The Space Shuttle

Here are some images of Tamiyas 1/100 scale Rockwell Space Shuttle Orbiter. In the early 1970s NASA began plans for what would eventually become the Space Shuttle and in July of 1972 Rockwell won the building contract. About the size of a conventional airliner the first of four test launches of the Shuttle occurred in 1981 and with the very sad exceptions of the loss of 14 Astronauts with the Challenger and Columbia disasters the Shuttle has performed the duties she was intended for very well for the 29 years of her service ending with the Atlantis flight in May of this year though there are rumors of another flight. It saddens me that there are no manned vehicle replacements for the Space Shuttle other than the Russian Soyuz craft (how pathetic is that?), and now with cancellation of the back to the Moon Constellation program by the Obama administration makes it doubly so. Opting Instead to fund NASA to study the effects of man made global warming a concept which has been proven to be false and agenda driven over and over and over again, but I digress. The Tamiya Shuttle in my opinion is the best Shuttle kit on the market, mind you that is not saying much. Between the Tamiya, Minicraft and Revell kits all three seem to have an aversion to tiling (Tamiya does have a little on the wings). So what does one do? Cutting edge decals does have a 1/72 and 1/144 scale tile decal set available. One could buy the 1/72 decals and shrink them down to 1/100 scale with a printer I suppose but these decals are so prominent and in your face that I did not wish to buy them. So I had to paint them on using various types of screens and weathering sticks. In the end though I think it turned out pretty well. I hope a model kit company comes along one day and puts out a proper Shuttle model kit.