International Space Station

I wanted to make a version of the ISS in the configuration as it was in 2005 during the Expedition 11 Mission.  This has had cosmonaut Sergei Krikalov and astronaut John Phillips, and is of special interest because John is my wife's brother.

I did not want to spend the effort (at least at this time) needed to do a 1/144th version, based on my recent experience with a Mir model.  So I got a couple of copies of the Russian Start kit, which was labelled as 1/288th scale.  Well, after some research and study of the kit, it turned out to be reasonable accurate but at 1/315th scale.  Of course I had to do a fair amount of modifying because the kit was of the final planned configuration, and I wanted the current arrangement.

The scale plans available on NASA's website:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/scalemodel/index.html
proved very helpful, despite not being very detailed.  I was able to use most of the main modules, but I had to scratchbuild a P6 solar array tower along with the solar array trusses.  Some of the radiators had to be added.  I drew my own solar panels on the computer and printed them on cardstock and used them throughout.  It's not exactly a super detailed model but it's a decent representation of what's flying today.