Советский ЛК Муншп! Soviet LK Moonlander

In a previous post I showcased the Ring Miniatures 1/72 scale 3D printed model of the Soviet LK Lunar Lander. This post will cover finishing out the basic model with more accurate details. First off, the Ring Miniatures LK is essentially a minimally detailed model!

The basic 'Out-of-Box' 3D model of the LK

The trick to determining the added details of this model is researching photos of existing LK landers. The only flight-ready versions of the LK was the variant T2K tested unmanned in Earth orbit over three missions: Kosmos 379 in November 1970, the Kosmos 398 in February 1971, and the Kosmos 434 in August 1971. Although these flight tests proved the LK was ready for a lunar flight additional missions were scrubbed! With the failure of four consecutive N-1 rocket launches the Soviet cancelled their lunar program in 1974 in favor of their Salyut space station program.

This left only less than a handful of engineering models which eventually ended up at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Little was known of the Soviet lunar program and flight hardware until the mid 1990's when information began flowing out of Russia. There is an ongoing debate among the space modeling community as to how the flight ready LK would appear. Thermal blankets-white or green? No thermal blankets? I chose to finish my LK after an engineering model on display at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Below is a reference photo I used in finishing out my LK model.

The Moscow Aviation Institute LK lander. Photo credit: Carston Olsen

The perennial scale-modelers catch-phrase for decades is the ubiquitous "from-the-spare-parts-box"! This is exactly what I had to do to find parts to add details to this model! Most of what I utilized were fuel tanks and junction boxes from the Revell 1/48 Mercury and Gemini Spacecraft kit.

I attached these detail parts using two-part epoxy glue. I also used left-over parts from various photo-etch parts. Below are photos of the finished kit.

The television antennas were from the MPC Pilgrim kit. 

The egress ladder was pilfered from a 1/72 fighter jet kit. This was one part I was surprised that Ring Miniatures did not include on their basic model.

Details on the plus X side were almost non-existent. 

Detailing on the minus Y side.

Here is the before shot of the basic model before detailing.

Minus X side. 

Again minimal detailing on the basic model.

A view of the docking ring atop the LK lander.

 I surmise that the lack of fine detail was an effort by Ring Miniatures to keep printing costs to a minimum. An experienced modeler would have absolutely no problems finishing out the model provided the modeler has the spare parts or parts resources to detail (or super-detail) this model out.

I cannot express how much I appreciate Ring Miniatures for coming out with this model! They have a solid collection at fair prices, of real space subjects! I would hope they come up with the D or "ye" block "crasher-stage" to complete the entire L-3 complex! 

The next installment will showcase the finished out the 1/72 scale LOK Soyuz! Stay tuned!

 до скорого!