luke strawwalker
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I was in recent communication with Wes, aka Dr. Zooch, and he inquired whether I might be interested in doing a beta-build of his new ANT-SCALE MERCURY REDSTONE kit. I JUMPED at the chance! So, after a couple days waiting on the mail, the kit arrived in my mailbox out here on the farm, right in the middle of baling hay. I had to curb my enthusiasm a couple days until I finished my work and had time to dive into the build. SO, let's get to it!
First off, this is a NEW KIT, built in an 'ant-scale' that approximately matches that of the BT-60 based Atlas Agena kit Dr. Zooch has had out for some time, and which itself makes a VERY VERY nice model! I also have a sneaking suspicion that the capsule and tower of this kit will eventually make their way on top of the Atlas model to make a quite impressive Mercury Atlas model... at least I hope so! The new Mercury Redstone is based on a BT-50 tube and capsule to put the 70 inch Redstone rocket into the appropriate "ant-scale" with the 120 inch BT-60 Atlas model. They look GREAT together! The kit comes with four capsule wraps to model any of the Mercury Redstone flights, from the 'plain jane' black capsule from the abortive MR-1 and subsequent MR-1A and Ham the Chimp's MR-2 flight, MRBD, to Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 and Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 that completed the Redstone flights.
Upon opening the box, you'll find the BT-50 body tube, a BT-20 motor tube, the balsa capsule nosecone, a Mercury capsule escape tower kitbag containing 3 wooden sticks, 3 fine metal wires, a toothpic end "aero-spike" for the tower top, and a short piece of wood dowel for the LES motor can itself. There's also a recovery kitbag containing a snap swivel, screw eye, engine clip, BT-20 engine block, and a launch lug. Inside the box are also a pair of 20/50 centering rings, a sheet of balsa fin stock, the wrap sheet, and parachute, kevlar shock cord, elastic shock cord, shroud line string, and tape dot rings for the chute. You bring the glue, hobby knife, sandpaper, and skills
We start with the simplest part of the build... the capsule (note I didn't say tower... ) Take the balsa nosecone and paint a black band on the bottom with a little black paint; I used Testors. If I understand correctly, this step may be eliminated in the final kit, but I include it here since I did it according to the present instructions. Choose which flight vehicle/capsule you wish to model and cut the appropriate wrap from the wrap sheet, and use a bit of white glue to glue the capsule wrap together into a cone shape. Once dry test fit it over the balsa nosecone, and then apply some white glue to the cone exterior and slide the wrap over it and press gently into place. The wrap SHOULD extend a bit below the shoulder of the cone, to mate up well with the booster/capsule adapter band that the Mercury Redstones used, which will be installed on the rocket later. Cut the recovery compartment, antenna fairing, and nosecap fairing from the wrap sheet and glue them up using a little white glue. I'd recommend some cheap hemostats for clamps while the glue dries. Once dry, test fit the recovery compartment band to the top cylinder of the balsa capsule above the capsule bell wrap, and if the fit is too tight, gently sand the top cylinder of the balsa down a bit until the wrap slides over smoothly and easily. Apply some white glue and slide the wrap into place, aligning the seams on the bell and the cylinder. This kit doesn't use the typical "black dot" of the larger BT-60 Mercury Redstone that Dr. Zooch has been selling for awhile, so I painted the top of the capsule black since it would be partially exposed and visible. Once dry, glue the conical antenna fairing centered on the flat top of the balsa capsule, and then the nose cap fairing on top of that, aligning all the seams. Dr. Zooch recommends rubbing regular pencil lead over the edges of the paper to darken it a bit and blend it in with the rest of the capsule, which is printed in a color to blend with the pencil lead. The effect is subtle but it works. Pens and markers are NOT recommended for this step. Your Mercury capsule is now complete, on to the hard stuff... We'll cover that in the next post...
Here are a few pics...
Later! OL JR
First off, this is a NEW KIT, built in an 'ant-scale' that approximately matches that of the BT-60 based Atlas Agena kit Dr. Zooch has had out for some time, and which itself makes a VERY VERY nice model! I also have a sneaking suspicion that the capsule and tower of this kit will eventually make their way on top of the Atlas model to make a quite impressive Mercury Atlas model... at least I hope so! The new Mercury Redstone is based on a BT-50 tube and capsule to put the 70 inch Redstone rocket into the appropriate "ant-scale" with the 120 inch BT-60 Atlas model. They look GREAT together! The kit comes with four capsule wraps to model any of the Mercury Redstone flights, from the 'plain jane' black capsule from the abortive MR-1 and subsequent MR-1A and Ham the Chimp's MR-2 flight, MRBD, to Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 and Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 that completed the Redstone flights.
Upon opening the box, you'll find the BT-50 body tube, a BT-20 motor tube, the balsa capsule nosecone, a Mercury capsule escape tower kitbag containing 3 wooden sticks, 3 fine metal wires, a toothpic end "aero-spike" for the tower top, and a short piece of wood dowel for the LES motor can itself. There's also a recovery kitbag containing a snap swivel, screw eye, engine clip, BT-20 engine block, and a launch lug. Inside the box are also a pair of 20/50 centering rings, a sheet of balsa fin stock, the wrap sheet, and parachute, kevlar shock cord, elastic shock cord, shroud line string, and tape dot rings for the chute. You bring the glue, hobby knife, sandpaper, and skills
We start with the simplest part of the build... the capsule (note I didn't say tower... ) Take the balsa nosecone and paint a black band on the bottom with a little black paint; I used Testors. If I understand correctly, this step may be eliminated in the final kit, but I include it here since I did it according to the present instructions. Choose which flight vehicle/capsule you wish to model and cut the appropriate wrap from the wrap sheet, and use a bit of white glue to glue the capsule wrap together into a cone shape. Once dry test fit it over the balsa nosecone, and then apply some white glue to the cone exterior and slide the wrap over it and press gently into place. The wrap SHOULD extend a bit below the shoulder of the cone, to mate up well with the booster/capsule adapter band that the Mercury Redstones used, which will be installed on the rocket later. Cut the recovery compartment, antenna fairing, and nosecap fairing from the wrap sheet and glue them up using a little white glue. I'd recommend some cheap hemostats for clamps while the glue dries. Once dry, test fit the recovery compartment band to the top cylinder of the balsa capsule above the capsule bell wrap, and if the fit is too tight, gently sand the top cylinder of the balsa down a bit until the wrap slides over smoothly and easily. Apply some white glue and slide the wrap into place, aligning the seams on the bell and the cylinder. This kit doesn't use the typical "black dot" of the larger BT-60 Mercury Redstone that Dr. Zooch has been selling for awhile, so I painted the top of the capsule black since it would be partially exposed and visible. Once dry, glue the conical antenna fairing centered on the flat top of the balsa capsule, and then the nose cap fairing on top of that, aligning all the seams. Dr. Zooch recommends rubbing regular pencil lead over the edges of the paper to darken it a bit and blend it in with the rest of the capsule, which is printed in a color to blend with the pencil lead. The effect is subtle but it works. Pens and markers are NOT recommended for this step. Your Mercury capsule is now complete, on to the hard stuff... We'll cover that in the next post...
Here are a few pics...
Later! OL JR
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