[dhanners]

A few photos of my build from way back. I resized the model from 1/100th to 1/96th and scratchbuilt the ET and SRBs.

There are some errors in the MARS Center model. The biggest, as far as I was concerned, is that the HRSI tile pattern on the belly, wings and elevens goes in one direction. In reality, the tiles go in one direction up to the Orbiter centerline, then the other side is a mirror image. (In the acoustic guitar world, we would refer to it as "bookmatched.")

I dealt with that by printing two copies of the bottom, wings and elevons -- one normal and one reversed. Then I had to cut them and join them.

The streaking and discoloration on the belly was achieved with pastel chalks.

I also used textured paper to replicate the FRSI blankets, but if you're doing Columbia from '81, you don't have to worry about that.

Good luck!