Ariane 5 ECA with Planck and Herschel 1/96

[Paper Kosmonaut]

A little update again.
I have been very busy with some other job-related stuff and I had to take care for my GF who has been ill but luckily starts getting better now. So not a lot of time for modeling stuff.

I started work on Planck, which will be a Frankenplanck - or Planckenstein if you will - made out of scratch, Yogi's and a less detailed British ESA model (link in a previous post). I made the solar panel at Planck's bottom from several templates. I used my own solar panel design. Printed it on glossy photo paper. Now look at that pretty texture. After the ink dried, it still looked like this. I will apply a thin coat of clear gloss paint on top for protection. I hope I'll keep the texture intact..
The inside of Planck's service module got a little magnet, just like the one inside the pedestal of the 2nd stage. So Planck is easily removable but also stays in place very easily.
The three passive cooling panels were made from gloss metallic paper with aluminium tape on the back. (the top one is from matte black card.) I will try to use pins for the latticework. But up til now it is hard to get the three panels aligned nicely.

The second stage got some detailing in the white panels around the hull. The small fuel line over the hull has a clearance at the white top, so the shroud can shove over it and even might gain some 'stay-put' from it. It isn't ready yet. There are the small side thrusters I have to make. I also have to do the fairings over the ends of the fuel lines and ducts of the core stage. All of that will come later. This has to do for now. See y'all soon! (-;

[elliott]

Nice textures.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Well, here's the bottom part of Planck. The latticework was a challenge but in the end it does look right. Never mind the fisheye in some shots, the proportions are quite good in real life (-;
Sorry for the small progress, I still have to nurse my GF back to health...

[Retired_for_now]

Nice - and a good investment of your time with your GF (might get away with sitting with her while fiddling away ... or not). Always like to see things from the perspective of a different designer and builder - and your Franken-Planck is very interesting.
Keep on fiddling,
Yogi

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Thanks Yogi. GF is getting better. She had a huge shortage in Vitamin D and didn't have any energy left but it gets better quite rapidly now due to light therapy and liquid doses of Vitamin D. She means the world to me and I do anything for her.
Meanwhile, I have to take an unwanted break until my new glasses arrive, last week my bag with keys, wallet and glasses were stolen.. BUMMER! (and some genuine curses, too) New pair of glasses are underway but it will take a week or two...

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Almost a month later. Sorry. But I got some new glasses and so I could fire up the model building engine again. It is slow because my GF needs lots of care still. We think it will be a longer journey back to health than we at first expected...
Anyways, Planck. That's what I was fiddling with. I redid the baffle around the mirrors and made it slightly bigger to fit better upon the octagon. Mirrors were made from shiny metallic card, backed with a couple of layers of black card. CA was used for attaching the mirrors inside the baffle. (the insides were coated with aluminium tape) A little misting occurred but it is hardly noticeable.
The receiving instrument unit was made from gold metallic paper and for the bunch of little tubes (is it a collimator?) I just did a little punched-out circle with little holes in it. For me a good enough representation of what actually is there... Rolling tubes is fun but not in that size.

Next, the back plate was added, latticework (made from pins) was placed. Lastly, the solar panel was attached to the bottom (the old one got some smears from handling so I removed it.) Thanks to the magnet it snaps into place upon its pedestal at the 2nd stage and the SYLDA shroud fits over it just like the real thing. And it fits great, Planck's top part just peeps into the ring Herschel has to sit on. That's it for now, Herschel is next.

[luke strawwalker]

Very nice work! Looking forward to seeing more.

Best wishes for good health for you and your girlfriend...

Later! OL JR

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Originally Posted by luke strawwalker

Very nice work! Looking forward to seeing more.

Best wishes for good health for you and your girlfriend...

Later! OL JR

Thank you. To top that off, Apparently I have a head cold now, so no building stuff at the moment. I'd sneeze all parts off the desk.

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Aaaaaand there we go again. Just a little sniff now and then is all that's left from my cold. (Here I am, discussing my health. Am I getting old?)

Planck. It still needed some brackets around the base. So I gave Planck its brackets. I used mat paper and covered it with aluminium sticky tape. The real thing also has wrapped brackets. So after that it was onwards to Herschel.

After the obligatory drawing sessions to get me familiar with the model, I started out with cutting the service module, the bus. All of this model is based on Yogi's model, however, I use his model as a template to cut out the shapes from heavy card and other materials. Yogi's Herschel is over at Jon Leslie's Lower Hudson Paper Model Gift Shop.
The main bus was edge glued and covered in crinkled chocolate wrapper. This was painted in anthracite and silver. I was having a hard time figuring out how to put Herschel on its pedestal up the SYLDA shroud but after I saw Herschel had a thickened circular shape at the bottom all fell into place. I now can push the model snugly into the ring at the top of SYLDA.

The detailing, well, I just udes Yogi's model as a guide and started to cut out all these small pieces of glossy coloured paper. Black(ish), silver, brass. I used some ESA reference pictures for this too, but the drawings often deviate from the real thing. And sometimes are way off. So it's hard to actually get it 100% accurate. But that is not my intention anyway. It's mainly there to show some bustle at the places it has wiring or sensors.

The wiring on the top was made from some electrical cable I had in the spares box. Glued it with CA.
Well, there you have it. Up next is the Dewar, or cryostat vessel, I think.

[spacerunner]

Hello PK,
amazing attention to detail, I like it.