Completed secondary mirror assembly with the struts replaced and a BMF-coverd mirror in place. I don't know if a refection of the the mirror will be visible in the primary mirror or not but if it is so much the better.
A look at the major kit parts with most of the heavy, over scale, detail removed, the star tracker ports opened, and scratch built solar array frame work.
The aperture door with my first attempt at scratch built hand holds (they are likely going to be redone).
A look at the solar array supports. The one on the right has been completed while the one on the left is ready for final detailing. What isn't visible is the piano wire that goes through the styrene rod and extends the length of the arrays to add strength to the join and prevent drooping when the panels are attached. These rods end up covered in foil and won't be visible.
Surgery in progress on the base plate of the instrument section. I'm removing the lip which would have helped hold the 2 halves together if it was snap assembled. The real deal is flush here so off with teh lip!
A look at the 2 halves of the equipment section after the application of Apoxie Sculpt and Mr. Surfacer to smooth out the over-scale detail in the upper section and the seams of the access doors scribed and hinges attached. The half on the right has all the hand rails completed and is ready for priming while the half on the left only has the handrail attachment points in place. These will be snipped to height prior to installing the rail. This mad it easier to put them in place.
Scratch building the forward trunnion pins. These weren't included in the kit. I tacked the upright (square) portion in place with white glue to make it easier to measure and place the braces. These will be set in place permanently after foiling to optical telescope assembly.
The finished primary mirror and baffle ready for installation in the optical telescope assembly. The Alclad Chrome doesn't reflect as clear an image as I'd hoped but it will have to do.
Nearly completed NICMOS radiator, a few more details will be added after it's attached to the Hubble.
To make sure I'd be able to mount the model securely on its base, I glued a styrene tube in the instrument section after attaching the telescope assembly to one of the halves. A 1/8' rod will slide snugly into this tube.
Scratch building some surface details, in this case some louvers that will go on one of the access doors. I used pins to build a quick jig to align everything as I went
Here's a look at the soft capture mechanism mounted on the aft end of the Hubble. The ring and petals aren't attached yet so I'll be able to spray pant underneath them. Also visible are a number of the scratch built handrails.
I used a printout of the paper model available on the HST website as a template to build the handrails for the telescope's optical tube. First I attached the little square posts using a bit of white glue. Then I trimmed them all to the same height using some thick styrene laid alongside them then nipped them with sprue cutters. I then attached a length of rod and painted them prior to attaching them to the model. This differed from the way I build the handrails on the instrument section where I built them directly on the model. I did these differently since the instrument section was painted while the optical tube was foiled.
Here's a look at the underside and topside of the solar arrays. The details on the underside are decals.
A look at progress so far, it's getting there slowly but surely.
A screenshot from Photoshop showing the warp distortion applied to the original photo to turn the curved face of the WPC3 into a flat decal. The photo was then cropped and sized to 1:72 scale.
A progression of shots showing how I'm painting the cells on the solar panels. The top shot is the first step where I've sprayed the panel with aluminum. The second shot shows how they looked after spraying a coat of metallic blue purposely varying the coverage to try and give them a little depth. The last shot was taken after misting a coat of metallic purple again varying the amount of coverage.One last step remains, I'll spray a few more mist coats of Alclad Sapphire Prismatic to help make
A pdf of the decals I've made for the Hubble. They are for the bottom side of the solar arrays and to depict the WPC3 camera installed on the last servicing mission. They were drawn over photos taken during the mission. The wiring on the arrays isn't exact but is a good representation IMHO.
To scratch build the soft capture mechanism added on the last servicing flight, I needed to come up with a ring. After a vain search for anything I could use in my spares came up empty, I needed to make one. After drawing two concentric circles on 1 mm sheet styrene,I used a pinvise to drill around the in and outside perimeters and then finished the rough edges.