OM wrote:

...What's needed is for someone to:

1) Correct the issue regarding the J-2 fuel supply.

That would mean adding a tank structure between the upper part of the
spacecraft and the NERVA area... and that is a mighty heavy ship to set
on such tanks...we're talking about something in the Saturn V S-2 stage;
I suggest a alternative- strengthen the first and second stage on the
Saturn V, put Shuttle SRB sized solids on the Saturn V's first stage,
and lose the three J-2's on the Pilgrim.

2) Construct a more logical interior kit.

One of the crew quarters would be interesting in cutaway; obviously the
spiral staircase on the bridge has to go.


3) Produce a photo-etch replacement for the NERVA boom.

Yeah, the kit one is pretty clunky.


4) Produce a lander and docking adapter, because common sense and past
precedence makes it perfectly ****ing clear that any manned mission to
Mars will carry a lander and not be just a flyby. Venus, perhaps...


My massive kit bash goes to Saturn, puts two manned landers on
"surfboard" heatshields down on Titan, sends manned expeditions to the
airless moons, and drops unmanned probes of various types all over the
atmosphere of Saturn itself.


5) Produce a better "Apollo-M" design.


I'm still trying to make heads or tails of what the corrugations on the
command module are all about...especially considering all the trouble
the kit's designers went to to put them on the spacecraft, as they are
very petite.


6) The proper adapter to mate it on a Saturn V kit.


Been there, done that...the kit is in 1/130th scale; the Saturn V is in
1/144th scale... the base is wider than the diameter of the second
stage. Which sucks.
The kit has the top cone for liftoff, but I think it needs some
jettisonable covering over the three folding rotator arms.

...The kit is also a kitbasher's dream for raw resources.


Ranks right up there with the AMT 1/200 scale rocket set, which is
rocket nozzle central for scratchbuilders. Another great one is the
Revell "Space Operations Center" space station. There was also strange
Monogram (?) release of a Japanese model "what's-it" that could
transform from a space shuttle into a super space taxi that had a mess
of good parts to play with.
My big ship used one of those, two Pilgrim Observers, and four Space
Operation Centers as its main source of parts.

Pat