R-7/Vostok -- Classic Paper Space Models

[jjnodice]

Just a quick update for Drew. The Voskhod is almost complete.

I built the interstage and 3rd stage motors from the Soyuz add-on kit. The 3rd stage is from Drew's Voskhod-1 PDF. And the capsule section came from the stock Vostok kit.

It was a little tricky getting the pieces to all line up. Mine was a down-scale so I did several prints of parts using the draft-mode setting to make sure they would line up OK. This wasn't due to the quality of the parts -- I was working with 3 different sets of files created to print a couple different scales and I was working at a third scale.

The only work that remains is to add some nose-weight to the nose cone, attachment of the nose cone, and attachment of the shock cord.

Drew, is there anything else you can think of? There were some additional capsule details you were planning to add, but those don't have to go on right now.

Here's an updated picture of the Voskhod-1 stack.

 

[dtomko]

Jason,

Looks awesome!

The only other thing I might suggest is to take a Sharpie or magic marker and darken the sides of the conduits in the black sections.

The only other capsule detail would be to duplicate the bump out on the capsule shroud underneath the hatch cut out. There should be another on the opposite side. You can just print out another sheet of the Vostok capsule pieces.

You shouldn't need quite as much nose weight with the longer Voskhod.

I've been distracted with my Titan III Dyna Soar, but hope to get back to this soon. The Voskhod 2 capsule with airlock bump out still has me befuddled.

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Drew,

Thanks for the tip about the black Sharpie. It makes a difference! I haven't done anything with the edges/imperfections on the green section. My green sharpie is too bright for it to look right. I'll have to look for a colored pencil.

Don't worry about being distracted with your other projects. As long as you are posting pics, I'm happy.

Jason

 

[dtomko]

Thanks, Jason! I can't wait to see the Voskhod fly.

What we need is a paper model of the Spiral; then we could do this

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Oh man Drew!

Remember that website with the miscellaneous Russian videos?
They are at it again! The site has been revamped. There is now an English option. The goal is to become THE clearing house of Soviet/Russian space videos.

The snippets of the N-1 videos I sent you are gone, but have been replaced by the ENTIRE documentary. Like the Buran video, there are lots of interviews with some of the biggies -- Leonov and Chertok and others. The program begins at an impact crater that I suppose is from one of the failed flights -- but not flight 2...

There is one of Gherman Titov's flight & the dual mission of Vostok 5/6 that has good footage of the Vostok. Another of the preparations for the first successful R-7 flight.

I will keep an eye on this site for Voskhod footage. It's probably coming, but hasn't been posted yet.

Here's link to the R-7 related videos:

Early_manned_flights
Launchers

And the link to the overall site:

www.spacevideo.ru

Oh my!

Jason

 

[dtomko]

Wow! I've got some serious viewing ahead of me!

Thanks, Jason.

Drew

 

[dtomko]

I finally got around to working on the Voskhod conversion. Here's the lower section complete, except for the engine nozzles and launch lug. It's 1/96 scale; 1/100 was a little too small to wrap around a BT-20 for an engine mount. I'm using the Sputnik strap-ons to get the all green color (I'm not going to use the gray version from the Paper Space Models Yahoo group because I can't figure out how to match the capsule shroud to that color). The trusswork and second stage engines are from the Soyuz model; the capsule shroud from the Vostok model, and I drew the Voskhod upper stage.

Drew

 

[dtomko]

The nose cone for recovery is the top of the first stage piece. I glued a dummy engine casing from Semroc inside a short piece of BT-20 and glued that inside the top piece. This way I can interchange the Voskhod, Vostok, and Soyuz upper stages.

BTW, I love Launch magazine but I had to send an email about the latest issue. In the interview with Walt Cunningham it states that Apollo 7 was the first launch of 3 people in one spacecraft. Argh. First for 3 Americans, but the Soviets beat us by a few years with 3 cosmonauts in Voskhod 1.

Drew

 

[BobH48]

Looking good, Drew.

Sad to say that I haven't made a single paper rocket since last year about this time so it's good to see that someone is out there modeling some paper.

 

[jjnodice]

Drew,

Looking great! Should be a good sized model at 1/96 scale, too. Keep us posted.

The Voskhod has yet to fly for me. I'm at the opposite end of things compared to Bob. I can never find time to fly on the weekends, but during the evenings I seem to have some time for building. When I finally get it in the air I'll be sure to post pics.

When you finish your model, shoot Lars Folman an email. He likes to see what people do with his models.

Speaking of Lars, he's asked me to beta build his next kit. It's going to be a cool one (like all his other ones). He's given me permission to do a build thread so later today I'll start one. The cover of Launch! should give you a big fat clue.

Jason

 

[dtomko]

I'm like you Jason; no time to fly, but I can build at night.

Here's the interstage area with the upper stage nozzles visible inside the Voskhod upper stage. I am going to coat the trusswork with CA to give it more strength.

Drew

 

[GuyNoir]

Drew,

I gave this bird a shot but those small nose cones at the tip of the strap-ons look like. . . well . . . let's just say in a family forum, not so good.

How the heck do you get something that small to roll into a nice pointy nose? Any tips or trick to making that happen?

 

[foose4string]

Your truss work turned out much nicer than mine Drew. I made the mistake of adding an extra layer of cardstock to stiffen it. Too thick. The CA soaked paper ought to hold up just fine. If was going to do mine over again, I think I would use some toothpicks or dowels for the trusses.

I was never able to get mine to fly stable on a "C". I've got quite a bit of shot in the nose, probably a half ounce or more. I might try oversizing the fins slightly and see if that helps. I'll weigh the cone today to see just how much weight is actually there.

 

[dtomko]

Mark,

Those booster nose cones were awful to roll! It's very hard to get the curl up to the point. I use a soft mouse pad and roll a pen over them to get the initial curl; I also rolled them over a table edge. For the points, I used a pencil point first to try to get the proper angle, then used a toothpick with a sharp edge. That worked fairly well. My first two are not great, but the second two are decent. This model has a good side and a bad side!

The trusswork was also a bear. I did laminate two sheets of cardstock, but if you've tried this, you know that cutting the trusswork then becomes more difficult. Some of the edges are rough. You also have to curl it, which I did to both pieces before gluing, so they wouldn't separate later. Then I cut out the trusswork from both edges to the center, trying not to remove too much of the curl. Yes, it was tricky, and the two sheets separated in spots. Next time I would use only one layer of cardstock.

Here's what really stiffened it up. After the trusswork was glued to the first stage nose cap, I used a toothpick to apply white glue along the inside of truss pieces. I gave it two layers. Then I soaked it all in CA. it's very stiff now; you can't bend it at all. I think this is as stiff as plastic or wood pieces would be and it's easier than trying to cut all those little bits out.

I'd like to make Vostok and Soyuz versions, but I'm not eager to do two more sets of trusses.

The Voskhod should be easier to balance with that longer upper stage. I'll let you know how much nose weight it takes.

Drew

 

[mike_bar]

Originally posted by dtomko
Those booster nose cones were awful to roll! [Snip] My first two are not great, but the second two are decent.

Drew,
Excellent tutorial on rolling paper cones!
Small cones (BT-20 and below) are always a challenge. I tend to print 'spares' and practice.

Originally posted by dtomko
The trusswork was also a bear. I did laminate two sheets of cardstock, [Snip] Next time I would use only one layer of cardstock.

I would have rolled, laminated, then cut.
In hindsight, one layer of 65 lb cardstock will cut clean with an X-acto knife, so roll, cut, laminate makes sense.
Laminated paper strips, or maybe wood strips, behind the truss "wrap" will strengthen the structure. Two to three layers of 65 lb cardstock laminated with PVA (white) glue will be strong. CYA saturation will make the trusses rock-solid.

Great work Drew.

 

[dtomko]

OK, those of you who have built the Vostok, I think I goofed. Insde the capsule shroud, I installed the green sleeve that the capsule sphere sits on. I glued the side with the larger glue tabs to the side of the shroud and the side with the smaller tabs to the disk that holds the capsule itself. Now the shroud is flat along that side and I can't get a curve in it. Did I do this backwards? The instructions say "curved side facing outward," and I assumed outward was toward me.

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Originally posted by dtomko
OK, those of you who have built the Vostok, I think I goofed. Insde the capsule shroud, I installed the green sleeve that the capsule sphere sits on. I glued the side with the larger glue tabs to the side of the shroud and the side with the smaller tabs to the disk that holds the capsule itself. Now the shroud is flat along that side and I can't get a curve in it. Did I do this backwards? The instructions say "curved side facing outward," and I assumed outward was toward me.

Drew

Drew,

This was a tricky part that I did mess up at least once.

I think I built mine with the smaller tabs attached to the shroud, the larger tabs attached to the capsule. I understand the "outside" direction to mean from the center to the wall. Looking at the instructions, the picture included shows the small tabs glued to the wall of the shroud. And that wall is the "interior wall" of the shroud.

When I get home, I'll dig through pictures to see if I happened to take one that showed this more closely. I don't think I did. I threw away the wreckage of the Vostok lawn-dart, so I don't have that as a reference either.

Hope this helps.

Jason

 

[dtomko]

Thanks, Jason,

Yep, I did it backwards The beauty of paper modeling is I'll just print out another sheet

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Originally posted by dtomko
Thanks, Jason,

Yep, I did it backwards The beauty of paper modeling is I'll just print out another sheet

Drew

Drew,

My sheet printed to completed part ratio is about 2-3:1. If I ever get to 1:1 it probably won't be fun anymore...

Jason

 

[cliveroonie]

There's just something special about those strap-on boosters, the look of that rocket. I have been planning on doing the R-7 Vostok for some time. Now I think I definitely have to do it.

Originally posted by jjnodice
The Vostok flew twice today! Both flights had absolutely perfect boosts I could not believe how straight it flew. The flights were both on A10-3T's. The performance was great, great acceleration off the pad. It really looked cool going up!

 

[dtomko]

I'm going on my fourth capsule shroud
I just can't seem to get a curve around the capsule indent. I am going to try to trim the interior sleeve this time.

It is a great looking rocket!

Drew

 

[mike_bar]

I think someone has very high building standards.

It's OK Drew, I'm sure you can find a support group close by...

 

[dtomko]

Originally posted by Mike_BAR
I think someone has very high building standards.

It's OK Drew, I'm sure you can find a support group close by...

Yeah, I'm a little OCD; I know

I've had it; this was my last attempt. You can see the flat spot above the oval capsule cut out. If I feel ambitious, I'll cut a piece from another shroud and glue it over that area to round it out.

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Drew,

Your kung-fu is the best, comrade. Seriously.

Given your body of work over the years Proton Zond, Energia-Buran, Titan III, Titan II, and many more -- we'll let this one slide.

Jason

 

[dtomko]

OK, OK . . . .

So I made a patch on top. What the heck; it was raining and the kids were at friends' houses . . . .
I also added a few extra details to try to match the photos Jason posted a while back.

It's very close to being done.

Drew

 

[dtomko]

Voskhod 1 completed. I'll get better shots in the daylight.

Drew

 

[jjnodice]

Great job Drew! Can't wait to see some launch pictures!

Jason

 

[dtomko]

Group shot. The Proton-Zond is a little undersized at about 1/120 scale.

Drew

 

[BobH48]

Great job. When do you think you will get a chance to launch it?

 

[dtomko]

Originally posted by BobH48
Great job. When do you think you will get a chance to launch it?

Thanks!

Not this weekend; it's cold and windy and we're expecting a bit of snow on Saturday. I should get a launch in next weekend . . . weather permitting.

Drew