I've always liked the looks of the Saturn 1B; it just seemed like such a squat, powerful appearance. Plus, it exemplifies a bit of American (by way of Germany) ingenuity; if you need a bunch of fuel tanks for your rocket, just cluster eight smaller rockets together....

This card model, available free online, represents SA-210, the launch vehicle for the American portion of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The basic 1/96 scale kit comes as SA-205, the launch vehicle for Apollo 7, but I made several alterations and modifications to the kit to make SA-210.

Visually, the biggest difference between the two rockets is that the RP fuel tanks on the S-1B (the first stage) are white on SA-210 and black on SA-205. So I converted the online files to Word files and, using the "Draw" function, designed new RP tanks. While I was at it, I added various details and used a more accurate font and size for the "UNITED STATES" down the sides. Since they came out fairly decent, I decided to use the same process to make four new LOX tanks and incorporated additional detail into them.

Also, SA-210 lacked black vertical roll bars at the base of the S-IVB. There is just a horizontal black band around the bottom, so that change was made, also. Additionally, I used the kit part as a pattern to make a new "skin" for the S-IVB, incorporating a corrected font and size for the "USA" and additonal panel detail.

I used two different styles of white and black corrugated paper I found at an art supply store for the appropriate sections of the rocket, and 65-pound card stock was used for the rest. Aluminum foil was used for the skin of the Service Module. The SM's radiator panels and RCS quadrants were made from cardstock, while the RCS nozzles were made from the ends of toothpicks. Other modifications/"accurizations" include detail added to the fins, the S-1B's vehicle hold-down assemblies, fuel fills, drains and vents, antennas, various fairings, ullage motors, systems tunnels, rocket motors and flexible insulation mounts and numerous other bits, pieces and markings. The Boost Protective Cover was scratchbuilt to improve accuracy, as was the Launch Escape System tower.

The only non-paper portion of the rocket is the aluminum foil on the SM. (The toothpick ends used for the RCS nozzles kind of count as paper, since they're wood in origin and wood is used to make paper....)

Image: Mid-section

Image: Fins

Image: Base & bottom half

Image: Payload and LET