“Heaven and Earth shook when the Great Chieftain Comrade KRASNOV passed away in 1989. The People mourned the great revolutionary hero, who rebuilt the motherland in the aftermath of the Patriotic War, and restored it to a powerful, nuclear-armed armed state. The Great Chieftain nurtured the people through his leadership, and wisely chose Comrade METATRON to continue to add lustre to the cause of enduring world progress.”
alright I'm gonna post the full set of pics here since this is actually something I'm really happy with and wanna share!
a little while ago I bought Lego set # 10283 and converted it into Columbia on STS-1, my favorite shuttle mission, and it's honestly one of my favorite things I've ever built. it's huge and beautiful and I love it
changes that went into this included:
added the iconic black wing strakes
changed the hinge area of the elevons to black as well
changed the umbilical plate to a dark orange color (pearl gold would be slightly more accurate but this part doesnt exist in that color sadly)
added more black to the tip of the vertical stabilizer (no SILTS pod since it was not added until STS-9)
removed the black tiles on the front of the OMS pods
recreated the correct markings & made a new display plaque, printed those on vinyl decal paper
made a vertical stand because this shuttle is so goddamn huge it just will NOT fit on any shelf i have laying flat
improved the payload bay door hinge detail, honestly I think this was one of the best changes I made since it looks so much more accurate now, the original black areas of the hinges are way out of scale and just look, wrong
removed the canadarm, since it was not present on STS-1. I probably could have left it in and you can't even tell I made that change with the payload bay doors closed, but I wanted to go for accuracy regardless
anyways here's some pics from STS-1, and the unmodified set so you can see what I changed and how it compares to the real shuttle
Columbia has been my favorite shuttle for as long as I can remember, appearance wise I think the black wing strakes are just really unique and she was truly one of a kind. I'm happy I have a nice model to honor her legacy.