It was a harbinger of disaster...a small puff of smoke on the right solid rocket booster caught by a camera just at lift off
This puff of smoke was found to be a sign of a leaky o-ring joint in the right solid rocket booster that was one of the factors that would lead to the explosion and loss of the Orbiter and all on board
The inspiration photo for the diorama
My version.
The model is a Lindberg 1/200 Shuttle, solid rocket boosters (SRB's) and main engine tank.
The rest is made out of my head
Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=637&t=23639
The main engines of the shuttle ignite at T-six seconds....and the shuttle complex will “twang” front to back....unfortunately flexing the SRB joints and opening up the right side one and the smoke billowed out in the same resonance frequency as the twang movements. As the solid boosters ignighted, they burn off an aluminum slag that filled the gap and stopped more leakage. Just before the shuttle entered “max Q” stress point before it punches through the atmosphere, there was a 300mph crosswind that stressed the joint again and dislodged the slag, then when they went to full engines again it all blew up.
Coming through your screen
The shuttle complex
I am pretty happy with how this turned out, learned a lot about the Challenger and the shuttle projects as well as modelling under a bit of pressure.
I think I pulled off what I wanted and the LED lighting makes the dio if you ask me. I also like the smoke and the flame deflectors in the fire pit under the base.
Looks cool all lit in the dark
I did much more scratch work than ever before and could go on and on adding details to these complicated structures.
My self imposed time pressure made me limit and delete some planned details, especially on the shuttle’s base.
I thank you all for looking in
No Words..... 
