Sheri's Saturn 1b.

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Steven

Well-Known Member
TRF Supporter
Joined
Sep 17, 2013
Messages
4,374
Reaction score
2,242
After (whenever that'll be) I finish the Saturn V, I'll be doing this build thanks to the transaction between Second Row and I.
 
I have a SHR Saturn 1B I never finished. Her method of building the lower section was crap and mine got bolluxed up. I need to replace the eight Redstone fuel tank tubes and rebuild the lower section. Then I need to inventory the rest of the parts and see what other parts I've misplaced. 🤪 If and when you start on it I would love to follow your build thread if you do one...
 
My son bought me mine over 10 years ago from Red Arrow Hobbies (now defuncted). It's been in the "need to rebuild" build pile for over a decade....

I also have a SHR Mercury Atlas in the build pile...
 
He bought one from @SecondRow.
I was torn. On the one hand, I wanted it for myself. But I just have too many big builds in the pile and too many professional obligations that it wouldn’t have gotten built until years down the road. I knew Steven was looking for one and he’ll put 1000x more effort and heart into it than I would, and make it look that much better.
 
I have a SHR Saturn 1B I never finished. Her method of building the lower section was crap and mine got bolluxed up. I need to replace the eight Redstone fuel tank tubes and rebuild the lower section. Then I need to inventory the rest of the parts and see what other parts I've misplaced. 🤪 If and when you start on it I would love to follow your build thread if you do one...
 
I tried their suggested method for assembling lower part of the S1B and failed miserably. So bought a bunch of tubes and modified those to the right diameter and built it the right way.... full tubes. I also drew the plastic wrap around the bottom part of the S1B and cut it in plastic.

Kit is rough to say the least... most of the diagrams and parts are wrong ... it really needs a lot of work ... took me a long time to build...
but result is quite OK...

I shot pictures of the assembly process do document all changes unfortunately my phone was stolen before I could back up my pix...

Attached a picture of it next to the 1/72 Apogee models version ...

I haven't flown it since it got slightly damaged when I moved a year ago ...
 

Attachments

  • 20170402_122705.jpg
    20170402_122705.jpg
    174.8 KB · Views: 64
  • 20170402_122705.jpg
    20170402_122705.jpg
    174.8 KB · Views: 83
  • 20170417_114655.jpg
    20170417_114655.jpg
    94.7 KB · Views: 81
Got my David Weeks drawings for this as I did for the Saturn V. Now I have to air dry them from slobber.
 
Cutting as much weight as possible was part of the design which is why it didn't use full tubes.

She didn't have her L1 cert so at most she used a pair of AT G80 motors and for these larger kits, that was under-powered. Highly recommended to use larger motors and then using things like full tubes isn't a concern.
 
Prior to purchasing the David Weeks drawings, I held a small belief that this would be a bit easier to build and detail. What a crock of crap that turned out to be. Yet learning from the Saturn V build, I've already got several approaches down as to how to go about this.
 
Prior to purchasing the David Weeks drawings, I held a small belief that this would be a bit easier to build and detail. What a crock of crap that turned out to be. Yet learning from the Saturn V build, I've already got several approaches down as to how to go about this.
Please elaborate on the David Weeks drawings. Sounds like they would be helpful for the build.
 
I'll fill the seams, primer and paint the tubes separately as well as the other sub assemblies. For the black tubes, I'll initially paint them white then tape them off for the black paint using the exact length and width of tape to cover the white background of the United States decal. This I believe will brighten the white background of these decals.
 
I'll be using 3D printed parts for the same sections as I have done for her Saturn V. And yes, creating the detail pieces by scratch as well.
 
The Sheri kits, were "builders" kits. In other words, pretty crude, you had to put in a lot of extra work to get them to look decent. Sort of better than starting form scratch but then again the "fuzzy paper" tubes she used for many kits required a lot of work to make smooth (sanding would make the fuzz get fuzzier). Though I do not recall what issues the IB had, mostly recalling a thread on the Little Joe-II

I never had one, just read the misfortunes of others (the ones who did get the kits they ordered, that is).

Anyone who wants a big IB, get the Apogee 1/70 kit, don't despair about the Sheri IB not being available anymore.

Otherwise, the Estes 1/100 kit.

Heck, if someone wanting a IB much bigger than the 1/70 kit, I'd start with the 1/45th Apollo parts from the Estes 1/45 Little Joe-II kit. eRockets has BT-58 that would be pretty close for the outer 8 tanks tubes, though not long lengths.
 
Back
Top