Launch Umbilical Tower LUT>144 Monogram/Airfix Saturn V

This kit is for the Space Voyagers Adventure Ultimate, Monogram /Revell and Airfix Saturn V Models.

• 1 set of 18 quantity 11"x17" color laser paper parts sheets
• 1 special CD containing the 90 page Assembly Procedure Manual in PDF file.

Bare bones package, to keep cost as low as possible, it is sent with parts sheets rolled, protected in a USPS Priority package. 

One of the pictures shows examples of the instruction pages on the CD and an example of one of the parts sheets.  The kit will require scissors, water based various color marking pens, cutting board, white glue, corrugated cardboard for sub-support on some parts, etc (Not included).

1/96 and 1/100 scale LUT models are also available in a separate auction.  Ironically, the 96 version is easier to construct, due to the increased size of the parts...  The 1/144 scale Crawler Transporter is soon to be available.   If you have a desired scale which is not listed, please email your scale request to HoustonFlight@EduCraftDiversions.org,  and we'll see what we can do.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Assembling this piece might seem daunting, but it is really only a matter of just starting... Then going step by step through the Procedures Plan.  Oh, maybe have a stack or 2 of your favorite dvds running in the background.

The printing on the parts sheets is quite rugged, but if you need replacements, they will be made available.  The pictures accurately depict the finished model.  But, if a mistake occurs... Anticipate full project support and simply email: HoustonFlight@sbcglobal.net. 

Our motto?  "Houston, we've not a problem..."

No painting required, at all!  All the intricate graphics detailing is already done.  Just coloring of exposed white paper surfaces and edges with your water based color marking pens (not included). 

The strength of the paper is more than adequate, especially in load bearing parts, which will be folded and glue-laminated, creating a type of "ply-paper" strength.  The engineering design of the actual L.U.T. also comes into play.  Also, larger parts will have a cardboard, (which you provide) sub-support.  It ends up being sturdy.  Included is a 'desk wedge/bar" type display sign depicting actual lunar anorthosite as if made of Genesis moon rock meteorite thin slice. 

This paper model kit comes professionally color laser printed on 18, 11"x 17" sheets.  The 87 page instruction manual is patterned after the official Apollo program Flight Plan (just for fun) and is on a special mini CD. A trip to Kinko's will provide you with a hard copy... black and white or color!

The parts graphics capture a lovely, weathered, flight used LUT, which is how it looked for the majority of its service.  It is as complete and accurate as the medium will allow for, but one may, of course, further detail it as much as is wanted.  I will say this, though... it is quite more accurate than the one seen in Tom Hank's Apollo 13 movie, excellent dvd as it is.

The detailed photographic images on the model add a trompe l'oeil 3D effect.  In many ways, it is more realistic than plastic, resin or photo-etched brass parts can possibly achieve.  As it turns out, there is just something about a plastic model, as fine as it may be, whereby the viewer thinks, "That's a really detailed plastic model."  But when you take actual photographs of the real item and use them for your color cover, the brain doesn't quite know what to think.  It's seeing the real thing...  With plastic or brass etched kits in general, you've perhaps got a precision form, but it's covered with a layer of non-scale, glomular paint, which has always lessened the viewing effect of a model.  With printed-on imagery, you have a higher scale precision in many respects.  Even unpainted plastic parts add an undesirable translucence which again, is non-scale. But  printed parts read as opaque.

Are you GO or no-GO?

There is one word you will hear as your friends enter the room and see the impressive piece you're building. And that word is, "wow."  The paper idea lent itself quite nicely to the actual LUT construction, since the real one was essentially made from flat metal stock.   One advantage to having parts with printed graphics is that no painting is required and lends much higher detail.  This gives it a level of artistic expertise in its texture not commonly available, creating a fine faux effect to many of the surfaces.

It will take some doing, sometimes arduous.... and a bit of overall "MacGyver-ing" to craft this stately addition to your den or party room's decor.  (I view the more painstaking phases as being a sort of astronaut  psychological training test as in the movie The Right Stuff...!  which really took the edge off... ).  But it is designed to allow for a bit more of a simplified construction, if fewer parts are used at the builder's discretion, still capturing a sense of being a worthy platform for this grand piece of space equipment. So... one may omit many of the more intricate assemblies and still have an impressive piece.

I liken the construction of the Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower Model Kit, to that of building say, the larger sea vessel models such as The Constitution Sail Ship or Academy 350 Titanic with rigging and brass-etched add-ons. So now ... a more recent addition to the history of exploration is added.

Expect to trim and fit a few parts, since no 2 towers will be precisely identical, due to variations in individual assembly. I would say there is more "trimming to fit" involved than a ship model... but less than a Guillow's balsa wood B17 aircraft.  If you would like one built for you, just let me know. Probably cost prohibitive, due to time, etc... But, you never know.

A kit for Revell's 1:96 version is now online.   A 144  "Crawler' add-on is planned as well as a 144 Saturn V paper model rocket.  Be sure to add to your eBay emailed search notification list.  Other Apollo kit ideas are also being considered including 1/24 or 1/32 scale Apollo Spacecraft CSM/LM/Adapter as well as a 1:1 scale Apollo 15 Genesis Rock artifact replica (cast in actual terrestrial anorthosite and dressed with real, genuine NASA contracted, Lunar Dust Soil replicant).  Whatever suggestions you may have would be welcome and can be emailed to HoustonFlight@SBCglobal.net.

You are looking at the first prototype, which has been slightly revised, but without any casually noticeable changes. Over 1000 hours of  painstaking engineering and rendering have gone into this unique piece by artist David R. Maier.  I couldn't resist pulling out the ol' Hasselblad 500 EL and photographing it outside... but best to avoid displaying it in direct or indirect sunlight, even though I was assured by the printers that the colors will hold.   The weight of the paper (28 lbs.) has been tested and is the optimum type for this scale.

Equitably priced... considering printing costs alone...  (Kinko's charges $3.50 per 11x17 color sheet) But, add to that... your completed Apollo Saturn V Launch Umbilical Tower model will be worth quite a pretty penny...  So if anyone gives you guff about how much time this is taking... They can be informed that the finished piece will be worth 100s and 100s and 100s and 100s... (and 100s).    To put it in 2001: a space odyssey terms...  I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over...

SIDE NOTES

The LUT and Command Module (CM) Space Craft represents the only flight used piece of hardware that survived the Apollo program, the only endeavor in history which succeeded in landing a human on another satellite.

Sadly... the actual, original Apollo program's Launch Towers were only recently destroyed because of lead paint environmental concerns. There was a most illuminated and concerted effort to save LUT #1 and erect a monument to human kind's singular successful venture to another satellite, but, though a superbly gallant effort was made to save it, unbelievably, this unique piece of space flight history is now gone forever. Can you imagine if the USS Arizona BB39 wreck or mighty Memphis Belle had been scrapped?  Or the Mayflower had been saved?  Other than the capsule itself, the LUT represented the only other piece of actual, direct, flight used hardware which survived. The most ultimate of historical artifact losses.  But... nice to know that parts of the original launch system were incorporated into the STS Space Shuttle's... the Colby Crane, a few of the tower sections and launcher platform base can be discerned in the current pad array.   But... Nice to know that parts of the original launch tower were incorporated into the STS Space Shuttle's... the Colby Crane, a few of the tower sections and launcher platform base can be discerned in the current pad array.  Perhaps they will be used in NASA's new Moon Shot program, Constellation.

As we embark on the next chapter of manned space flight... This is sure to be an impressive... and valuable homage to one moment of pure, inspired human endeavor in exploration... space or otherwise.  

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