I should get up from here and get back to work on it... Got the ET painted and the LB primered... just trying to figure out the paint scheme....
I've got two lines of thinking. First off, I couldn't bear the idea of just painting the tank white. When they go back to painting the ET's white and the Delta IV's white and the Ariane V's solid white I'll recant, but the 'foam look' just looks more, well, MODERN. I don't see many foamed rockets getting full paintjobs anymore... and as this is basically a "Space Shuttle, The Next Generation" style kit, the white tank just doesn't 'do it for me', no offense Wes. Easier, yeah; contemporary... So I painted the ET New Krylon Bauhaus Gold and called it good... Still have to repaint the nozzle in Gunmetal though.
Next question... I've had two lines of thoughts about the Lifting Body, since no painting/decorating suggestions are made in the kit. Just looking at it, it just shouts, "Stealth Aircraft", and having read too much
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php#1 stuff about the "Aurora Project" and seeing some stuff on the History or Military Channel over the weekend about futuristic orbital bombers/fighters and stuff, that's one direction I could go... Sorta think "Dyna-Soar on Steroids" kind of motif... It would undoubtedly look cool to have it painted like an F-117 strapped to the side of a shuttle stack, but finding it after landing could be a PITA. In doing a little research on the internet, there was a 'camouflage test' on F-117 Nighthawks that was called the "Gray Dragon" which looks pretty cool, and would be a lot easier to find after recovery. But I'm not sure I want to do that either. I was thinking of basically decorating it with some homebrew decals basically nearly identically to the existing F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighters.
The second thought I had was, going with a more traditional black bottom white top gunmetal "RCC panel" leading edge type motif, with either USAF markings (sorta like the F-117) or just going completely "NASA" with the flag and NASA meatball, and a few other "shuttle-ish" embellishments...
So what do you guys think?? I'm open to opinions... OL JR