I bought this from Wonderland models in Edinburgh. It was my first visit to this…well..wonderland of scale modelling! Time was limited, I could have spent 3 hours in there instead I had about 40 minutes and I panic bought a Revell 1/72 scale Space Shuttle. Possibly influenced by reading Into the Black by Rowland White not long before. It also meant I walked out with a ginormous box which always feels good 🙂
A model of this size, and made by Revell was never going to be easy and it fought me all the way with much filling required. Particularly tricky getting rid of the big seam created when sticking the ‘roof’ on the cockpit and also the payload doors. They are designed to be moveable but the join was crap so I glued and filled them. It was also a pig to paint with 2 shades of white that no one will probably notice and any black overspray was a nightmare to cover over with white again!
To top it all off I bought a ridiculously expensive acrylic case to display it in which my son promptly fell on and broke…twice.
What did amaze me when building this model was the size of it. I took pics of it next to a 1/72 scale Airfix Lancaster and it dwarfed it, I had no idea the Space Shuttle was this big! When I posted the pics on a Facebook modelling group I was basically called a liar when I said they were both same scale!!
Anyway it turned out ok, it makes for an impressive showpiece. You will see I often build my models with little or no weathering. I think I am often trying to build the perfect toy almost. Plus, trying to weather the individual tiles on that thing? No thanks.
