Pedro, I agree. My expectation is that I'll be scratching most of the components anyway due to the lack of suitable reduced scale equivalents. As long as you have a handle on the physical parameters, you can make any shape.
Thorst, thank you for the offer! Right now, I am indeed leaning towards the Monogram 1/72 B-36 as the donor (Julien is going to get a reputation for infallibility!) on the original. If the photogrammetry can provide some dimensional data, that would be an enormous help since looking at pictures, which are subject to distortion, to determine relative sizes is inexact at best.
I did receive my Lindberg 1/200 Space Shuttle stack today. The kit's EFT diameter measures at 1.625 inches. Since the real EFT diameter is 27.6 feet or 331.2 inches, this means the tank is actually more like 1/204 scale (331.2/1.625=203.8.) However, assuming the EFT on the original was from a 1/144 scale kit and it was accurately sized, the diameter I need is (331.2/144)*.666 =1.532 so the Lindberg kit is oversized by 0,09 inches or just under 3/32nds an inch. This is workable especially if George vacuformed over the kit part and certainly close enough for my purposes. (It also fits perfectly over the 1.5 inch PVC sink drain pipe I'm using for the core.)
Regards, Robert