Mike J. Idacavage Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 I thought I would start another thread on the 4th US manned spacecraft in the MIS kit. This thread will be devoted to the Mercury Redstone in the MIS kit. As this is not a complicated model, I suspect that this thread will not be so long! As a start, I worked out the way the Redstone will be supported on the base before I did any of the main construction. The good news is that the Redstobne used a single rocket mptor and this was buried inside the main body. So a simple rod & tube support will work well. Unfortuneately, there is not an upper bulhead to support the top of the internal tube. I cut a small circle of styrene and epoxied it about 90% of the way to the top of the Redstone. I then took a small aluminum tube and drilled a hole dead center in the exhaust area of the booster for the tube to fit in. Note that the carbon vanes that will be added in a following step will block the support rod if you are not careful. Here's what it looked like at this stage: You can see the aluminum support tube and the brass rod that will be the support in this photo. The two halves were glued together with no problems. The small fin area that goes on the bottom of the booster needs a little work. This piece contains the guidance fins and carbon vanes in addition to part of the exterior fins. On the bottom piece, there are strange bumps or vents on each side. I marked one of these in black in this photo of the bottom piece. I removed two of these on opposite side of the piece. The remaining two were then sanded down to represent the vents that are on the Redstone while I was cleanig up the join line after glueing this part and the booster. While it has been suggested that all 4 bumps should be removed, I found that leaving two on and sanding them more in scale does represent the bumps that are on two sides of the booster. Until later, have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted December 9, 2007 Author Share Posted December 9, 2007 While the Mercury Redstone is pretty straightforward, there is a few small easy corrections you can do. I have listed them in this photo. First, the adapter on top of the Redstone is too large, and the Mercury will sit in it like a cup. Simply reduce this in size by sanding the top down to a reasonable level. I used the Mercury capsule as a measuring tool and kept sanding until the Mercury sat flush on the top. Sand the small raised bars that are on the end of each fin. On the protype, these are very thin pieces of metal, not the ingots represented on the fin. It is best to just sand these off as they would be just about invisible at this scale. Also sand the two remaining bumps on each bottom side of the Redstone booster so that these look more in scale. Finaly, I cut a line going around the booster just above the fins. You can see this clearly as an indentation on the real Redstone. I guess you can also depict this with a decal, but I wanted to give the booster some depth. I'll probably apply a wash after I paint and decal this sucker. Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
niart17 Posted December 9, 2007 Share Posted December 9, 2007 it's coming along great. keep up the good work and posts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted March 18, 2008 Author Share Posted March 18, 2008 Well, it's been a long time since I posted anything in this thread. I have been making some slow progress, but nothing worth taking a photo of. I am in the home stretch with the Mercury Redstone, so I thought I would post a few more photos. The Mercury and Redstone have been painted and decaled. Here's how it looks now: and here's the stack loosely fitted. I still need to shoot an overall semi-gloss overcoat to protect the decals. I'll then need to apply a wash to the escape tower to give it some depth and do a bit of detail painted. I MIGHT be able to get this done by the deadline! :P Have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Well, I managed to finish another entry for this GB! I took the day off to work on my income taxes, and managed to get some modeling time squeezed in. I finished the Mercury Redstone today after doing a little wash step and some detail painting. Here's the finished launch system: Here's a close up of the spacecraft with LES. The black wash looks better to the eye than it does to a close up lens on a digital camera! Finally, here's an underside shot to show the exhaust detail. Man, this entire launch system is small in 1/200. Have fun modeling! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GVoakes Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Gorgeous job, Mike. Was the roll pattern a decal, or did you paint that? (and, if so, to which insane aslylum should I send the card?) Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted March 26, 2008 Author Share Posted March 26, 2008 Thanks Grant! At this size, I don't think I would even attempt at masking off the roll pattern and painting it! The overall MR is about 4.5 inches (11 cm) from the base to the tip of the LES. This is way too small for me! I used Tango Papa dceals for this build. They worked out really well, IMHO. Glad you liked it! Mike Gorgeous job, Mike.Was the roll pattern a decal, or did you paint that? (and, if so, to which insane aslylum should I send the card?) :P Grant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
K2Pete Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 " The overall MR is about 4.5 inches (11 cm) from the base to the tip of the LES. " Yikes! That thing is tiny! I was gonna ask why you didn't place a strip of plastic around the nose cone, just to differentiate the re-entry section from the nose section, but the capsule is ... what, 3/4" long? Nope, I wouldn't have bothered either. And the red strip at the bottom of the capsule, decal or paint, Mike? You've done a lover-ly job Mike. Your masking is nice and crisp. And at that size, it's a pleasure to see! So what's that 2 down, 4 to go? I'd love to see 'em all! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Thanks Pete! I really appreciate the comments. You are right, that sucker is small! The benefit is that to the unaided eye, it looks pretty decent. I used a white decal stripe followed by a red decal stripe for the red band at the bottom of the capsule. With the blue/black color of the Mercury capsule, I did not think that using only a red decal stripe would give it the correct bright red look. To help it conform, I brush painted it with a coat of Future followed by an overall semi-matte finish. Actually, this is 3 down, 3 to go! The Saturn 1B and Mercury Atlas are already finished and posted in this GB. I hope to complete the Saturn V this weekend. It looks like I'll be 4 out of 6 by the close of this GB. Close, but no cigar! Hopefully, I'll be able to post the Gemini Titan and Shuttle in the closed GB when I am finished. Have fun modeling! Mike " The overall MR is about 4.5 inches (11 cm) from the base to the tip of the LES. "Yikes! That thing is tiny! I was gonna ask why you didn't place a strip of plastic around the nose cone, just to differentiate the re-entry section from the nose section, but the capsule is ... what, 3/4" long? Nope, I wouldn't have bothered either. And the red strip at the bottom of the capsule, decal or paint, Mike? You've done a lover-ly job Mike. Your masking is nice and crisp. And at that size, it's a pleasure to see! So what's that 2 down, 4 to go? I'd love to see 'em all! Pete Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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