The Apollo 1 seats appeared to be sky blue. The storage lockers beneath the crew's seats are not visible on any of my color photos, but a B&W picture suggests they were white or some other light color (sky blue?). The only exception is the computer/telescope console located on the floor, just in front of the docking tunnel. It should be painted black or deep gray, the keyboard area on both sides of the raised panel should be the same color. Finally, the tape recorder on the floor should also be dark.
The exterior of the early Block 1 Apollo CSM was totally white just as the artwork on the cover of the Revell box suggests. There are numerous differences between the prototype and the manned Block 2 Apollo CSMs (A7-17). Some important changes:
The CM is basically OK, but you have to remove the CM/SM umbilical cord located above the CM hatch. It should be moved 180 degrees, to the bottom of the capsule. Also, there is no Boost Protective Cover - simply paint the CM (including its windows-) white to create one.
The SPS nozzle (parts 12-14) is the wrong shape, although this is probably a minor gripe since it will be invisible as long as the CSM is on top of the Saturn V rocket. The raised area on part #12 should be quadratic, not circular in shape. Get the 1/32 scale Monogram Apollo Block II CSM, or check Robin Kerrod's The Illustrated History of Man in Space (Multimedia Books Ltd. 32-34 Gordon House Road,London NW5 1LP, ISBN 1 85375 061 1, printed in 1989) for some good illustrations of the Apollo spacecraft.
As for the Saturn V rocket itself...there are many good illustrations of Apollos 8-17 as well as the remaining three boosters on display at Huntsville, Houston and Cape Canaveral. I have also managed to get some rare photos from 1966-67 of early Saturn V engines & other hardware. The Revell kit is fairly accurate, but the painting instructions leave a lot to be desired. Some suggestions:
Instruction Part# Color
2 5,6 Stone Grey (F-1 engine pumps)
2 3,4 probably Gun Metal,cooling pipes and raised areas should
be Silver or Steel
3 7 60% Post Office Yellow + 40% Fern Green
(500F 1st stage on display at Huntsville)
7 14 No roll pattern between LOX/fuel tank
9 3,4 J-2 nozzles should actually be painted White,except for
cooling pipe.
10-11 (The rest appears to be OK)
12 7 Leave unpainted,or paint the area hidden by the interstage adapter Silver or Steel
15 12 The S-II hydrogen tank on display at KSC is painted Gold.
17-18 No idea about the S-IV-B third stage engine section...
20 10 The visible part of the S-IV-B hydrogen tank should be
painted Silver (KSC Saturn V)
I have seen a photo of the Apollo CSM used in the Skylab 2 mission that shows the command module as white. The cut out areas in front of the forward looking windows (#2 & #4) appear to be painted black for anti-glare purposes. There is also a black (dark grey) semi-circular marking about 2 feet in diameter on the aft part where the heat shield starts. I am guessing that the white color is some kind of protective coating applied to the metallic surface of the CM because of the long exposure to the space environment. The service module colors and markings are the same as on the Apollo moon missions. The photo I saw was in a hardbound Skylab book published by NASA. Sorry, I don't recall the exact title.
Block I service modules were painted white (at least the cylindrical surface exposed at launch) with the exception of Apollo 4, which was silver with white radiator panels. I don't know about all Block I command modules, but those I've seen pictures of were white. Block II service modules were silver with white radiator panels. Some had other white panels as well. Apollo 7 had more white panels than the Lunar Apollos, for example. Some Block II command modules, including at least the Skylab module mentioned earlier, were white. I believe this was only true for Skylab, but I haven't confirmed it was true for all Skylab flights. The numbered Apollo missions and (Apollos 7-17) had silver command modules, as did Apollo-Soyuz. The command modules were very reflective, as they were covered with metal or metalized tape, as noted elsewhere.
Skylab, Our First Space Station
Leland F. Belew
1977
Published NASA
call number: TL789.8.U.6S5677
629.44'S
The photo appears on page 102
(note: According to David Weeks, only a portion of the Skylab Apollo CMs were painted white, with the rest of the spacecraft covered with the shiny thermal tape. When docked at the +X station, the portion that faced the sun was painted white.)
The tricky part is how to paint the white areas on the silver-colored Service Module. An ASCII drawing of the upper half of the CSM:
.. = windows
/..\
/_{____\ { = umbilical
I __ I __
I+ I__I +I I__I= radiator panels (silver??)
I I__I I
I________I + = RCS thruster
/ \
/____\
I only have one photo (Robin Kerrod's Man in Space, p.160) [a B&W photo is
available at http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS4/10074810.jpg] showing
this angle of the
spacecraft. The large radiator panel located between the RCS engines appears
to be silver,
but is partly obscured by the launch tower fuel cell servicing
arm so it is difficult to tell. See also:
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS4/10074811.jpg The other half is much easier:
/ \ /______\ I __ I I+ I||I +I ||| = _white_ radiator panel? I I||I | I________| / \ /____\In other words, the large radiator panel in the middle should be painted white. I have one good, unobscured photo of Apollo 4 (http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS4/10074812.jpg) taken from this angle so there are fewer uncertainties here.
I think it's easier to use Apollo 6 (which was totally white) as a reference when building the Revell 1/48 model. As for the 1/96 scale kit, I've decided to keep the original color (silver) and build Apollo 1/4 instead.
Notes: A collection of articles written by noted Apollo program participants. It is also a very good picture book. Recommended. USGPO stock number 033-000-00630-6, US$13.00 (October 1994 status).
This can be obtained from a local USGPO bookstore (like Denver) or from the USGPO in Washington. They pay shipping with no sales taxes.
The US Government has a good reputation of providing reprints to the general public of many very good documents. Many US Government publications (including NASA History Series) are available for sale (to those who are patient) at the following address:
US Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents
P.O. Box 371954
Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
202-512-1800 (Washington DC)
or
US Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents
Washington, DC 20402
202-512-1800
The Skylab CM was painted white on one half of the cone centered around the Commanders Rendezvous window. The other half (away from the sun) was painted silver. Just after the launch accident that ripped the Skylab's micrometeoroid shield off, NASA thermal engineers decided to add aluminized Kapton tape to the lower sides of the silver half of the CM the help the equipment bay reject heat from the Earth.
I asked him if he remembers the color of the INTERIOR walls of the CM. He replied that to his best recollection, they were light gray. He also suggested that I verify this by taking a trip to the Air & Space Museum in Washington. :) [He also inscribed and signed a very nice photo of him doing an EVA on SkyLab]
Anyway, the cloth portions of the couch are a light greyish tan. I don't know if this is true of all Apollos. Apollo 9, like most all museum pieces has had a lot of "cosmetic" things done to it. The frames of the seats indicate that they are for training, and not for flight, so I don't know if the color is correct for all vehicles. Footrests for the seats are a dull aluminum color.
The "joy stick" struts are the same color of dark metal as the seat frames. The only difference is on the one located on the left side of the commander's seat. On this one, the upper third is black. As for the control boxes, they are a kind of neutral grey color, but again, these items are not original to Apollo 9 and are actually wooden recreations. The same is true of the joystick handles.
Now story has it that the CM pilots were given the the joystick grips as a "momento" of the flight. If this is accurate, then we have on display one of the units from Apollo 15, which was given to us by Al Worden (a Jackson, Michigan native.) This grip is a metallic silver color with a black "trigger" and a yellow strip of tape on one side bearing the words "Not A Handhold." Make of this what you will.