I also got to go inside the VAB back in 1972 when tourists to KSC could do that. I have visited both KSC and the Marshall Centre and seen the Saturn V’s there, but appreciating their size is never easy to do. Ě tunnel, as high as the first stage is wide, would allow two London buses, (one atop the other) to drive through it, or, maybe 3 buses side by side.Įven just standing the bus by the first stage alone (let alone the whole stack) is quite a thing.The bus would go inside the first stage (long axis along the diameter) with good space to spare.The bus is a little less high than the F1 engines.Thinking about what to stand next it for purpose of scaling (and remember that I’m a Brit), I’ve found a toy London bus (the classic red bus with an upper deck) which is close enough to 1/144 to make no difference, and it makes for interesting comparisons I pulled the Saturn V out of storage needs a little maintenance, the fins on the first stage have all detached.

The final and quite satisfying result is pictured here. When FedEx arrived with the display case yesterday, I was rather busy making Parker House rolls, a double recipe of Comfort Diner meatloaf, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, butter-braised carrots, and crème brûlée for dinner guests coming over last night, but I forgot about all that stuff for an hour or so and set everything up. The coffee table arrived last week, so I had that assembled and waiting. The name of the design wasn’t specified on Amazon, but the box it came in said it’s called Manhattan Age. As I browsed, I halfheartedly saved three or four okay-but-not-great designs, but was then delighted to find this low-slung coffee table with a strong 1950s/1960s vibe whose design fits nicely with the model and its case. Then I started looking around for an appropriate table to put the case on. Once I had the model in hand, I decided on dimensions for its case, and commissioned Specialty Plastics in Ohio to build a quite splendid mirror-backed acrylic display case, 36″ wide x 14″ deep x 10″ high. The remote allows brightness control in 10% increments, and it’s now programmed onto my Logitech Harmony One, so I still have just one remote for everything. First, I found a set of remote control mini LED spotlights in the cool white spectrum to approximate the xenon arc searchlights used at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. This one, with die-cast metal engines and so precisely and carefully crafted and painted, is considerably nicer.įollowing my love of things of high quality, I started thinking about the best way to display the model.

I haven’t had a Saturn V model since the age of nine, when I built Revell’s kit as the Apollo missions progressed before me. Prices for the limited quantities of used models and really limited remaining quantities of new ones are not that far apart, and I’m thinking they may rise sharply as 20 July looms, so I got a new one from Japan a few weeks ago – cost approximately a bundle. I’ve been waiting for more than a year to see if Bandai in Japan might re-issue their gorgeous 1:144 Saturn V model, which is almost three feet long, in time for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, but now that we’re just a few weeks away, it doesn’t appear they’re going to. (“Io Saturnalia!”- the “io” pronounced “yo” – was the traditional greeting during Saturnalia, the late December Roman festival that Mary Beard discusses here.) Note: You can click any of the pictures in this article to see a 1920×1080 version. The new left-hand view from my couch as of yesterday

Saturnalia austin