Building a full-scale Apollo Command Module replica
With the most difficult parts of the navigation station control panel completed, I turned to the remaining details and the final assembly. The next detail to finish was the thumbwheel for the sextant reticle brightness control. I had previously modeled some thumbwheels for other control panels, so I took that
The next difficulty with the navigation station was the control pockets. On the real CM, these don’t have corners but rather rounded edges and appear to be molded out of a single piece of material. I chose instead to make the pockets using good ol’ MDF and hardboard. I considered
Although the panel I just finished had depth to the switch recesses, they weren’t deep enough. So I traced the openings onto some 3/4″ MDF and cut those openings out to match. The one opening I did not cut was the rectangular opening for the Master Alarm switch/indicator. Instead, I
Next up for the navigation station: the optics control panel. This is probably one of the things I least looked forward to building because of its complexity. Not only are all the switches individually recessed in deep pockets, but each pocket is individually lit. Plus, there are the two recessed
Now that I’ve determined how I’m going to make the doors, I have a number of other doors to make. The CM had a lot of little nooks and crannies that were used to store and stow stuff, and all were covered with doors of various sizes. Because of the
As seen in an earlier post, I had cut a closeout panel for the Lower Equipment Bay that would fit below the navigation station and provide openings for connectors for the removable rotation and translation controllers. These connectors are recessed into these openings, so I put several layers of material
Merry Christmas, everyone! Or, since this site has viewers from all over the world, “Feliz Navidad!” “Joyeux Nöel!” “Buon Natale!” “Fröhliche Weihnachten!” “S rozhdyestvom Hristovym!” I also want to celebrate the anniversary of Apollo 8, which left lunar orbit to return to Earth on Christmas Day. Yes, I know the
Now it’s time to start finishing up the appearance of the equipment bay half of the Command Module. I had been putting a lot of this off to prevent it from getting messed up while I worked on other things. First of all, I painted the floor. Looking at photos
I took the two hardboard faceplates for the sextant and telescope and marked the positions of the various items and attachment screws from a full-size template. I cut the hexagonal openings for the mechanical displays first, since the material would be the strongest for the jigsaw without any of the
The equipment bay half of the CM had a number of small and large doors for various purposes, mostly for storage or stowing equipment. These doors wee all attached with continuous hinges (“piano hinges”), and each had a pair of squarish openings for the latching mechanism. The latch consisted of
