Tuesday, July 18, 2006

L.E.M Stage 1e - Landing legs

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.

Forward to Stage 1e (continuation) or Go back to Stage 1d

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