Apollo Saturn V

This is your traditional polyurethane [plastic] model, which can be found at most hobby or craft stores.

This was a very challenging and detailed model, and has a fair amount of internal details.  Each stage can be separated, showing the fuel tanks and engine nozzles for each stage.  The top section also contains a rather small lunar module and command/service modules, each of which separates exactly as in the real thing.

Most model kits recommend painting each part before cutting it off the mold.  I have found better results from assembling large sections, filling creases with model putty, and then painting them.  The trick is to use a mask of clear tape to protect certain areas from the paint.  I assembled the whole first stage, spray painted it white, and then masked off the sections that were to remain white as I spray painted the black stripes.  While the black paint was tacky-wet, I carefully peeled off the tape mask to have clear and straight edges where the colors meet.  This worked with reasonable success for each of the stages.

I estimate that this model took a total of 70 hours, not including the drying time after assembly of many of the sub-sections.  There was a lot of work in matching pieces and sanding the seams smooth after gluing sections together, particularly the long seams along the main body of the rocket.