novahobbies
Well-Known Member
About 6 months ago, at the behest of a good friend of mine I grabbed a Saturn V Skylab model. It looked intimidating at first and I put it aside for a little while, determined instead on focusing on some smaller builds that were coming together with the kiddo. After hearing rumors the 1b was getting short on supply I quickly ordered one of those to build later....or so I thought. Somehow, by some freak coincidence, I did something no self-respecting modeler ever does: I started building that kit the very day I got it in the mail! And in 24 hours, I became hooked on Saturns. ;-)
Fast forward a few months, and my 1b and Skylab version S-V are both in the detail painting stages right before decals, and I realized I really kind of wanted all three of the famous Saturns in the collection. I needed the "standard" block Saturn V. Ebay prices are getting nutso these days for that model, but I managed to snag a #2157 version for under $100 so I felt pretty lucky! I waited with bated breath for the next Big Box to arrive. Imagine my dismay when I was greeted with THIS at the door:
YIKES. Not good. To be fair the Fedex delivery guy obviously knew this wasn't going to be good, because I have a great Ring cam recording of him putting the box down, looking at the damage, ringing the bell and then basically RUNNING back down the walkway. He did not want to answer any questions about this package!
Sadly the inside was no better:
At first I thought MAYBE the damage was just to the box, but come on now. We all know what's about to be seen here:
And most damaging of all, the main BT:
Now I know what you're thinking. But here's where this horror story turns into an awesome tale of people coming together to overcome disaster. When I first saw the damage, I thought, "well we can do SOMETHING about this I think...." and I went onto Estes website to look for replacement parts. It just so happens that they had the Saturn main body tube available online. They ALSO had an upgrade part that I preferred: the LM shroud on the newer models is a blow-molded plastic part, while the one on the #2157 is an undetailed paper cone reduction wrap. I went ahead and ordered the new LM shroud and the body tube right away, and then emailed the ebay seller to let him know what had happened to the package. The seller was awesome, and offered to reimburse me for the cost of that initial estes replacement order. That sounded fine to me, but I still needed a few things that weren't available. The BT58 tube for the service module is a hard tube to get and wasn't available on Estes (yes I know it's available elsewhere), and I still needed the styrene engine shrouds. And finally, I really wanted to upgrade this to a 29mm motor mount like the Saturn V/Skylab model has but the #2157 only ever came with a 24mm mount.
So I shot off an email to Estes explaining what happened, what I needed for repairs/upgrades, and asked if they could help out in any way. Lo and behold an awesome CS rep at Estes named Denise got back with me to tell me she was able to find ALL the things I was asking for with the help of another gent she worked with named Scott, who she said, "knows EXACTLY what you're trying to do here and can find anything in the warehouse." So, a huge wave of thanks to Denise and Scott. And the best part is they only charged me $27 total for the parts I needed.....keeping the price down still close to (maybe a tiny bit over) my original goal of keeping the model under $100.
Whew. All that backstory just to start a freaking build thread. I promise future ones won't have that much monologue before I start gluing things. Speaking of glue. So far I've built the new 29mm motor mount and installed it in the BT with the top epoxy filet drying today, and the 3rd stage tube and paper reduction wrap are done and drying out a bit. The BT80 that's in the 3rd stage is still a little misshapen and I'm VERY seriously thinking about cutting the BT80 at the base of the wrap and replacing it with a new -80 tube now. It feels wrong to go to so much trouble to replace all the other parts but leave that tube wonky....even if it's only slightly so. More pics as the build gets going!
Fast forward a few months, and my 1b and Skylab version S-V are both in the detail painting stages right before decals, and I realized I really kind of wanted all three of the famous Saturns in the collection. I needed the "standard" block Saturn V. Ebay prices are getting nutso these days for that model, but I managed to snag a #2157 version for under $100 so I felt pretty lucky! I waited with bated breath for the next Big Box to arrive. Imagine my dismay when I was greeted with THIS at the door:
YIKES. Not good. To be fair the Fedex delivery guy obviously knew this wasn't going to be good, because I have a great Ring cam recording of him putting the box down, looking at the damage, ringing the bell and then basically RUNNING back down the walkway. He did not want to answer any questions about this package!
Sadly the inside was no better:
At first I thought MAYBE the damage was just to the box, but come on now. We all know what's about to be seen here:
And most damaging of all, the main BT:
Now I know what you're thinking. But here's where this horror story turns into an awesome tale of people coming together to overcome disaster. When I first saw the damage, I thought, "well we can do SOMETHING about this I think...." and I went onto Estes website to look for replacement parts. It just so happens that they had the Saturn main body tube available online. They ALSO had an upgrade part that I preferred: the LM shroud on the newer models is a blow-molded plastic part, while the one on the #2157 is an undetailed paper cone reduction wrap. I went ahead and ordered the new LM shroud and the body tube right away, and then emailed the ebay seller to let him know what had happened to the package. The seller was awesome, and offered to reimburse me for the cost of that initial estes replacement order. That sounded fine to me, but I still needed a few things that weren't available. The BT58 tube for the service module is a hard tube to get and wasn't available on Estes (yes I know it's available elsewhere), and I still needed the styrene engine shrouds. And finally, I really wanted to upgrade this to a 29mm motor mount like the Saturn V/Skylab model has but the #2157 only ever came with a 24mm mount.
So I shot off an email to Estes explaining what happened, what I needed for repairs/upgrades, and asked if they could help out in any way. Lo and behold an awesome CS rep at Estes named Denise got back with me to tell me she was able to find ALL the things I was asking for with the help of another gent she worked with named Scott, who she said, "knows EXACTLY what you're trying to do here and can find anything in the warehouse." So, a huge wave of thanks to Denise and Scott. And the best part is they only charged me $27 total for the parts I needed.....keeping the price down still close to (maybe a tiny bit over) my original goal of keeping the model under $100.
Whew. All that backstory just to start a freaking build thread. I promise future ones won't have that much monologue before I start gluing things. Speaking of glue. So far I've built the new 29mm motor mount and installed it in the BT with the top epoxy filet drying today, and the 3rd stage tube and paper reduction wrap are done and drying out a bit. The BT80 that's in the 3rd stage is still a little misshapen and I'm VERY seriously thinking about cutting the BT80 at the base of the wrap and replacing it with a new -80 tube now. It feels wrong to go to so much trouble to replace all the other parts but leave that tube wonky....even if it's only slightly so. More pics as the build gets going!