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The antenna support
Sintra has the advantage of being able to be vacuumformed, but without going until there you can very easily bend it after having plunged it in hot water. It is thus with this technique that I formatted the antenna support after having cut out it. The sheets which cover it are simply printed on paper which is glued with two-sided tape, the result is really very good. The complete support is built in 3 parts for facilities of moulding.
The engine block
To save time, I decide to build only one half block, to mould it, to cast it 2 times and to connect the 2 parts. The shape is cut out in Sintra, as well as the protuberance on the side which consists of several carved thicknesses. The technique for the details is particular and no time consuming (we are in July 2000, it remains approximately 6 months to finish the model): I print the modules details in plasticine, I cast a thin layer of polyester gel-coat, I release and clean the plasticine remainders with trichlore, then I glue the many details obtained on the engine block. Some small sheets are added at the adequate places.
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In front of the engine block there are a succession of a disc, cones and of an ellipsoidal part (when you look it from front). The disc is turned in Sintra then detailed by small parts, the cones are turned in MDF then detailed with the usual technique. The ellipse consists of 2 thicknesses of MDF turned to have the shape of a cone, the whole then being cut out with the jigsaw then sanded to obtain the particular shape of this part. I carry it out the evening of the Concorde crash on Gonesse, I don't really have the heart to do it... After painting and sanding, streaks are engraved with a point following the edge of a metal sheet.
The 2 protuberances close to the engines are cut out in Sintra (first versions cut out in vulgar wood being too wide), puttied with the finishing cellulose putty of the SoloPlast make (a wonder, it dries into 5 mn !), the details are added with the gel-coat casts, cardboard and stretched plastic.
The engines are made up of several parts, in the order a ringed tube, a step cone, a " nut " and the hexagonal back part. The tube is a PVC turned pipe, the cone is MDF turned, the nut is in Sintra and the hexagons are in MDF cut with the minidrill. Stretched plastic pipes and small sheets are glued on these parts. Styrene sheets are glued to the back, they exceed the base form according to the explicit photographs (for once) on the subject. The " reactors " are tubes of various diameters, the grids will be build with photoetched parts.
The delay shorten
In June 2000, Jean-Marc Deschamps (from now employee from Histoire & Collections) says to me that a special issue of the french magazine "Dixième Planète" devoted to 2001 will come out in April 2001. An article on the construction of Discovery will appear in it, it is necessary that it is finished for February 15, 2001! What wants to say one month and half in less for the building! The time will be lengthened a little later, the maximum date to return the photographs of the finished model is set to March 15, 2001.