2001 Orion III Spaceplane in Balsa

JCalhoun

Well-Known Member
I've enjoyed designing "balsa kits" that never were.

If you grew up in a certain era you may have wandered down to the hobby store and drooled over the balsa kits for making flying aircraft. I built a few of the simpler kits when I was young and somewhat enjoyed it.

Anyway, as an adult now I have found it a fun challenge to invent new kits that I wish had existed when I was a kid.

When I make anything it is often an iterative thing. Especially true of balsa models that it seems you can always improve. You design it, build it, have trouble covering it and suddenly wish you had designed it differently....

I am closing in on completing only the first iteration of the Orion III Spaceplane from the film, 2001, A Space Odyssey.

I suck at covering the balsa models. With those caveats in mind, what follows is the progress:
 

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I should have pointed out:

1) This is studio scale (I believe 44" is thought to be the original filming model size — this is 44" long)

2) It is not expected to fly, ha ha.
 

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Very cool! I built a few rubber band powered balsa and tissue aircraft model kits (and one or two from-scratch models) as a youth in the '60s and '70s. 2001 A Space Odyssey is my favorite film so it is great to see the ideas combined.
 
The "engine cowl" proved tricky. I'll probably do better on the 2nd iteration, but this one works.

As I say, I suck at covering (Monokote) but I'm learning. Nothing left on the 1st iteration but a few smaller details (maybe vacuum form the small parts?) and perhaps a paint job to try and better hide the flaws in covering.

Perhaps, not surprising, it is pretty light ha, ha.

When I get an iteration I am happy with, I'll post laser-ready files.
 

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I like the look of it! It's a mix of old and new tech.(y)(y)(y) I'm sure you know the trick of soaking Balsa sheets with ammonia to be able to bend them at will and obtain nice curved fuselage?
 
I kicked off another iteration. As I constructed the previous model and found issues, I often wrote in marker directly on the balsa of the model. The annotated model was photographed and the photos inserted into the design document (Affinity Designer 2).

So the new iteration begins with my trying to accommodate the changes into the parts of the model.

I began to re-laser-cut the model and assemble it again. Sometimes, I find additional changes I would like to make ... in a future iteration. (It never ends).
 

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A few final photos before I try to cover the balsa model in "Monokote". I suck at the covering part — and will try to improve my skills this time around. (I of little faith.)
 

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You've managed to combine two of my favorite things. Balsa models and Space Ships, ; ) Did you draw the blueprint for this ?
 
A few final photos before I try to cover the balsa model in "Monokote". I suck at the covering part — and will try to improve my skills this time around. (I of little faith.)
It's looking better for sure. Eager to see the Monokote on top of all those supports:cool::cool:(y)(y)
 
I used various reference photos and 3-view drawings that I could find.

From googling, I picked a scale I thought was "studio scale" (ChatGPT is telling me 32" and that sounds close to what I used) and scaled the top-view, profile-view images to match.

So it was then a good deal of work to take width, height measurements along various "stations" from fore to aft in order to approximate ribs or bulkheads at regular intervals to deliver the shape.

Notches added for stringers around the circumference of the ribs, registration notches so that parts fit together correctly, wings and ribbing, the engine cowling on the back.... I broke it down into four parts to make it easier to cover with the heat-shrink Monokote and then reassemble.

My Affinity Designer document (basically a subscription-less Illustrator-like app) is a kind of mess right now, but it would be fun to clean it up — make it look like the balsa airplane plans — as though you would use straight pins to assemble the model directly on the plans.
 
FWIW, here is an X-20 "Dynasoar" I did some years ago. I enjoyed, in that case, also creating a box for it — as though it was some kind of imagined kit (that I would have lusted after as a kid).

I think generally that is what I do now — make the things I wish existed when I was a kid.

Again, I suck at covering models ... but I went so far as to create some water-slide decals ands that was cool.
 

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In parallel, I am also working on an M2-F3 lifting body (from 1968 or so). It's in a very early state right now. (I write all over the early iterations to make notes about things to address.)
You could also use insulation foam, fill all the parts of your model and take a 80 grit sandpaper to make it smooth. Then fill the holes of the foam with Bondo and finish it off with 180 grit. Paint with a grey filler (UPol) and then white.(y)(y);)
 
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