Soyuz TMA
Soyuz TMA |
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The Soyuz TMA spacecraft carried the first ISS crew to Station, and serves as the Station's emergency crew return vehicle. Soyuz traces its lineage all the way back to the late '60's and the failed Soviet lunar program. After the USSR lost the race to land humans on the moon, Soyuz was developed into a space station ferry to service first Salyut, then Mir, and finally ISS space stations.
Soyuz consist of 3 modules: the egg-shaped "orbital nodule" (which has the hatch in it), the bell-=shaped "descent module" which has the 2 side-by-side parachute covers in it, and the cylindrical "instrument module" with the solar panels and engines.
The RealSpace Soyuz comes in two pieces, and it's simply a matter of cleaning off the resin pour plugs and gluing the two halves together. The spacecraft's insultaiotn blankets, radiatiors, thrusters, antenna, engines - it's all there, just waiting for a bit of paint.
Soyuz blankets are getting lighter grey all the time. I used Soyuz TMA-3 for this model, and added the 2 rendezvous antennae and the periscope from the IMR detail set. I also chose to use Funky Film for my soalr panels - it gives a nice metallic effect at this scale, and changes colour depending on viewing angle.
Apologies about the picture quality - webcam is all I have right now, but I'll try and get digital pics up soon.
