MetalEarth Apollo CSM with LM

What lies ahead - 4 metal frames for this one - one in GOLD 

Great start - first join & the tab breaks off - Super Glue to the rescue 

Back of the LM, with troublesome jet thruster in the foreground 

This is what they want you to achieve.... 

This is me trying to achieve it..... 

Two of them in situe - they look ok from this side. 

 

and 2 more of the little suckers (blowers, actually) on the other side. 

Joining the front to back is very troublesome - I reversed some of the steps - making the joining sections completely, then using them to bridge the front to back 

I think I got it right 

This is a sprue holder, which makes the handling of photo-etch frames much easier - a lot of reflection makes it a bit hard to comprehend. Frame "A" at the back, then "B", "C" & "D". 

The effect of having "gold" parts in the mix is very smart. Looks good, eh? 

Even a gold ramp!! 

The above parts reversed, so you can see the jet nozzle. not perfectly round, but it will disappear soon.... 

I found this assembly very troublesome, and ended up reversing the instructions.... 

Instead of assembling these parts into an octagon and somehow being able to fasten them together - I sat them each into the bottom of the module they get installed into - Note that all the joins are "secret tabs & eye" joints, so you have to bend them ahead of assembly.  

Once they're in place & secured from the bottom, the final joining can take place - much less jugglesome!!! 

Carefully bending all the bracing struts 90 degrees - getting ready for a merger. 

I carefully bent the steel struts out of the way, and gently guided the top & bottom together, then bent the steel struts back to their proper position. 

Out of curiosity, I thought I'd see if there was any size difference between this and the regular LM - nope, the same! 

Added the legs - the main leg stay consists of 2 flat pieces that are crimped together by the ladder, and the mounting points. I decided to strengthen these by super gluing them together.....fluked the first one OK, then decided to use a couple of small PE super-glue applicators as dummy tabs, to correctly align then next 3..... a wise move, methinks! 

Now to start on the CSM - rear jet nozzle 

Side by side - Goldie & Chromey!!! 

Found a bottle the right diameter to wrap this around.
I decided to make these small parts more sturdy & added a drop of superglue to the inside. 

Another 4 Jet thruster sets. 

mounted on the CSM 

Nozzle added to the CSM 

Making & attaching the nose of the CSM 

Well, look at that.......it's finished all of a sudden - all the final components added to the nose very easily.
Pair of reading glasses just to give you a sense of scale. 

Rear of CSM view 

The "far" side, but not of the moon! 

3/4 view of the LM end 

and again 

The whole thing, complete with plaque.
FINITO!!