Rockets to Lelystad!

So today was the big day, a bunch of my paper model rockets were to leave for the Space Museum. After a a smooth and quick one-and-a half-hour drive we (my girlfriend, a good friend of ours and yours truly) arrived at Lelystad airport, where the Aviodrome is, in which you also can find the National Spaceflight Museum.
The rockets I lent to the museum were packed in boxes, just about the right size and secured with some tape to avoid shaking. The big ones were partially disassembled and laid on foam rubber mats. They all survived the journey although I had taken some glue along with me, just to be sure, in case of a small repair. I asked my GF to take some photos of the proceedings.

Yeah. Cat food boxes. They actually were great in doing the job.
Luckily it didn't rain. At least not when I was outside with the lot.

PK at the entrance of the Aviodrome. I know, those cat food boxes look a bit silly.
But they're great for transporting rockets, apparently.

PK and Zeholy Pronk at the showcases in the museum.
At the far right, you can see the old Falcon 9 I already brought some years ago.
Now it will be joined by eight more! Nine models and a Mars diorama I made in one museum. Not bad...

We were met by Zeholy Pronk, the chairman of the museum’s board.  He first showed us where the rockets eventually will be placed, in the glass showcases at the entrance of the space museum’s department of the big hall. It’s one of the first things you’ll see when entering their part of the museum.

Unpacking the launchers. Carefully removing the packaging, and none of them were damaged. Great.

Surprise when I took out the Centaur and Voyager from the Titan IIIe. My friend Henk is also watching.

 

 

L-R: Ariane 5, Titan IIIe, Atlas MA-6, Proton-M, Bumper7, Delta 3910, Scout-D, Mercedes Citaro Bus (for scale purposes).
Missing here is the Soyuz, which was just outside the picture's frame...

The obligatory handshake. (-: I was really happy, though. Happy to know more people will see my work.
Here you can also see the Soyuz added to the lot. Hmm.... I gotta do something about that belly....

Upstairs in one of the offices, I unpacked the rockets and I am glad to say that they really were appreciated. Zeholy was amazed by the details and that some of the launchers could be taken apart into the separate stages and payloads. He is considering to try and at least put the Ariane 5 in a position where you can see it with all the parts separated. I hope so, it really is worth showing the innards of the Ariane 5, with Herschel, SYLDA, Planck and all that.
After that, we talked about the formalities like the duration of the loan, which officially is for just one year but we agreed on that it will be prolonged indefinitely. There was talk about me also bringing my hopefully soon-to-be-ready N1 to their collection. They have a nice 1/96th Saturn (the Revell one) but a quite bland and under-detailed N1 in 1/150. Without bragging, I actually think mine looks better. So I might be back there in a while to bring yet another one.

Anyway, They soon will be put into the showcases, but first they’ll have to get a catalogue number for the museum’s registration and they have to rearrange the rockets in the showcases to accommodate mine with theirs. In a couple of weeks I will hopefully show you some photos of the final arrangement of the display of my rockets in the museum.
This has to do for now but I hope you liked the read.


See you all soon, I am working again on some old and also new stuff which I soon will share with you.
--PK