03-24-2016, 08:38 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dwmzmm
Thanks for the heads up! Just placed an order for the parts; that was the only area of the model I dreaded after I received the kit. The 3D parts will definitely enhance the model tremendously.
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You're welcome! I received my 3D printed parts today. The grid fins and landing legs look accurate and fit very well! I dry-fitted the whole rocket together (minus its clear plastic fins), and with the upgrade parts in place it looked just like the photograph on the kit box. Also:
Had Alex Boyce not mentioned to me that the grid fins’ airfoils are slightly thicker than scale, that small difference wouldn’t have been apparent. (Looking at them closely, I’m intrigued at their possibilities for use—as actual stabilizer fins—on scale models of the ballistic missiles, satellite launch vehicles, and guided missiles that use grid fins [I think they would stabilize such models just fine, particularly if those models were made to slightly larger scales].) As well:
If the Falcon 9 kit is built to depict one of the Falcon 9 V1.1 rounds that did *not* have grid fins and landing legs (Cassiope, Thales, etc.--for those missions, no first stage recovery was attempted because they required all of the first stage's impulse to get to the desired orbits), the "stock-built" kit is accurate. All that would be needed to depict one of these rounds would be to paint over the printed-on grid fins and landing leg alignment marks, leave off the self-adhesive sheet foam landing leg representations, and add an appropriate mission decal (if one was carried) to the payload fairing. |