Hello all,

I thought you might enjoy a few images of my scratchbuilt New Horizons.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff38/jg...izons/NH_01.jpg (HGA side)
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff38/jg...izons/NH_02.jpg (anti-HGA side)
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff38/jg...izons/NH_03.jpg (star trackers and LORRI)
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff38/jg...izons/NH_04.jpg (RALPH & ALICE)
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff38/jg...s/NH_PIO_05.jpg (with Pioneer)


My model was inspired by Karl Dodenhoff’s build at http://www.myspacemuseum.com/newhorizons.htm, and I took advantage of his research.

Karl linked to CAD drawings of New Horizons from a couple of years before the spacecraft was completed that are available in PDF on spaceref.com, but they are incomplete and inaccurate. They do not show the thermal control louvers on the side of the spacecraft opposite the high-gain antenna, and the PEPSSI and Student Dust Counter instruments are inaccurate and improperly placed. Despite the images Karl linked to on his webpage, I’m fairly sure I didn’t get all the details on the complex RALPH and PEPSSI right.

However, the basic layout of the spacecraft on the CAD drawings was correct, so I printed out the plans at 1:24 scale, so my New Horizons would match my just-completed RealSpace Models Pioneer 10 and the Voyager that was on order. The basic structure was made of 40-mil styrene sheet.

The high-gain antenna was cut from an inexpensive vacuformed plastic celestial sphere that was essentially an identical matches for the radius of curvature of the high gain antenna as shown in the plans.

I struggled with the louvers for maybe 15 hours. I simply could not find a picture I could use to be certain I had the placement and number of louver panels in each set correct, so I did the best I could.

The instruments were built out of styrene card. The star trackers and feed horn for the high gain antenna were tips of mechanical pencils, purchased in a back-to-school sale at Staples for about $2 for 10 pencils. The foil came from a couple of large, exotic Hershey bars.

The model took way more time than I want to calculate—it’s got to be around 100 hours over about 10 weeks. New Horizons is my first scratchbuild and only the second kit I’ve completed in about 10 years (right after my Pioneer). Voyager is up next!


Question for you all: does anybody have an accurate drawing showing the louvers that they'd be willing to share? Please let me know.

Many thanks,

Jeff

Very nice, Jeff! The side-by-side comparison to Pioneer is pretty interesting.

John.

That struck me too, John. 30+ years of tech advances apparently shows well!

Superb work Jeff... Contact me off-forum for more details

Amazing work!