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Mercury Spacecraft 1-24th scale - The DARN Shingles


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As much as I like Atomic City's 1-12th Mercury Spacecraft (I HATE calling it a 'capsule') I wish they had gone with a 1-24th scale to match the ubiquitous Gemini. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE a 1-12th Mercury and Gemini side-by-side on the shelf -- but a 1-12th CSM and LM? Getting huge here, not to mention the cost.. All three in the SAME SCALE is possible with 1-48th, but the Mercury is SO small and the Gemini isn't much better...

The only thing stopping me from scratchbuilding a 1/24th Mercury are the dreaded shingles. I've seen a few attempts over the years, but no one felt they were good enough to use, so the only "1-24th" Mercury I've seen was from a slightly smaller Christmas ornament. It actually looked pretty good, and yes, I did pick one up, but the shingles were not "impressive" so I never did anything with it.

Vincent Meens semi-scratchbuild using Shapeways for both 1-32 and 1-24th LM gives me some hope. In addition to the shingles, either separately, in strips, or a one-piece cone, the heatshield, pressure vessel bulkheads or anything else could be offered. IF there's enough interest, perhaps Mr. Meens would make this his next Shapeways offer.

My random thoughts to make shingles have been:

(I've yet to compare the shingle sizes to determine if this is even possible...) physically cutting 1-24th Gemini shingles down to Mercury size by slicing them in half vertically and removing a strip from the center to get the correct width, and doing the same thing horizontally to get the correct height to use as a master. Three generic sizes would be required to fit the three rows of shingles. Of course, some of these would require mods to match thruster panels, umbilical connectors, etc, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Photo-etch? Could the corrugations be done properly? I've sent requests to two places that do photo-etch to see if it's possible, but have not received any replies.

Using Solid Works or something similar to do a 3D drawing of a shingle and going the Shapeways route myself...

Making a Master and either vaccuforming or making a mold...

Any comments on the feasibility/practicality of the above and any other notions as to how to make 1-24th shingles is GREATLY appreciated!

Tom

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hmmm...this is a very interesting topic. I wouldn't mind trying to tackle some of the issues of modeling one in Solidworks. I have to admit though that I don't really know a lot about the spacecraft and it would take some research and time. I've been soaking in as much as I can about the shuttle for the last several years that for most all other space subjects I've either forgotten what I did know, or never even really looked into any of it. I'll have to see what kind of time I could invest if anyone else is interested in comparing and such.

Bill

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Didn't I see where K2Pete made his own shingles recently using alumninum foil? Might have been his Gemini Rogello build. Seems like he replicated the shingles from one area of the kit model to a scratch-built area that way. You could "steal" shingling from the 1/24 Gemini that way for use on your Mercury.

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Maybe we could convince Drew at Crow's Nest to scale up one of these.

That would likely be a good starting point. He may already have a higher detailed model created. I know I prefer adding more detail than needed and then removing to meet smaller scale limits as opposed to modeling for a small model and then have to add detail for larger scales. Perhaps he does it the same way.

Bill

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hmmm...this is a very interesting topic. I wouldn't mind trying to tackle some of the issues of modeling one in Solidworks. I have to admit though that I don't really know a lot about the spacecraft and it would take some research and time.

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for your response. I'm glad to see there's some interest here!

LMK what you'll need to get you started. If I don't have the info I will get it ASAP. I imagine you'll need to know the radius of curvature at the top and bottom of each row of shingles - I can calculate that. A few years ago, I measured the height and width of shingles on the Sigma 7 spacecraft, and these can be compared to David Weeks Mercury drawings that I have.

Whatever shingle thickness is used overall would determine the shape that would allow the shingles to overlap, yet still be of a uniform height throughout the circumference of the spacecraft.

Here's a shingle that flew on MA-5. Unfortunately, the lower left corner was removed for testing purposes. This one is from the middle row of three rows of shingles. The row above is of course a bit smaller, and the row below a bit larger.

Enos-MercuryHatchShingle_zpsf40d7165.jpg?t=1421789917

I have many photos showing the shingles in place on the spacecraft, and info plus drawings to recreate each individual shingle on the various Mercury configurations.

This shows the curved trapezoidal shape. Note: adjacent shingles overlap for heat protection. The left side of this shingle fits over the adjacent shingle to its left, and the right side is placed underneath the left edge of the adjacent shingle to its right. The top edge of this shingle is installed on top of the bottom edge of the shingle in the row above it. The screw holes and washers are over-sized to allow for heat expansion, and the shingles are held in place with large washers and screws.

Any additional info regarding the 'corrugations' dimensions would be greatly appreciated!

Tom

Edited by taneal1
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  • 3 weeks later...

Am I reading this right Tom that you do have the dimensions of the shingles but you do not have dimensions for the "corrugations"?

I've got a feeler out to see if I can get more detailed information.

David

Hello David,

Thanks for the reply, and for the offer!

I was able to *crudely* measure the "bead" or corrugation on the shingles through the plexiglass container of Sigma 7 aka Capsule 16 at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Not the most accurate of results... :bandhead2: Any precise info would be GREATLY appreciated!

Tom

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Just from a glance at the panel shown above, the "corrugations" are not extremely uniform. Obviously they have to get shorter as they move up the cone, but they also don't appear to be uniform in their width across the same row. So I would guess at best you could get a nominal depth that's somewhat consistent and perhaps a "peak to peak" nominal dimension that may be close from row to row. Otherwise I think it's going to be a bit of an art to just make it look correct and accurate as far as how many in a section etc... That's of course just my opinion and uneducated guess.

Bill

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Just from a glance at the panel shown above, the "corrugations" are not extremely uniform. Obviously they have to get shorter as they move up the cone, but they also don't appear to be uniform in their width across the same row. So I would guess at best you could get a nominal depth that's somewhat consistent and perhaps a "peak to peak" nominal dimension that may be close from row to row. Otherwise I think it's going to be a bit of an art to just make it look correct and accurate as far as how many in a section etc... That's of course just my opinion and uneducated guess.

Bill

Hello Bill,

Thanks for the reply.

After many in-person inspections of Sigma 7, Liberty Bell 7, and the MR-1A spacecraft, I'm convinced that the "beads", aka corrugations, are all uniform in depth, and distance from peak-to-peak. As you say, the left-to-right width diminishes from the bottom row to the top row.

Tom

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