MSL diorama [4]

We're finished. Curiosity has also landed on the surface of this diorama. Today I made the arm, the things on the front and top deck (two drill bit holders up front and three skyhooks on the top deck - with these Curiosity was attached to the cables of the Sky Crane. Up front on the side there is the hinge of the camera boom. This boom, or pole if you will, lies flat on the top deck during transport and landing and has yet to be deployed. My 1/48 version can be straightened, too. And the camera head can turn.  I used tightly rolled paper tubes and a pin for this construction. the camera head slides over this construction and is only glued to the paper.
As usual after the jump are more pictures of the finished model and diorama.
If you like it, please feel free to leave a comment!

Curiosity is on the surface!

-PK

First an overview. The base plate is about 25 x 25 cm, the Sky Crane hovers at about 25 cm above the rover.

Now then, some details. The Sky Crane's exhaust is made from fiberfill stuff. Thin, almost transparent and it actually looks quite like the original exhaust.

Seen from below.

The silvery straight wire is the one Sky Crane is attached to. You just can discern the exhaust plumes here.

Finally some close ups of Curiosity herself. I added some electrical wiring (just sewing thread) to the bogeys. There cables provide power to the six wheels, they all have their own electro motor. All pivoting and rotating points in this model, the wheel bogeys and the camera mast, are moving around a pin.

The arm has been made from pieces of cocktail sticks and punched out circles of mat paper.

You can just see the pin the camera mast rotates up on and the red thicker piece in the mast hides where the upper part is attached to the lower part, here the top part can rotate. 

Curiosity awake and ready to explore.

the camera openings are all receded.

just to give you an idea of the scale.

I guess this might be my most moveable model to day. Not the smallest, not the most detailed, just most moveable. I like it a lot. It looks the part, it shows its features very well and it is demonstrable.
If you also like this model (and the aeroshell and sky crane too) you can download them at Jon Leslie's site. Here is the Sky Crane, here is the Cruise Stage and here is Curiosity.
the kit parts originally differ in size, and I built everything in a very small scale. the rover was made in 25% of its original size (1/12), the cruise stage is 1/48 (not seen in this diorama but a good kit) and the sky crane originally was 1/20.
Thanks for watching!