were reduced.  I also extended the body flap by 2.5 mm, added the drag chute compartment, drilled out the star tracker ports, cut out the split in the wing elevons, added the rear umbilical panels and scribed the payload bay door segments. It's painted Testors MM Acryl Flat White.  The 'gray' areas are painted a mix of flat white with a few drops of Testors MM Acryl Gunship Gray and Dark Tan to 'dirty' them a bit. The black areas have thinned Testors MM Acryl Aircraft Interior Black sprayed over re-prints of the Cutting Edge Tile decals.  I scanned Cutting Edge tile decals and darkened the colors a bit before laser printing a new set on white decal paper.  The resin SSME's are from Real Space Models and are painted with a mix of Testors MM Acryl Aircraft Interior Black/Neutral Gray/Aluminum.  The various markings are a mix of decals from the 'Revell Of Germany' decal sheet and home made.  The cockpit window decal is also a custom decal.  The weathering is done with pastels.

 

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The Mobile Launch Pad (MLP) is the Revell kit's supplied base.  I scratch built the details on the front (access platforms, pipes, blast shields), the Sound Suppression Water System (SSWS) piping, Rainbirds (water nozzles), Tail Service Masts (TSM's), and opened up the SSME blast chamber and gave it the proper dimensions.  The TSM's are 1/144 scale to match the shuttle stack, however due to the smaller size of the Revell MLP, I made the SSME blast chamber 1/160 scale so it could look somewhat accurate and leave a bit more of the MLP's upper deck space.  I had to make quite a few compromises on this already under scale MLP.  I chose to use the kit's supplied base and add some details to make a 'glorified' display stand that sort of represents an MLP.  I figured it would look a bit more interesting than using a plain wooden or plastic base. It's painted Polly Scale SP Lettering Gray with pastel weathering.

The online build is located here at ARC.
http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?s=c620e40f1060210f02e8605f8810e043&showtopic=219720

It was a lot of fun building this shuttle stack to depict Discovery's Final mission.  I attempted to capture the more obvious markings and details from the STS-133 mission.  I was also fortunate to make friends here at ARC and learned a lot about the Shuttle program while building this kit. 

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with this project and thank Steve for putting in the time on this excellent website.

Thanks for looking!

Michael Scarola

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Photos and text © by Michael Scarola