Great work mate … It just keeps getting better each time with each little improvement and added part
Outstanding scratchbuilding on each and every single tiny part of this exquisite probe. Considering it’s humble beginnings, this is turning into the neverending model!
Thanks John, I’m glad to see that you like the Psyche spacecraft too.
Thanks SSGTOMS for your nice compliment,
I am amazed for myself at how the space probe has transformed meanwhile out of the simple NASA Paper kit.
But there will be a break at the end of next week, because I am starting then to my Return to KSC Tour 2024 (28. Sept. - 2. Nov.) via Washington D.C., Huntsville, Alabama, Cocoa Beach, Everglades, Fort Meyers, St. Petersburg, Tampa and back to Cocoa Beach, and therefore will be absent on my construction sites for 5 weeks …
But I will be back then because the show must go on.
Hello my friends,
after returning from my magnificent and eventful [color=blue]USA trip[/color] I reported on some highlights in my NSF STS-6 Thread, if you are interested in, as well as regarding the sad remembrance of my deceased friends Judy Gale Roberts and John O’Connor, which is why I want to pick up the thread here shortly before the holidays, even though it’s not easy for me to get back into it.
But after the holidays I want to continue, and I have decided to tackle the somewhat complicated propulsion systems of the spacecraft, the so-called Hall-effect Thrusters, which were already to be seen earlier.
But for now I wish you all a peaceful
Hello everybody,
I hope you all had a good start to the new year and I wish you all a Happy New Year.
Next I’ve dealed with the small Thrusters, whereby I didn’t want to recreate them as rustically as they were seen in this model,
but rather based myself on this NASA model, which is challenging enough.
I determined the dimensions from various Video sequences and corrected some of them based on reliabler reference dimensions.
Therefore, the two thrusters should have a diameter of 3,5 mm and be about 2 mm high, which is why I started looking for suitable materials.
At first I wanted to use a round rod (Ø 3,5 mm) and cut off 2 mm long pieces from it with the fine saw, which of course didn’t work straight away and required some finishing by filing, which was quite stressful because you can hardly hold these tiny things in your fingers or with tweezers and you’re more likely to file your fingernails.
I wanted to cover the front black area with black masking tape, but then I abandoned that idea and thought of a better solution.
And these are not Darts arrows like the ones that flew at the World Cup last week, but the stamps from my Punch & Die Set with suitable diameters for the corresponding discs, from which I built the thrusters.
I had previously been looking for black material and also found it. For the front discs I used a CD case (1 mm) and a file folder (0,2 mm), and for the back part I used white polystyrene sheet (1 mm).
And then I got started. First I glued the front black discs (Ø 3,0 mm x 1 mm) onto the back white discs (Ø 3,5 mm x 1 mm), which I fixed between two steel rulers.
Thin white discs (Ø 2,5 mm x 0,2 mm) are then placed on the black discs as a cover,
on which I had previously glued black dots (Ø 1,2 mm x 0,2 mm), which were carefully picked up with a pin tip,
and glued in the middle of the white covers.
These dotted discs were then glued onto the Thruster discs that were glued together.
I really like the Thrusters,
especially since they are very similar to the thrusters on the NASA model.
Now I can take care of connecting them to each other and the missing intermediate part,
especially since the total length of the assembly of approx. 15 mm is maintained.
So much complexity with this build and it just keeps getting better with each instalment. Those thrusters look amazing !!
Thanks John,
these Hall-effect Thrusters hang on gimbals which look like a closed book,
which is why I’m thinking about how I can scratch them in a simpler way.
It’s a tough nut to crack, but I’m not giving up.
Nothing is impossible.