L.E.M

Details on how I've built a 1:220 scale L.E.M Model

Introduction and basic story of Apollo 13

This little craft (scale of 1:220), was constructed for the Starshipmodeler "heroes contest".

Here you will find some of the basic construction process stages. They are explain with the best of my ability, never the less, some detail work could be left out, so if you need more info, just leave me a note about it in the feedback link on your left.

The Story: Apollo 13 was to be the third mission to land on the Moon. An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks crippled the spacecraft during flight, and the crew were forced to orbit the Moon and return to the Earth without landing. During the time it took to come back to earth, the lunar module "Aquarius" was used as a lifeboat. After having jettisoned the service module, there was only one thing left to do before reentry. Unlike Odyssey, the lunar module Aquarius had no heat shield and was not designed to withstand the fiery plunge into the Earth’s atmosphere. Before they could come home, Lovell, Swigert and Haise would have to say goodbye to the craft that had saved their lives. With Lovell safely inside the command module, the men sealed off the hatchway and then, with a mixture of sadness and gratitude, cast off the lander. In Mission Control Joe Kerwin radioed an appreciation: "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.

This was the last view of Aquarius
when odyssey had to let it go.









Construction process.

Step 1 - Building the Lem

Traced from a reduced nasa plan, the middle shape was cut to dimensions.

Balsa wood was used for 90% of the parts, the other round shape parts were made out of pine wood, mostly all turn on a miniature lathe.




Step 2 - Octagonal part of the landing section

Using a Gillette blade broken in half, all 8 sections are cut following dimensions.
Then using a nail file, minor defects are sanded off.

 

Step 3 - Front fuselage

The front fuselage was quite hard to model; it has several different shapes and angles (mostly the weird triangle windows shapes)

At first: The basic round shape on the left of the picture was turn on a lathe ( Unimat 1 ).



Then the angles were cut off with a razor blade.

The nose and door sidings were put after the windows angles were cut; otherwise it would have not been possible to cut the straight angles shapes. The nose was sanded to dimension directly on the fuselage.

Step 4 - Landing section

The underside of the landing section has an engine cone well positioned inside a smaller octagonal part.

Before squaring the part, the shape was rounded in the middle to accept the curve of the thrust cone. It was turn on the lathe.

The main engine cone was also turn on a lathe. We can see the cone on the right of the picture.

This picture shoes everything in place.






Step 5 - Landing leg

Building the Lander legs were the most challenging part of building this craft. Each legs had a pentagon shape to be reproduced, with a very small X structure inside. They were all prepared independently and glued on the octagonal base frame. CA glue (Crazy glue) was used to glue all 4 legs to the frame. Since CA glue has a solvent characteristic, it dissolve the ink in the foil and does not stick to it. That is why I drilled some small holes in the foil at each attaching points so that the CA glue would penetrate and bond to the balsa wood behind the foil. We can see the holes (silver color) on top of the frame, being there to attach the remaining structures of each legs. (The cone shape on the left is the command capsule being test fit with some alu foil cut to a conic shape)

This pictures shoes how the command capsule was turn on a lathe. In the middle we can barelly see the 4 pentagon shapes legs already painted gold on one side only, and on the far left, the gold foil being prepared to put on top of the frame


Here, the remaining legs structures were assemble. Those were all pre-assemble V shape structures. 4 V's for the top, and 4 V's for the middle sections. Unfortunately the picture does not show how I installed them, but the main frame was put on its underside and 4 little sticks (on the left) were used to give an angle setup to all 4 top V shapes arms. Once they were glue dry, I installed the remaining 4 sections in the middle, those were pretty easy to install, since the top and bottom were there to support.

When everything was fully dried, I applied the 4 sticks that serve as legs. A small grove was made on each pentagon points so that the vertical sticks would fit right in.

Step 6 - Trust nozzles

They were in all 16 small trust nozzles to create, each one of them were created from the sanded point of some round toothpicks.
Each nozzles are about 0.5mm long.

A small pyramid pattern was sanded on the end of a match stick.
Then 3 holes were drill to insert the nozzles points. When the 3 points were glue dried the end part was cut to install the fourth nozzle.
Step 7 - Final details

The high gain antennas were made of paper molded over a pointed shape. Then they were varnish to solidify them, each point in the antennas are tooth pick points reduce to smaller size. The ladder was made from a mosquito screen.

The exit ramp and it's sidings was double printed on the printer, cut and glued in place. Some antennas and small details are missing plus all 4 thrust plume deflectors, they will be put later, for now a little astronaut had caught my attention.