Voyager rescale -- 1/24 to 1/48

[bandolian]

Not long after discovering this forum, I undertook a build of Ton Noteboom's excellent Voyager model, even though I knew it was well above my skill level. The idea was to use it as a practice piece, and it served that purpose well. (The best that can be said of the final result was that it looked reasonably presentable if not examined too closely, and it did hold together -- for a while.) So, now I had a fair idea of the right way to go about it, and decided that I'd need to revisit Voyager some time in the indeterminate future.
Soon after this, I became interested in working at smaller scales (after seeing some of the amazing penny-sized aircraft that members here had made), and after shrinking down the Canon Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe with reasonable results, got the idea to combine these two interests, and redo the Voyager model at 1/48. (Also, I had seen a thread here about doing exactly this.) i have to admit that I started with a fatalistic attitude -- I had no idea, really, whether I'd be able to pull it off, but knew that I needed to take a shot at it.
Anyway, I think the pictures below show that it worked out pretty well. I was surprised to find that even though I was working with much smaller parts, it seemed no more difficult than the original build, and I'm sure it took quite a bit less time than the first go-round. So, I guess I must be learning something about this craft, after all.
So, now I figure I'll have to try what, had the idea occurred to me a year ago, would have seemed like pure madness -- taking it all the way down to 1/96th scale. The key, I think, is not to press too hard toward finishing -- just get SOMETHING done every day. Most of the work will have to be done under a magnifier, so fairly short work sessions are the order of the day.
It's going to be a while before I'll be able to muster the ambition to start, but I suspect this is a job worth my first build thread!

[elliott]

Looks like a right decent job there Bandolian. Seems like you are well on your way to mastering the art of miniature models - and in such a short time. Keep at it. You're doing great.

[dhanners]

Looks really good for a "practice piece." I wish I could practice that well....

[Gideon]

That 1:48 version is above and beyond! Very clean and precise! Now you're venturing into Paper Kosmonaut territory. I will watch with great interest!

[mk310149]

nice work, looks good!

[Paper Kosmonaut]

I also did the Voyager probe some time ago in 1/96 to fit it into the 1/96 Titan it got launched upon.
You did an amazing job. Very clean and well-fitting.

Best of all, you did it all in paper. I used cut-off sewing pins for the struts. (-;

[bandolian]

The task of re-scaling a model brings up what particularly interests me about this craft -- continually being faced with and solving little engineering problems. I'm sure everyone here has had to invent a special tool or build a jig to get pieces to go together just so. For example, with this Voyager rescale there were a number of parts that just wouldn't work very well if I'd folded them as hollow boxes per the original, so in most cases I built up a solid core out of 1mm cardstock and then applied the textured parts, printed on thin paper, to the surface. (I assume this is an old trick, but the idea didn't occur to me until I was forced to find a way to get better results at this smaller scale.) So, in effect the job became partly a scratch build -- which will be even more so with the 1/96 version. I think flat toothpicks will answer as raw material to make the struts, and I'm obviously going to have to find the correct size of sphere to use for the thruster fuel tank -- building a 3/8" globe out of ten tiny slivers of paper is a non-starter (at least for me; I'm sure there are people here who could pull it off).

Anyway, when I get around to it, I'll report back with any progress.

[bandolian]

Here are the rest of the space-themed models I've done over the last year and a half (now that I've made the minimal effort to learn how to post photos -- not to mention taking the trouble to take the pictures):

1.) Ton Noteboom's Mercury spacecraft -- most notable to me for being the first model I completed that I deemed good enough to show to anyone. (That is, I overcame the dread Glue Fingerprints Syndrome that had plagued me beforehand. Also, before I forget, I want to give a shout-out to the precision with which Mr. Noteboom executes his designs -- if you hold up your end of the bargain and make the parts correctly, they WILL go together!

2.) This represents the pattern I've fallen into of alternating major projects with much simpler ones, or breaking up the tougher challenges with something less demanding. Either that, or a depiction of Curiosity discovering a quite extraordinarily large Martian chipmunk.

3.) The three man-made objects to be launched (eventually) out of the solar system: Pioneer 10/11, Voyager 1/2, and New Horizons -- the last I rescaled 50% to match the others.

4.) Thunderbird 1 and Spirit/Opportunity. The first was an exercise in pure nostalgia -- building a model that I would have loved to have had the chance to make back when i was in my plastic-model phase (mid-1960s to early 1970s). The rover model was perhaps the third paper model I ever completed -- before I'd even heard of edge coloring, for one thing. (I would drop everything to build a large-scale, detailed Spirit/Opportunity -- those overachieving Mars rovers are among my favorite things from space exploration.)