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Thank you. Glad you're enjoying the background stuff too. I've learned loads as I've researched building the model which has been a big part of my enjoyment too. :) Quick MAG truss update: 2 triangles cut out, 238 to go:laughrolling: Each triangle requires 6 cuts (2 per line from corner to...

Magnetometer (MAG) boom arm: I've saved this till last ... you'll see why below! There are 2 low-field magnetometers on the Voyager spacecraft. One is midway down the 13m (43 feet) arm and the other is at the far end. How did they get a 13m long boom stored and then deploy it on a compact...

Plasma Wave instrument antennae: These were 10m long. Here's an amazing article shows how they got 10m antennae to extend after deployment. First they form a hollow tube from a long narrow sheet of beryllium copper, and then they unfolded it back into a long thin rectangle, rolled it onto a...

Instrument calibration panel/shunt radiator: This small piece should be plain on the outside (in order to have a flat blank surface for the cameras to calibrate against), and the ribs are on the inside as shown in a picture at this webpage...

Overall result so far ...

Through doing this model I've learned that it's sometimes not easy to work out exactly what things looked like for designing a model, particularly this far back (1970s). A lot of internet photos are of test versions or of the "spare" one they built which wasn't used, and sometimes parts are...

So, nearly there. But wait ... I feel the need for a little more greebling ... Greebling 3: RTG enhancements At the end of the RTG is that silver structure, I guess it's a protective shield or something. That looks doable :) Cut some parts out (including a few strips in case I decided to...

Well that "tomorrow" turned out to be nearly 2 weeks! Life got in the way. So here's a catch up with some progress made since. More Instruments added: First the two Star Trackers, complete with UV glue "lenses" - they orient the spacecraft in relation to the star Canopus. Why Canopus and not...

Think I'll stick to the 240 for the Magnetometer Truss on this model for now. Hats off to you and Dan and anyone else who has the patience for the Tokyo Tower!

Hmmm, I reckon there's a student somewhere who may pick up on this phenomenon and theorise perhaps a planet inhabited by our missing pieces, a la Veet Voojagig in HHGTTG about the missing biros and the biro planet!

Instrument Assembly: Finally it's time to put some of these pieces together. Firstly a slight heart in mouth moment when I realised that the smaller greebled lens cover on the imaging camera had gone missing. The 1.5mm one. Miraculously I found it on the floor, undamaged! So once that was...

Greebling 2d: IRIS instrument itself: Adding the collector in front of the mirror and the shroud around it all. I planned to build the collector from a circle of card on the mirror, the mount column, an inverted cone, then a curved triangle and 2 more circular layers to build at least something...

Greebling 2c: Spectrometer Assembly. From the photographs earlier and from the line drawing of Voyager in the model's instructions, it's clear that there are lots of interpretations. I chose to go for the general shape and connection to the instrument boom of this: With the IRIS looking...

Greebling 2b: Imaging camera: This was asking for some lens hoods to make it more realistic. Cut, coloured and rolled a couple of rings from normal 80gsm paper, the smaller one is only 1.5mm diameter, rolled round a needle. A quick dip on a smear of CA glue and they're on, really helps to...

Greebling 2: Instruments: I want to add a few details to some of the instruments, especially the photopolarimeter and the imaging gear beyond just the clear glue applied to the lens areas. Researching 70s technology you realise just how few photographs exist of the original working spacecraft...