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I'm building a MOC to scale with the Saturn V set and am having trouble figuring out how tall the 1st stage engines are but the entire thing would be really helpful! Thanks!

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  • I know this is already solved, but based on one of the amazon reviews it stands over three feet tall. And yes, I know that's not specific enough. Apr 28, 2020 at 11:54

3 Answers 3

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I've been contemplating this question for quite a while. In the great tradition of this site I felt this needed practical verification. I decided to make a ruler based on scaling up set 5005107, LEGO Buildable Ruler to measure the Saturn V myself.

tl;dr

| STAGE             | Studs Tall | Bricks Tall |
|-------------------|------------|-------------|
| S-IC first stage  | 52.2 studs | 43.8 bricks |
| S-II second stage | 33.8 studs | 28.3 bricks |
| S-IVB third stage | 50.5 studs | 42.1 bricks |

My conversions are not perfect based on the calculator, but they're close enough that I don't think I messed up anything.

Overall

As we know, this is a huge set. I needed my ruler to be >32 studs tall to measure any of the stages. Here's my setup:

the monster rocket and the ruler

I've included pictures of the bottoms of the rockets since they nest somewhat so you can see how tall the rocket engine part ends up being versus the entire shell of the rocket.

S-IC first stage

The bottom: bottom of stage one

The top: top of first stage

I read that as 52.2 studs or 43.8 bricks tall.

S-II second stage

The bottom: bottom of second stage

The top: top of second stage

I read that as 33.8 studs or 28.3 bricks high.

S-IVB third stage

The bottom: bottom of third stage

The top: top of third stage

I read that as 50.5 studs or 42.1 bricks tall.

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  • This is great! I'm glad that you are finding things to do while stuck at home. :)
    – jncraton
    Apr 28, 2020 at 14:30
  • Thanks so much! I have been working on the ruler for about a year, but I do have much more time lately.
    – chicks
    Apr 28, 2020 at 15:31
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Other answers seem to be focused on stage dimensions, rather than engines as asked in the question, so I'll address that.

Scaling is a pretty easy math. Stud is 8 mm and brick height is 9.6 mm. Given that the entire 100 cm (1000 mm) Saturn V rocket is 125 studs or 104 bricks and half plate high (104.166667).

The real Saturn V is 363.0 ft (110.6 m) tall. So given the height of a rocket of 1 meter scale is very easy to calculate as 1/110.6 or rounded to 1/111.

Now let's get to the size of Rocketdyne F-1 engines made from LEGO. The following image shows side engines are made of just 4 parts (height wise) and are 1+2+1/3+2=5 and 1/3 bricks tall (or 16 plates). Converting to studs we get 6.4 studs and in metric it is 51.2 mm.

enter image description here

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On the box the entire rocket is shown to be 100cm. I just measured the first stage, that is 40,7cm.

Else you can go to service.lego.com and download the instructions aand start counting/calculating (the studs face in different directions, so you can't just count).

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