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Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 11th 12, 06:33 PM posted to sci.space.history
Joseph Nebus
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Posts: 306
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves


Good news from the hobby stores everyone! Among the things
I picked up this week that I haven't got time to build:

1. AMT/ERTL's re-released the 'Men In Space' 1/200 scale kits of the
Mercury/Redstone, Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn I-B,
Apollo/Saturn V kits.

2. Moebius has released a fresh 'Space Clipper' based on the 2001
Orion. The box hasn't got Pan Am livery on it, though. I don't
know what the decals inside are like. (*If* the Pan Am livery is
missing possibly that can be fixed as there's that company selling
all that Pan Am themed product anyway.)

3. Dragon has released a 1/48 scale Mercury-Redstone stack. No more
hacking it together with the Gus Grissom Mercury-Gemini Kit and a
couple Jupiter C's!

4. MPC has released a 1/100th scale 'Pilgrim Observer' space station,
which I admit I never heard of before but it has that 60s space
race style just oozing all over it.

5. Revell has released a 1/48 scale Apollo CSM/LM stack, which is the
first time I recall seeing the whole stack in uniform scale big
enough to really play with. If I read the box correctly it even
carries the SLA for the complete toy experience.

Now if only there were some way to turn model kits into the
fully painted, assembled models! O, the wonder, o, the joy!

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: Interpreting Drew Carey
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  #2  
Old February 14th 12, 10:23 AM posted to sci.space.history
B0b Mosley
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Posts: 32
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

On Feb 11, 11:33*am, (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
* * * * Good news from the hobby stores everyone! *Among the things
I picked up this week that I haven't got time to build:

1. *AMT/ERTL's re-released the 'Men In Space' 1/200 scale kits of the
* * Mercury/Redstone, Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn I-B,
* * Apollo/Saturn V kits.

2. *Moebius has released a fresh 'Space Clipper' based on the 2001
* * Orion. *The box hasn't got Pan Am livery on it, though. *I don't
* * know what the decals inside are like. *(*If* the Pan Am livery is
* * missing possibly that can be fixed as there's that company selling
* * all that Pan Am themed product anyway.)

3. *Dragon has released a 1/48 scale Mercury-Redstone stack. *No more
* * hacking it together with the Gus Grissom Mercury-Gemini Kit and a
* * couple Jupiter C's!

4. *MPC has released a 1/100th scale 'Pilgrim Observer' space station,
* * which I admit I never heard of before but it has that 60s space
* * race style just oozing all over it.

5. *Revell has released a 1/48 scale Apollo CSM/LM stack, which is the
* * first time I recall seeing the whole stack in uniform scale big
* * enough to really play with. *If I read the box correctly it even
* * carries the SLA for the complete toy experience.


.....In order:

1) The sad part is that this is yet another reissue *without* the
cardboard LC39 gantry. However, I do understand that there's at least
one resin garage kit maker who's still producing the Skylab stack for
the Saturn V, and one Japanese manufacturer has a 1:200 scale Shuttle
stack that looks pretty good with the AMT/Ertl set with a little
cleaning up. Not sure how the solids scale with regards to converting
the Titan II to a Titan III, tho.

2) There's a couple of decal companies producing all sorts of decals
for this kit. CulTVMan's site would be the first place to look. Also,
IIRC Moebius is also releasing a "cargo" version, complete with
opening cargo bay doors and an RMS. This was shown at a recent con,
and based on some criticism the RMS may be getting a little reworking.
Hint: remember the post-Columbia extension?

3) ...Or building the Redstone using plastic tube and thick sheet
styrene, natch.

4) Pat scratchbuilt this one really nice job using 3-4 of these in
"train wreck" mode. Starship Modeler still has this on display in
their galleries. Essentially it's the Manned Venus/Mars Flyby mission
taken to a rational design. Also, it's not 1:100, but something closer
to 1:128, based on some discussions we had here and on
rec.models.scale about 10 years ago. There's also a photoetch set for
this that gives you a trusswork for the Orion engine, along with some
extra detail parts.

5) Revell issued this stack in the mid-60's, right after the LM
configuration was finalized - square front hatch, etc. However, the
whole CSM-LM stack is scaled up from the infamous 1:96 scale "rainbow"
kit, where the CSM is all Block I parts. New Wave has all you need to
accuratize the 1:96 CSM, but ICSR whether they bothered to issue parts
for the Revell 1:48 kits as the Monogram versions sold far better and
were more accurate. About the only positive thing to say about the
Revell LM kit is that it was the kit ABC rigged up with a butane torch
to simulate descent and landing - the Monogram version hadn't been
released yet when ABC did the rather el-cheapo miniature work.

....Oh, and the SLA is a two-piece set, so if you want either the A7
version - where the SLAs stayed attached in "Angry Alligator" mode -
or totally detachable, as in A8 thru A17, and Skylab 2 thru 4, then be
prepared to do some chopping and filing.

OM
  #3  
Old February 19th 12, 01:01 PM posted to sci.space.history
GordonD
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Posts: 151
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

"B0b Mosley" wrote in message
...
On Feb 11, 11:33 am, (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
Good news from the hobby stores everyone! Among the things
I picked up this week that I haven't got time to build:

1. AMT/ERTL's re-released the 'Men In Space' 1/200 scale kits of the
Mercury/Redstone, Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn I-B,
Apollo/Saturn V kits.

2. Moebius has released a fresh 'Space Clipper' based on the 2001
Orion. The box hasn't got Pan Am livery on it, though. I don't
know what the decals inside are like. (*If* the Pan Am livery is
missing possibly that can be fixed as there's that company selling
all that Pan Am themed product anyway.)

3. Dragon has released a 1/48 scale Mercury-Redstone stack. No more
hacking it together with the Gus Grissom Mercury-Gemini Kit and a
couple Jupiter C's!

4. MPC has released a 1/100th scale 'Pilgrim Observer' space station,
which I admit I never heard of before but it has that 60s space
race style just oozing all over it.

5. Revell has released a 1/48 scale Apollo CSM/LM stack, which is the
first time I recall seeing the whole stack in uniform scale big
enough to really play with. If I read the box correctly it even
carries the SLA for the complete toy experience.


....In order:

1) The sad part is that this is yet another reissue *without* the
cardboard LC39 gantry.


Really? I'd heard it did have the gantry and backdrop this time round. Or
did you mean it has the backdrop but *not* the gantry?

2) There's a couple of decal companies producing all sorts of decals
for this kit.


No PANAM decals but it does come with decals depicting the various panel
shades.

3) ...Or building the Redstone using plastic tube and thick sheet
styrene, natch.


The Dragon kit is 1/72, not 1/48.

5) Revell issued this stack in the mid-60's, right after the LM
configuration was finalized - square front hatch, etc. However, the
whole CSM-LM stack is scaled up from the infamous 1:96 scale "rainbow"
kit, where the CSM is all Block I parts.


Tamiya had their own version in 1/70 (not 1/72) missing only the LES, which
was reissued to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. However it
too was Block I and in its original version suffered from the Japanese kit
manufacturers' compulsion to make everything into a toy rather than a
model - it had a soft plastic propeller emerging from the SPS bell which, if
you hung the CSM from the ceiling, would make it fly round in circles.

But last year Dragon came out with a Block II 1/72 CSM/LM combo in flight
mode, which includes all of the stencil markings for the Service Module,
some of which are the size of a pencil point. They have all sorts of other
stuff in the pipeline too, including a 1/72 Saturn V. Yes, you read that
correctly...

http://www.dragon-models.com/catalog/space/Space.htm
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."

  #4  
Old February 21st 12, 11:03 AM posted to sci.space.history
Ken S. Tucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 740
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

On Feb 11, 9:33 am, (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
Good news from the hobby stores everyone! Among the things
I picked up this week that I haven't got time to build:

1. AMT/ERTL's re-released the 'Men In Space' 1/200 scale kits of the
Mercury/Redstone, Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn I-B,
Apollo/Saturn V kits.

2. Moebius has released a fresh 'Space Clipper' based on the 2001
Orion. The box hasn't got Pan Am livery on it, though. I don't
know what the decals inside are like. (*If* the Pan Am livery is
missing possibly that can be fixed as there's that company selling
all that Pan Am themed product anyway.)

3. Dragon has released a 1/48 scale Mercury-Redstone stack. No more
hacking it together with the Gus Grissom Mercury-Gemini Kit and a
couple Jupiter C's!

4. MPC has released a 1/100th scale 'Pilgrim Observer' space station,
which I admit I never heard of before but it has that 60s space
race style just oozing all over it.

5. Revell has released a 1/48 scale Apollo CSM/LM stack, which is the
first time I recall seeing the whole stack in uniform scale big
enough to really play with. If I read the box correctly it even
carries the SLA for the complete toy experience.

Now if only there were some way to turn model kits into the
fully painted, assembled models! O, the wonder, o, the joy!

--http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: Interpreting Drew Carey
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


You can design and make your own realistic models such as
a B52 here,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3515661...in/photostream

I study designs, then make the patterns and instructions,
wife likes making models so she does 90% of construction.
Ken



  #5  
Old February 26th 12, 06:42 AM posted to sci.space.history
B0b Mosley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

On Feb 19, 6:01*am, "GordonD" wrote:

1) The sad part is that this is yet another reissue *without* the
cardboard LC39 gantry.


Really? I'd heard it did have the gantry and backdrop this time round. Or
did you mean it has the backdrop but *not* the gantry?


....Both. The last word I'd gotten - about two months ago, right around
Christnukkah - was that once again production cost considerations were
keeping all the cardboard restricted to the shipping box. Apparently
they finally got ahold of a mint-in-box, never-assembled original
release of the kit, so they'd have a virgin gantry to rescan, cleanup,
and rig the paper cutters for, but from what some industry insiders
have calculated that even taking into account bulk rates, the gantry
and backdrop would jump the cost of the kit up by $10.00 USD.

....There's another example of this sort of cost prohibition: when the
AMTronic was reissued a few years back, not only was the backdrop also
left out, the "Solar Panel" sticker was also not reproduced. Part of
this was due to the costs of producing "3D Baseball Cards", but the
other part was the fact that it was *not* the actual lenticular card
process that was used to create the original sticker. AMT used a
process from a promotional company that combined two different
materials that were originally intended to be used for reflective
highway signs and road markers. The two materials laid on top of one
another created an illusion that the depth of an object placed on top
of a sheet of this stuff was removed; i.e., you put a pencil on a
letter-sized sheet, and the pencil "flattens" and appears as if it's a
photo printed on the sheet. It was one of those "op-art" hypnotrip
effects that the promotional company hoped would appeal to hippies,
drug addicts, and other whackjobs and could be used on doo-dads and
other psychedelia that would liberate disposable income from those
same hippies, drug addicts, and other whackjobs, To date, the only
item I've ever come across to use this material other than the "Solar
Panel" sticker was this 3-ring binder that Sylvania had produced for
in-house use in 1972, which had the same hexagon "beehive" pattern,
only navy blue lines on a half-silver white background.

....But the manufacturer of this material is apparently lost to the
ages. Some years ago, I'd actually tried to track down someone at
Sylvania who might be able to point me in the right direction, but by
the time I'd finally gotten through the flowchart of twisty little
passages, all different that led to Osram Sylvania, while the nice
German lady in the PR department knew of the binders - she still had
one that had been passed down to her - nobody there had any clue
whatsoever as to who the supplier of the binders was, nor even the
brand name of the material. So, the only solution available to PL/R2/
Whoever owns AMT/Ertl now for the "Solar Panel" would be to use the
same lenticular process used for "3D Baseball" cards, and those wound
up being determined as too "cost prohibitive". In an industry where an
additional 4-5 cents cost per kit can send beancounters running for
the weapons lockers, even if the cost were a buck a sticker there's no
way anyone involved in project approval would have greenlighted the
kit reissue.

No PANAM decals but it does come with decals depicting the various panel
shades.


....No, we're aware of that. The point I was making was that there are
3rd-party decal "garage kit" manufacturers who have Pan-Am decals,
especially for the later Airfix - "Air****ed" - releases that
obviously couldn't use the Pan-Am livery due to copyrights and all
that. Note that there's even one company that sported a decal set to
turn your Orion III into Air Force One.

3) ...Or building the Redstone using plastic tube and thick sheet
styrene, natch.


The Dragon kit is 1/72, not 1/48.


....There have been reports that contradict one another on this. Most
of the news items I've read, tho, say it's a 1/48 kit.

Tamiya had their own version in 1/70 (not 1/72) missing only the LES, which
was reissued to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. However it
too was Block I and in its original version suffered from the Japanese kit
manufacturers' compulsion to make everything into a toy rather than a
model - it had a soft plastic propeller emerging from the SPS bell which, if
you hung the CSM from the ceiling, would make it fly round in circles.


....The Japanese are funny about things like that, as well as the
slightly-off scales. I've got one of the 1/70 LM kits, but never
bothered assembling it after reading how much scrap work would have to
be done to even get it up to Apollo 9 accuracy, and that's without the
plume deflectors. I suppose one could make do with the deflectors off
of an Airfix 1/72 LM, but for just a minor increase in scale it's
almost not worth the effort.

Oh, and on a side note, I've seen the "propellered" CSM stack in
action. "Circular" only barely describes the trajectory this thing
somehow manages to achieve...:P

But last year Dragon came out with a Block II 1/72 CSM/LM combo in flight
mode, which includes all of the stencil markings for the Service Module,
some of which are the size of a pencil point. They have all sorts of other
stuff in the pipeline too, including a 1/72 Saturn V. Yes, you read that
correctly...

http://www.dragon-models.com/catalog/space/Space.htm


....Yeah, but these aren't actual kits, right? IIRC Dragon just sells
what could be called either "pre-assembled, pre-detailed static
display models" or "really neato expensive toys". Sorta takes the fun
out of building and doing all the detail research and figuring out how
to duplicate the corrections to the proper scale, like matching the
dents in the LM's outside paneling

OM
  #6  
Old February 27th 12, 09:10 PM posted to sci.space.history
David Spain
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Posts: 2,901
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now onshelves

Joseph Nebus wrote:
Good news from the hobby stores everyone! Among the things
I picked up this week that I haven't got time to build:


One you didn't mention:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GX14R8

1:88 scale Falcon 9 with Dragon capsule.

Apparently this one came and then went (sold out). I guess you can add it to
your Amazon wish list. Who knows when it may be available again?

What might make this a collectible is that it comes from SpaceX, rather than
Estes. (Which no-doubt will follow up with one of its own if it hasn't already).

Dave
  #7  
Old February 27th 12, 09:36 PM posted to sci.space.history
Rick Jones
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Posts: 685
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

David Spain wrote:
One you didn't mention:


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006GX14R8


1:88 scale Falcon 9 with Dragon capsule.


Apparently this one came and then went (sold out). I guess you can
add it to your Amazon wish list. Who knows when it may be available
again?


What might make this a collectible is that it comes from SpaceX,
rather than Estes. (Which no-doubt will follow up with one of its
own if it hasn't already).


No bulges for the solar panels on the service module?
http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/20120105-fairings.jpg

rick jones
--
portable adj, code that compiles under more than one compiler
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...
  #8  
Old February 28th 12, 12:12 AM posted to sci.space.history
David Spain
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,901
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now onshelves

Rick Jones wrote:
David Spain wrote:

What might make this a collectible is that it comes from SpaceX,
rather than Estes. (Which no-doubt will follow up with one of its
own if it hasn't already).


No bulges for the solar panels on the service module?
http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/20120105-fairings.jpg


What?? Oops!

Hmm, maybe this is the Dragon-N ?

I'll leave it to your imagination what the 'N' stands for....

;-)

Dave
  #9  
Old February 28th 12, 01:36 AM posted to sci.space.history
GordonD
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Posts: 151
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

"B0b Mosley" wrote in message
...

But last year Dragon came out with a Block II 1/72 CSM/LM combo in flight
mode, which includes all of the stencil markings for the Service Module,
some of which are the size of a pencil point. They have all sorts of
other
stuff in the pipeline too, including a 1/72 Saturn V. Yes, you read that
correctly...

http://www.dragon-models.com/catalog/space/Space.htm


...Yeah, but these aren't actual kits, right? IIRC Dragon just sells
what could be called either "pre-assembled, pre-detailed static
display models" or "really neato expensive toys". Sorta takes the fun
out of building and doing all the detail research and figuring out how
to duplicate the corrections to the proper scale, like matching the
dents in the LM's outside paneling



The CSM/LM is definitely a kit - I have one. The other stuff is
pre-assembled but the rumour is that it will be released in kit form later.
How accurate that part is...
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."

  #10  
Old March 7th 12, 09:50 AM posted to sci.space.history
B0b Mosley
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Posts: 32
Default Mercury Redstone in 1/48 scale? Every model kit ever now on shelves

On Feb 27, 6:36*pm, "GordonD" wrote:
"B0b Mosley" wrote in message


The CSM/LM is definitely a kit - I have one. The other stuff is
pre-assembled but the rumour is that it will be released in kit form later.

 




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