as205

July 6

I was able to get back on the Atlas and got a few things done. I primed the oxygen feed line, turbopump exhaust, capsule adapter, engine nozzles, and skirt. The oxygen feed line looks better than I thought it would but the primer does show up some areas that need more work. The turbopump exhaust came out looking pretty good.

The capsule adapter looks good as well.

The booster nozzles still don't look all that great. I'm still deciding what I'll do about them.

The sustainer nozzle details that I tried to repair came out relatively well. The body of the nozzle is not too accurate though.

After priming the skirt I'm happy with it so far. You can see that a small curved part above the flat square between the middle stringers was added. I don't know just what it is but it's there now.

I then started working on the small extension to the long equipment pod. I began by taking some 0.040" sheet and cutting a couple of shapes that matched the contour shown on the Weeks' drawing. I then attached the two with two sections of 3/32" tube.

I then skinned the outward facing side of the part with some 0.010" sheet stock. I then added a second layer on top of that. I didn't have any 0.020" sheet on hand so doubling up the 0.010" worked out fine. I then used Plasti-Zap CA to glue the extension to the bottom of the long pod.

There are a couple of details that needed to be added to the extension. First was a small round port near the top of the extension. I drilled a 3/32" hole in the proper place and then glued a small square of 0.010" sheet behind the hole. There are five square ports at the bottom of the extension. To do those I drilled 1/16" holes and then used my X-acto knife to square them up.

I then used some more 0.010" sheet behind the holes to finish them off.

I'm thinking about sanding off all the raised detail on the pods and replacing it with more accurate recessed lines.

June 23

Here is a quick update on the oxygen feed line work. The top of the feed line that connects to the oxygen tank portion of the body was just a ball with a small cylinder that attaches to the body. That was definitely not what the part should look like. It needed to just be an elbow. So to that end, I sanded the ball into a rough elbow shape and then added some Tamiya white putty to finish off the shape. The below photo shows a view 90 degrees from the tank.

This photo shows the part from the side. You can see the elbow shape better. You might also notice that some of the details on the feed line have been removed. I won’t be scratch building all the details of the feed line but I did want to remove parts that just weren’t there. You can compare this view to the previous post to see what was removed. Obviously more work is needed, but I think I'll spray it with some primer to better see the condition of the part.

That's it for now.

June 16

The below photo shows the main body of the Atlas glued to the conical forward section. I used thin CA to be sure the glue covered all the bonding surfaces of the resin conical section. You can see where some of the CA flowed into the area between the acrylic main tube and the resin. That should provide a strong bond with the resin.

After the CA set I applied putty around the join area to fill the seam line and build up any low spots. The white areas around the adapter are the Tamiya white putty that I used.

Next I added extensions to the equipment pods. They were both too short. I made the extension by using blue painters tape around the end. I used the final raised line on the resin section to get the tape even around the part. I then shaped the tape as best I could. The hardest part was the sharp corners where the sides of the equipment pods meet the main body. I made a mark with a black marker on the outside of the tape so I would know when to stop pouring the 30 minute epoxy into the tape form. I placed the nose of each equipment pod into a piece of clay to keep it vertical while the epoxy set. I let them cure overnight and then removed the tape.

The photo also shows where I have started applying putty to fill in low spots and correct some of the shape of the cured epoxy. There will definitely be more putty used here. Also note that I added putty to the nose of the short pod. It needed to have a sharper tip. The tip of the long one doesn’t need to be sharp since an oxygen pressurization line will run from the tip to the top of the conical section.

The long pod will also have a 3/8″ long smaller diameter section added to the end. I think I’ll do that with some 0.040″ and 0.010″ sheet styrene. I’ll make patterns based on the drawings and then assemble the bits and glue it to the end of the pod.

I finally got the curve out of the oxygen feed line. I then started doing some smoothing and filling. I'm pretty sure there will be more corrections coming for this part.

It’s been hard finding time but I’m still determined to get this kit done. It’s actually kind of fun fixing some of these flaws. I also think, at least in my case, that it’s better than scratch building the whole thing. If I had to do that, it just wouldn’t happen. It seems that I need a starting point and these old kits provide at least that.

June 8

By the way, in a previous post I think I complained about some Plastruct strip styrene that was badly formed. Well it was actually Evergreen plastic not Plastruct. Sorry Plastruct, my bad.

I also forgot about sanding the pour plugs off the heat shields. It was a very tedious task, which I'm sure someone will tell me how I could have done it easier. What I did was attach a strip of 80 grit sandpaper to my work mat. I then separated the heat shields from each other. I removed as much of the excess resin with clippers as I dared. Then one by one I started sanding them down. Their thinness made the job harder because it was easy to loose grip while carefully pushing the part back and forth across the sandpaper. Eventually the job got done. Here is a photo before I started sanding the last heat shield. At one point I noticed that I had partially sanded off my fingerprint on one finger. Residual numbness from carpal tunnel syndrome caused me to not notice for a while.

Before starting the main turbopump exhaust I decided to add the enclosure and braces for the fuel fill and drain line. I began by adding a triangular piece on either side of the existing drain line mount point. I made them from .010″ sheet styrene.

I next added a top piece and shaved down the part of the mount that extends past the triangles.

To complete the main housing I added another rectangular piece that covered the mount. I then drilled out a hole so the fuel fill/drain line can pass through.

Next the fuel fill/drain line was glued in place.

Before adding the final details for the fuel fill/drain line I added a small rectangle with beveled edges that sits a little off the to right. I haven’t found yet what it is for but I added it to match the Weeks drawings.

To finish off the addition, I removed a bit of plastic from the top of the three stringers that sit above the housing. Then a square of .010″ sheet was glued in place and I used some Vallejo plastic putty to fill the gaps. Then at the intersection of the new square and the housing I placed an inverted “V” made of .025″ rod. Next I added a small angled bit of .040″ strip just above the square on the center stringer. Then some additional .025″ rod was added from the .040″ strip to the vertex of the “V”. One additional length of .025″ rod was added from the vertex to the bend in the fuel fill/drain fixture. The completed addition can be seen in the two photos below.

Work then moved on to the main turbopump exhaust port. I started by using heat from an embossing heat gun to soften the 7/32″ styrene tubing and bending it to shape. Here is a photo of the tubing after bending. Next to it is the kit supplied part. You also might just make out some putty on the tubing I made. I created some depressions from the bending process so I filled them in and sanded it back to round.

The next step involved adding a brace to which the main bracing struts attach. I used 0.010″ sheet to make the brace. I attached it with Tenax plastic weld. Here are a couple of photos from different angles. I tried to match the angles shown on the David Weeks drawings.

The next step involved adding some additional bracing to the top and bottom of the 0.010″ brace. I used some 0.025″ rod to make the braces. The ends that attach to the exhaust tube will be slightly rounded later.

Then I drilled a 3/32″ hole in the solid brace to allow another tube to pass through. Again following the Weeks drawings and some photos, I cut a section of 3/32″ rod that will allow it to run from just past the end of the main tube to a fair amount past the start of the exhaust port. Here are a couple of photos of the new pipe bent and glued into place.

I also drilled out a bit of the small tube on the exit end.

To check the fit of the exhaust port I dry fitted it to the boat tail with the dry fitted nozzles. I drilled a 3/32″ hole next to the exhaust port to anchor the small tube.

There are other braces that will fit from the bottom of the boat tail to the exhaust tube brace. I’ll add those later.

That's all I've got so far. I'm planning on painting this part before I attach it to the main body. I've also got to get a clear picture of how I'm going to attach this model to a base. I have an idea, but I've got to do some measuring and testing first.

June 2

Thanks guys. Old school is most of what I know. I'm only starting to dabble with 3D modeling.

Slow progress. Here is what I have done since the last post.

I was studying the model and what I had done with the stringers on the capsule adapter and I decided that I had to fix the stringers on the boat tail. I sanded down the molded in stringers on one side of the part. I was able to sand down all the raised parts without much trouble. Also note on the lower part of the boat tail I sanded down some molded in strips that were much too tall. I sanded them to match the other raised parts on the lower boat tail.

Sanding them off did not reveal any new pin holes. Yea!! I also made similar changes to the opposite side.

The stringers are 2″ square on the full size vehicle. That makes 0.040″ square strips just about right at 1/48 scale. I had more than enough on hand so no trip to the hobby shop was needed. Here is a photo of the side where the fill and drain lines are. All the stringers have been installed on this side.

To make my guide marks I put the part upside down on the David Weeks drawing and marked where each stringer should be for both sides. Minor adjustments had to be made to fit all the stringers around the details. I used a similar procedure to put the stringers on the other side.

I then started on the under side of the boat tail where the nozzles will be. There is a much too large hole for the center nozzle to pass through. I made an approximate pattern for the hole and then cut a disk of 0.040″ sheet stock. I made a few adjustments to get the disk to fit the hole and then used some Plasti-zap CA glue to hold it in place. Blue painters tape was applied over the disk on the outside to keep any epoxy from seeping out of the edges. I then mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and applied it to the edges of the disk from the inside of the hole. Here is a photo after the blue tape was removed.

Here is a photo with the center engine heat shield placed where it will eventually be to show how much larger the hole was compared to the heat shield.

For grins I placed the other two heat shields and took a photo. The heat shield with the hole is the one that I'm going to open up first so the nozzle can be placed through it.

To get ready to open the center heat shield I did a rough measurement and then used a grinding bit to open the shape. In the photo below, the protrusion on the left is for the turbopump exhaust that is on the center nozzle. This has to be done to let the center nozzle fit through to the sustainer rear bulkhead, only now the hole is more a appropriate size.

I then started opening up the heat shields. I started by drilling a small hole near the center (as seen above). Then I used successively larger bits up to 11/32". Then I used a small sanding drum in my Dremel to widen the hole. Then it took many test fits to get the hole to the proper size to fit the nozzles. The center heat shield with the protrusion was carved out with a small straight grinding bit. They are quite thin and I had to hold them by hand while grinding off the excess resin.

I drilled a 1/16" hole in both the sustainer base and the nozzle. I put a 1/16" rod in the base end and it will be used as a locator pin for the center nozzle.

During the heat shield process I was periodically test fitting all the nozzles.

Once all the heat shield were ground to the proper size I test fitted everything.

Now time to make the main turbopump exhaust pipe. Hopefully I can get some more work done this next week. So many things to do and so little time.

May 28

I took some time off from the capsule adapter to drill out the fuel fill and drain pipe. There were two in the kit, but only one is needed for the model. I put them side by side to show the difference after drilling.

Apparently the adapter is still just a bit too small for 1/48 scale. I found this out while I was using Affinity Designer to create a couple of marking guides for the top and bottom of the capsule adapter. I started by making the pattern the length of the circumference of the upper and lower edges. I then put 108 small lines along that length. Looking at the first making guide it was apparent that I just didn’t have enough room for all 108 stringers. I started removing them until I had a better spacing between stringers. I ended up with 102. Missing 6 will hardly be noticed so I’m good with 102.

I drew a vertical line on the adapter and then the top and bottom marking guides were placed with tape. I made sure to place one of the guide marks from each guide on the vertical line when taping them down. Pencil marks were then made next to each tick on the marking guide. Then the tape was removed and both marking guides slid off the adapter. The photo shows the marking guides and a couple of 0.020″ square strips that will be attached. You can just make out the guide marks on the adapter.

Before attaching the stringers, I cut a thin section of 3/16″ styrene tube to represent the oxygen vent on the side of the adapter. Next the center point of the vent was measured and marked and then the ring was glued in place. Here is a photo of it installed.

Next I began applying the stringers using Tenax liquid weld. Here is a photo after going through the first of the 12″ long strips. I laid each strip on the adapter and trimmed it to the needed length. Then I lined it up with the top and bottom guide marks. A small drop of Tenax was carefully touched to each end and the stringer was gently adjusted into position. When it was where I wanted it I ran a tiny bead of Tenax along the length of the stringer.

After doing the first 22 stringers, I took a break and went back to my reference photos to try and find a photo that would show the hold down points on the booster engine fairings. I’ve never liked the look of the kit hold-downs that were molded into the skirt. But I hadn’t found a good photo to show what they actually looked like. It took some, time but I finally found one that gives me a fair look.

I used a sanding stick to re-shape the hold-down points. Here is what I have. They need a bit more clean up but I’ve got the beginnings of the shape I need.

Here it is from another angle.

After that diversion, I went back to the capsule adapter to finish applying the remaining 80 stringers. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more 0.020″ square strips. I made a trip to the local Hobby Town and bought the only package they had left. They are sold in 10 strip packs. Mine had 11. It’s a lucky break for me that there were 11. As I pulled out the first strip and prepared to start putting them on the adapter, I noticed that one end was larger than the other.

The strip would start out as a square of 0.020″ but as I looked further down the strip it got wider. The thickness stayed at 0.020″ but the width varied from 0.020″ at one end to 0.035″ at the other. I checked all the strips and found that two were consistently 0.020″ but the others varied like the first one I pulled out. It seemed that about the first 5 to 6 inches were usable but beyond that they just got too wide. Taking the package back to Hobby Town wasn't an option since it was their last pack. I was lucky and had enough good strip to get the adapter covered.

The photo below shows the nearly completed adapter. The last five stringers will be placed after I get the oxygen vent shroud fabricated. I started that by putting a small 3/32″ ring inside the large ring to finish off the vent. Next, I cut two triangular strips from some 0.010″ sheet styrene.

Next I cut a square of the 0.010″ sheet and glued it to the top of the triangles.

Finally, the remaining five stringers were added above and below the oxygen vent. The adapter is resting on the shank of my X-acto knife to get a better look.

That pretty much completes the adapter. More to come.

May 14

I've started work on the angular details on the sustainer nozzle and they are looking much better. Not quite finished yet, but looking better. There are still a bazillion holes all over the molding. Those are going to be a pain. You can see from the below photo that I have also sanded off all the molded in stringers on the capsule adapter. After looking at the drawings it was clear that the molded in stringers just wouldn't do the job. This is going to take more work than I had originally hoped.

I worked on the equipment pods to fill in the dents and holes. While I was doing that it seemed as though they might be shorter than they should be. Since the drawings are in 1/48 scale I laid them on the drawings to see if they need adjustments. Yes, they do. They are definitely too short. I’ll have to find a way to fix that. Below is a photo.

After further examination of the drawings, the capsule adapter doesn’t have the bottom raised bit. So I sanded it off. I also added a strip of 0.010" x 0.060" styrene around the top of the capsule adapter. I added it to enlarge the retaining ring for the 1/48 Mercury capsule. Here is a close up.

I test fitted an old 1/48 Mercury model I had in my junk box. The capsule is too wide to fit. So I sanded down the part of the strip that extends above the resin adapter. Then I added a strip of 0.010" x 0.040" styrene. When I test fitted the capsule again it seems to match the capsule’s diameter much better. In this photo you can see the extra layer I added.

I also noted that after sanding off all the details on the adapter, it's a bit too narrow. To fix that I cut a cone pattern from 0.010" sheet styrene and glued it to the outside of the adapter using Plasti-Zap CA glue.

I test fitted all the major parts to see where they might still need work.

Overall the fit looks pretty good. I’ll have to add another strip of 0.010" x 0.060" styrene to the upper edge of the adapter so that it will extend up a bit over the capsule. That should get the capsule fit where I want it.

They capsule adapter stringers were 1″ x 1″ on the full size vehicle. At 1/48 scale that means that I need to use 0.020″ square strips to model the stringers. The drawings also say that they were 3° 20″ apart around the adapter. That makes 108 stringers total. I don't I have enough strip stock for that, so it's time for a trip to the local Hobby Town.

May 11

Thanks Pete,

It is a bugger. Lots of sanding and cutting. We got our first grandbaby a couple of months ago, so that's soaking up some time. I don't mind, he's just so cute.

Randy

May 7

I've finally decided to tackle the Wings Mercury Atlas kit. I bought it from Don's Models shortly after he bought out the Wings line. Wings had previously bought out Eagle's Talon. If memory serves me correctly. It's been sitting in my stash since about 2005.

Since I recently built a 1/48 Mercury Redstone, I figured it needed an Atlas companion. Here is a shot of all the parts from the bag.

It looks like some of the molds were getting near their end of life. Many of the parts have lot's of bubble holes. The parts definitely don't look as good as the ones shown on the Ninfinger Quick Look page. The oxygen feed line has warped a bit over the last 20 years. Hopefully some steam and ice water will let me get it straightened out. I'll build the Mercury capsule from one of the Revell kits I have in my stash. At this point I think I'll model it after Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 spacecraft.

I began by looking at the boat tail part. I removed the pour plug with a razor saw. It helped that the pour plug began at the top end of the stringers. I was able to get a clean cut. The booster engine fairings had some pretty large wrinkles. If you look closely at the picture you can also see some of the rough surface and pin hole bubbles that needed to be cleaned up.

I did some sanding on the fairings and other rough areas. Here is a shot after the first round.

I turned my attention to the sustainer engine. It differs from the booster engines. It has a turbo pump exhaust that wraps around the nozzle. It also has many angular protrusions that have bubble holes in almost every one. Here you can see I’m in the process of trying to fill the holes.

I pushed the acrylic tube into the separation ring and started sanding off the pour plug. It took several sessions to finally sand all the way through. Here is a photo after it was cleaned up.

The sustainer bulkhead needed a tiny bit of sanding to get it into the tube. After that it was a nice fit. There are two protrusions on the bulkhead that keep you from pushing it too far into they acrylic tube. They also key into a couple of depressions in the boat tail. I’m not going to do a lot of detail on the bulkhead since it will be completely hidden when the model is finished. It’s a shame because it is one of the few parts that didn’t have a bunch of pin holes in it.

Here is a photo of the tube dry fitted to the boat tail.

The conical adapter that fits on top of the acrylic tube had a very pronounced mold mismatch line that required a large amount of filling and sanding.

I'm also going to clean up the Mercury capsule adapter. It has lots of pin holes. The stringer section of the adapter is very rough. There are not enough stringers and the ones molded in have very soft edges. There is no provision for the oxygen vent on the side. I'll scratch build the vent and cover. I'm also going to sand off all the stringers and apply my own. I’ve got a set of David Weeks Mercury Atlas drawings from RealSpace Models, so I’ll use those as well as photos as my guide for correcting this part.

I did a dry fit of the conical body section to the acrylic body for a fit check. The fit is fine, but on the side with the mold mismatch it doesn’t quite meet the outer edge of the booster tube. If you look carefully at the join line and you can see the tube sticking out a bit from the cone. I'll try and fix that with some putty and sanding. I'll wait to do that until after I join the two parts. Otherwise, it fits well the rest of the way around. I also checked the fit of the capsule adapter to the conical body part. It seems pretty good.

Baby steps in the build process. There are going to be long breaks looking at the parts, drawings, and photos trying to figure out how much to modify and how much to live with. But I'm still optimistic that I can get a decent looking model by the end of the build.

December 12, 2024

Not bad at all. My experience has always been that large decals are just looking for a way to screw you over and the only way to defeat them is to cut them up.

I get the frustration with the spray adhesive accident. I've not done that one, but I assure you I've made similar mistakes that make you want to pound your head against the wall. A few deep breaths and a break from the workbench has always helped.

Keep up the good work, it's looking very good.

December 12, 2024

Thanks. Usually conversions end up more involved than you think when you first get started. But, with some extra work the end result is worth the time.

December 4, 2024

I've got the Atomic 1/12 Mercury capsule in the stash. It may be a bit before I get to it, but it is a nice kit.

December 4, 2024

Yep, I caught that. I have several AMT Man In Space kits so I have donor parts.

December 4, 2024

This is the final part of my Mercury Redstone build. It is the 1/200 scale Mercury Redstone kit which is part of the AMT Man In Space kit. The other two parts are the 1/48 Mercury Redstone (featuring the Glencoe Jupiter-C, Revell Mercury capsule, and New-Ware conversion set) and the 1/72 Horizon Mercury Redstone kit.

It is a very simple kit consisting of only 6 parts. Here is the parts tree. The extra two parts at the bottom of the picture are from a spare kit in my stash. I’ll be cutting a section off and adding it to the other kit because the AMT model is substantially too short and needs to be lengthened.

This build was started at the end of July and finished in mid August. I didn't have time to post then but I do now. I decided to build this kit to depict the MR-BD booster development flight that preceded Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight. This flight upset Shepard because he and some other of the astronauts thought the flight was unnecessary. Von Braun thought it was needed since the previous test flight showed some Redstone engine anomalies and he wanted one more flight to test the changes. Shepard always thought, probably correctly, that if MR-BD had not been flown he would have been the first human in space.

I started this build by working on the bottom fin section of the kit.

It had some problems. For starters, the lumps between the fins are not on any photograph of any Redstone that I can find. They had to go. I also tapered the top of the fin guard that separates the main fin from the aerodynamic guide fin. You can also notice that there is a protrusion at the bottom of the main fin area. Those were trimmed off as well.

The below photo shows where I removed the first of the four lumps between the fins.

Here I have removed all four lumps and have also added a taper to the fin guards. You can’t really see it in the photo but I also removed some plastic from inside the part so the main body fits better. Without doing that there was a rather large gap between the parts. Note also the protrusions on the bottom of each fin have been removed.

I also tried to trim some plastic off the exhaust guide vanes on the bottom of the part. There were other problems with this section, but at this scale I didn't fix them. The part is quite small so I couldn’t trim as much off as I would have liked but it looks a bit less lumpy.

I glued the two Redstone halves together and then cut off the Mercury capsule adapter section on one of the boosters. I used tape as a guide for my razor saw to keep a straight line on the cut.

I needed a 9/16 inch section from the donor kit. That measurement does not include the length of the capsule adapter. I cut that section from the spare Redstone rocket. Here you can see the two parts that created a Redstone of the correct length.

Here is the completed booster minus the lower fin section. The joint will be cleaned up after the parts get primed so I can see the detail better.

I attacked the escape tower section next. It is kind of a hot mess, but the 1/200 scale makes it very difficult to create accurate details without using some high power magnification and steadier hands than I have. Here is a crop from the tree photo at the top of this post so you can see the badly misshapen bottom of the tower.

I trimmed quite a bit off the bottom of the part as it is wildly too large and looks nothing like a Mercury capsule part. I basically trimmed the bottom to a triangular section by following the lines of the upper section of the part. I’ll try and use paint to represent the antenna canister that is between the lower tower legs.

I’ll be using a resin disk that was excess from another kit as the base for this model. I cleaned up the pour plug on the bottom of the disk and then drilled a 1/16 inch hole to hold the short section of brass rod that will hold the rocket.

I dry fitted the lower fin section to the main rocket so I could temporarily put the kit on its kit stand. I mixed some 15 minute epoxy and poured it into the rocket from the top. The below picture shows how much got poured in. I ended up putting in way more than was needed, but it will still work just fine. The model is backlit with a flashlight to highlight the level of epoxy inside the model. The model is just resting on the kit base until the epoxy sets.

I drilled a 1/16 inch hole in the bottom of the rocket so it will fit on the new stand. Unfortunately the drill moved on me while drilling and it is slightly off center. I had to cut off a bit of one of the exhaust guide vanes to clear the hole. I really didn’t want to fill the hole and drill it again. Once it is mounted it will never be seen. Note that I also painted the bottom of the booster body with Tamiya X-10 Gun Metal. It would be very difficult to get in there after the base fins were in place as shown in the below photo.

I glued the lower fin section to the rest of the booster.

I sprayed primer on all the parts. This brought out the details better so I could fix any seam lines before painting all the parts. Below is the base. I masked the brass rod because I didn’t want paint to interfere with putting the model on the brass rod.

Here are the capsule parts after a coat of primer.

Primer was applied to the booster. Sorry for the bad focus, but you can still see the visible seam at the fin area. I wasn't sure how much of that I could get to disappear by filling and sanding. There is a slight mark around the glue joint where the extra section was glued to the forward part of the booster. That required a small amount of filling as well.

When spraying primer on the escape tower, I noticed that the side where you could see the mold line had no diagonal braces molded in, even though they were on the other two sides, as seen here.

I searched through my inventory of styrene rod and found a close match, 0.3mm (about 0.010). I cut short sections and glued them to the blank side. It matched the other side very well.

I masked the aft end of the Redstone where the white areas are supposed to be and then painted Vallejo 71.057 Black. The body is Tamiya White primer.

The more I looked at the adapter end of the Redstone the more I felt I had to do something about the umbilical covers that go around the clamp ring. I consulted my photos of the MR-BD flight and it did indeed have the umbilical covers. I found that the clamp ring area of the adapter on the model is about 0.030 wide. I took some 0.020×0.030 styrene strips and cut six short sections. One of which is shown below. I removed a bit of paint where the umbilical covers will be attached for better gluing.

I put a slight curve in three of the strips and then used Tenax to glue them to the clamp ring area. I then glued the other three to the top of the clamp ring with the wide side parallel to the clamp ring.

Here is a view from the side.

When the glue had set, I used my #11 X-acto and sanding sticks to shape the rectangles into something that roughly looks like an umbilical cover. The tape in the below photo is to protect the rocket body from the sanding sticks.

Here is a view from above.

I took a break from the umbilical covers and painted the capsule and escape tower. The capsule used on the MR-BD flight was a refurbished boilerplate from the Little Joe 1B test flight. I painted the lower section of the capsule with Vallejo 70.851 Bright Orange. The upper part is painted with Model Master 1780 Steel. The escape tower was done in the same Vallejo 71.003 Red RLM23 that I used on the previous two models. Note the small silver patch on the capsule end of the escape tower. I added it so that from a typical viewing distance it would look like the antenna adapter of the boiler plate capsule.

I took a few days drawing a set of Mercury Redstone decals that could be used for any flight. My old ALPS MD-1300 printer did a good job printing them and I coated them with Microscale liquid decal film. I painted the capsule adapter and umbilical covers Vallejo 71.057 Black and the clamp ring Vallejo 71.003 Red RLM23. I also applied the Instrument Section decal to the model.

The decal shown needs an application of MicroSol to get the decal to smooth down on the model. There was a tiny white halo at the top of the decal where I didn’t quite have the decal pushed all the way to the top. I covered that with a bit of Vallejo 71.057 Black. Here is another view from the side.

Here is a view after I applied the other decals and glued the capsule in place.

I then painted the remaining details at the aft end of the Redstone.

Next the escape tower was added.

Some of the decals were quite small. They pushed the resolution limits of the printer. The two examples shown are the “UNITED STATES” on the capsule and the MR-5 booster serial number on the aft end of the booster.

A few of the areas look a bit rough when viewing very close up, but at half an arms length they look fine. Here are a couple of views of the completed model.

Below is a photo of the complete family of Mercury Redstone models. Here they are from left to right. 1/48 Mercury Redstone featuring the Hawk (Glencoe) kit, New-Ware conversion set, and Revell capsule depicting the MR-4 Liberty Bell 7 flight. Then the 1/72 Mercury Redstone featuring the Horizon Models kit (2/3 the size of the 1/48) depicting the MR-1 4-inch flight. The 1/144 Mercury Redstone featuring the RealSpace Models kit (1/2 the size of the 1/72) depicting the MR-3 Freedom 7 flight (this model was built about 15 years ago). Finally the 1/200 Mercury Redstone featuring the AMT Man In Space kit (60% the size of the 1/144) depicting the MR-BD booster development flight that immediately preceded Freedom 7.

This was an interesting and at times challenging build. I hope you enjoyed viewing the steps. Thanks for looking.

December 4, 2024

Before starting to decal the Redstone booster, I did some more work on the Mercury capsule. I mixed two drops of Vallejo 71.004 Blue and one drop of Vallejo 71.001 White to get a color that will highlight the portholes on the capsule. It's a bit lighter than I wanted but it was close.

I used Plasti-Zap CA glue to attach the capsule to the booster retention ring. I made sure the capsule alignment was correct. The panel where the window used to be needs to align with the black umbilical cover that is directly over the a flat spot on the collar shoulder. That flat spot corresponds to the TY side of the booster.

The PE wiring cables for the escape tower are quite tiny. They were the next parts to go on.

I added the PE wiring parts to the escape tower. It took me several attempts to get them shaped properly and then placed on the model correctly so I could apply a drop of CA glue.

I painted the bit of PE part that runs from the three individual wires around to the tower upright that has no wires. I painted it the same Vallejo 71.003 Red RLM23 that the rest of the tower is painted. I also touched up a couple of spots on the aerodynamic cover with Vallejo 71.057 Black.

It should somewhat resemble what is seen in this photo of an actual Mercury escape tower.

I started applying decals to the Redstone booster with the checkerboard and United States decals. The panel lines are a bit deep and took a few applications of MicroSol to get them all to conform.

I added decals to the base of the booster. When they dried, I sprayed the model with a protective coat of Tamiya Clear.

After the clear coat had dried I added the aerodynamic guide fins to the rocket. Then the booster got a coat of Tamiya Flat Clear.

I painted the flame shields at the base of the booster with Vallejo 71.063 Silver RLM01. I also installed the exhaust guide vanes. Here is a photo after placing the booster on the launch stand.

The tiny PE instrument section antennas were installed next. The dark area on the body under the lowermost antenna post is a decal from the kit.

Finally the assembled capsule section was glued to the top of the booster and the whole rocket was attached to the launch stand with Plasti-Zap CA glue.

Here is a picture of the full model.

The 1/72 Mercury Redstone model is now complete. Next will be the 1/200 model. You can see a few of its parts on the left in the above photo. That build will be in another thread. Thanks for looking in.

December 4, 2024

Oh it is definitely the Horizon Models kit. I missed out on the Dragon. From what I've heard I didn't miss much.

Thanks. I started the 1/48 build in mid May and finished it by mid July. I enjoyed the build, even with the occasional screw up or frustration. I've got a 1/48 Wings Atlas D in my stash that I may get to before long. From an initial once over of the parts, it will definitely be a challenge.

December 4, 2024

The 1/72 scale Mercury Redstone kit from Horizon Models is the second part of my three scale Mercury Redstone build. I built the model this past July. I was way too busy to post anything then, but I have some time now so here is the build.

It is a real shame that Horizon Models had to close their doors. Their 1/72 space models were very good and way better than any other injection molded kits. I was really hoping that they would make a 1/72 scale Gemini Titan model, but I guess that won't happen now.

I’ve built their Mercury kit before. It is a good kit for its scale and it builds up into a nice model. I built this one pretty much out of the box rather that adding a bunch of scratch details or correcting minor nitpicks.

Here is a view of the parts trees. Note that there are two identical Redstone trees that build into one Redstone vehicle. Only one of the trees is shown.

It also includes two frets of photo-etch (PE) parts. One for the Mercury capsule and one for the Redstone rocket.

The Mercury fret has parts that will modify the kit capsule from a window version into a porthole version. Since I decided to build this kit as MR-1, the first unmanned flight of the production Mercury capsule, I be used those parts.

You may have seen a video of the MR-1 flight. It’s the one where the Redstone engine ignited and the rocket rose about four inches when the engine abruptly shut down and the rocket settled back on the launch stand. Then the escape tower flew off. A few seconds later the antenna canister jettisoned and the parachute popped out and laid on the ground next to the rocket. It wasn’t a long flight, but it did leave the pad. Besides that, it has unique markings so that is the one I modeled.

Most of the parts on the Mercury fret did not get used since they either wouldn’t be seen or are only used to build a version of the capsule in-flight. The Redstone fret contains parts for the launch stand, antennas, a LOX fill and drain port, and some parts that fit to the capsule/booster adapter.

Since I did MR-1, I used the short checkerboard decal and the smaller “UNITED STATES” decal. The “UNITED STATES” decals I used are on the small extra sheet. The much smaller ones were printed in error so they shipped the kit with a separate sheet for the medium sized one. Here is a shot of the decals.

My construction began with the Redstone booster. The first thing I did was fill and sand the extra set of fill and drain ports on one side of the rocket. The kit contains two identical halves and you need to remove detail that doesn’t belong. The other part I installed was the backside of the hydrogen peroxide fill port on the lower part of the rocket. I then also filled in the unused peroxide port on the other side.

I also drilled some .3mm holes in the instrument section to accept the antennas later on in the build.

Both of these procedures are called out in the instructions.

After gluing the two halves of the Redstone together, I added the PE LOX fill and drain port. The halves fit together fairly well and did not require much filling. The seam is small and there are only a couple of shallow sink holes in the body.

I then moved on to the launch stand. The first thing I noticed is that the rocket did not sit squarely on the launch ring. There seemed to be a small rocking back and forth. It looked like the launcher to rocket connections were a bit too high. I sanded them down shorter and then the rocket sat on the launch ring much better. Here is a look at the modified ring and the kit ring. The modified ring is on the right.

There were some pretty deep sink holes on the ring that needed to be filled. Here are a couple of views of them filled in.

I also added the PE details for the launch stand.

I then finished the assembly of the launch stand.

I decided to start on the capsule. It’s somewhat unorthodox and it doesn’t lend itself to doing an interior for the capsule (which I didn't), but it does keep the parts in alignment pretty well. Here is a photo of the start. The antenna canister is the ribbed part on the right. More on that part later.

The three capsule exterior parts are glued to the heat shield and the recovery section at the top of the stalk. You do need to add a bit of pressure while assembling the sides to avoid small gaps in the capsule.

There are some PE parts that cover the seam on the recovery section. I carved a shallow spot on each seam line and then attached the PE parts with Plasti-Zap CA glue. Unfortunately the PE parts are in the shadow so they are hard to see in this photo. One of them is visible above the attitude control thrusters on the capsule.

Converting the capsule from the window version to the porthole version required some PE parts from the Mercury fret. The largest one is used to cover the window, and the other two add the portholes.

To really blend the parts, you need to scrape away some of the plastic details and then glue the PE in place. In the below photo you can see the depression I’ve carved in the side of the capsule to add the second porthole.

It also helps to roll the PE parts with the handle of a paintbrush or some other appropriately sized cylindrical object. This will add a curve to the part which will be needed to blend the PE part into the surrounding plastic.

I next got ready to add the antenna canister to the top of the capsule. This was the first time I attempted to build the escape tower for this model. The last time I built a Horizon Mercury capsule I was doing an in-flight version and didn’t need the escape tower.

So to be sure things were going to fit properly, I placed the antenna canister on the capsule and then tried to slide the escape tower aerodynamic shroud over it. It was a good thing I did, because the shroud will not slide over the antenna section. The rib detail sticks out too far and won’t let the shroud slide on. I sanded the ribs down a bit. This actually made the part look better than what was molded. Here is a picture with the sanded antenna section.

You can also see that I have sanded the antenna window section directly below the antenna canister. I did this because I test fitted the aerodynamic shroud without the antenna section and noticed that it was a bit tight there as well. After sanding and test fitting the shroud would almost go over smoothly. There was still just a bit of a hard push at the end. So I lightly sanded the inside of the shroud and that did the trick. You can see in the photo below that the shroud now fit nicely.

I started building the escape tower by putting two of the three tower sections into the aerodynamic shroud. Then I glued them together at the cross pieces. You have to be sure the horizontal cross pieces are level to keep tower straight. Note: the holes in the aerodynamic shroud are too small to accept the pins of the tower sections. I used a very small drill to slightly enlarge them.

Assembly of the tower was completed with the third side. I put it into the aerodynamic shroud with the other two sides that had already been glued. I then checked to be sure everything looked straight and the horizontal cross pieces aligned before gluing the tower sections together. If you don’t get them straight then the ends will not mate properly with the escape rocket. I then glued the tower sections to the shroud. The holes in the escape rocket were also too small for the nozzle pins so I used a small bit to enlarge them. Then I glued the nozzles to the escape rocket. Be sure you get enough angle on them or the rocket will not fit the tower. I dry fitted the rocket several times while the glue was setting so I could be sure they would fit later after painting. The flow generator (the pointy arrow looking part) will be added to the rocket before painting.

I then removed the nose cap from the tree and started cleaning it up. I didn’t realize how thin the part was molded. While I was holding it and trimming a bit of plastic it broke in half. The part is quite thin and needs very careful handling to avoid snapping it half like I did.

I carefully glued the cap halves back together. Rather, I did after searching the carpet for the small half which I dropped to the floor trying to test fit the two halves together. Here is a shot of the capsule and escape tower parts. You can see the nose cap glued back together. You can also see the line where it broke. Note that the flow generator has now been glued to the escape rocket.

The nose cap was glued on before painting the capsule and before adding the tower.

I noticed that there were some ejector pin marks on the aerodynamic guide fins. I filled them with Tamiya white putty. I sanded them smooth before spraying them with primer.

I didn’t get any photos of it, but I primed the capsule with Tamiya white primer. I then masked off the area where the antenna window is and then painted the whole capsule Tamiya TS-63 NATO Black. You can also see that I painted the three small nubs that align with the escape tower legs.

Once that was all cured, I sprayed the capsule with Tamiya Clear Gloss to prepare for decals. I then removed the tape from the antenna window.

Then the decals were applied. A couple applications of Micro Sol got the decals to conform to the small corrugations on the capsule.

Next up for paint was the launch stand. I painted it with Tamiya TS-38 Gun Metal. When that cured I then sprayed it with Tamiya clear flat.

The escape tower got painted Vallejo 71.003 RLM23 Red. Note the jettison motor on the escape rocket was also painted. I used Vallejo 71.063 Silver RLM01.

The rocket vanes were painted Vallejo 71.271 German Red Brown.

The Redstone rocket was painted with Tamiya white primer and then masked to paint the black areas of the fins. The black areas were painted with Vallejo 71.057 Black.

The rest of the build will be on the next post.

December 3, 2024

In between sanding and filling the propellant section, I started cleaning up some of the parts of the launch stand. This part had a major sink hole and the part itself is molded hollow. I’m sure it is because there would be a very slim chance that anyone would see it from that angle. Still I felt I should cover it. I used a rectangle of .005 styrene sheet and glued it on. After that set, I sanded the edges down to blend it into the rest of the part.

There are some other umbilical connections that go under two of the Redstone fins. They also had deep sink holes and some light ejector pin marks that had to be dealt with.

I attached the fins to the propulsion section. It took a bit more work to get it to look right. Some of the seams are a bit wide.

I also worked on the top ring of the launch stand. I added small circles of styrene sheet to the stand-offs until the propulsion section fit on the ring without rocking from side to side.

I did a bit more filling and sanding to the base of the propulsion section.

I removed the gear teeth from the upper ring of the launch stand and replaced it with some .020 x .040 strip stock. Photos of the launch stand for the Mercury Redstone flights didn't show any teeth so I felt justified in removing them.

To be sure the umbilical parts lined up properly with the body and fins I attached the propulsion section while I was gluing the parts in place.

Here are the parts all glued in place.

I assembled the launch stand and painted it TS-83 Gun Metal and over coated with Flat Clear.

Just as I was about to start painting the propellant section, I realized that my scratch built fill/drain/vent ports were in the wrong place. I put the LOX vent where the LOX fill and drain was supposed to go. The LOX vent was supposed to go where I had put the alcohol fill and drain port. Which made the LOX fill and drain where the alcohol fill and drain was supposed to be. So I drilled out the ports and replaced them with new scratch built ports. Below is the corrected fill, drain and vent ports.

I’m still wasn't completely happy with the propellant section. There were still problems along the seam lines and lumps here and there can be seen with various lighting angles, but I had to finally admit defeat and move on. The only way to really do it right would be to remove all the detail on the tube and sand it down to a smooth round surface and then add back the raised weld lines with lengths of tiny round styrene rod. That was a bridge too far for me right now, so good enough is good enough. Time to move on with the build.

The other parts were painted with a few coats of Tamiya white primer. The propulsion section was then masked and painted with Tamiya TS-14 Black. The instrument section was masked and the adapter part was painted with TS-14 Black and the top ring was painted with Vallejo 71.003 Red RLM23.

I put the exhaust vanes in some clay and painted them with Vallejo 71.271 German Red Brown.

The parts that needed decals were sprayed with Tamiya Clear Gloss. I’m using the Space Model Systems 1/48 Redstone decals. Here is a shot of the decals. I won’t be using all the decals since some of them identify details that I did not add to the model. Also the separate rectangle that is above the main decal sheet is actually a decal. It is all sliver. I cut sections of this decal to place on the instrument section as directed in the decal instructions.

After applying the few decals to the propulsion section I over sprayed it with Tamiya Clear to protect the decals and then sprayed it with Tamiya Flat Clear. When I had that done I glued in the rocket nozzle which I had previously painted with Tamiya TS-83 Gun Metal. I also painted the flame shields with Testors Model Master Chrome Silver.

I added some BB’s to add more weight to the bottom of the rocket to help balance out the weight of the remaining resin of the instrument section. I covered the BB’s with 5 minute epoxy to keep them from rolling around inside.

I started adding the large decal to the instrument section. I cut the large decal into 5 smaller sections to make the application easier. Here it is after a few sections were added.

A couple of the details molded into the New-Ware instrument section were pretty deep and required several applications of Micro Sol and a couple of hits with Walther’s Solvaset. I also noticed that there was not as much overlap of the last section of decal as indicated by the Space Model Systems instructions. It appears that the diameter of the New-Ware instrument section is slightly larger than the diameter of the propellant section of the Glencoe kit. That leaves the last long vertical bar a bit wider than I would have liked, but it is what it is.

I glued the propulsion section to the propellant section with some Plasti-Zap CA glue. I then turned it over and glued in the exhaust vanes.

I glued on the aerodynamic guide fins to the ends of the main fins and started applying the rest of the decals to the Redstone propellant section.

Lower sections rotated about 90 degrees.

Here is the whole booster.

It was finally time to add the antennas to the instrument section. I created a jig to help me align the holes (more like shallow depressions) that I was going to drill into the instrument section in order to attach the antennas.

Here are the depressions I drilled into the instrument section. You can see the strips of sliver decal that were cut and added to the instrument section.

I used more Plasti-Zap CA to glue the antennas to the instrument section and then the instrument section to the propellant section.

More CA was used to glue on the umbilical covers to the raised section of the capsule adapter. Then the capsule was glued to the instrument section. I then attached the model to the launch stand.

And with that the model is finished.

Now on to the 1/72 scale Mercury Redstone. That will be in a new thread.

December 3, 2024

Continuing on with the build I applied primer to the New-Ware instrument section. Hopefully you can just make out where I scratched the alignment marks into the part.

I also painted the umbilical covers Tamiya TS-14 Black and then applied a matte clear.

I glued the upper two halves, parts 11L and 11R, together. I noticed that they were quite out of round.

I decided to try to round them out with some clamping and a soak in hot water. Here it is all clamped up and ready for its bath.

Well, that didn’t turn out too well. I messed up and my water was a little too hot and I left it in a little too long. I ended up making it worse. I considered trying to fix my mistake, but it was quite badly messed up. Instead I went back into the stash and pulled out another Jupiter-C/Explorer I kit and stole those two parts out of one of them. I still have one kit left, so if I go insane and decide to build the Explorer I launcher I can still do that.

I checked these parts and they were out of round as well, but not as bad as the first set. However this set also had a twist in them. This was also the case with parts 12L and 12R. This time I used some hand pressure and untwisted them and also rounded them out better. They are still just a bit off, but it is not really noticeable.

Here you can see some of the stress marks that I put in the plastic trying to get them back to round and untwisted.

Anyway, with that somewhat conquered, I marked the upper propellant tank section (11L/11R) at the line where I needed to cut the Jupiter-C instrument section off to add the Mercury instrument section from New-Ware. In the background on the left you can see the hopelessly malformed part I had to discard.

I also glued the propulsion section parts 13L and 13R together. With that done, I had most of the sections of the rocket assembled. The seam lines needed some work and there are some pretty deep sink marks that had to be filled. You can also notice that I've marked the propulsion section with orientation marks for the steps to come.

There is a supposed to be a small gap between the propellant section and the instrument section. To provide that gap I glued a strip of .020x.040 styrene to the base of the instrument section using Plasti-Zap CA glue. The .020 of the strip is vertical and the .040 is the horizontal.

Here is a dry fit showing the small gap that it forms. There is also a gap between the propulsion and propellant section that is molded into the kit part.

Next I glued the fins together and filled the ejector pin marks on the aerodynamic guide fins (parts 22). I also started shaping the carbon guide vanes (parts 23). The guide fins and guide vanes were not attached to the fins as it shows in the instructions. These will be glued to the fins later on in the build. To facilitate that I had to remove the small retaining band around the shaft of those parts. This made painting that section a bit easier. You can also note that I put orientation labels on the fins. This was because the fins fit differently into propulsion section recesses.

Here is another look at the the carbon guide vanes that I shaped. The kit vanes are very blocky and don’t represent the actual vanes very well in my opinion.

Here is a comparison view of the kit part and the vane after shaping. The bottom one will get more shaping before it goes on the model.

Here is a dry fit of two of the fins showing the modified guide vane (upper vane) compared to the stock vane (lower vane). If I really had wanted to go full out I would have thinned the guide vanes even more.

Next I filled the major sink holes in the propulsion section. After primer, they obviously needed more filler.

Here is a view of the bottom of the propulsion section after I sanded the filler. The pencil mark shows where I’ll be adding the turbine exhaust tube.

I was a bit afraid of how top heavy this model was going to be when completed. The New-Ware instrument section is one large chunk of resin and is quite heavy. I really needed to try and lighten it. I started that process by drilling some holes in the resin. I then took my Dremel tool and ground out most of the inside. This made it considerably lighter. I also filled the propulsion section with BB’s and epoxy to add some weight to the bottom, which you'll see later.

I was looking a the David Weeks drawings that I have for the Mercury Redstone and found some details that I needed to add. I started with the hydrogen peroxide fill port on the side of the propulsion section. It consists of a bevel edged depression with a fill port inside that. I started by cutting out the inside part of the beveled depression. Note that the part has also been masked in preparation for priming.

Then I beveled the edges and glued some sheet styrene to the back.

I glued in a short piece of 3/64 styrene rod.

I glued the two sections of the propellant section together and started filling the seam. Here it is after the first session of sanding was done.

I marked the location of the three fill, drain and vent ports on the lower part of the propellant section.

Next I created the LOX fill and drain, which was made with a 1/8 tube beveled inside with a 5/64 bit and then a 1/16 rod inside that. The fuel fill and drain was made with some 1/8 tube drilled out with a 3/32 bit then a 1/16 rod inside that. The LOX vent was made with some 1/8 tube with a sheet styrene back. The LOX fill and drain is on the left, to the right of that is the fuel fill and drain and the one on the far right is the LOX vent. They turned out passable I think. I used the David Weeks drawings to get the profile of the ports and then used the above combinations to try and match the profile on the drawings.

I added the turbine exhaust port to the bottom of the propulsion section. I created it with some 1/8 inch tubing and cut a slice out of the side of it to make the diameter smaller so it would fit in the smaller hole of the turbine exhaust. After inserting it into the hole, I pushed it through until only a small section was proud of the base. I glued it into place and when dry I used a couple of drill bits to thin the wall of the tube. When that was done I glued a small piece of styrene sheet to close the hole on the backside. I also primed the propulsion section. It showed that there were still some areas that needed to be sanded and/or filled.