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Well, I was hoping I could get this done in time for the 50th anniversary of LB7, but that wasn't going to happen...I knew it was going to be intensive, but waaaay under estimated. Liberty Bell is my favorite Mercury capsule, and living in Wichita I'm only 45 minutes away from it. Back in May I met with the president of the Cosmosphere to request some drawings of the building, as I want to construct some of my models as they are on display there. He was really intrigued, and said he'd never thought about seeing the museum in miniature. I got some of the architectural plans for areas I needed, and there wasn't anything for the LB case...but I got his blessing to measure the case and other parts of displays I wanted. So I got the measurements, plenty of pictures and got started on the job of making my 1/12 kit to look as close as I can to how it exists now. Bear with me, I've never done a WIP thread before, and am feeling a bit vulnerable in the process! I've kinda stalled for a bit on it as my drawings of David Weeks' plans are on the way...and my wife and I are pretty close to buying a house, so that might stall things more! But enough back story...on with the project!

After getting all the resources laid out, I began to compare everything and noticed parts that differed between LB and the kit. One part is the corrugation in front of the window...on the kit it has a panel of some sort there, LB it has corrugation. So i trimmed it down and tried to carve my own, but that failed. In steps improvisation. Since the hatch was lost and never recovered, I simply cut out a section of it and grafted it into a hole I cut out in the hull. The periscope door was also cut out to show it extended.

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Now...the biggest part I've done so far is some very extensive modification to the Recovery Compartment. It was heavily corroded after 38 years on the sea floor. When I was taking measurements, one of the things I did was sketch out to scale, based on the kit panels size, what parts were eaten away. It will serve as a map for me to make the outer skin. What I did was use my dremel to cut out the panels. It need quite a bit of clean up, but I finally got it done. I added some basswood squares to make the gap, and used .010 Evergreen sheet to form the inner skin.

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I have to thank Astrazoic here for quite a bit of inspiration and tips from his Friendship 7 build, as it gave me some really good tips on how to make this beast.

Here's where I am right now...waiting for the drawings to come in.

DSC_8981.jpg

Edited by archybean
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  • 1 year later...

Well, it has been way too long between updates on this project. I've been doing copious amounts of research and photo documentation of the display at the Cosmosphere. Lots of measuring the kit and referencing the David Weeks drawings told me the thickness of the model is almost as thick as the gap between the inner pressure vessel and outer skin. I'll be using styrene sheets to create the inner vessel. In order for the outer skin to look thin enough I had to use my Dremel to thin it out. Silver parts are areas to thin:

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Still have clean up work to do with sanding it, but it will look that much more accurate with the gap between.

I also used the pin vise to hand drill the 192 holes I ended up with on the bottom of the heat shield retaining ring. Gotta be a lot more holes than that on the real one, but it is just going for the illusion of it. Kinda irritated they're not all aligned in the middle...but with everything else going on, especially with the landing bag going to be there it shouldn't be too noticeable.

DSC_0955_zps7cce1c45.jpg

I tend to not do things small...I did my entire 1/48 B-58 in foil. Not Bare Metal, but kitchen foil and Mona Lisa glue. This is still my biggest, most involved build ever. Aside from the main shell I think most of it will be scratch built.

Feedback welcome!

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It looks like you are off to a good start and I'll be following. I have this kit in my stash and plan on detailing and lighting the interior. I'm not sure which capsule I'm making yet but I think I'm leaning towards Friendship 7. This is gonna be a fun build to watch :thumbsup:

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...

I also used the pin vise to hand drill the 192 holes I ended up with on the bottom of the heat shield retaining ring. Gotta be a lot more holes than that on the real one, but it is just going for the illusion of it. Kinda irritated they're not all aligned in the middle...but with everything else going on, especially with the landing bag going to be there it shouldn't be too noticeable.

DSC_0955_zps7cce1c45.jpg

I tend to not do things small...I did my entire 1/48 B-58 in foil. Not Bare Metal, but kitchen foil and Mona Lisa glue. This is still my biggest, most involved build ever. Aside from the main shell I think most of it will be scratch built.

Feedback welcome!

You are doing a great job with the Dremel, 192 holes, which is hard to believe. :woot.gif: How big is the diameter of the holes?

Curious to see how it goes. :coolio:

:wave:

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So far ... so good!

And regarding the 192 holes, I have the same problem, lay out the centreline of the holes and even with the pin vise, there will be a few that are off-centre, just that little bit ... sheesh, but you're right, once painted and detailed, nobody'll even notice 'em!

Keep 'er goin'!

Pete

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  • 1 month later...

Still going on this project...made some pretty good progress I think. I'll hopefully get some pictures up tomorrow. I've got the inner pressure vessel pretty well roughed out. Also have the upper bulkhead cut out. Nothing is glued together yet as I'm being as careful as I can making sure it is all going to work.

I do have a couple stumbling blocks right now. I need to find something I can make the lower bulkhead from. I'd love to vacuform something, but have neither the equipment nor money to make my own. It is a portion of a hemisphere 5.3 inches in diameter. I think it would be easiest to start with a perfect hemisphere and cut it down to the size I need.

My other one is finding the dimensions and radius of the inner shield behind the large bulkhead.

shield_zps76e71a88.jpg

I'm having a lot of fun with this, I've never really done much scratch building...and this is a lot of it.

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Hi Archybean, an option would be to 3D-print one. If you can provide a rough sketch of the cross section I can help you draw it and I can inquire how much it would cost to print one. The printer I went to for my engine bell charges way less than Shapeways because of lower resolution (print lines visible) but it can be puttied up. We could either have them print the actual model part or make a printed buck for vacuforming.

Another option, too, would be to make a vacuforming buck from hydrocal. I've always wanted to do that. I bought the hydrocal for the bell but chickened out and opted for printing. Maybe it's high time I tried it :

http://cloudster.com/HowToSection/AxialSymmertricShapes.html

Edited by crackerjazz
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Hi archybean

I do like your concept very much indeed...a great idea. ( will you display it as on the seabed ? )

Re pressure vessel 'manufacture'. I would suggest vacuum forming is the cheapest option. Try your local secondary school. Most have a machine in their tech departments. Just find a teacher/ tech who is sympathetic to your need. You would have to make a negative mould of course which a fairly straight forward process even if you have never attempted anything like it before. I use Dass acrylic modelling clay. It is air drying so requires no firing. If you go to my post on Jules Verne's Columbiad in the Sci - Fi forum I illustrate the process there. It is essentially the same as the cloudstar link crackerjazz gave you.

Re the spacecraft itself : If you do not already have it, this link will provide you with most, if not all the info' you need. Well worth printing off. There is also the Project Mercury Familiarisation Manual :

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16931410/NASA-Project-Mercury-Maintenance-Manual-1959

Hope this helps

Cheers

John

Edited by johnbuck
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And now for the pictures!

Top view showing inner hull and small pressure bulkhead with hatch:

DSC_1709_zps727b2084.jpg

Top view showing inner hull and small pressure bulkhead with periscope hatch:

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Interior view:

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Periscope hatch:

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Hatch opening and exterior skin patch:

DSC_1705_zpsd87099bd.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Made some decent progress on this guy. Got the basics of the recovery compartment made. The stringers were made from angles and strips. Shorter stringers were made for the pressure vessel. I still need to make the next level of stringers for the recovery compartment. I also made from .010" styrene sheet the remnants of the aluminum panels on the outside of the recovery compartment. These were made from sketches I did looking at the real one. Then I made copies and taped them on the panels and very carefully cut them out. I then taped them on the outside of a 2" coupling PVC and let them sit in boiling water for a few minutes. It was then run under cold water to help keep the shape. They still need to be filed down to get a more rounded edge.

I think I'm going to give the outside a break and move on to some interior bits. I need to make the periscope tube and control panels from scratch...as the kit pieces are wrong for LB7, and are crap, and it'll need to have some corroded areas as well.

And off to the pictures!

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As always, comments and suggestions appreciated!

David

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Incredible work here David! I'll definitely have to bookmark this build for when I decide to bust mine out. The kit is really a great starting point, but for such a large scale needs a lot of detailing to do it justice. And you sir are most assuredly doing it justice! Keep it up!

Bill

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Awesome build, love the work you did for the aluminum panel remnants... keep up the good work. Can't wait to see the work you do on the "cockpit".

Cheers,

Dave

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  • 1 month later...

Got some tedious progress on this. I took a break from the recovery compartment to work on some of the interior. I made the periscope housing and the beginnings of the control panel. Since the original one corroded away they replaced it with plexi to hold the instruments that remained. It was colored to correspond with the original.

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I'm not entirely pleased with how the cutouts ended up on the main board. It also needs to be bent a little at the top, so I need to find some way to heat it to get the proper bend. I'm thinking about trying to find a small magnifying glass lens, probably plastic from a little kiddy one, to use as the "screen" for the periscope.

Here's the couch. I cut off the arms from the kit and also what I assume was the leg rest. I drilled out the other four restraint slots. Based on the SEDR and pictures I took I crafted the correct leg supports. I also added some styrene to the sides to give more accurate look there.

DSC_4109_zps4cb806b4.jpg

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Back to the recovery compartment. I've moved to the interior section where the main and reserve chutes lived. I was able to get the sidewall to fit the tight radius (green arrow) but I'm having difficulty getting the radius to follow all the way up; it just flares out at the top (blue arrow). The triangular piece was pretty straight forward to create, with angles underneath. The bolts/rivets were cut from .035" rod and dipped in Tenax and placed to cure; same with the bottom of the chute sections.

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Rough dry fit:

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The first pieces of the next level of stringers have been put on. I think the other side and top piece to connect the two sides will have to be put on after painting, as they would hide areas I'll need to paint.

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And with the recovery compartment dry fit in with the pressure vessel:

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I'm having the hardest time to the the rivets on the recovery compartment. They need to be smaller than the others I've gotten on so far, but the .020" rod is just too small for me to get on. If anyone has some suggestions I'd appreciate it! I wish I had a Waldron precision punch to get the smallest discs punched from sheet instead of trying to cut the same size rod.

As always, suggestions appreciated!

David

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Holy cow...I can't believe its been 17 months since I posted anything on this. Sadly, nothing else has been done on this build since then. I've started quite a few builds but just got burned out on them, including this one. I've shifted focus to another hobby, autograph collecting, and am starting to get the itch to jump back into this. Unfortunately I'm in the middle of packing the house to move! My wife got a new job and we're relocating a couple hours up the interstate.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Holy cow...I can't believe its been 17 months since I posted anything on this. Sadly, nothing else has been done on this build since then. I've started quite a few builds but just got burned out on them, including this one. I've shifted focus to another hobby, autograph collecting, and am starting to get the itch to jump back into this. Unfortunately I'm in the middle of packing the house to move! My wife got a new job and we're relocating a couple hours up the interstate.

Hello David,

Spectacular job including the stringers, inner pressure vessel, and recovery compartment stringers and parachute container! I hope you will get back to this project soon. If you are discouraged due to the time it's taking to convert this model to Liberty Bell 7 as it is today, remember it took Mother Nature 38 years to accomplish her conversion...and the additional time taken by the Cosmosphere restoration as well. :woo:/>/>/>/>/>/>

When you have time I have a couple of questions for you:

measuring the kit and referencing the David Weeks drawings told me the thickness of the model is almost as thick as the gap between the inner pressure vessel and outer skin. I'll be using styrene sheets to create the inner vessel. In order for the outer skin to look thin enough I had to use my Dremel to thin it out.

Q1. What was the ORIGINAL thickness of the MODEL'S crew compartment walls?

I also used the pin vise to hand drill the 192 holes I ended up with on the bottom of the heat shield retaining ring. Kinda irritated they're not all aligned in the middle...especially with the landing bag going to be there it shouldn't be too noticeable.

The Heat Shield Retaining Ring (HSRR) hole pattern is QUITE complex. I don't have a photo that depicts the whole pattern well enough to count each hole - however:

-There are 48 slots cut radially that accept the 24 locking pins and 22 guide pins that are mounted on the heatshield. 2 pins are unused.

-The other circular cutouts are actually slightly oval.

-The outer edge of the HSRR extends outward beyond the base of the conical crew compartment to match the outer diameter of the reddish Fiberglass Attach Ring (FAR) which is bolted to the capsule. The FAR is used to mate the capsule to the booster. This HSRR extension is located immediately below the 'lip' of the FAR, and provides additional strength and support for the FAR. When the Marman Clamp is installed to mate spacecraft and booster, the FAR lip, HSRR edge, and booster adapter flange and 'sandwiched' inside the Clamp.

-The holes and slots in the HSRR are radially centered relative to the thickness of the capsule wall, but are offset inboard relative to the full width of the HSRR. The amount of offset is equal to the width of the HSRR that extends BEYOND the base of the conical crew compartment.

HSRRoffsetslotsovals_zps5114e311.jpg?t=1423697735

As you say, the Landing Bag will be obscuring the view of the HSRR, so IMO to comply with all of the above is WAY too much work for anything less than a 1:1 scale. I think it will look really impressive with the HSRR as you already have it!

Q2. Is the Heat Shield Retaining Ring a kit part or did you make it yourself?

Q3. Same question for the Small Pressure Bulkhead?

Q4. Did you find any data stating the diameter of the hatch in the Small Pressure Bulkhead? I haven't decided if it's the same diameter as the inside of the Recovery Compartment or not...still searching for info.

Sincerely hope you can get back to this model, because you are doing an insanely accurate job of LB7!

Tom

Edited by taneal1
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Hello David,

Spectacular job including the stringers, inner pressure vessel, and recovery compartment stringers and parachute container! I hope you will get back to this project soon. If you are discouraged due to the time it's taking to convert this model to Liberty Bell 7 as it is today, remember it took Mother Nature 38 years to accomplish her conversion...and the additional time taken by the Cosmosphere restoration as well. :woo:/>/>/>/>/>/>/>

When you have time I have a couple of questions for you:

measuring the kit and referencing the David Weeks drawings told me the thickness of the model is almost as thick as the gap between the inner pressure vessel and outer skin. I'll be using styrene sheets to create the inner vessel. In order for the outer skin to look thin enough I had to use my Dremel to thin it out.

Q1. What was the ORIGINAL thickness of the MODEL'S crew compartment walls?

.1015"

I also used the pin vise to hand drill the 192 holes I ended up with on the bottom of the heat shield retaining ring. Kinda irritated they're not all aligned in the middle...especially with the landing bag going to be there it shouldn't be too noticeable.

The Heat Shield Retaining Ring (HSRR) hole pattern is QUITE complex. I don't have a photo that depicts the whole pattern well enough to count each hole - however:

-There are 48 slots cut radially that accept the 24 locking pins and 22 guide pins that are mounted on the heatshield. 2 pins are unused.

-The other circular cutouts are actually slightly oval.

-The outer edge of the HSRR extends outward beyond the base of the conical crew compartment to match the outer diameter of the reddish Fiberglass Attach Ring (FAR) which is bolted to the capsule. The FAR is used to mate the capsule to the booster. This HSRR extension is located immediately below the 'lip' of the FAR, and provides additional strength and support for the FAR. When the Marman Clamp is installed to mate spacecraft and booster, the FAR lip, HSRR edge, and booster adapter flange and 'sandwiched' inside the Clamp.

-The holes and slots in the HSRR are radially centered relative to the thickness of the capsule wall, but are offset inboard relative to the full width of the HSRR. The amount of offset is equal to the width of the HSRR that extends BEYOND the base of the conical crew compartment.

HSRRoffsetslotsovals_zps5114e311.jpg?t=1423697735

As you say, the Landing Bag will be obscuring the view of the HSRR, so IMO to comply with all of the above is WAY too much work for anything less than a 1:1 scale. I think it will look really impressive with the HSRR as you already have it!

I'm not planning on making the holes and slots exact, just trying to emulate the basic look of attach points for the heat shield like this:

DSC_7815_zps069429b2.jpg

Interestingly enough, the connection points seem to have changed at some point between Mercury-Atlas 1 (spacecraft #4, pictured below) and Mercury-Redstone 4(spacecraft #11, pictured above):

DSC_1450_zps48592e96.jpg

Q2. Is the Heat Shield Retaining Ring a kit part or did you make it yourself?

It is part of the kit, a small lip molded into the bottom of the capsule.

Q3. Same question for the Small Pressure Bulkhead?

It is not part of the kit and will have to be scratch built.

Q4. Did you find any data stating the diameter of the hatch in the Small Pressure Bulkhead? I haven't decided if it's the same diameter as the inside of the Recovery Compartment or not...still searching for info.

If you find the SEDR 104 Mercury Familiarization Manual online it has good graphic representations of the systems in the spacecraft and has dimensions of station points for bulkheads and whatnot. David Weeks' drawings also show these and are an invaluable resource.

Sincerely hope you can get back to this model, because you are doing an insanely accurate job of LB7!

Tom

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  • 2 years later...

Holy cow. Three years later I've dug this beast out of the stash to get to working on her again. I've got an order in with Roll Models for Waldron punch and dies to work on the small rivets and bolts. We'll see where the road takes me this time.

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