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1/72 LLRV


Roktman

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  This LLRV is a 1:72 model from 3 Stooges Productions.  The kit comes with a fret of photo etch, and a bag of about 10 resin pieces, and detailed instructions. It was sold through Tag Team Hobbies, and went through 2 editions, before I heard it went Out of Production. I guess the kit can be found on eBay, if you keep a look out.  Having been intimidated with the PE, I was hesitant to start this one. But once started the metal was fairly thick so folding was fairly simple.
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After assembling all the parts, it was evident the craft looked rather sparse.  It was time to do some additional investigating.  Looking through the images it seems there was more than one vehicle. It turns out that there was a least four versions, with four vehicles made for each version. 

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Clear images were hard to find, and it was difficult to determine which vehicle you are actually looking at. I'm pretty sure that mine ended up turning into some sort of hybrid.  But thats ok, I was glad I finished.  Quite a bit of styrene wire and basswood was used to make the craft as accurate as I could.

Looking toward the cockpit section, again each variation had different features. I "think" I'm still close to the example I'm using. 
here the pilot is in his seat. There was a wide variation of what they wore - from a flame proof suit, to the orange "suit". I found a few with the pilot wearing a sort of light colored olive, that's the one I chose. In the pic it also looks like he was wearing regular brown leather work gloves. So I added that even tho the color makes it looks like he's got bare hands. Between his knees you can barely make out the yellow and black of the ejector seat ring. There was a few images where there was foot pedals - so with some bent wire, I included them.

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In the rear, additional wiring and plumbing were added. I added drips of super glue where needed to get rid of the wood grain that came thru the paint. These boxes are supposed to be metal, not wood. 😉
One oops is that I added glue to the 4 stubs where the engine attaches to the ring. As I pushed the engine into place the glue stuck before I got the whole thing in. The engine is supposed to be below that top frame work. Oh well.

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I made a little base looking like where they used at Edwards out of foam sheet, Free Form Air clay, and some balsa as a frame. Thanks for looking.

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Nice job on a very spindly looking kit.  I don't mind PE but I don't know if I would tackle

something that is just that...'a better man than me, Gunga Din'.

Very interesting subject that really paved the way to the moon.

Bill

Edited by WildBill50
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On 4/15/2019 at 11:23 AM, WildBill50 said:

Nice job on a very spindly looking kit.  I don't mind PE but I don't know if I would tackle

something that is just that...'a better man than me, Gunga Din'.

Very interesting subject that really paved the way to the moon.

Bill

Thanks!  I was nervous about the PE too, but when I started working with it - it was some really beefy stuff.  The thickest PE I ever worked with, but was still easy to bend and shape.

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