ER Sky Lynx - booster rockets and external tank for shuttle
 

Been on a roll in the last month, and I don't mean a Kaiser bun. This was an old idea that percolated in my young mid-'80s mind, when I had G1 Astrotrain and learned about the Columbia shuttle's maiden launch in a National Geographic magazine (and oddly enough, the same year as the Challenger disaster). I didn't have the tools or knowhow to do a good job with making the Space Shuttle's booster rockets and external fuel tank back then, but three-and-a-half decades later, this came as a result of self-taught amateurish trial-and-error - and mostly spurred by the fact that ER Sky Lynx has official NASA markings.

You can see more of my fully-assembled Sky Lynx NASA Shuttle in this post at the 2020 TF photos thread:
http://www.cybertron.ca/boards/showp...&postcount=507




https://i.postimg.cc/59nCrgj3/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-1.jpg
The booster rockets are made from two foot-long foam dowels - more accurately, a 24" dowel cut in half - appropriately shaped with the tapered nosecones. The external tank module is made from foam cylinders found in vases for floral arrangements; cut, glued, and shaped to the appropriate design, before the duct-tape-and-spray-paint job.



https://i.postimg.cc/fR0SJhC2/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-2.jpg
The rockets are attached to the tank with sharp-pointed 2.5"-long toothpicks. And here, you can see a small bolt glue-gunned to the base of the tank, which serves as one of the connection points between Sky Lynx's shuttle mode and this assembly.



https://i.postimg.cc/1ty8CVQ2/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-3.jpg
I also cut out a small squared hole near the top of the tank, making another connection point to the assembly where Sky Lynx's front landing gear is inserted to hold them together.



https://i.postimg.cc/W1PTwLjf/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-4.jpg
Close-up of the connection point systems at the shuttle system's bow...



https://i.postimg.cc/w3Y82LKs/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-5.jpg
... and the stern.



https://i.postimg.cc/1Xq1DMdQ/NASA-Sky-Lynx-Extra-6.jpg
Showing the link-up here.



https://i.postimg.cc/RZ9044c7/08-Sky...ransported.jpg
Final assembly!