Today there are a number of small businesses which create
museum quality display models of spacecraft in various scales. Many are
impressive, and all are quite expensive. But in my view they lack one
particular component of the original spacecrafts: they are useless
from a real engineering perspective. It's not enough to build a replica in the
correct scale and color. These spacecraft were built by man, from unique materials, and invariably
they all show the signs of their construction. There are welds, seams, fabrics, nuts and
bolts used to create the original ships. This is where my designs will separate
themselves from what is the normal standard for today's display pieces. I
want to recreate every detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
When people go to museums, they are at times mesmerized by
the actual spacecraft. Sometimes it is because of where it's been, but most
always it is because, in reality, there is so much to see on these creations.
There are various textures and colors, and always ... details. Put a child in
front of a scale model of a spacecraft, and you may catch their attention. But
put this same child in front of a real spacecraft, and it tends to make them
stop, stare, and sometimes even dream. I want to reproduce scale models that
mimic the real creations, so that a child not only sees the ships, but so that
they can see the details at a scale which makes it wondrous.
The first scale replica I will create is the first one I
dreamed of creating 15 years ago. The 11F94 Lunniy Korabl. This was the spacecraft designed during the1960's, and early 1970's to carry Soviet Cosmonauts to and from the lunar surface. It's not so much that it took me this long to
get started, but rather that it took this long to get enough information and
photographic evidence to get a reasonable idea of what one actually would have
looked like.
It is only in the past year that two major pieces of information about the Lunniy Korabl became available. The first is the scale. You just can't build a model based on
the published information that will be in sync with the published
illustrations. As with every other part of this project, I received help
from a knowledgeable source. Although this time the helper had two of the best
tools a scale modeler could ever hope for ... access to the real thing, and a
tape measure!
In October of 2009 I received an email from a Russian
comrade who is a legend in his own time. And this email had seven attachments.
I nearly wet myself with excitement as I opened each attachment to find a
sketch with notes and measurements from an actual LK! Several weeks ago I
obtained the other piece of critical information; photographs of an LK with the
remains of the Thermal Cloth which would have covered key parts of the
spacecraft, PLUS a copy of a sketch by V.M. Filin showing where this fabric was
located, and also where it wasn't. But last week I got the "Rosetta
Stone" of the Lunniy Korabl scale! I was privy to an actual Engineering
Drawing of my revered Lunniy Korabl!!!!
There was a single Engineering Drawing of the Lunniy Korabl shown at an Exhibition for The State Archives of the Russian Federation. It was
a side view of the LK with legs folded, and the railing used to protect it from
its' own launch shroud attached. Aside from verifying several features about
the LK, it had only two measurements on it. But they were to the exact millimeter,
and they showed precisely where the measurements related to! No more guessing
how correct my scale is. I could care less that almost two years of
calculations had to be thrown out, and all the parts I've been working on are
now scrap. Because now, I OWN this thing!!!
 |
This image originally appeared on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki Forum
in a distorted form. Using information obtained from an actual
Engineering Construction Drawing it has been adjusted to scale.
|
What follows will be a record of the construction of a 1:6 scale* model of the 11F94 Lunar Spacecraft. What I won't do is create
speculative items. There will be no Hula-Hoop for the cosmonaut, or winch to
haul an unconscious cosmonaut back to the lunar cabin. Until I find proof, such things are
speculative, and may or may not have existed. Only IF I find evidence of
something, will I include it. Everything I put on or in this model will be
based on study of all five remaining LK, and what I believe would have been the
most likely appearance based on real hardware, credible statements, technical
illustrations, and photographic evidence.
I don't know how long it will take me to build this, but I
do know that NASM will be remodeling their museum for an opening in 2017. I
intend for this to be there by then.
David L. Rickman
*This was originally to be 1:5 scale, but reduced to make the entire display visible to the younger, impressionable minds... of dreamers.
