# Strombecker/Glencoe Nuclear Powered Space Station



## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

Have any of y'all built one?

I have been wanting to build another space station for a while and picked this one off the sale table a long time ago. I like the Lindberg one more but haven't seen one in a while. When I first got this one I looked at the rough surface and put in on the "probably will never build" shelf and it sat there for many years.

The other day, I got it down and told myself to either build it, or get rid of it.

What do y'all who have built it think of it? Did you use string, or wire for the tensioning spokes?

After looking at it for a while, I think I will toss the instructions away and have fun with it. Maybe scavenge some of the other kits on the "never build" shelf to make something else.

Picture of one from Mr. Ury's site: Nuclear Space Station


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

The biggest issue with the kit is the fact that the molds are badly rusted so the kit has a rough, rusty, texture. It would be hard to use string or nylon (better than sting) for the "wiring" because of the incredible amount of sanding needed to smooth out the kit.

I have one half built... I just sanded the snot out of the thing to smooth it all out. There isn't much/any surface detail; just a few raised dots here and there. I will make the wire thingies using thin piano wire.


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

Yes, the original tooling was badly rusted, but Glencoe figured that experienced modelers wouldn't mind the extra work of sanding the parts smooth, so they cleaned up the molds as best they could and repopped the thing.



djnick66 said:


> It would be hard to use string or nylon (better than sting) for the "wiring" because of the incredible amount of sanding needed to smooth out the kit.


Wouldn't the sanding and polishing be done before the ring sections are glued together? I don't quite see what the one has to do with the other.


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## lunadude (Oct 21, 2006)

You know, the Shuttle's External Tank is covered in a thermal foam, that is quite textured. You could always keep the texture as part of the station's TPS (Thermal Protection System).


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## sorlaegoldie (Jul 16, 2009)

Mat Irvine did a review in FineScale Modeler a few years ago that might help.

I got mine when Glencoe first released it - glued it all together, got it nice and smooth and used wire (could have been florists wire) to individually put in eack spoke. Worked our fine.


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

I glued the sections on mine first, to make sure that they were flat. Next I then glued the two half torus together. I also added the spokes. I did all the sanding afterward, since there are plenty of gaps and poor fitting spots in addition to the rusty spot.

I took a mongol horde approach to the sanding and obliterated any existing surface detail. You can fit the spokes in any time, but they also have gaps and fit issues. With some effort, you can get a shiny, smooth surface without sanding through all the plastic. 

Don't use string for the radiator lines. You can use either nylon thread, fishing line or very thin plastic rod (that's what I'm using on the model I'm redoing). Wire is a good idea, if it's springy.

As built, in 1/300ish scale, the station is probably too small for a comfortable 1G, based on the handy SpinCalc.


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## Lee Staton (May 13, 2000)

I glued the donut together and sanded the heck out of it till it was perfectly smooth. Then I primed and painted it.

Then, instead of threading it according to the instructions, I tied a knot in the end of a thread and poked it into the slot in the inner rim of the donut with a drop of super glue. Then I stretched the string taut and glued it into the slot of the hub. So instead of one long string, I made a bunch of smaller ones. Oh, and I pulled the gray thread through beeswax to de-fuzz it, so it's look more like small piping.

This strategy let me make a perfectly smooth space station!

Lee


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## Krel (Jun 7, 2000)

Frank2056 said:


> As built, in 1/300ish scale, the station is probably too small for a comfortable 1G, based on the handy SpinCalc.


The space station is based on of Von Braun's solar powered space station. If it is the same size, then it is suppose to rotate every 22 seconds to produce about one-third gee.

David.


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

lunadude said:


> You know, the Shuttle's External Tank is covered in a thermal foam, that is quite textured. You could always keep the texture as part of the station's TPS (Thermal Protection System).


Or you could build it as a derelict space station, banged up and pockmarked from thousands of meteoroid impacts.


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## Spockr (Sep 14, 2009)

Never saw this one before. Compared to the Lindberg one (softball sized rivets and all) its just chuff. I could never see investing much if any time time at all into this one other than to maybe film it while its burning. 

There's just got to be a way to make one of these babies look real while spinning it like an Aeolipile!


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

I dunno, I LIKE the texture. I left mine rough and figure it's added thermal and anti-space debris protection. 

I used heavy nylon thread, almost fishing line quality for the tensioning or whatever spokes. 

The hardest part was getting the parts to be flat, the spokes, the ring, it wanted to be wobbly, which may actually have been accurate for an inflated station.

My idea was it was 'Space Wheel 1' and had been in orbit since around 1959 or so. There are other, larger Wheels in orbit now, the knowledge and technology has improved quite a bit over the years. It's still used because it's in a decent orbit and it makes a good 'fall back' station for weather observation and peacekeeping purposes. Rumor has it the CIA sometimes sends people up to get their 'space legs', and some say there's a CIA 'station' on board that's sort of used to 'punish' people who can't otherwise be shifted to another post due to one reason or another. 

And I really overthink this stuff, huh? 

(it's serviced by a Revell ship, that X-20 looking one. All Air Force of course. I really need to get these out and finish them)


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to have to remember the florists wire. Must be easier on the wallet than steel or brass.

I hate to say it, but I just cannot build this thing stock. It will become something else. Kind of like what I did with the DS-9 maybe.


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## Joe Brown (Nov 16, 1999)

Maybe do it like the old Traveller Lab Ship?

http://www.waynesbooks.com/images/graphics/laboratoryship.jpg

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/images/992/1_lab-ship-1280.jpg

Just a thought.


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## starseeker (Feb 1, 2006)

That is such a great old ship! I hadn't thought of it in years. I seem to remember that I put all the main plastic parts together first, then covered the whole thing with putty and sanded it smooth, then used a pin vice to drill out tiny holes for the spokes. The spokes are thin stainless steel guitar string (the thinnest or second thinnest gauge) that you can get at any music shop, very cheaply. Also seem to recall adding each of the tiny squares to the top and bottom of the hull. It looks like they are 040 x 020 strip cut into 040 squares. Painted with Tamiya yellow back in the day when Tamiya yellows (and reds, etc) actually covered opaquely with a single coat. Man, I miss those old Tamiya paints... And some thin chrome art tape for the seams. I don't know if chrome art tape still exists. How long ago did this kit come out???


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## Lee Staton (May 13, 2000)

Looks great, Starseeker! I lightly pencilled seam lines on mine...and then masked against that line and lightly airbrushed a faint color difference in the yellow. Because the station in the Man in Space show was to be so large, I went for a subtle scale effect.

It's really cool to see and read about what others have done with this classic kit. I was so happy that Nick Argento at Glencoe rehabbed the molds and went ahead. I was lucky enough to be one of several hobbyists he phoned and sent test shots to for advice on whether the molds were too bad for a reissue. Of course, all of us said NO! The unbuilt original was going for upwards of $400 if you could find one, so getting it for $10 was heavenly. Who cared about a little sanding??? (I can do quite a lot for the $390 I saved!)

Lee


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## Krel (Jun 7, 2000)

The "Man In Space" space station is a hard hull that was transported up in cargo rockets, then assembled using the Bottle Suits. The 'spokes' are the heat dissipation pipes for the atomic reactor coolant. 

Von Braun's Collier space station was basically a balloon, a rubber covered nylon shell that is inflated. That is why in the drawings of the interior, the decks are supported by wires. After the station is inflated, it is covered by a thin metal shell for protection.

David.


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## Dr. Brad (Oct 5, 1999)

I love those old designs - strangely, the older I get, the more I like them!


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

Very neat build-up you have, I like it.

I decided to make it more than a wheel with artificial gravity in more than one direction. I figured the toroid would be inflated (along with any other large volume sections with oxygen activated resins) from around a central spindle.

Like the space stations man currently has experience with, the spindle would be placed first and sections would be attached to it. Large platforms would unfold accordion style and attachment points would be semi-standardized.

After I made the .jpeg of these drawings, a light bulb went off and I made some changes. Then more light bulbs went off and it was like those blinking Christmas tree lights. It was very annoying, the ideas were coming faster than I could build, or even draw.

But it is really fun too. I just need to use different shades of gray to keep it from looking boring.

Its tough deciding which seems to fill and sand, and which one's to leave.


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

This is what I figured out. Also sacrificed the Heller 1/125 Mir station.

It may not be pretty but it sure is fun.


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## Joe Brown (Nov 16, 1999)

And, yet another possibility: the sketched version seen of Deep Space Nine in Benny Russell's 1950's era DS/9:
http://drexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/11.jpg?w=636&h=429

Cover of the novelization:
http://drexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/novel_cover.jpg?w=635&h=820


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

Joe Brown said:


> http://drexfiles.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/novel_cover.jpg?w=635&h=820


That's a good fake pulp magazine cover -- except that it couldn't have been printed in 1953. It contains the typefaces Helvetica Condensed (designed in 1957) and Antique Olive (designed in 1962).

BTW, coincidentally, October 1953 is the month and year I was born.


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

Pretty neat, but wasn't DS-9 built by non-humans?

Looks like an interesting build but I already have a DS-9.

And Scott, Mary Mapes would not be happy with you bringing that up



















Someday I must update those pictures, the ships have had decals for a while. And some of them even had kits made of them and look different now.

This new station will sit beside it on the shelf.


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

Done enough to stack the parts. No matter how many parts I add to the storage tanks on the side, they just don't look like storage tanks.


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## Lou Dalmaso (Jul 13, 2004)

scotpens said:


> That's a good fake pulp magazine cover -- except that it couldn't have been printed in 1953. It contains the typefaces Helvetica Condensed (designed in 1957) and Antique Olive (designed in 1962).


really? the Star Trek Motion Picture font didn't bother you, but the helvetica condensed jumped out at you?

Font nerds...geeze they're worse than Trekkies

I keed , I keed


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

Wow Jay, that looks great! I'm not sure that the LE storage areas look good that close to the saucer. Maybe lower?

Did you make the Space Arks? They look very nice.


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

The decks are farther apart than it looks on the picture. I think the station looks a little better if I leave the landing deck off, but it was built to store spaceships so it will stay. And that "storage space" is a dry dock that can be pressurized and have a breathable atmosphere for major repairs.

Part of the reason for building the station was for a place to put the little spaceships. I was jealous that y'all all had Arks and I didn't have one yet, so I built some to go with the updated little Galactic Cruisers. None of them are in the scale that I wanted, but I had to work with what I could scrounge (and with all the back and forth over scale of the Pegasus kit why not throw some more into the mix). A couple of Arks, a couple of smaller versions of the ship I turned the Disney spaceship into and a destination Moon/Mars hybrid that can stand on its tail. The Palomino and Orion were afterthoughts when the parts I chose for storage tanks wouldn't do what I wanted them to do.

I just mixed a bunch genres and scales, but hey, it works for me and was/is lots of fun.


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## Spacefltengr (Feb 28, 2009)

*Fine work*

VERY nice work. Thanks for telling how you did things. I was thinking brass
very small diameter stock might be good for the spokes. But I do have a good amount of busted guitar strings in my materials pile(s). (Note: the larger or more bass strings with the coil around the main string makes great
oxygen mask hoses....) . For chrome art tape I have leader tape- from data tapes (still good, though the tape goes back to my early days of 9 track tapes
in the space biz). I would think auto stores might have chrome (available for those that like to bung up the look of their cars).

Thanks for the look, BP




starseeker said:


> That is such a great old ship! I hadn't thought of it in years. I seem to remember that I put all the main plastic parts together first, then covered the whole thing with putty and sanded it smooth, then used a pin vice to drill out tiny holes for the spokes. The spokes are thin stainless steel guitar string (the thinnest or second thinnest gauge) that you can get at any music shop, very cheaply. Also seem to recall adding each of the tiny squares to the top and bottom of the hull. It looks like they are 040 x 020 strip cut into 040 squares. Painted with Tamiya yellow back in the day when Tamiya yellows (and reds, etc) actually covered opaquely with a single coat. Man, I miss those old Tamiya paints... And some thin chrome art tape for the seams. I don't know if chrome art tape still exists. How long ago did this kit come out???


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## cozmo (Nov 29, 2004)

I think its mostly done now. I managed to use almost all of the original parts and I think I kept the "feel" of it while making the modifications.

The bottle suit is something I really wanted to keep, but it was just odd stuck to side like that. How did the pilot get in?

It could have gotten greebled until next moth, but you have to draw the line somewhere.



Not counting the two bottle suits, there are eleven space ships there.

Its the most fun I have had building something in a while. Well, this, the Galactic Cruiser and the Space Ark.


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## Frank2056 (Mar 23, 2007)

I think the bottle rockets are "doing work", not necessarily docked. Since they're placed on what works out to be the "floor", getting in and out from that location would be inconvenient. 
I think a more natural location is in the hub area (below the reactor) where the cargo bay is located. It would be probably be rotating in the opposite direction (to cancel out the station's rotation) so it would be weightless.


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

*Yep..I have this MIB by glencoe...and its on my "to do one day if I dont die before then"lol...

Z
*


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

Great models guys, and a thought .... how about connecting two stations together like in 2001 ? and those spokes should be pipes which should be colored red for hot and blue for cold indicating the reactors cooling and heating systems, this is a great kit. Karl


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## BigH827 (Mar 17, 2007)

starduster
In the old TV movie this is from, they were silver and the station yellow, so one would have to figure only the part of the pipe inside the station would be color coded.

BigH827


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

Yea, that makes sense but I think a band on the outside would be helpfull if a needed repair from the outside, plus a little color would be nice too. Karl


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

scotpens said:


> Wouldn't the sanding and polishing be done before the ring sections are glued together? I don't quite see what the one has to do with the other.


Its much easier to glue the six (I think thats how many) somewhat ill-fitting sections together, slather the joints with putty, and sand the whole thing smooth. The pitted surface is irregular and you have some areas eaten out by .5mm or so, and some areas raised up .5mm by thick rust on the mold. You could sand it all smooth ahead of time, but after you glue the parts together, you are just going to have to do a ton more sanding to smooth out the seams. I found it easier to do it all at once. The plastic is thin and mushy too and easier to handle all together.


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