Super Guppy unloading an SIVb 1/400

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Hello, friends.
After building voyager in that "huge" scale of 1/48 I decided to take things back to more handleable sizes. So here's my take on the Boeing 377 Super Guppy (original design by Gary Pilsworth) while unloading a Saturn SIVb stage. In 1/400.
Starting out with the Guppy. While I wanted the Guppy to be opened, I made a couple of modifications in the design, made an inner hull structure (in green with printed bulkhead rings) and I changed the lettering to the kind the Guppy wore in the late sixties.
Due to the size and the thickness of the paper I had some fitting problems early on but after some tinkering with size in Photoshop (just 1 or 2% increase in size did the trick) I got the hull nicely together.

It gave me a full graveyard of Guppy-parts, however. After that episode everything went smooth.
Pictures Galore Part 1:

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

The rest came together just fine. I decided to make the engines myself, from some wood and a electric handtool.
the Guppy soon got company from a SIVb, this is ton Nooteboom's 1/96 version which I reduced to a pdf at 1/144 and then printed at 36%. Ta-dah! 1/400 and beautiful details to make.
The gas balls are made from silica balls out of one of those little bags that accompany stuff that mustn't get moist. I painted them silver with some acrylic.
The Guppy got her wheels while stuff dried on the SIVb.

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Then the rest of the entourage.
There had to be a tractor truck to tow the Cargo Lift Trailer I yet had to build. A bit difficult to find a truck that was around in the late sixties. So I improvised a little. This little thing was intuitively reduced in size and it was the right one! I redid the colours and some additive stuff. I also added loose wheels instead of wheels attached to the sides of the model.
The CLT was made from thick card. I tried to get as close to the original CLT as possible but it still is a far cry from the real thing, it is a bit too crude for the size. Anyway, it gives an idea of how big the thing is.
The SIVb got a protective cover at the business end.

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Well, this took me about a week and two days or so. this is what I came up with in the end. the picture frame is about 26x 30 cm. The Exacto gives you a sense of scale of the dio; the truck gives you a good size idea of the Guppy and the SIVb.
I hope you have enjoyed the pics.
I wish you all very happy holidays!
cheers,
PK

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Very cool, but I don't know how you guys build this small stuff. I just finished the ETA-2 Fighter from S.W. ep, 3 some of the pieces where so small I just couldn't do them. Any way the detail here is excellent for one so small.

 

[ovation]

Your getting predicably awesome :thumb:
That s1Vb stage looks amazing,I just cannot get the small stuff to look like that,

How about a "runway" base to set the model off ?

JJ-UK

 

[Gixergs]

Absolutely brilliant! another inventive diorama excellently built.

 

[inky]

Too cool. I have this plane and never thought about doing a diorama like this. Love your detail.

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thanks, Inky.