International Scale Modeller

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Er, uh, ahem... or was it 34 years ago and only 3,000 miles away... Yeah, right. That's when I started the journey that has led me to where I am today. I had recently graduated with a degree in Computer and System Engineering from an engineering school in upstate New York. I headed west to start my first fulltime job at NASA's main center for unmanned space exploration, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Like most kids raises in those days, I was always interested in space. I remember huddling around our TV July 21, 1969 waiting to see Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. I had built several Estes rockets, and several scale models of Apollo rockets and the Lunar Module. My uncle had worked for Grumman Aircraft which built the Lunar Modules and over the years he had brought me many items from the program. Ah, I wish I still had that stuff.

Anyway, back to my story.

So you have probably guessed that I was on my way to JPL to work on some exciting space project. Well, no. I had been hired on to a secret military project that really had nothing to do with NASA and space. However, the department I was assigned to was the Image Processing Laboratory. This department was one of the pioneers of digital image processing; remember this is way before anything like Photoshop had ever been thought of. Back then even the simplest image manipulation would take minutes, even hours on just the smallest image. This lab had supported the image processing portion of all of NASA's unmanned flight up to that time; Ranger, Surveyor, Mariner, Viking and the early encounters of Voyager.

As I recall, I arrived in Pasadena during the 4th of July weekend, so my first day was the following Tuesday. Upon arrival things were a bit disorganized due to some unfortunate events that had happened just prior to my arrival. As such, an office had not been set up for me, so I temporarily moved into an office occupied by 4 or 5 other recent new hires. None of them were on my project, they were all hired to port the lab's image processing software to the "new, modern" Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 11/780s. What is a VAX you ask? Imagine a machine the size of a couple of mid-sized refrigerators and about 18,000 times SLOWER than the phone you probably have in your pocket. Oh, and you share t with about 30 other people; at the same time. But it did have an 80 character by 24 line CRT display! Gee, we've come a long way...

I was only in that office for a week before I moved to another temporary office, but that was not the last I would see of my first office mates; especially one of them. You see, about 2 years later I asked one special one for her hand in marriage and a year after that we walked down the aisle together.

But during those three years prior to our marriage, several opportunities and changes happened in our jobs. For me, that military project never really got going and I was pulled into various other projects in the newly titled Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). One of the projects I worked on was to develop data visualization software; that is, programs that would take large amounts of abstract data and turn them into pictures that anyone could digest. Another department had developed terrain rendering software which combined digital elevation data and satellite imagery to produce 3-dimensional "photos" from anywhere in the landscape. I was asked to expand upon, generalize and integrate the software into MIPL's system. Think of Google Earth, but many, many times slower and much more difficult to use; but at the time it was state of the art. Here is our "crowning achievement" which took several weeks to plan and render; remember, at the time nothing like this had ever been seen. (I found this on youtube and I'm pretty sure the date is wrong, it was more like 1985.)

[youtube]6RsXCbpJG54[/youtube]

During this time, my soon to be wife transitioned from software development to mission operations and worked on image data processing for Voyager 2's Uranus and Neptune encounters. Imaging data from the spacecraft was sent to JPL where the operations team would process the data to produce the images that were ultimately turned into press releases. Processing included things like geometric correction, blemish removal, color enhancement and combining multiple images into to larger mosaics. The image processing team was the first to see these amazing pictures from far away places; and I was lucky enough to be working along side them (one in particular).

The United State Geological Survey (USGS) developed an algorithm to deduce digital elevation data from the sun angle, camera position, shadows, etc in satellite imagry. One of Voyager's closest encounters was with the Uranus' moon Miranda. The USGS applied their software to Voyager 2's "close-up" images of Miranda to produced elevation data. Then, my now very soon to be wife was asked to use my software to generate a simulated flight over the terrain of Miranda. Of course I was readily available for technical support. Here is the result of that effort (remember, mid-80's no HD yet).

[youtube]gZPgR4L6eug[/youtube]

We worked together on and off through the Uranus and Neptune encounters, although I technically wasn't on either project. A few years later I moved on to "greener" pastures. My wife stayed at JPL where she has worked on many missions including Galileo, Cassini and the Mars Rover missions. She continues to work there to this day.

So that's the story behind my choice for this build. Kind of a tribute to my wife and the beginning of our journey together.

Here is the kit:


and some PE:


In the next post I'll give some more background on the Voyager missions and follow that with the traditional sprue shots.

COOOOOOL!!!!!!!
YOU..WORKED..FOR..NASA!!!
Very interesting to see where those computer imagery programs came from

Will definitely followmalong on you "VYGER" Build....will there be any bald ladies in the mix???
Just joshing, this should be interesting and I promise to behave

I think I just made up a word...followmalong. It doesn't even want to spell check thusly it IS a word!
Oops, not behaving....at least I didn't mention anything about the moon around Uranus

That's a very cool story. I'm really looking forward to following along with your build and space history lessons!

Looking forward to seeing this one mate

This is one of my favorite builds. The kit itself goes together with no problem. For me, just the difference the PE boom makes is worth the price of the PE set. Lots of detailed references out there for this. My advise would be to watch out for PE parts 9 and 10, they replace part A19 on the RTG assembly. If you get that assembled, then cheers and well done. I destroyed mine and ended up using the kit part. The PE parts 19 and 35 for the high-gain antenna are also a pain in the back side. The rest of the PE was no problem at all. Watch out when twisting the boom, mine stated buckling. Thankfully I was smart enough to stop while it was repairable. I think one of more common changes is replacing the long antenna, part C1 and C2, with brass rods. I hope you enjoy it. Plus I love the little alien.

MUST be a good build if you have done it before and want to do it again. Nice that you are sharing your love of the job that you used to do with us.

Great intro, really interesting stuff. Nice kit choice, I looked at getting the same one, but settled for something else. I'd still like to get one though. Good luck with the build, looking forward to seeing more!

Awesome intro and background - and a kit I didn't know existed too.

Count me in on this one!

Oh wow!! count me in for this one Bob!

(And that sucker is going into my stash as well for my wantlist....along with the PE....)

Ooooo! I almost picked this one to do. Glad I didn't. You're a ringer

Wow. Thanks for all the interest! Whoda thought. I guess the pressure is on. Hope I do it justice.

pourquoi61, I think you got me confused with MikeC. He's built it before, not me.

MikeC, thanks for the tips. This will be only my second foray into PE so I'm expecting a challenge.

It might be awhile before further updates. Shortly after I finished that first post, the events in Las Vegas started to unfold. It hit a bit close to home. I first learned of it before it hit the news from my son who was there. He is ok, physically at least. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

BobM wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:10 am It might be awhile before further updates. Shortly after I finished that first post, the events in Las Vegas started to unfold. It hit a bit close to home. I first learned of it before it hit the news from my son who was there. He is ok, physically at least. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

My prayers go out to all the victims and their families as well and I hope your son is doing OK with all of that sadness.

DrSprue wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:29 am

BobM wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:10 am It might be awhile before further updates. Shortly after I finished that first post, the events in Las Vegas started to unfold. It hit a bit close to home. I first learned of it before it hit the news from my son who was there. He is ok, physically at least. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

My prayers go out to all the victims and their families as well and I hope your son is doing OK with all of that sadness.

Absolutely. Glad he's ok Bob.

Nice! great background to the choice of Kit, good luck and enjoy the build. looking forward to the next update.

This was on my list of kits to do, ill gladly step aside for your good self. Following along.

Jase

Just a quick update for those that read the earlier post regarding my son. First, thanks for the well wishes. He returned from Vegas Monday and was visibly shaken. He was in the thick of it and we all consider him quite lucky. The first few days back were, I think, pretty tough for him; but as the days go be we see him returning to a more normal manner. It's hard to tell what the future will bring; he doesn't talk about it much and we don't ask. We can only imagine what he saw and felt during those horrendous 10 minutes and the hours that followed...

Regarding this build, I hope to get back to it soon. My priority (beside my son) is to finish my Feline Fever build which is getting close.

Great to hear your son is back home Bob and very best wishes for your family that he continues to make steady progress coming to terms with what he went through.

Same here Bob as Neil says, I pray well wishes for your son and you all.

Cool intro !

The background info kind of beats everything I've seen sofar in a groupbuild

Good luck with your build!


Tommy

BobM wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:38 am Just a quick update for those that read the earlier post regarding my son. First, thanks for the well wishes. He returned from Vegas Monday and was visibly shaken. He was in the thick of it and we all consider him quite lucky. The first few days back were, I think, pretty tough for him; but as the days go be we see him returning to a more normal manner. It's hard to tell what the future will bring; he doesn't talk about it much and we don't ask. We can only imagine what he saw and felt during those horrendous 10 minutes and the hours that followed...

Regarding this build, I hope to get back to it soon. My priority (beside my son) is to finish my Feline Fever build which is getting close.

Oh shoot, I totally missed this
Hoping all of you can make it through the tragedy of this
All the best

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:41 pm Oh shoot, I totally missed this
Hoping all of you can make it through the tragedy of this
All the best

Thanks Scott. Life seems to be getting back to normal. Unfortunately life is BUSY so it is still hard to squeeze in hobby time.

OK, finally some free time, maybe enough for a quick history lesson...

The two identical Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977; ironically Voyager 2 was launched on August 20th, about 2 weeks before Voyager 1's launch on September 5th. Both were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard Titan-Centaur rockets. The reason for the order of the launches was due to the flight paths they would take; Voyager 1 had a shorter path to Jupiter and Saturn arriving in March '79 and November '80 respectively. Voyager 2 had it's closest approaches to Jupiter and Saturn in July '79 and August '81. Their flight paths took advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that only occurs once every 175 years. This alignment was discovered in 1965 and would allow a spacecraft to use the gravity of the planets to propel it from one to the next with only a minimal propulsion system. The project officially started on July 1, 1972 under the name "Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977"; later in March '77 it was renamed “Voyager”.



While it was know that a tour of all four planets was technically possible, it was deemed too expensive to build a craft and instrumentation what would be able to survive such a mission. Therefore funding was only committed to perform a thorough study of Jupiter and Saturn. Over 10,000 flight paths were considered before the final two were selected; Voyager 2’s trajectory left open the possibility for an extended mission to include Uranus and Neptune.



The twin spacecrafts were each equipped with instruments to conduct 10 investigations. The instruments included infrared and ultraviolet sensors, magnetometers, plasma detectors, cosmic-ray and charged-particle sensors, and the most familiar television cameras. Since the Voyagers would be operating too far from the Sun, solar panels would be ineffective. Therefore, the instruments and other onboard systems were powered by radioisotope thermalelectric generators (RTGs) that convert the heat created by decaying plutonium into electricity.



The spacecraft are controlled and their data returned through the Deep Space Network (DSN), a global spacecraft tracking system operated by JPL for NASA. DSN antenna complexes are located in California’s Mojave Desert; near Madrid, Spain; and in Tidbinbilla, near Canberra, Australia. (Shortly after joining JPL in 1983, I was afforded an opportunity to visit the Mojave Desert facility; fascinating!) Communicating with distant spacecraft is extremely difficult and time consuming as you might imagine. A one way signal from Voyager while at Jupiter took approximately 50 minutes and the maximum data rate was 115Kbps. Compare that to my internet connection at home which (on a good day) is 60Mbps, 500 times faster! Of course as the Voyagers travelled farther, things only got worse. The transmission time increases proportionally with the distance travelled, but the data rate follows the inverse square law; that is it is reduced by the square of the distance. The predicted data rate for Voyager 2 when it reached Neptune was 3Kbps; however several upgrades to the DSN including creating "giant antenna arrays" using multiple DSN and non-DSN antennae ultimately provided at data rate of 21.6Kbps while at Neptune; the one way signal time cannot be improved and was about 4 hours.



Voyager 1's closest approach to Jupiter was on March 5, 1979 when it flew within 128,400 miles (206,700 kilometers) of the planet's cloud tops. Voyager 2 followed on July 9, 1979 with a closest approach of 350,000 miles (570,000 kilometers). There, the Voyagers transmitted unprecedented images of Jupiters complex atmosphere and its moons, Io, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Amalthea. These photos revealed the amazingly complex turbulence of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and showed 9 active volcanoes on Io.



It was then on to Saturn with Voyager 1 passing within 40,000 miles (64,200 kilometers) on November 12, 1980 and Voyager 2 within 26,000 miles (41,000 kilometers) on August 25, 1981. Again, more astonishing imagery was returned revealing one of Saturn's greatest surprises, unimagined complexity and structure in Saturn's rings. The Voyagers also imaged 17 of Saturn's moons, including 4 that were newly discovered.





After it's encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 used a gravity assist from the planet to propel itself out of the plane of the solar system. On February 14, 1990 it took it's last pictures which were used to produce the Voyager Family Portrait.



After Voyager 2's Saturn encounter, it was determined that it would in fact be able to continue on to Uranus with all instruments operating. NASA provided funding to JPL to continue the mission on to Uranus and subsequently also authorized a continued mission to Neptune. It was about a four and a half year trip for Voyager 2 to reach Uranus. During the time the "most significant" events of the mission occurred; in 1983 JPL hired my soon to be wife and myself! (OK, maybe a bit of an exaggeration.) During those four plus years, teams at JPL (which included us) were busy converting JPL's image processing software to "more modern" computer systems (see my first post in this thread for more on that if you haven't).



On January 24, 1986 Voyager 2 passed within 50,600 miles (81,500 kilometers) of Uranus' cloud tops. Compared to Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus itself is a pretty boring pale blue ball of gas; but it's moons! Voyager 2 discovered 11 new moons and returned images of a total of 16.





The inner most moon, Miranda, revealed some of the strangest geology ever observed thereby prompting the production of "Miranda: The Movie" by a small team that included my wife and myself.

[youtube]gZPgR4L6eug[/youtube]



Voyager 2 had its final planetary encounter when it flew within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Neptune on August 25, 1989. By then, scientists had thought they had seen it all, but boy were they wrong. Again Voyager 2 sent back unbelievable images of Neptune's unexpectedly complex atmosphere that includes the "Great Dark Spot" similar to Jupiter's "Great Red Spot".



Neptune also has several moons, of which, Voyager 2 discovered 5 and imaged a total of 8. The largest, Triton, proved to be one of the most intriguing in the entire solar system. It shows evidence of a remarkable geologic history, and Voyager 2 images showed active geyser-like eruptions spewing invisible nitrogen gas and dark dust particles several miles into the tenuous atmosphere.



The two Voyager spacecraft continue their journey into the outer reaches of the galaxy to this day. Although they are no longer sending back image data; they still are sending data on cosmic rays, low-energy particles, magnetic fields, and plasma waves. The RTGs are loosing power at a rate of about 4 watts per year; as the power diminishes, instruments and data are prioritized and some are shut down. It is expected that each spacecraft can continue to operate at least one instrument until 2025. After that, both could continue to communicate with the DSN until about 2036.

Some highlights of their Interstellar Mission are:

• February 17, 1998 - Voyager 1 surpassed Pioneer 10 as the farthest human-made object from Earth.
• December 16, 2004 - Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock, the inner boundary of the heliosheath where the solar and interstellar winds meet.
• August 30, 2007 - Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock.
• August 13, 2012 - Voyager 2 out paced Pioneer 6 as NASA's longest operating mission.
• August 25, 2012 - Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.

The Voyager program out performed it's original objectives by leaps and bounds, providing volumes of data for scientists to gather more insight into the makeup of the galaxy.

Here are some of the many Voyager discoveries:

• Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere with dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems.
• Erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, which has 100 times the volcanic activity of Earth.
• The Io torus, a thick ring of ionized sulfur and oxygen shed by Io that inflates Jupiter's giant magnetic field.
• An indication of an ocean beneath the cracked icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa.
• Waves and fine structure in Saturn's icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons, and small moons shepherding the narrow, kinky F-ring.
• A deep, smoggy nitrogen atmosphere on Saturn's moon Titan, likely having clouds and rain of methane.
• Complex and diverse surfaces of frozen moons shaped by icy volcanism and faults.
• Neptune's Great Dark Spot and 1,600 kilometer-per-hour winds (1,000 miles per hour).
• Geysers erupting from the polar cap of Neptune's moon Triton at -390 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The termination shock where the supersonic solar wind abruptly slows, forming the final frontier of the solar system.

Well, maybe that wasn't so quick! Despite it's length, this really just scratched the surface of story of the Voyager spacecraft. Some Google searches quickly unearth a wealth of information on the topic. You can spend hours learning about the spacecraft and instruments, looking at images, or learning about the planets and moons that Voyager visited. (I know, I've spent hours putting this "quick lesson" together!) The authoritative source is of course the NASA/JPL Voyager website. Many of the images returned from many NASA missions are available at the NASA/JPL Photojournal. There you can find images by target (planet, moon, rings, etc) and mission (Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, etc); another place to spend hours.

I hope you found this interesting and informative; now maybe I can get to work on the build!

Thanks,
Bob

Absolutely fascinating stuff Bob - and amazing to think we may still be hearing from them for the next 20 years or so.

Sorry Im replying a bit late...wanted to read all of this. Wow Bob, so amazing. The Vax 11/780's bring a bit of history back to me as well, not to mention the amazing stuff we saw with the Voyager mission over the years. So well put on this site too and they did set the level of awesome-ness with space flight. I remember those launches with the Titan 3's too. So cool, so cool.

I hope many younger peeps here (sorry I dont want to sound like a silly grampa or something) but please look at what we did back then.... yes SpaceX is amazing and the internet is cool, but Nasa was so freaking awesome and we did it with very outdated computer technology.

Make some of it too!

(CDP-1802)

Update 1

Well, American Thanksgiving is good for something, bench time! Yup, my family headed out for the day, I stayed home to recover from cooking/hosting yesterday. Recovery consisting of sitting at the bench and staring at tiny parts...

My first impression of the kit's plastic stands, it is really nicely molded. However, it is brittle! The first task was to work on the High-Gain Antenna. While the molds are great with barely visible mold lines, I managed to snap one of the sub reflector support struts trying to cleanup said mold line. I guess I missed the instruction that says "BE CAREFUL". Oh well, a little TET and it is off in the corner curing.

That slowed progress on the HGA, so it was on the the "main body" Bus Housing Electronics Assembly. Just to make sure things were in the right place, I checked NASA/JPL's Voyager website which has a great interactive 3-D model. I also had the opportunity (via my well placed connection) to visit JPL for a Cassini event back in April where I was able to get some photo's of their 1:1 model!

Well, things aren't quite right. Here is a photo of the "record" side followed by a screen capture from the 3-D model and a photo of the 1:1 model:







There are two major differences you can see here. First, the supports on the right side of the Hasegawa model are not actually part of the 3-D model or visible in the 1:1 JPL model. The second is that half of the assembly to the right of the record is covered in both the 3-D model and the JPL model, but not in the Hasegawa.

On the opposite side, there are similar issues:





You can again see those mysterious support struts, this time on the left. Also, the assembly in the left panel should not be half covered; the center panel should be empty (there is a "louvered" piece that is intended to go there, and the right panel should have an assembly similar to the others.

Well, most of the is easily fixed using bits of the sprue that Hasegawa kindly provided and repurposing the piece that was intended for the center panel.



The mysterious structs have been clipped off. The lower half of the panel to the right of the record has been covered. The center panel has been filled. And the repurposed piece has been sanded as thin as I dare; it will be installed later after the body is painted black and the "louvers" are painted aluminum.





Just waiting now for sprue goo to cure.

Another inaccuracy is that one of the instruments that is installed under the HGA protrudes all the way through:



The 3-D model does not show this, even though the PE set also include a piece to cover it... I'm currently sanding it smooth and will prime and paint to cover it.

I've also had time to get a start on the PE for boom the holds several of the instrument sub-systems including the Imaging Science Subsystem (aka the cameras!).



Again, this is not correct; it should be "leaning" away from the camera; I didn't notice this until I had finished. I may look into making it more accurate.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll get some more work in this weekend. Thanks for checking in!

Great progress
Thank god for shopping families....fathers get some peace and quiet

Very cool, its such a funky looking vehicle.

V'ger must join with the creator - ooh err missus

Every time I see pics of that famous gold record I think of how long it took Carl Sagan and his team to come up with the ideas of transmitting those messages. What an amazing spacecraft. Looking really cool so far Bob.

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:26 am Great progress
Thank god for shopping families....fathers get some peace and quiet

They actually went to "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" at Universal Studios; not my thing...

Stokesy44 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:49 am Very cool, its such a funky looking vehicle.

V'ger must join with the creator - ooh err missus

Yeah it is; I always wondered how the Magnetometer boom survived.

DrSprue wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:29 pm Every time I see pics of that famous gold record I think of how long it took Carl Sagan and his team to come up with the ideas of transmitting those messages. What an amazing spacecraft. Looking really cool so far Bob.

That and the Magnetometer boom were a main motivator for springing for the PE set. Here is a closeup of the plastic and PE records....



Thanks all!

Update 2

Got more time this morning so made progress on prepping things for paint; it seems that there are a lot of little sub-assembly to be painted, then assembled along with adding the PE details.

The first order of business was to complete the High Gain Antenna assembly. The snapped sub-reflector strut is barely noticeable. Now just primer and paint. To be sure that black bit sticking through is covered, I'll prime with Stynylrez Gray and finish with Stynylrez White.



Next I finished assembling the PE for the instrument boom. It looks like I need a little cleanup before painting hitting this with Stynylrez Black; which will be the final color.



Finally, I did some more work on the Bus Housing. Again I found another error in the model. There is an extra "box" on the top of the housing that does not exist, you can see it on the right side:



I removed it which left a hole that I filled with more scrap from the sprue and sprue goo. I'm not too concerned about getting a nice clean finish because I'll be modeling the thermal blanket using a technique borrowed from the military/diorama guys; tissues soaked in watered down PVA glue. Here is the start of that process:



I hope it works. If not this stuff just peels right off and then I can worry about getting a nice finish on the plastic!

That's all for now! Thanks!

Update 3

Things are progressing quickly now, thanks to the long weekend!

I continued on with the Bus Housing. The tissue Thermal Blanket is complete and it was left to dry overnight. This morning I started adding support struts and other details so that I could get to paint. It looks kind of funky before the paint; this is due to rewetting the tissue as other areas were covered. Some is also due to TET wicking through as the struts were added.





But never fear! A couple of coats of Stynylrez Black (I couldn't find any Semi-Gross Black that the well translated and spell checked instructions call for) and it's starting to look like Voyager!





The Thermal Blanket looks a lot rougher in these closeups than it does in person; once it's all together and I take some over view photos I think it will look better.

With that done, I proceeded to paint some of the Bus Housing details.





I also found time to paint the High Gain Antenna:



If you look hard, you can barely see the repair I did for the piece that protrudes through; it's at about 7:00.

I also got other various parts painted:



Again, for black and white I'm just using Stynylrez. For the metallics, I'm using Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum and Gold. The instructions call for Silver, Copper and Sandy Yellow; I like my choices.

Oh, and I got excited and attached the main instrument boom:



Now it's really just a matter of adding PE details and assembling everything. I think one of the hardest parts of this build has just been figuring out a good order of operations.

Thanks for tuning in!!

Excellent progress
You are kicking butt here, it looks fantastic.
The silver linkages of the support rods especially jump out at me with the contrast vs black.
Superb

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:44 am Excellent progress
You are kicking butt here, it looks fantastic.
The silver linkages of the support rods especially jump out at me with the contrast vs black.
Superb

Yeah, looking for anything to break-up all the black; there are some PE details that will help a lot.

Thanks for the encouragement!

FYI.

This showed up in my newsfeed today.

You Can Finally Buy a Copy of the Voyager Golden Record, Gold Plating Not Included

BobM wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:43 pm FYI.

This showed up in my newsfeed today.

You Can Finally Buy a Copy of the Voyager Golden Record, Gold Plating Not Included

Which then led me to this PBS documentary, The Farthest.

Now I need to find a spare hour and a half...

Update 4

It’s been hard to find time and motivation to work on this build. I think one thing holding me back was not being sure how the PE would work over the “thermal blanket” I added. Well, today I finally got off my butt and took a stab at it. To make a long story short, it worked out way better than I feared. Fortunately, the PE was so thin that it conformed very well to the uneven surface.



While at it, I continued on adding more PE and assembling painted sub-assemblies into larger ones.

The RTG:



Cameras, spectrometers, etc:



It is starting to come together:



The time to complete this build is drawing near; I hope I can finish in time. Deadlines are midnight local time right?

Will you have time to finish the most important part?

Wow it is looking really nice! love the detail in this kit.

DBMiller wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:44 pm Will you have time to finish the most important part?

Unfortunately she wasn’t included in the kit and I’m not sure even Scott/2kids could scratch build her...

DrSprue wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2017 2:11 pm Wow it is looking really nice! love the detail in this kit.

Thanks Doc! Yup lots of detail, although they did seem to take a lot of liberties in both the plastic and PE; but I’m working with it...

Nope, couldn't scratch build her...but she did look good to me as a young teenager

Twokidsnosleep wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:14 pm Nope, couldn't scratch build her...but she did look good to me as a young teenager

hehe!! Yanno Bob, I bet since you said that, Scott is now looking twice at his wifes plastic salad bowls.. saying... Hmm I bet an antenna would look cool poking out of the top of that!

This looks soo cool. loving it

Beautiful work Bob - really looking forward to seeing the final assembly on this.

Update 5

Thanks to all that have left comments. This will be the last update before the final reveal.

The main thing left to assembly was the magnetometer boom.
This is two pieces of PE folded into a triangle, joined in the middle and twisted 120 degrees! I’ve been nervous about this the whole build, but in the end it worked out fine.

After folding each half into a triangle, I taped a 6” steel rule to a piece of wood so I could line up the halves while I CA glued the middle. Here I have it lined up and ready for glue.



That held remarkably well and allowed me to move to step 2, adding the twist. To hold things in place, I drilled small holes in the wood near either end of the boom. I then stuck needles through the “webbing” in the boom at each end, rotated 120 degrees from from each other. I stuck each needle in a hole, twisting as the second was inserted. This worked well and held things steady while I ran thin CA glue along the seam in the triangle! This dried quickly and is holding well.



After removing the pins, the twist held! It isn’t quite even, more twist is on one end than the other, but it’s ok. A couple of plastic pieces are CA glued to each end. The space craft end is a piece cut from the kit’s boom and filed slightly to fit in the PE.

I’ve also painted the base which out of the box is a funky translucent blue. I did much better, but that will wait for the final reveal.

After that there were some paint touch-ups followed by a coat of XF-86 Flat Clear thinned with Tamiya Lacquer Thinner.

At this point I noticed that I had forgotten the Plasma Wave Subsystem and the Planetary Radio Astronomy antennae. These are two long, thin plastic parts that I really feared would snap. They did not (yet). These were brush painted with Vallejo Model Color Copper, they are still drying. I just need to install those and it’s all done.

I should get final reveal pics done and posted tomorrow. Until then, here is a sneak peek:

Nice work Bob - I was wondering how you were going to have to tackle that long boom. Looking forward to seeing the reveal shots now.

Wow, that PE looks crazy
Nice job on assembly there

The final reveal has been posted!