Saturday, June 28, 2014

Buran 3D Model - Part 3

Nose landing gear completed. I was tempted to added more details, but or my purposes, this is sufficient for the 3D Model of Buran.

The drawings and diagrams I'm working with gives me enough information to create a detailed 3D model, however, my 3D model doesn't compare to this one at Buran.ru. The link was supplied by DaveS in my previous blog entry. Thanks DaveS :)

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Buran 3D Model - Part 2

In my lunch break today, I completed the 3D model of Buran's version of the orbital manoeuvring System, and the tail section. Simple. Next task, landing gear, not so simple, no drawings, no decent photos, no video...



Saturday, June 14, 2014

Buran 3D Model - Part 1

Recently, I've been reading "Energiya-Buran The Soviet Space Shuttle" by Bart Hendrickx and I've always thought that the two orbiters were almost identical. Well, I was wrong, as I've discovered when I started to 'alter' my standard 3D model of the US Orbiter to look like the Soviet orbiter Buran.

The main differences I could tell before I started to create the 3D model was that the Soviet Orbiter has the nose gear further from the nose, no OMS pods and the lack of main engines. After a an hour of modelling, I started to notice more  and more differences that you can't really tell from photographs.



  • The wings on the Soviet Orbiter are slightly more forward.
  • The wing profile and leading edge is completely different, compare to the US Orbiter
  • The after the payload section on the US Orbiter, the rear section extends out slightly, on Soviet Orbiter, the 'rear' stays almost in line with the payload section.
I'll probably notice more differences as I add more details.