At the time of adding this update to the build (July 2024) it has been announced the Shapeways have ceased trading and are bankrupt. They had become exorbitantly expensive, but on the other hand you were always guaranteed top quality prints.

I was fortunate that the parts I needed from Shapeways for this build were all received prior to their demise. 

With most of the modifications designed and printed it was time to start building.

The fuel/oxygen tanks come in two halves there are eight external tanks which attach to a central tank. The excess "sacrificial" support material is cut away and the items are dry fitted together 

Once trimmed the fit of the parts is absolutely fantastic.

The tank halves were then glued together with CA glue, A jig made from a section of aluminium angle was made to ensure they were kept straight during the gluing process.

 The joints were then filled and sanded

The assembly that ties the tanks together at the top is called the spider beam. The design of the model has this glued to the top of the tanks, but with minimal contact area. Taking into consideration that the model has been designed in such a way that it can be separated into separate sections I thought this joint was a bit "weak", so a modification was carried out.

The domed section fits into the top of the central tank. The semi-circular peg at the top of the dome was drilled and a brass insert was glued on the underside of the dome. The dome was then glued into place in the tank. The now allows for a rigid connection of the spider beam to the tank assmbly. Further down the line a cap will be made to cover over the capscrew.

There was one last "large" modification to carry out to complete the conversion, this being the first stage heatshield and engines. Up to and including AS-202 the four central engines had an additional flame shield mounted between them. In addition to this the turbine exhausts from the central engines was vented overboard through the boattail. The differences can be seen in the image below. 

The kit was supplied with 8 engines all with turbine exhausts as per the later design. 

Luckily there was a set of the earlier type engine configuration, with the additional flame shield, available from Meatball Rocketry via Shapeways. The set includes four central engines without the turbine exhausts, a central flame shield, and four external engines that include the turbine exhaust.

The next hurdle was how to incorporate these into the existing kit. Scotts' engines are a mini work of art and are anchored above the main heatshield, with the engine exhaust bells protruding through cut outs in the heatshield. As can be seen above the replacements are designed to fit directly to the heatshield. I considered a couple of options, firstly drawing up and having a resin replacement made, secondly to make an alternative heatshield from styrene. This would be a thin overlay which would be glued directly to the original kit part

I decided t o give the second option a go

The image below is a composite of the steps used to create the template

1. A snip from the PDF instruction was made and saved as a JPG file.

2. The JPG file is imported into Fusion 360 as a canvas. The canvas is the scaled to the correct size, using this as a guide drawing is made, starting with the locating holes and general outlines.

3. The panel lines are then added to the drawing to complete it 

4. A snip of the drawing is taken and is then imported into the Silhouette designer software. 

5. This again is used as a guide and cutting template is drawn up

6. The last image here shows the two finalised templates. They will be cut using the Cameo machine from 0.3mm thick styrene. The machine will not cut through the styrene, it will only score it. This will allow the parts that are not need to be removed, but will leave the panel lines as scores in the surface. The left piece will be glued to the outside of the assembly, the other part will sit inside and is to locate the outer engines

Prior to finalising the cutting templates a trial cut was carried out using Oramask, and transfer tape. This was attached to the existing heatshield to ensure everthing fitted well

The cameo was loaded up with a sheet of 0,3mm thick styrene and the cut carried out

Centre engines and flame shield fitted

The inner plate was prepared, styrene rod and spacers were cut and glued to the inner plate to raise the outer engines to the correct height

The inner plate was stiffened up with some offcuts of styrene sheet.

Finally the outer engines were trial fitted

A couple of items were still outstanding to complete the left to complete the  conversion. 

The first items were the  insulation collars that are fitted at the outer engine locations. Designed in Fusion 360 and 3d printed

The collars were received and test fitted

Second item was the exhaust turbine fairings. Designed in Fusion 360 and 3d printed. I supplied the print file to Scott who very kindly printed them and sent them along with the model.

A drilling jig was made up to ensure the correct location of the holes, Starting with a 1mm drill the holes were progressively opened up to the final size of 2mm

The kit has been engineered very thoughtfully, one example of this is the attention given to how the model will be painted. Masking the stringers and getting a crisp line on the horizontal plane would be a near impossible task. Scotts' answer to this is to make inset panels which can be painted and then attached. 

After the panels were trial fitted various fairings and extra details were trimmed and trial fitted

Then the two systems cable tunnels were trimmed and trial fitted

Now that all the major parts of the first and second stages had been prepared it was time to apply some primer and ready them for final painting. 

On previous builds I have struggled a bit to get a consistent on larger areas of my models. A while ago I had invested in a Creos PS-290 trigger style airbrush that is suited to high paint delivery. It was used to great effect, it will put out an immense amount of paint, but it is controllable with the built in needle stop.

The parts were all primed with Mr Surface 1500 (Grey & White), thinned with MLT (Mr Levelling Thinners) 60% thinner to 40% paint.

Recently I have also upgraded my spray booth to a larger unit, The new booth has dual extraction fans, a lot larger spray area, and most importantly built in LED lights.

The lights are a godsend as they help tremendously when spraying white colours.

The painting continued and most of the parts were primed. Interior colours were sprayed on sections of the model that will be visible if the model is parted. Zinc Chromate & Aluminium were used where relevant, As detailed in the Display base section work was carried out to the boat tail (the base section of the first stage that holds the engines). Magnets were glued inside that will hold the model onto four support posts that will be topped with magnets.

I decided to make some paint masks for some of the larger markings. The masks for the fuel tanks will serve as a dual purpose mask as the tank is painted black, but the United States marking is contained in a white rectangle. The plan is to apply the mask to the tank that has already been painted white. the tank will then be overpainted black, but the United states lettering will remain in place. The black portion will then be masked and the lettering removed, in turn this will then be painted red.The AS-202 graphic is also on the tank. this is a black lettering against a white back ground, This will be as straightforward as applying the mask, then removing the lettering. This will be done at the same time as the black is being applied, The larger USA is for the SI-VB stage and is a red lettering against the pre-painted white background.

A test was carried out using the masks

Some final fit tests and measurements carried out to ensure the masks fitted and all looked in proportion

Some final fit tests and measurements carried out to ensure the masks fitted and all looked in proportion

The masks were cut and ready to apply. A spacer strip was applied to aid in positioning the United States section. In the second image you can see that transfer tape has been place over the mask. This serves the purpose of holding the sections of mask together whilst placing it on the model. The SA-202 marking were problematical, and I ended up having to adjust the depth of cut on the cameo to make them easier to "weed". Weed being the term used to remove the part of the mask that exposes the area to be painted. With small letters and numbers the centre of zeros,. O's, eights etc it can be difficult to get the very small centres to remain in place. When all masks were place the whole tank was sprayed black. After that the transfer tape and lettering was removed from  the United States. the body was masked and the red applied

Then it was time for the big reveal. The masks were removed and I was very happy with the outcome

As a side note the decals are created by Rick Sternbach, who I contacted to state my position regarding copyright & intellectual property. To create the masks I scanned the decal set and basically copied them. On many modelling groups people actively do this and then freely distribute the cutting files. I consider this as a copyright infringement and I would not pass on any files that I created in this manner,