1/100 Space Shuttle Tamiya

Gallery Article by Klaasjan Schuurig on July 9 2020

 

      

Tamiya's 1:100 scale Space Shuttle is a good kit but slightly dated but fit was great, as usual with Tamiya kits. However, the kit is very basic and seems to be based mainly on the Enterprise which wasn't a real spacecraft. But this means there are hardly any tiles on the surface and other details like the thermal blankets are absent completely. At first I planned to purchase the decal set for this kit but the price (48 euros) just for decals made me decide to approach this differently.

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I decided to manually engrave the tiles. This was a mammoth task but in the end worthwhile because I think it worked out very well and looks pretty convincing. Besides the tiles I also simulated the thermal blankets that cover a significant part of the shuttle. I did this by using simple band aids, which I stuck to the surface over a relief I made from thin strips of styrene. This also looks quite convincing even though the relief is actually the wrong way around. The cargo bay also got a special treatment with band aids of a different type. I added lots of little details like cameras, screens and cables.

I painted the shuttle with lots of white and dark greys. I highlighted numerous tiles to make the underside of the shuttle a bit more interesting. A little bit of weathering shows how these machines suffer a fair amount of abuse during space flight. 

And I know, the wheels are out while the cargo bay doors are open. I got carried away ;)

Klaasjan Schuurig

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Photos and text © by Klaasjan Schuurig