Sheri's Mercury Redstone

I received this today from ebay, unopened.

that is terrible!

Steven said:

And here are the paint markers. They've been painting the inside of the package with the white being the worst. The first pic is the black marker on it's side You can see how flattened it is. So now I'm waiting for the checkered decal AND a new set of markers.

Click to expand...

is that the original Estes Redstone? I built two of those when I was younger....was my favorite Estes kit..along with their Nike Ajax.

Steven said:

I received this today from ebay, unopened.

Click to expand...

Appears to be the Centuri.

Glenn

Yes, it's Centuri.

sorry about that...gosh that package seems so similar to what I recall of the Estes kit.

A before and after shot of one area.

Sorry about the crushed markers. Yikes!

And he's back at it! Looking forward to seeing more progress!

More before and after photos. Pretty shabby but I've all but lost my patience on this.

Here are some shots of the decal work on the capsule. You'll even see two hoist marks on the antennae band near the top looking like a horseshoe and a vertical, white slash. These were very small to work with but not as bad as I had initially thought. The window area is painted with the two panes of 'glass' yet to be installed. The lower red band will still need to be applied as well.

Capsule looks great!

Capsule looks awesome!!!

Those decals are insane! Kudos.

nice work....I know I could never build something like that

After all this work, a less than nominal flight would lead to bleeding ulcers!

Kurt

ksaves2 said:

After all this work, a less than nominal flight would lead to bleeding ulcers!

Kurt

Click to expand...

Naw, pick up the pieces and go home. There's always another rocket in the making.

Thank you everyone for your compliments. This project is almost finished and I'm getting excited again, mostly because I'll be doing a build on Sheri's Saturn V next.

I just ordered some red 3/32nd pin striping tape from Hanger 9 on ebay, a set of Dremel cut off wheels for more cutting of the carbon fiber rods for the tower and a red paint marker to see if this will work better than the striping. The red pin striping that came with the kit did not conform well at all to the shape around the lower capsule. This company's tape I've used before on my RC aircraft with much better results as you also need to apply heat to make a permanent bond.

the capsule looks fantastic!!
and I cannot wait to see what you can do with a Saturn V!!! that is going to be awesome!

Wow this is great Steven, almost there

Not as interesting but another step further closer to finishing. I've been using Micro Sol on them and am getting limited results. It may very well be the flat black finish. I'm not sure if using Dull Coat would remove the glossy decal look or do I use a gloss coat on this? I'm not sure if the real one had a dull finish or a semi-gloss one.

And now the famous 'crack' of the Liberty Bell. I've been using more and more decal solvent and it looks like with liberal coats, letting dry then adding an additional one, seems to be getting better results than I was initially getting. Just patience and not going over board by dissolving the decal. I've already been on the edge of doing just that.

I've now got the interior window cut out and am making the template for the exterior window from tracing paper I got from Plastruct's clear plastic sheets that separated them.

I've scraped away any clear film from the large font, mainly the United States logo.

Looking good.

Bat-mite said:

Looking good.

Click to expand...

Aw shucks. :blush:

I've decided to simply hand paint the red band on using a Testor's paint marker. It took three coats to cover the black. I like the results. I've still got more clear decal film to remove from other decals. I can't get all of the film off, but I'll see what I can do.

You can see how well the decals in general have laid down into the shingle work.

Looks fantastic. What decal solvent did you use?