The Hawk Manned Orbiting Laboratory kit was a neat kit based on a Convair proposal:
image from the
Fantastic Plastic page about this kit. Note that the shape of the vehicle on the boxtop
does not match the parts in the kit.
I've always liked the little "dorito" reentry vehicles and I
scratchbuilt my interpretation years ago. I sold that model shortly after I made it and have always wanted to recreate it. After years of procrastinating, I decided to interpret the kit parts in 1/72 scale. Here are the results from Shapeways.
As received from Shapeways. The rear plate (which is slightly warped) is joined to the main body with short round sprues. The crew hatch is also on a sprue, inside the body. The fingerprint pattern on the surface is courtesy of the Shapeways printer:
The bottom side. I added the landing skid doors:
The parts, separated. The four engines and attachment ring are my additions. I also added a hatch for a parachute in the middle and two small thrusters on each side of the engine section:
Press fit. The snipped off sprues are at the top:
Back end. The fit's not bad, considering the slight warp:
Side/rear view:
I was thinking of adding a cockpit tub that could slide in, but very little of the cockpit will be visible.
I'll modify the model to make it cheaper to print (right now it's only printable in Frosted Ultra Detail) and I may just close the cockpit hatch. I discovered that Winchell Chung has made 3-views of the reentry vehicle as shown on the box top; it has flat surfaces instead of a curved surface. I'll ask him if I can convert the drawings to a 3D printed object.
Thanks for looking!