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1/200 Man In Space Set


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Over these past Christmas holidays, I selected this kit from my small stash and wanted to just build it, right outta the box, no mods, no corrections ... just build 'er for the pure FUN of it!

 

I won this kit in my 1st Group Build here on ARC 12 or 14 years ago. I bought the improved decals from Tango Papa about 10 years ago ... so-o-o this should be a quick build!

 

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I had never even taken the sprues out of the cellophane packaging before ... and there's the Mercury Redstone, Mercury Atlas, Gemini Titan, Saturn 1B and Saturn V. I'm curious to see how tall the Saturn V is ...

 

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The kit's sparse decals are top centre and Tango Papa's are the two sheets. Looks like everything I'll need!

Once I map them out, I may not need to do much masking and painting ...

 

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These are going together really quickly ... and the fit of these parts is very, very nice!

Bearing in mind what I'm accustomed to building and their poor fit plus the small size of these bits

 

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Nice fit!

 

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And they're already glued up!

 

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And this 1/200 Saturn V is surprisingly tall!

 

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... but there's always some kind of roadblock isn't there ?

 

These Decals are ALPS printed ... and reading the instructions from TP, I sprayed 'em with Krylon Clear as I always do with my Inkjet decals an-n-n-d, this happened.

 

That warpage and buckling occurred. Do ALPS decals not need to be sealed? Did I damage these Decals?

 

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I contacted Tango Papa, who got bought out last year, and they were of no help at all ... 

I haven't tried applying one yet, yes there are extras, but I don't wanna waste 'em in case I ruin one when applying 'em to the models ...

 

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Any advice you ALPS users can provide would be most appreciated!

 

thanx for taking a peek!

Pete

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Hi Pete and welcome in 2023 with all good wishes! :thumbsup2:

 

OMG, you're going off like a fire brigade, :clap2: and then such a mishap with these damn decals ... :gr_hail:

 

Cheer up brother and bite through, :bandhead2: you'll think of something to solve the problem! up040577.gif

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I picked up a couple of these kits back when Hobby Lobby had a viable selection of models and the 40% coupons.  I then ordered this decal sheet, highly recommended:

 

https://indycals.net/decals/spaceexploration/maninspace.html

 

man-in-space-small.jpg

 

They offer several other "space kit" decals here:

 

https://indycals.net/decals/spaceexploration.html

 

.

 

Edited by habu2
typo
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Hey Pete, glad to see you tackling this oh-so-fun kit. habu2 is right, the Redstone is way too short. There is a 3D-printed part in my Shapeways shop that you can affix to the top of the booster to correct the length. Just shave off the "milkstool" ring, glue on the new part to the top, and you're done! There's other goodies in the store also if you want to convert some of the other rockets to other variants.

 

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/hdmodelworks?section=1%2F200+AMT+Man+In+Space+Kit+Add-Ons+%26+Conversions&s=0

 

Also, I have a set of decals for the MIS kit that's a bit more accurate (but maybe not as complete?) than Indycals. They're laser printed, so no spraying required. They're not in my store, so PM me if interested in those.

 

 

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Pete,

 

I'm not sure what TangoPapa coats his decals with, but the ones I've used I didn't overcoat them with anything.  However, if I'm working with old decals I'll apply a layer of Microscale Decal Film just in case.  When I print my Alps decals I apply a layer of the Microscale Decal Film and they hold up quite well. I hope you can save the decals.

 

Randy

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Habu2 and Hotdog ... as I stated in my very first few words, "no mods, no corrections" ... all of these launch vehicles are incorrect ... but they ARE reasonable facsimiles, in that, the casual observer can see the difference between the Redstone and Atlas, the Titan, the S1 B and the Saturn V ...

 

Randy ... thanx for addressing my query. But I placed a few decals on the models and ... these are pretty awful decals.

 

So, I wanted to knock some rust off of my Masking skills on the Saturn V and the Tamiya Tape allowed a lot of seepage under it ( yeah, I know it's not the Tape's fault ...  ) The Paint job was so poor that I spray bombed White paint over it and tried again. Man oh man, I'm lousy at this. So I sprayed Easy-Off to remove the 3 layers of paint on the first Stage and started over ... with the intent to use the decals.

 

Easy-Off applied and in the bag for 24 hours ...

 

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I masked off the S1-B and the tape, while lovely stuff, isn't contrasty enough for my old eyes and I couldn't tell if I had cut the tape accurately.

 

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.... but it was good enough, with touch-ups incoming. In this image, you can see that I've applied decals to the Redstone, Titan and Saturn V first Stage an-n-n-d ...

 

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... YIKES! ...now, while looking at the decal sheet, I did wonder how the black rectangles would translate onto the cone shaped Fairing and ... they didn't !

 

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Who in Hades designed this decal?

 

So, seeing as these models are ALL incorrect and these decals are just an exercise in frustration, I shall just paint 'em up, and relegate them to being blown up come Fireworks Day.

 

Finishing them would just be a waste of time ... and as this was supposed to be " ... for the pure FUN of it" ... it ain't gonna be that.

 

I may post pix of the painted up rockets, but, uh, don't hold yer breath!  ;^ D))

 

Thanx Gents!

Pete

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Been there, done this, with all kinds of projects that were supposed to be fun and turned out to be exercises in frustration. In fact, I'm there right now on my current paper models project. What I always have to do is just step away from the project for a while. Throw it into a container that will fit somewhere where I won't see it, and move on to something else for a while. After that while, sometimes a long while, I'll dig out the container and invariably anthropomorphize the contents and think, poor thing, I've got to make this right. And trying again almost always ends up with both of us feeling pretty good. Guess I should take my own advice right now and go cement some plastic...  Good luck, and looking forward in a couple months to seeing your Man in Space set looking as stunning as per your invariable stunning standards.  

Edited by SpacecraftGuy
Typing too early in the am
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