Ultimate Saturn V

I've always had a yen to build the ultimate Saturn V model. I'm not sure what that means exactly. Wouldn't the ultimate Saturn V model be at 1:1 scale and actually fly? Okay, then I have a yen to build the ultimate scale Saturn V model. Does that mean I'm going to scratchbuild a huge museum-grade model out of exotic materials like Australian joolapahoolagog wood and Peruvian silver? Not likely. So I guess what I'm saying is that I want to build the ultimate commercially available scale Saturn V. Does that mean I'm going to produce the best craftsmanship on the planet? Hmm. I'm pretty good, but I don't think I'm that good.

All right. I want to build a good Saturn V model, good by my standards, and to hell with all those museum models! To this end I've been collecting "stuff".

I have, for example, the Revell 1/96th Saturn V model kit.

I have, for additional example, the New Ware detail and decal set which adds a couple of hundred photoetched brass and resin parts to the Revell kit, and throws in good decals as a bonus. I wouldn't want to say this is the best thing that ever came out of the Czech Republic - a great many Czech citizens might argue that they are better than a dumb model rocket detail set - but it is good stuff.

I have, for additional example, the RealSpace Models Boost Protective Cover, and will soon have the Batted F-1 engines (and I'm already trying to think of cool ways of displaying the pretty nicely detailed and quite unbatted Revell F-1s).

I have, for example, a paper kit of the whole Launch Umbilical Tower. I saw it on eBay and bought it, and though I've had it for a while, I haven't really messed with it much; I've left it in a cool dark place well out of reach of the cats because the more I handle paper models, the more I seem to smear them.

The only thing I don't have is the Crawler-Transporter, and I guess that's okay. I want to build all of this stuff as though the time is my birthday in 1969, the day before Apollo 11 set out for the moon. And they wouldn't leave the crawler parked under the Saturn V. That would be dumb. That would be something I would do.

Crawler Boss: "Anyone seen the crawler? We can't seem to find it."

Me: Uh-oh... I hope they didn't look in the flame pit yet; maybe a little Bondo and spray paint will fix it up.

I'll be okay in a few days; it's just that Space Week on Discovery makes me a little crazy.