I am building a 1/24 lunar excursion module.It will be the Apollo 11 version of the module with an open MESA bay (LM-5).It will have a full interior and hopefully will have lighting.it will be a combination of parts from Shapeways, some of my own designs and some scratchbuilt parts.
The ascent stage will be made from parts designed by Vincent Meens and available on Shapeways. I bought these parts last year before Shapeways jacked up their prices. these parts are amazingly detailed and cover pretty much all of the interior detail and body shell.
My original plan was to buy the descent stage this year, but when I checked on Shapeways the prices had skyrocketed and it would have cost well over $2,000 for the descent stage. So I decided to make my own descent module.I have a modelling friend who was in the same boat and we decided we would both build one part of the descent stage and then then send each other the part we built. My friend is building the main body and engine bell and I decided to do the landing gear.
Big mistake on my part!! The landing gear is REALLY complex.I guess because the legs needed to fold for the module to fit inside the Saturn V third stage they needed a mechanism to unfold and lock the legs. Getting all the different struts at the right angle to each other was very difficult.it was also difficult finding good reference photos of the outriggers and struts because they were covered with mylar foil.Anyway I got as close as I could .I did make some alterations because I wanted to make sure the legs would be able to hold the weight of the finished kit.
I have to say I really take my hat off to the astronauts that put their lives on the line to ride in this very flimsy looking vehicle and the engineers that managed to make this complex design using slide rules and human "computers".
Here is a link to Vincent Meens webpage.This is where you will find the instructions to build his kit and links to the parts you need to buy. Vincent did an incredible job researching and building this model.There are some pictures of his own build and it is absolutely stunning.if I can get mine even half as good as his I will be well chuffed.
http://spacemodels.nuxit.net/LEM-24/index.htm
Anyway after that long preamble here is my design on the landing gear.Once they are printed they will go to my friend Randy and he will build the body of the descent stage.
Carl
darbyvet attached the following image(s):
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