Collier’s Ferry Rocket (1952)

THE DC

Highly Esteemed Member
This is a great contribution!

I remember building the Glenco re-issue many years ago. I don't know if you ever saw those plastic kits but this was a very smooth, speak, period design.

Its been a while, but I seem to recall that they also had a Mars Liner, similarly retro, and a Retriever Rocket that was also quite attractive. Two especially cool plastic kits that went along with what your designing was a wheel-like, yellow space station with thread spokes that I remember building and a nuclear powered space station that was really funky. I remember there being pictures of the ship you are designing and building on the cover of one of both of the space stations, as if docking with them.

These were fine, well designed kits and historically interesting, as several were concept designs.


Thanks much for brining one to paper, and possibly, giving it a whole new life!
 

zathros

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I wonder when they realized the wings would prevent them from ever getting into orbit!! Still, pioneer work, and conceptualization.

That being said, I still think Wener Von Braum was a war criminal, and should have been prosecuted. God bless the slave labor on whom the Nazi's calculated theirs deaths, based on labor output and fed them accordingly. He knew of this, and the death rate a Peenemünde was horrific. there seems to be a white washing of this person, and contrary to belief, our space program would have continued fine without him. That being said, I hope to think that outside of that situation, he could have been an even more brilliant scientist, advancing commercial space even more.

It took American ingenuity to take his rockets and make something out of them, and the final results bear nothing in resemblance to what he inputted. ;)

Of course, none of this has anything to do with Nando's wonderful models.

However, the memory of those who suffered so for the V weapons assembly in horrific conditions must be respected and remembered, they had more to do with the success than he did.
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
Thank You all for your appreciations.

@Tonino, I looked for some picture of containers and then I built them in scale using the standard dimensions. I think that they gave the sense of scale and a touch of color

@THE DC, About the yellow station, I think you refer to the model kit of the Disney’s Space Station ( the Nuclear one ) produced first by Strombecker and then reissued by Glencoe. In the box-art of the last one, it is depicted a Ferry Rocket, but that of the Disney’s era.

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@zathros, it isn’t so clean as it appear in the pictures.
About the figure of Von Braun, I think that surely was responsible for the crimes that were perpetrated in the cave of the Mittlewerk of Dora at Nordhausen, and that It’s true that the V-2 killed more prisoners working here than enemies, but Von Braun wasn’t the only one that allies forgave in those years, for give hope at one World prostrate and deeply hurt. Often the best successes are rooted in the deepest tragedies. It’s the human nature, IMO.
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
Back to the model first stage.


First I assembled the inter-stage section

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Then I started with the body of the stage. I marked small bumps for have a reference where to put the positioning ring inside.

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I assembled the parts using the bulkheads, and the fit was good.

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The two segments joined.

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The interior side of engine’s compartment was clad.

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… and finally the stowage compartment of the parachute.

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Now I’m dealing with the engines (51), and I not found a solution that I like.
Any suggestion is welcome.

To be continue.
 

zathros

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Thank You all for your appreciations.

@Tonino, I looked for some picture of containers and then I built them in scale using the standard dimensions. I think that they gave the sense of scale and a touch of color

@THE DC, About the yellow station, I think you refer to the model kit of the Disney’s Space Station ( the Nuclear one ) produced first by Strombecker and then reissued by Glencoe. In the box-art of the last one, it is depicted a Ferry Rocket, but that of the Disney’s era.

.
@zathros, it isn’t so clean as it appear in the pictures.
About the figure of Von Braun, I think that surely was responsible for the crimes that were perpetrated in the cave of the Mittlewerk of Dora at Nordhausen, and that It’s true that the V-2 killed more prisoners working here than enemies, but Von Braun wasn’t the only one that allies forgave in those years, for give hope at one World prostrate and deeply hurt. Often the best successes are rooted in the deepest tragedies. It’s the human nature, IMO.


Well said. I still think, after his usefulness, he should have been hung, but it was not my place and I was not there, I'm probably wrong anyways, time will tell. Nobody can say how they would act when told to do or die. The Allies use the information garnered by the human experimentation because it was data. The Japanese did not fair as well as the Germans, as their was a deep rooted hated, with racism, intertwined, especially, with their "Day of Infamy". A lot of people do not know that after the war ended, many German troops did not surrender when ordered. When they were captured, they were considered "disarmed enemy forces', and had no rights under the Geneva condition. A person I knew very well in the 1980's was involved in the extermination of 1.7 million hard core Waffen SS Germans and Nazi members after the war ended. He was part of a group that would interview each soldier, write down the number on their forearm, they would then take a front and side picture of the soldier, and he would be summarily executed. This was released in the "News' one day in the early 1990's and was never mentioned again. This friend of mine was a Psychiatrist working with the British (he was British, and emigrated to America), and told me that since it had been released in the news, he could now talk about it. Not very forgiving but the fear was they would integrate into some country and continue the horror. Fun Facts. The Allies took all the scientists they could get their hands on, and sucked every bit of knowledge out of them.

He was working under the tyranny of a criminal government. They were hoodlums, though in truth the whole thing started from the bottom up, so in reality, most of the country in the early to mid years supported what was going on, till it was too late.

From "Wikipedia":
In Wernher von Braun: Crusader for Space, numerous statements by von Braun show he was aware of the conditions but felt completely unable to change them. A friend quotes von Braun speaking of a visit to Mittelwerk:

It is hellish. My spontaneous reaction was to talk to one of the SS guards, only to be told with unmistakable harshness that I should mind my own business, or find myself in the same striped fatigues! ... I realized that any attempt of reasoning on humane grounds would be utterly futile.[43]

When asked if von Braun could have protested against the brutal treatment of the slave laborers, von Braun team member Konrad Dannenberg told The Huntsville Times
, "If he had done it, in my opinion, he would have been shot on the spot.

He will be judged, just like all the rest of us. He was brilliant and was the chief architect for the Saturn V rocket engine. A new throttle-able version of that engine was just 3D printed. This engine now can be turned on and off, and throttled, which makes it a viable candidate for space travel. It would be something if that engine helped mankind get to Mars, which was Von Braun's lifelong dream.

YouTube link to firing of engine for the first time:


 

zathros

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That last group of pictures you posted are so awesome! The Rocket not only looks god Outside, but Inside as well. ;)
 

THE DC

Highly Esteemed Member
@THE DC, About the yellow station, I think you refer to the model kit of the Disney’s Space Station ( the Nuclear one ) produced first by Strombecker and then reissued by Glencoe. In the box-art of the last one, it is depicted a Ferry Rocket, but that of the Disney’s era.


I think you are right. Glance came out with two space station kits; one was a yellow, donut shaped one with a center disc as I recall; the other was tubular and supposed to have been made up of moon rocket arts. I remember that a ship you are making was on one of the kit covers, but it has been a long time ago. I always liked the station kits as they were not common.

You're doing a great job with your kits. I like the way you are repping the honeycomb in the hull like in the old kit. That's a nice touch of detail.
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
That last group of pictures you posted are so awesome! The Rocket not only looks god Outside, but Inside as well. ;)


@THE DC, About the yellow station, I think you refer to the model kit of the Disney’s Space Station ( the Nuclear one ) produced first by Strombecker and then reissued by Glencoe. In the box-art of the last one, it is depicted a Ferry Rocket, but that of the Disney’s era.



I think you are right. Glance came out with two space station kits; one was a yellow, donut shaped one with a center disc as I recall; the other was tubular and supposed to have been made up of moon rocket arts. I remember that a ship you are making was on one of the kit covers, but it has been a long time ago. I always liked the station kits as they were not common.


You're doing a great job with your kits. I like the way you are repping the honeycomb in the hull like in the old kit. That's a nice touch of detail.


Thank you all for the appreciations, they are important for me, and thanks for following my work.
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
I started to attach a colored version of the wings to the first stage. I tried to do some reflex effect, but, AARGGHH!, I did it wrong. In two ways: first, the reflexes of the two sections are misaligned, and second the wings are vertical as the natural light, so the reflexes would be on the leading edge and not on the extrados.

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So I corrected the reflexes on the rudder

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Here the comparison between the version with the corrected reflexes (on the right ) and the previous one ( on the Left ).

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Rhaven Blaack

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It looks like you are making good progress and are learning good techniques. I think that you are doing a GREAT JOB on this project.
 

zathros

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This model loks so linear, straight, plumb, all the good things. You really have the touch for this. You raise the bar with every model you make. :)
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
Thank you Christopher, THE DC and Zathros.



Small progress.

I have almost completed the first stage and I like the shining effect on the wings.

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Now I’m still dealing with the engines and I have to find a solution for an acceptable rendering for this part and that it is easy to achieve.


Any suggestions?


Best, Nando :)
 

zathros

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Nando, your work has ben super. You're on heckuva craftsman too. This ship looks like it will be ready to fly soon. I doubt Werner Von Braun had such a detailed model!! ;)
 

Nando

Designer Extraordinaire
Thanks Zathros, but Werner had had models of his rockets at 1/1 scale ;)


About the engines, someone suggested me that the Friede model of Ralph Currell has some solution for my model.

Good hint because the missile was the same lineage, the true roots of the Von Braun’s rockets.

I revised the kit and the story of the movie ( it’s odd the launch of the missile immersed in a basin of water!) and I decided to do an easy and an hard way to reproduce the engines, like Ralph Curreil did in his model.


For the “easy” way, I represented the engines as a 2d pattern, giving some sort of 3d effect: rough but effective.


The “hard” one is very hard and I hope that the arthritis at my right hand does not prevent to complete the job.


I designed the pattern of the engines on the firewall, and the engines as little hexagonal pyramids.

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It’s hard to fold those thin details and to glue them, keeping the right geometry of the pattern. I tried different approaches. The first thing I learned is “you have to use little glue!”

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The result is acceptable for me and now I have a long and tedious job.

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Best, Nando :)
 

Tonino

Well-Known Member
:) As I see the "hard way" syndrome has claimed another victim!

Welcome in the club Nando!

BTW very nice solution for the engines.
Unfortunately the "copy and paste" method doesn't apply in the real life
 

Rhaven Blaack

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I like your solution for engine exhausts. I would have done the same thing!
 
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