MER-A Spirit: "Troy" 1/40

[Paper Kosmonaut]

After making the Delta II that brought Spirit to Mars, it only sounded logical to me to do Spirit herself afterwards. I started out with Ton Noteboom's reworking of Erik te Groen's model of the MER but I made a couple of changes to it myself, too.
I reduced the model to 50% of its intended scale, so that roughly made it 1/40.
For the base, I used a small picture frame which I gave a form-work out of cardboard pieces. While that awaited a pouring of gypsum, something that had to wait until I could make a visit to the home depot to get some, I started on the model itself.
The build actually was pretty straight forward, I cut loose the parts of Spirit's solar 'wings' and made the box that its main chassis consists of. There's an axle through the middle to provide some movement in the rocker bogeys later on.
The solar wings were added with tiny 'hinges' as spacers between the panels. The camera mast was also given a pivot point, so it could move around. The "eyes" were made from very tiny beads, for which I drilled a couple of small holes in the cylindrical housing. I used sandpaper for the surface of the high gain antenna, to give it the look of being caked with sand, having some wear and tear in its appearance.
Next were the rocker bogeys, Wheels were made out of sandpaper (hard to glue!) but with a nice effect in the end. The back pair of wheels can move a little on their bogey, too.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

When the bogeys were added to the model, I started on the arm with the RAT tool, to scrape off the surface of rocks with an abrasive drill bit. I made the RAT out of brass and pieces of card, which I painted iron.
That kind of concluded the rover, so I could start on the diorama base. For this I poured the gypsum into the mould shape I had made and set it aside to dry. In the middle I left a valley-like shape, because I wanted to use real sand to get Spirit stuck in.
Finding the right sand was a hard thing, red sand being not really common and, if available only in large amounts, and I only needed one or two handfuls. So in the end I bought some bird cage sand and dyed it with what we Dutchies (and Frenchies too) call Ecoline but most people probably know better as coloured ink. I measured the amount of sand I actually needed, put it in a plastic cup and gradually added the burnt sienna Ecoline. It is very concentrated stuff so I used a pipette for dosage. I put it away for a night and in the morning it was completely dry. Then both model and diorama were put together. The sand dried a little lighter than I anticipated but I think the colour is good. However, I am kind of colourblind, so I could be awfully wrong. If so, please tell, then I might try again. (if there's any interest, I can also show some pictures of how I did the sand colouring)

Anyway, this is how it came out.
Thanks for watching!

[merzo]

Hi Jasper

Very nice, as always ..

The antena grain sandpaper to wear! Ingenious design. Mars sand painting! I would not have me!

I like it.
Merzo

[Retired_for_now]

Another masterwork! Nicely done ... but where are all the Martian fossils and alien artifacts?

Yogi

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Ever since Spirit arrived here, the Martians have been looking for another spot for their sunday picknicks..

[closet astronaut]

You're still killing me with this micro detail!

[WeeVikes]

Beautiful and inspiring. What else would I expect from you?


MAB