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Swing Arm #8

A project log for Apollo Saturn V and LUT

This is a 1/60 scale model of the Saturn V and Launcher - Umbilical Tower. This model is huge! I have been working on it for two years.

wglasfordwglasford 12/07/2023 at 20:370 Comments

Swing Arm #8: For all the arms I suggest keeping the bottom off until you get the lights installed to give room for soldering. For this swing arm all the wires and pipes run inside the arm so keep the bottom plate off until you are ready to mount the arm. Here I have added the lights and then cables running down both sides. Notice the cable racks glued to the inside sides. Outside of the bulkhead there is a winch structure that has to be added since the first light to wire is a flood light pointing towards the rocket.

For the first time I decided to do multi-color prints. The Prusa slicer does this with ease. The silver/black part is on the rocket side of the bulkhead. The cables on the left side end at this plate. The other part is a box on top of the arm. Instead of trying to model the box and tray separately simply print the tray in red then change over to silver. I even changed out to yellow for 3 layers per the Turbo Squid drawings. Adding latches was a bridge too far. These parts are small.

Swing Arm #8 is ready to attach. This has been one of the easier arms. I am getting smarter as I go. One trick I learned is to leave the flexible hoses unglued at the connector. Once all the hoses are on you can rotate the hoses to get the connector plate to line up. The winch cable (thread) helps align the connector plate as well and gets it the correct distance. In the second picture you can see the two color plate glued to the bulkhead.

Swing Arm #8 Complete: There is always something new with each swing arm. You can see in the first picture that the pipe support I-beam ends at the bottom of the support column for swing arm #9. They included another level of that I-beam moved over to the right. Both swing arm #8 and #9 have support brackets that hold up the walkway attached to this I-beam. Instead of having one run of stairs they chose to have one set from the floor up just enough to get these support brackets installed and then there is another run up to the level of the arm. Only one more swing arm left and it looks like they saved the best for last. This feels like the nose bleed section of the tower. The two step stool may not be high enough to complete the model.

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