Getting to know the Lunniy Korabl

   If you want to get to know a vehicle really well, try building a large scale visually accurate model of it from scratch. Unlike putting together a model in a box, there are no instructions to read, no pictures to show you what goes with what. Everything here has to be analyzed and measured. Plus, in this case since I'm trying to make it a technical replica, so I have to look at what every thing looks like from every view and angle, and I have to know what's under and inside of everything. It's not enough to know what the Control and Display Panels look like, and how they are positioned inside the Cabin; I need to know what's supporting the Control Panels, and how those supporting structures are fastened to the ship.

   Why? Why is something like knowing how the Display Panels are fastened to the ship important? Let me answer that question with an example.

   Let's say I'm a classic muscle car fanatic, and I especially love the '71 Mustang Mach I with the 327 Cleveland engine. I go to the Mall and find that someone has displays of Classic Muscle cars in 1:5 scale, and better yet, they have a beautiful model of a '71 Mach I with a 327 Cleveland engine. Cool!!! 

   But as I look at the model closely I see that whoever built this model didn't put any kind of score-line between the Headers and the Block on the engine. It's just one solid looking piece. This is a HUGE distraction, because I know that whoever built this model doesn't have a clue how a 327 Cleveland works, let alone the basic principles of the Internal Combustion Engine! 

   I walk away with much less fascination than I had when I first saw the display.

   It's a little more complicated with the spaceship the Soviet Union designed to take their cosmonauts to the Moon (after all, I want this to be an educational display), but the principle is the same. If I'm going to put a landing radar on this spacecraft then I need to know what the landing radar was, how it operated, and in particular which design model was used on the Lunniy Korabl.

This DA-019 "Planeta" Landing Radar (seen here without its cover) was
 the predecessor of the model later developed for use on the Lunniy Korabl.