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1:200 AMT Man In Space (on steroids!)


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This is my 1:200 scale AMT Man In Space build...on steroids! My plan is to build out all of the rockets of the AMT kit, add the Hasegawa shuttle stack (which I already started in another build thread here), and utilize a second AMT Man In Space kit to build different variants of the Redstone, Atlas and Saturn boosters. I'll even throw in some 3D-printed rockets to round out the display. Here's a mockup of my initial, and rather ambitious concept:

 

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This is the lineup as I see it for now. Perhaps as more 3D printable models come out, I'll add some SpaceX and Delta IV boosters.

 

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To help me get started, I'll be using the 3D-printed Indycals add-on spacecraft, shown here with a coat of Tamiya Light Gray Primer. Here we go!

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DAYS 1-3
8 hours
Starting build cost: $62.61

 

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Here's the Redstone parts I'll be starting with. Simple enough, right? The tiny magnets will be placed inside to hold the spacecraft onto the booster. A styrene tube will be mounted inside so that a brass rod can be used to mount the rocket on the eventual display stand.

 

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The first thing I did was sand off the inaccurate detail on the fins.

 

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Here are the magnets being mounted inside the booster and the spacecraft heat shield. The extra bulkhead inside the rocket will be used to help hold the inner mounting tube in place. You can see that I've already painted the heat shield and retro pack with Testors Aluminum Acrylic.

 

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Once the booster halves were glued together, I drilled a hole for the mounting tube in the bottom and slid it in. I then attached the fin section, and blended it into the body of the booster using sandpaper.

 

Now, it was time to begin painting. I brushed the Indycals Mercury spacecraft with Testors Flat Black Acrylic, and once that dried, I glued the heat shield into place. The tower was brushed with Testors Red Acrylic. The "stool" at the top of the booster was sanded down to more closely match up with the diameter of the spacecraft mounted above it.

 

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Edited by Hotdog
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I then gave the rocket a few coats of Tamiya Pure White gloss.

 

Once the paint had cured, I masked off the roll patterns with tape and sprayed on a thin layer of Tamiya Pure White again to seal the mask. Then I sprayed the Tamiya Flat Black.

 

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All that was left to do now was to apply decals. I'll be using my own decals for all of the rockets in this build.

 

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I think she turned out pretty good!

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DAYS 4-10
8.5 hours
16.5 hours total
Build cost to date: $62.61

 

With the Redstone finished, it was time to start on the Atlas. Like the Redstone, I'll be inserting a mounting tube inside the booster. I started by cemeting the center engine nozzle into the mounting tube, painting the engine bulkhead flat black, and mounting the outboard engines to the bulkhead.

 

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While I had the paint out, I went ahead and brushed the spacecraft flat black, and the escape tower red. I also brushed the inside aft of the booster halves aluminum, along with the engine nozzles. The engine bulkhead was cemented inside one of the booster halves, and the mounting tube was inserted and glued to a scratch-made bulkhead in the forward part of the booster.

 

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Once the booster halves were cemeted together, I sanded the seams, and added a missing systems tunnel to one side of the booster. I used a strip of Dymo tape to line it up just right before cementing it down. A piece of styrene rod was glued inside the aft part of the booster to represent the turbine exhaust duct.

 

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And now the fun part begins - painting! I started by spraying the booster Tamiya Aluminum. Once it cured, I masked off the aft section and sprayed the upper part of the booster Tamiya Chrome Silver. As you can see by the pic below, the two are almost identical! So, I went out and searched for a more suitable, reflective chrome paint.

 

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I purchased a can of Krylon Foil Metallic and sprayed some spare plastic I had laying around. Seemed to do okay. Then I masked the aft portion of the booster again and sprayed on the Krylon Foil Metallic, and this is what I got:

 

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I wasn't happy with this foil-like finish. The texture  was rougher in real life than in the picture. It seemed to do alright on bare plastic, so I'm guessing it had a reaction to the Tamiya lacquer.

 

Not knowing what else to do, I stripped all the paint off by soaking the booster in brake fluid, and started over.

 

So after spraying the entire booster with Tamiya Aluminum again, I masked and sprayed a different brand of chrome this time: Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover. The result was an even more coarse texture!

 

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Time to strip the paint and start over AGAIN. Since the Rustoleum 2x is an enamel-based paint, I chose to soak the booster in some household paint thinner I had in my garage. This turned out to be a big mistake! When I came down the next morning to see if the paint had been stripped off, I found a white puddle of liquid plastic. The model had been completely melted down by the harsh paint thinner! 🤧 Frustrated, I decided to move on to the Titan and put off building a new Atlas until later.

Edited by Hotdog
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DAYS 11-18
15 hours
31.5 hours total
Build cost to date: $64.02

 

Time to begin building the Gemini-Titan II. I started by painting the inside of the second stage aluminum. Like the Mercury Redstone, I'll be using magnets to hold the spacecraft onto the booster. In the top photo you see a magnet glued onto a round bulkhead that will go inside the booster. The bottom photo shows a corresponding magnet inside the Gemini spacecraft, and the second stage assembled. The tank dome is painted Tamiya Camel Yellow.

 

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For the first stage of the booster, I'm doing as I've done previously and installing a mounting tube for the vertical display of the rocket. This time I used a spare kit part for the bulkhead, and glued the yellow tank dome on the other side of it. A small hole for the brass rod was drilled into the engine nozzle assembly.

 

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Here is the assembled rocket, with the 3D-printed Gemini Spacecraft painted Tamiya Pure White and Testors Flat Black.

 

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I sprayed the booster with Tamiya Pure White, then masked it in preparation for spraying Tamiya Aluminum.

 

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DAYS 19-23
5.5 hours
37 hours total
Build cost to date: $99.93

 

Now I'll take a break from the AMT kit, and work on some of the 3D-printed rockets. Let's start with a V-2 rocket I found on Shapeways. While not originally a US rocket, it seemed fitting to include the V-2 in this display since the planned Redstone and Jupiter-C rockets are its' direct descendants. I'll Americanize it by giving it the White Sands paint scheme.

 

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So here's the Shapeways 3D-printed V-2, painted with Tamiya Pure White. You can see on the right where I've got the fin roll pattern masked and ready to spray.

 

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As you can see, the roll pattern turned out excellent. I brushed the nose cone Testors Aluminum, and we're already ready for decals.

 

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Here she is with the decals applied. Really happy with how it turned out!

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DAYS 24-30
5 hours
42 hours total
Build cost to date: $99.93

 

This next rocket is the Jupiter. I have just begun to teach myself 3D CAD modeling, and this is my first, very simple model and print. You can't see it here, but the inside of the rocket has a shaft for the brass mounting rod.

 

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Since this model was printed in the cheaper Shapeways WSF material, it needed several coats of filler primer. I used Rustoleum Gray Filler Primer which is da bomb for these rough 3D parts. After several coats and a few hours of cure time, I sanded it smooth and cleaned it up with a wet cotton swab. I then immediately gave her 2-3 coats of Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover Gloss White.

 

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After a week or so of curing time, she was ready for my homemade decals.

 

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Once the decals were applied, I added the exhaust pipe to the aft skirt, and painted the engine nozzle silver. She would later get a few coats of Rustoleum Matte Clear.

 

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So here's the lineup of completed rockets as they stand today.

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Hotdog, these are fan-tabulous!! Your builds, your paint application and especially your decals really make these tiny models look BIGGER !

 

Superb job so far!!

 

And Happy New Year Hotdog ... it looks like you're starting 2019 off with a BANG!

 

Pete

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11 hours ago, dnl42 said:

That's some really nice work! I've seen that kit in the LHS and wondered what it was like. Looks like it's good I passed on this one, leaving it to the experts!

 

Actually this is one of the easiest kits I've ever built (so far), as long as your eyesight is good and you're okay handling very small parts. The rockets are simple and straightforward, and go together quickly without having to make too many modifications (I do recommend adding tube to the insides so you can stand them up better). Even when I mess up the paint job with the rattle cans, they're easy to fix, because they're so small (just don't use the wrong stripping fluid like I did on the Atlas!).

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Happy new year to everyone!

 

Hotdog, really nice work so far, well done! Actually, seeing you building the "Man In Space" Kit made me register to ARC forums and this is my very first post here. It seems that we have the same project in our minds as I'm working on the "Man In Space" Kit as well and having the Hasegawa Space Shuttle in my stash to present it along with the models from the kit. I just finished the kit up to the Saturn 1B, I may post some pic's in an own thread occasionally.

 

When I built the Mercury Redstone, I found some clues that the body of the booster is too short because it represents the military (tactical) version of the Redstone. The Redstone used for the Mercury Project had apparently longer tanks and I stretched the body with an adapted polystyrene tube. I'm in doubt about my references now, because I've never seen anyone else doing this "correction", you neither....😓

 

By the way, nice idea to add the A-4/V-2 to the collection, where did you get the decals for it from?

 

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1 hour ago, Pilotace said:

Happy new year to everyone!

 

Hotdog, really nice work so far, well done! Actually, seeing you building the "Man In Space" Kit made me register to ARC forums and this is my very first post here. It seems that we have the same project in our minds as I'm working on the "Man In Space" Kit as well and having the Hasegawa Space Shuttle in my stash to present it along with the models from the kit. I just finished the kit up to the Saturn 1B, I may post some pic's in an own thread occasionally.

 

When I built the Mercury Redstone, I found some clues that the body of the booster is too short because it represents the military (tactical) version of the Redstone. The Redstone used for the Mercury Project had apparently longer tanks and I stretched the body with an adapted polystyrene tube. I'm in doubt about my references now, because I've never seen anyone else doing this "correction", you neither....😓

 

By the way, nice idea to add the A-4/V-2 to the collection, where did you get the decals for it from?

 

 

Welcome to the group! Glad I was able to provide some inspiration!

 

I also noticed that the Redstone booster was too short, but only after I had finished building and painting it. 😟 It was bugging me that the spacecraft and tower looked so big and tall compared to the rest of the rocket. 🤔 I didn't completely figure it out until I started mocking up a Jupiter-C using the Redstone parts from the old AMT kit I built in my teens, and the scale for it wasn't turning out quite right, either. So I opened up my copy of Peter Alway's "Rockets of the World" and did some homework. I used it to create this graphic file that, when printed at 100%, gives you the Redstone, Mercury-Redstone, and Jupiter-C at 1/200 scale. As it would turn out, the 3D-printed Mercury spacecraft and tower compensate for the missing length of the booster.

 

That being said, I was still a bit bummed I didn't catch the kit error during the construction phase so that I could correct it. But thanks to the mishap with the melted Atlas booster, it looks like I'll be buying yet another AMT kit at some point, so I'll get another chance to rebuild the Mercury-Redstone and make it correct for the final display.

 

I created my own decals for the V-2, Jupiter and all the other rockets I'll be building in this thread. The Hasegawa shuttle is getting its own tile and blanket decals as well.

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I picked up a couple of these sets a while back at Hobby Lobby using their 40% off coupons, hoping to do something similar but not as comprehensive. A few questions:

 

Interested in the Atlas Agena, will the Agena be scratch built or printed?

 

Speaking of printed, how do you like the IndyCals set?  I’ve had my eye on those but haven’t pulled the trigger. 

 

Finally, have you considered offering your decals for sale?

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For you guys building the Mercury Redstone, here's a link to a David Weeks build ... it's in 1/48 but will give you a good accurate idea about making the Redstone more to scale.

 

http://www.ninfinger.org/models/rms_tips/mr3.html

 

I saved it over 11 years ago and it's lacking in pix, but still GREAT info.

 

And Pilotace, welcome ... and don't be shy about posting your builds. If you want some help posting pix, just ask away!

Pete

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2 hours ago, habu2 said:

I picked up a couple of these sets a while back at Hobby Lobby using their 40% off coupons, hoping to do something similar but not as comprehensive. A few questions:

 

Interested in the Atlas Agena, will the Agena be scratch built or printed?

 

Speaking of printed, how do you like the IndyCals set?  I’ve had my eye on those but haven’t pulled the trigger. 

 

Finally, have you considered offering your decals for sale?

 

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The Agena will be a 3D-printed part. Here's a dry fit of the Agena on the original Atlas before it got destroyed. The diameter of the 3D-printed Agena in this pic was off by a millimeter or two, but that has since been corrected.

 

The Indycals decals are a vast improvement over the kit decals, but for a graphic designer like myself, the incorrect fonts used for "United States" on all of the rockets hurt my eyes. So my decals will be just a tad more accurate 🙂 I might consider offering my decals for sale if there's enough interest in them. I haven't seen this kit at my local Hobby Lobby since I bought the last one back in the spring, so I'm concerned the kit might be out of production again.

Edited by Hotdog
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1 hour ago, K2Pete said:

For you guys building the Mercury Redstone, here's a link to a David Weeks build ... it's in 1/48 but will give you a good accurate idea about making the Redstone more to scale.

 

http://www.ninfinger.org/models/rms_tips/mr3.html

 

I saved it over 11 years ago and it's lacking in pix, but still GREAT info.

 

And Pilotace, welcome ... and don't be shy about posting your builds. If you want some help posting pix, just ask away!

Pete

 

That's indeed a great build by one of the masters! Lots of good info there. Have you seen the 1/12 Redstone that Rob Byrnes is scratchbuilding in the Facebook group? It's jaw-dropping.

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3 hours ago, Hotdog said:

 So my decals will be just a tad more accurate 🙂 I might consider offering my decals for sale if there's enough interest in them. I haven't seen this kit at my local Hobby Lobby since I bought the last one back in the spring, so I'm concerned the kit might be out of production again.

I'd be interested in a set of your decals.  I have the IndyCals and Tango Papa decals but could always use another set such as yours.

There are several of these kits for sale on the Bay right now.

Edited by Drifterdon
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9 hours ago, Drifterdon said:

I'd be interested in a set of your decals.  I have the IndyCals and Tango Papa decals but could always use another set such as yours.

 

Same here, count me in.

 

I'd also be interested in shuttle decals in this scale.

 

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