Titan IIIE Launch Vehicle

Yep, 3 updates in a day.  Had alot of time on hands today and spent it finishing up the launch pad.  I made a render of what everything would look like as a set on the ground.  Now to order parts for the entire thing and test it.  Might need to add wheels to the bottom of the yellow gantry, but there is no tracks for 1/110 scale that I know of.  I might need to "simulate" something.

So as an update to an update.  Wanted to show the viking lander but also managed to find a part that could work for the scoping mechanism.  Found the scoop was more black than anything.  And they all fit in the dish sandwich.

Fineas5297 asked if I could do a cassini huygens probe.  Upon furthur reads, it flew from a Titan IV which is slightly bigger than the IIIE.  This will be a great follow up depending on how well this project goes.

Well, half way there of the goal I would like to see and I should do something to celebrate. Maybe some background info and updates.

Currently waiting for some lego parts to come in to put on the finishing touches to the actual Titan IIIE.  Another round of kid testing, inputing the changes into ldd, then instructions?  We will see.  A redesign of the color scheme needed to be done.  Where there was white mid way up in fact should be light blue gray.  That area also was stucturally unsound and kept breaking.  Need to replace parts with modern design maccarronis.  Might settle on ring 4x4 open middles.  Also want to add 1 more brick height to the upper stage to bring it closer to 1/110 size without looking to ridiculous.

There was some attempted additions to the viking lander.  2 out of 3 ideas failed because I couldn't cram them into the dish sandwich.  Managed to make the lander more "trianglular".  Would like to get the soil sampler on the side installed.  Suggestions always welcome.

There is some progress on the launch pad.  The biggest problem was trying to get all the data of what was what and there was some guess work of what was what on the pad.  Since the Titan IIIE is 3-4 studs shorter than IRL measure conversion, I had to find a subsitute.  Thankfully Eiffleman built a Titan IIIC MOL which helped this project indirectly (go check out his gemini redstone build).  I found a real picture of the Titan IIIC MOL in relation to the launch pad.  With that I was able to eyeball where things should be and it was pretty much on the money.  Render below:

As you can see here I managed to make the gantry (yellow) that the Titan IIIC / IIIE sat on awhile ago.  This was what the 2 trains pushed to get the rocket to launch pad 41.  I do need to expand the base of the gantry though, so it will probably be an extra 4-6 studs.  On the main launch pad in where you see red, is the areas where personnel could accesss the rocket.  From the IRL pictures I have seen, it looked like the levels could were extended out to get access.  Then most likely retracted for launch and withdrawing the gantry.  There were 7 lower and 4 upper sections that could extend out.  I don't have a picture of those yet, so stay tuned.  The way I have them extending keeps them loose and fall out easily.  So I have to figure things out there.  One last pic for comparisons and one last fact.  Launch Pad 41 was demolished in 1999.  Sad...

Quick update on the train.  Added some more details such as color, rounded corners, windows, etc.  I believe this will be the final design.  Might be a few small changes, but only so much that can be done on this scale.  I need to find a 3 brick base instead of 4 brick base for the wheels, otherwise, the position of the wheels will have to remain off a little.

The launch pad is coming allong, but there were 2 locomotives that pushed the Titan IIIE to the launch pad.  So I set out to recreate them to complete the setup.  Data was easy to find on the type, dimensions, and such.  There are alot more train enthusiasts than there are space it seems.  Here is the mock up of what I got so far.

The original design for the viking lander tried to recreate the hexagonal style.  It came close, but the landing legs were hard to make and I settled on a tooth plate.  It was a little large, but I managed to cram the entire thing into a 4x4 dish sandwich.  However delving into pictures of the lander, I found it was to big and had to redesign it.

Below is a picture of before/after and what the size of the lander would actually be to someone.  As I mentioned, the probe also got an extra plate and I settled on the open face stud bottomed one as the squarish nature of the probe.  Also solar panels have been flipped so the sud on them is facing "down".

An interesting fact is that when the probe was launched from the Titain IIIE, the actual lander was upside down.

This is kind of special.  The prototype is built and my 4 year old daughter got to put the final piece on top of the cargo bay.  She smiled a smile I never seen and something a father that grew up with lego will understand.  Awesome moment.  Found I am missing a few pieces, so have to order some of the right color, but it is being put through its paces by a kid.

So now I am coming up on making some decisions on designs of some of the probes.  Voyager is going under a slight redesign to make it more compact in the instrument base to make it more true to form, but I believe the gold record isn't going end up in its proper position.  Viking presents a whole nother problem.

The lander has completely been scrapped and redesigned.  It got more compact due to some IRL pics.  Thus allowing me to redo the probe slightly to be better to the original.  I also redesigned where studs end up and it was to try and make the squarish nature of the orbiter appear more.  On the left of the true picture is the original design I made with a plate added due to the lander being redone.  On the right is the redone probe stud facing.  Wondering what people might think (post a comment).  Also wanted to add more blue for the solar panels, but the part that allow the panels to go out at a differt angle do not exist in blue.  So I am stuck there.

I also am including a line up of the probes for people to see (subject to design changes).

On a side note, I intend to release instructions if I make it to a year mark (100 support?).

Finally got around to taking a picture of my centaur upper stage design.  Originally was basic, but I suspected the thruster nozzles would easily come off, so I made up something a little more connectier.  Instead of 1 stud connection per nozzle, I managed to get 2.  Not quite round, but will be close enough.

On top of the centaur is helios in its closed configuration.  When released, a small stage would caue the probe to spin up to 60 rpms before another stage pushed it onwards to orbit the sun.  Also the the antennea moved out to be longer at the axis.  My design can't capture the original shape of the probe as lego on this scale is limited.  I got the diameter about right, but the height is a little bigger.  Close enough, but might change the design if I think of something (or someone else suggests).  On a side note, if I make it past 100, a yearish project, then I will publish instructions on all bits if I can.