# My Man in Space Build with a Shuttle



## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Well being a retired rocket scientist I had this AMT MIS kit on the shelves for a couple of years and finally decided late last year to put it on the bench. I also planned on adding a 1/200 scale shuttle so bought a Lindberg kit to go with it. Last December I finished up the MIS set and went on to the shuttle. After doing some fairly extensive work I was unhappy with the detailing on the Lindberg shuttle and bought a Hawegawa kit instead. Both required that I cut apart the two ET/SRB one piece parts and rebuild them as separate assemblies. That required some fairly significant repair work, especially on the SRBs, to fix the sawed apart joints. But in the end it all came together nicely and I built my own "rocket garden" to display it.

Here are some of the mods I did. I bought Shapeways 3D printed spacecraft to replace the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo SMs which were excellent. They were designed by Indycals and I bought a decal set from them and Tango Papa. The detail on the new spacecraft was far better, the escape towers on the Mercury were discrete rather than molded in relief, and the Gemini fit perfectly rather than the disastrous fit in the kit. Of course I did a bunch of careful detailing and did a bit of correcting to the Saturn 5 interstage. On the shuttle I added more realistic struts for the shuttle to tank and removed the overflow line. I added an LH2 line as well as extending the LO2 line. I used the Tango Papa decals on it as well and used a mix of Indycal and Tango Papa decals on the set. In the end I was very happy with it and it now holds a special place on my shelves.


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## BWolfe (Sep 24, 2013)

Very nice. I have one of the Man In Space kits but keep putting of building it.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Wow that looks great. All of your kits do, but I think this is some of your neatest work. Very clean and well done.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

Love all the extra detailing you've done.


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## hal9001 (May 28, 2008)

The only reason I've not tried to build mine is because of that, as you put it, _disastrous_ Gemini service module! I never really saw a practical way of over coming this significant problem. I'll have to check into these space craft.

I hate to hear the Hasegawa kit was a dog. I haven't got around to getting one yet but plan to. Seeing this gives me the incentive!!

Love what you've done here, looks *GREAT*.

Carl-


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Carl, here is the link to the Shapeways replacement spacecraft:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/AAWENXEER/man-in-space-full-set

The Hasegawa shuttle kit is actually fairly decent for 1/200th scale. However, as with the Lindberg kit, the ET/SRB parts are molded in two halves and the SRBs are attached to the ET with a long styrene joint. Because of that if you want to build it to look "real" you have to saw apart the combined pieces and then reconstruct/repair the joint. I had to add small plastic pieces to repair the doublers on the SRB parts which wasn't too bad but it could have been easier if they were separate parts to begin with. Fixing the saw damage on the ET was much easier. I then modeled the actual attach struts from pictures I had taken walking down the STS-135 stack in the VAB. The Hasegawa kit had a much better orbiter and much more detail on the ET than the Lindberg kit, it is a much better kit than the Lindberg which I still have partly done out in my shop.

And thanks guys for the nice remarks about my build. It commands a special place on my display shelves.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Someone needs to do a nice NEW kit of the Shuttle. The problem with pretty much all of the existing kits in any scale is that they are old. Most started out as the Enterprise and have been reissued with new decals over the decades. Tamiya's kit is pretty nice, but they only do the orbiter and its in 1/100 not a more common scale like 1/144 or 1/200. Airfix's old 1/144 kit is not too bad, I suppose, but is old enough to have been sold when the Moonraker movie was out.


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## Mr. Wabac (Nov 9, 2002)

Looks great !
Still remember a photo in the newspaper many years ago during the Apollo program of the manned launchers as models on a desk.
My guess is that they were all 1/72nd - the Saturn V disappeared into the false ceiling.

Tempted to build my AMT set now - of course it won't look as good, as I'm not a rocket scientist.


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## iamweasel (Aug 14, 2000)

Beautiful work. Love it.


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

Nice job - I like the addition of the Shuttle.
Steve


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## Phillip1 (Jul 24, 2009)

rkoenn,

Congratulations on finishing this build! It made into a great looking display, and the work you did shows. Since I was young boy I have always thought this was one of the best looking and most creative model kits offered by a manufacturer. It is surprising that more of these are not built and posted.

Phillip1


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