1/72 scale scratchbuilt styrene
MARS 1

by David Hanners

  

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This is a scratchbuilt model of one of the many design concepts being studied for a manned Mars lander. As designs go, it ain’t real sexy, but I figured I should do one of these before I move on to a version with exposed fuel tanks and other details.

The main body is .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, which was shaped and sanded. Two truncated cones make up the bottom propulsion section. One is the exterior and it was given external ribbed detail with half-round styrene strip and other bits and pieces.

The other truncated cone makes up the recessed “well” that holds the nozzle. 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 decals, including the cockpit windows and thermal protection system tiles, were homemade on my computer and printed out onto white decal stock. Except for the NASA “meatball” and the American flag (which I cut and pasted from the Internet) I designed all other decals and markings on my computer.

The base is a piece of foam-core poster board covered with spackling paste, unused cat litter and rocks from the backyard. It was painted a rusty red, then weathered and glued to an old picture frame.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images: 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2004 by David Hanners
Page Created 24 August, 2004
Last Updated 23 August, 2004

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