Thanks, Ben.
Re: paint scheme. Going with my non-conformist side. Black nozzle. Silver pads, with black horizontal inlays. Legs, orange except the piston, silver. White everywhere else. I know...you're probably cringing, because that looks more like the semroc version! Like the Stones say, "But I like it." I did find an Estes ML box art with black nozzle.
David - I'm not cringing at all, it is absolutely about what you like. The ML original box did show a black nozzle and red landing pads with a black wrap AND black antenna dish, and red pistons.
In '69 the catalog had two photos of the kit, both had a black nozzle, one shows the pads all red, one looks like red with black wrap. One show black antenna, one shows white.
In '70 the catalog page again showed two photos with the same color schemes as '69, except now both photos shows the pads with black wrap (however one of them its hard to tell, the entire pad could be black, or silver with black wrap).
In the '71 catalog the nozzle turned red and was never shown black again (except the box always showed a photo of the black nozzle with black antenna, red pistons).
In '71 and '72 the pads were silver with black wrap and the antenna was white, pistons silver.
In '73 and beyond the pads were red with silver wrap and the antenna was white, nozzle red, pistons silver.
There are a lot of color scheme options, they all look kind of cool. I simply chose the color scheme that was in the catalog when I bought the kit in '77 (but i kind of like the black nozzle).
One question i have always had is the shade of red - is it red or orange? I do not have an original box, all I have are the catalogs from those years and it looks pretty red.
I look forward to seeing yours painted (before I make my final color decisions
.
Ben