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  #41  
Old 04-16-2016, 11:34 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Here is more Falcon 9 first stage scale detail to throw into the mix (and the Falcon Heavy's CBCs--Common Booster Cores--will almost certainly be affected by this as well). It is as follows:

In this article (see: http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/1...nding-platform/ ), the eighth paragraph says that “SpaceX does not plan to re-paint the rocket before flying it again.” (The previous paragraph says that the first stage will receive a thorough scrubbing to remove the scorch marks from its atmospheric re-entry, however, and *this* article [see: http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/1...eturns-to-port/ ], along with the first one, shows the first stage’s sooty surface from several angles.) Now:

My guess is that the scrubbed first stage will be lighter in color than it appears in the above-linked articles, but that it will still be gray, perhaps with unevenly-shaded areas of gray across its surface. (This will give each Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy round--or most of them, at any rate--at least *two* [and likely more, when different missions' payload fairing logo liveries are considered as well] decor schemes--one depicting its first launch, and one depicting its second launch.) While the first report doesn’t say why, I can venture a few conjectures as to why (besides saving money) SpaceX won’t re-paint the first stage. They are:

[1] Re-flying the first stage in that un-painted state (the new, clean white second stage will further accentuate the first stage’s used appearance) will drive home the fact that it *is* used (as well as “pre-silence” those few but loud folks who would accuse SpaceX of actually flying a new first stage if it looked pristine [some of these people are also among the new generation of “Flat-Earthers,” who maintain that *all* space flights--not just the Apollo Moon landing missions--are fake]);

[2] Launching a “dirty” used first stage will have a positive psychological effect on potential used-Falcon customers (which will increase as the same first stages fly more missions), to whom such a sooty stage might at first *look* less reliable and/or worn (for better or for worse, impressions become reality and affect business decisions [sometimes unconsciously], even though business people try to exclude such emotional factors from their decision-making processes). Satellite builders are used to seeing their expensive products borne spaceward by pristine, spotless rockets (even the Space Shuttles looked quite clean before each launch, especially from the typical viewing distance), and a dirty rocket just looks ^wrong^ as the carrier of a new satellite because it goes against the default mental image. But seeing grungy-looking Falcon 9 first stages and Falcon Heavy CBCs (Common Booster Cores)—and later, equally used-looking payload fairings—fly (especially repeatedly) will help to dispel the notion that “cleaner is always keener.”;

[3] Elon Musk named the Falcon 1, Falcon 5 (never built), and Falcon 9 launch vehicles in honor of the Millennium Falcon starship in the “Star Wars” movies. The Falcon rockets’ cinematographic namesake was a rather dirty, grungy-looking space vehicle on the outside; maybe Elon Musk wanted to give an extra measure of homage to the Millennium Falcon’s “workman-like” appearance, by letting his equally hard-working rockets also retain the stains of their labors? And:

[4] The rockets’ used appearance will also tie-in, in customers’ minds, with airplane-like rapid reusability and reliability, which SpaceX is working to achieve. A cargo jet with exhaust soot and oil stains on it may not look very pretty, but such “labor stains” connote solidity, stability, reliability, and persistence, showing that the cargo carrier has been around for a while and is in business for the long haul (in terms of both route lengths and company longevity).

I hope this material will be helpful.
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Last edited by blackshire : 04-17-2016 at 12:03 AM.
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  #42  
Old 05-01-2016, 09:31 PM
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dwmzmm dwmzmm is offline
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Ok, I've completed the installation of the Landing "Legs" and Grid Fins to my Space X Falcon - 9 model rocket. The 3D recreation of the Landing Legs is basically flat (on the surface that faces the main stage body tube) but the lower struct does not "curve" to the lower body as it should. I tried two different methods to "fix" this: Held the hard plastic over a burning gas stove to soften the area so as to allow the struct to bend slightly. I did this to two of the struct; the first one got hot too fast and, to my shock and horror, looked like a wet noodle. I was able to cool it quickly while bending the struct nearly perfectly. After that, I tried using boiling hot water to soften the struct, which proved just as difficult as the plastic used to make this 3D part is really tough, but I was able to bend them down slightly. For the last (4th) struct I used the holding over a burning flame once more with little difficulty. Got all the Grid Fins in place and the Falcon - 9 looks much better than the stock kit which came with horrible foam "stick on" landing legs that kept peeling off. Any of the imperfections of the lower struct of the Landing Legs won't be obvious while the model is on the launch pad and in flight anyway, so that is that. Maybe one day soon Space X will invest a little more for this kit to enhance the details better.
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  #43  
Old 05-01-2016, 10:53 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dwmzmm
Ok, I've completed the installation of the Landing "Legs" and Grid Fins to my Space X Falcon - 9 model rocket. The 3D recreation of the Landing Legs is basically flat (on the surface that faces the main stage body tube) but the lower struct does not "curve" to the lower body as it should. I tried two different methods to "fix" this: Held the hard plastic over a burning gas stove to soften the area so as to allow the struct to bend slightly. I did this to two of the struct; the first one got hot too fast and, to my shock and horror, looked like a wet noodle. I was able to cool it quickly while bending the struct nearly perfectly. After that, I tried using boiling hot water to soften the struct, which proved just as difficult as the plastic used to make this 3D part is really tough, but I was able to bend them down slightly. For the last (4th) struct I used the holding over a burning flame once more with little difficulty. Got all the Grid Fins in place and the Falcon - 9 looks much better than the stock kit which came with horrible foam "stick on" landing legs that kept peeling off. Any of the imperfections of the lower struct of the Landing Legs won't be obvious while the model is on the launch pad and in flight anyway, so that is that. Maybe one day soon Space X will invest a little more for this kit to enhance the details better.
Thank you for posting those photographs--I can see what I'm looking forward to when I build one of my Falcon 9 and Fairing kits with the upgrade parts! And you're right--as the author of a Bachem Natter scale model rocket article in "American Aircraft Modeler" wrote (because he had to use wings that popped off at launch, to make the model ascend stably), "The important thing about a scale model [rocket] is how it looks on the launcher. Once it starts to move, the details are lost." Also:

I'm surprised that you wrote that "The 3D recreation of the Landing Legs is basically flat (on the surface that faces the main stage body tube) but the lower struct does not "curve" to the lower body as it should." The lower (wider) portions of my landing legs have a radius of curvature that doesn't match the curvature of the Falcon 9 body tube, either (as I noted when I "dry-fitted" the legs onto one of my Falcon 9s), but the mis-match isn't so large--at least with the set of landing legs that I received--that heating and warping the legs is necessary. Just wrapping the body tube with sanding film and sliding each landing leg strut up-and-down and left-and-right should be enough to match the legs' radii of curvature to that of the body tube. In addition:

Looking at the printed conduits and other small surface details on your Falcon 9, I see opportunities for even more 3D printed upgrade parts... (But I must be careful to avoid having a flare-up of "accuracy fever," which can ruin one's enjoyment of scale models of any kind, not just rockets. A modeler must know when to stop and just enjoy a scale model as it is, because it's possible to 'super-detail' it to such an extent that s/he can't enjoy flying it for fear of a crash or a "fly-away" negating all of the work that went into building it.)
__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR
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