Scale: 1/72
Styrene; Scratchbuilt
This is a scratchbuilt model of one of the many design concepts being studied for a manned Mars lander. It is a fairly simple, unadorned design. It flies to Mars attached to a larger spacecraft, un-docks, enters the atmosphere protected by its thermal protection system (TPS) tiles and then uses its rocket motor for a soft landing.
The main body was built from .015 sheet styrene rolled into a cylinder and three truncated cones. One of the truncated cones makes up the top, and the rounded nose was made from Miliput. A styrene cylinder makes up the middle section. The bottom propulsion section is two truncated cones -- one for the exterior portion, and one for the recessed well that holds the rocket motor nozzle. Detail was added to the exterior portion with half-round styrene strip and other bits and pieces. The nozzle was scavenged from an old “Space:1999” Eagle and was cut and sanded to shape.
The egress hatch was made from the bottom of a plastic pill bottle, cut to shape and faired in with Super Glue. The landing legs and footpads were made from strip styrene, and the landing gear fairings were made from sheet styrene that was heat-formed over a carved wooden mold.
The white base coat was from a can of spray enamel that I bought at the local hardware store. The metallic shades are various shades of Testors Metallizer paints.
The decals, including the cockpit windows and TPS tiles, were designed on my computer and printed out onto white decal stock. The NASA “meatball” and American flag were cut-and-pasted from Internet sources and added to the decal sheet when I printed it out.
