All the recent hubbub over the Huygens and Cassini got me thinking I should build a Titan 4B, the launch vehicle that sent those probes along their way. There were no Titan 4Bs in 1/96th scale, the scale that I prefer to work in, nor were there any in card, the medium I prefer to work in. So that meant I had to scratchbuild one.

I started by using various online sources to determine the dimensions of the major components of the rocket -- the Titan centerbody, the Centaur G upper stage, the Uprated Solid Rocket Motors and the payload fairing. Once I had done that, it was a matter of heading down to my local hobby shop to check out if they had any model rocket tubes in diameters that approximated what I was looking for. They did.

The tubes were cut to the appropriate size and then covered with card "skins" I made myself. While looking through paper at an art supply store, I came a across a bright metallic paper-backed material that I thought might work well for the Titan centerbody. It came in large sheets, and I was even able to cut it to 8.5x11 pages and run it through my printer so I could print the vertical "US AIR FORCE" down the sides of the rocket. The star-and-bars is a decal from my spares box. I also found some gold paper for the gold sections of the rocket. I designed other sections of the "skins" and utility tunnels on my computer and printed them out onto 65-pound and lighter-weight white and silver paper, as appropriate.

From there, it was just a matter of building the various truncated cones that make up the top and boattail of the payload fairing, the tops of the USRMs and the USRM nozzles. I built all the various details from card or l aminated card.

In photos I have of the rocket, there appears to be some sort of instrumentation (?) leads snaking around the USRMs in numerous places. I replicated these by dipping thread into a mixture of white glue and white acrylic paint, then sticking them onto the USRMs.

Yeah, the rocket has a couple of inaccuracies; I know what they are so there's no need to point them out. (And if you don't know what they are, I'm not tellin'....) But I think the model has the "feel" of a Titan 4B, and it makes a nice addition to my collection.

Image: Booster ends

Image: Lower detail

Image: Midship detail

Image: 3.. 2.. 1..