Estes Mercury Atlas 2111 - Vacufrom Parts

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CrazyJeff

Where Bad Ideas and Horrible Implementation Meet
TRF Supporter
Joined
Nov 8, 2017
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hello all,

After being a longtime lurker, I finally done and got myself an actual account. So please be gentle - it's my first time.

Anyway, with the holiday approaching here in Louisiana, everyone is starting to decorate the trees. As I enjoy one-upping those around me, I am looking to scratch-build an Estes 2111 to maybe join my Mercury Redstone, which is most likely still decorating a tree from a few weeks ago. Imagine, walking through a park with trees decorated by beautiful, scale rockets just in time for a Christmas stroll!

My questions to everyone here is about the vacuform and injection-molded parts:
  1. Are they available anywhere in any form?
  2. Can they be procured as physical specimens?
  3. Have they been scanned or rendered before and exist somewhere in digital form?
  4. What is the level of interest in these parts?

I can access scanners and probably a vacuform machine, so I would consider doing it for the greater good.

Thank you!
 
eBay - unbuilt kits :)

They don't appear to be commonly printed items, if thingiverse and the like are indications.

I took plaster casts of the equipment pods and booster skirts before I built mine. But the former at my boy's high school isn't big enough to try to vacuum form from them.

I made a pvc mandrel and have made the body tubing. Making a second Atlas is on my to do list - I've got the nosecone for a matching Agena. A 1/35 Atlas Agena would be a great partner for my 1/35 Titan GLV. I could fly Gemini 11!
 
eBay - unbuilt kits :)

They don't appear to be commonly printed items, if thingiverse and the like are indications.

I took plaster casts of the equipment pods and booster skirts before I built mine. But the former at my boy's high school isn't big enough to try to vacuum form from them.

I made a pvc mandrel and have made the body tubing. Making a second Atlas is on my to do list - I've got the nosecone for a matching Agena. A 1/35 Atlas Agena would be a great partner for my 1/35 Titan GLV. I could fly Gemini 11!

If I can get a good scan of the injected parts, I figured that could be useful to a lot of folks around here. I was planning on making a cast of the vacuform piece, too. I was thinking about using acrylic fins, so I may end up going stronger than the vacuform for the skirts, too. The flame wings out of the back kinda ruin it for me. Definitely going Mercury over Agena, because my luck would dictate a Gemini 6. I have an extra nosecone from a Mercury Redstone kit.

As far a Gemini, I am probably going to build a Gemini Titan based on the K-21 kit before I tackle the Atlas. I think it is about 1/45 scale. Do you have anything on your Titan build?

And, lastly, thank you!
 
Sounds like a perfect job for 3D printing! Just need someone to model it up on CAD.

I had a small amount of hope for a sealed Mercury Atlas on eBay, but it will probably end up a little rich for my blood. With over two hours to go, it is about to clear $150.

I suppose I could go with the original plan of scaling the parts I need into a digital format. The main reason for this is the first one will end up in the middle of a tree, and I be required to build a second one.
 
Boyce Aerospace can 3D print the Mercury Capsules in any scale you might want. They printed a Merc Atlas Capsule with missle adapter ( for a model based on the 5" Loc airframe, and a 4" Mercury Redstone for me. They even modded the Atlas to have the correct window. Boyce does excellent work.
 
Back
Top