Plastic Models on the Internet: Spacecraft

Showing posts with label Spacecraft. Show all posts

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Subject:	Apollo: Columbia & Eagle
Scale:	1/96
Manufacturer:	Revell
Price	US$20,00 plus shipping
Description	Injected plastic model with waterslide decals and gold metal foil
Comments	This is the old Revell's Apollo 11 kit. The molds go back to 1967, the reason why you see so many issues regarding accuracy. Actually, this kit is based probably in drawings and pictures from the Mk1 spacecraft, as the release date is very close to the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967. The Apollo program went to some extensive changes after that, and the spacecraft that went to the moon in July 1969 was a far more improved one with several internal and external differences. Dragon released a 1/72 scale kit that is much more accurate, but i wanted to build this one due to nostalgic feelings. I built this kit when i was a kid and played with it for several years. Now i had the chance to build it once again, with more detail and experience. I used gold metal foil for the landing stage of the LEM. The rest of the kit was painted with Tamiya acrylics and Alclad II metal colors. I created a docking probe for the command module and two bases for the Columbia spacecraft. Everything was done very simple, just like the kit. It was built to honor the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, my simple tribute to one of mankind's greatest adventures.

Subject:	IRBM Thor Missile in White Sands
Scale:	1/87
Manufacturer:	Glencoe models
Price	US$24,00 plus shipping
Description	Injected plastic model with waterslide decals.
Comments	This is a new release from Glencoe models that did not receive much attention from the modelling community. It is the Thor missile with a launch pad. The original molds are from Adams Models and were released in 1958. Considering the age, they look nice inside the box. The scale is 1/87 (HO scale for the train modelers) witch is probably why most people did not get interested in the kit. A launch pad is provided and it is basically the same you will see on the Vanguard kit. The box art is the same as the Adams original release. New decals were added with more detail then modelers got in 1958. My sample came with injection problems on the fins and on one side of the fuselage (pictures). These problems were not too hard to solve and i will give a go to this one very soon. The missile is very easy to assemble. With less then 10 parts, the major problem was the small fault on the injection process. The base is more complex but fit is very good considering the fact that the molds are now almost sixty years old. Everything was painted with tamiya acrylics. The decals were wel printed but did not perform very well, I used future floor polisher to get them to stick to the model. Overall, this is a nice kit with impressive size and good detail.

Subject:	Mercury Redstone MR-3 Freedom 7
Scale:	1/144
Manufacturer:	New Ware models
Price	US$ 24,00 + shiping
Description	Resin casting with photo-etched metal parts and decals
Comments	This is another great kit from New Ware models.The model represents Alan Shepard's Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule on the first american flight into suborbital space. Fit of the parts is great and overall detail is fantastic. I painted it with Tamiya acrylics, covered the model with a coat of future and applied the decals that performed great. I can recommend highly this kit as one of the best resin models you can ever get!

Subject:	Little Joe I - Mercury Program LES Test Launch Vehicle
Scale:	1/144
Manufacturer:	New Ware models
Price	US$ 24,00 + shiping
Description	Resin casting with photo-etched metal parts and decals
Comments	This is another great kit from New Ware models. The Litlle Joe I was a solid fuel rocket design used to test the escape system for the Mercury spacecraft. New Ware´s kit is nicely produced with yellow resin for all the major parts, with photo-etched metal parts for some airframe details and the escape tower. Fit is very nice and construction is simple. There is a fantastic decal sheet the performs beautifully over the recessed details of the model . The base was scratch built.

1) Instructions and model parts:

2) Construction:

Note the fantastic surface detail on the spacecraft. Remember this is 1/144 scale!

3) The finished model:

Both Little Joe rockets with Mercury and Apollo capsules for test

Subject:	Little Joe II - Apollo Program LES Test Launch Vehicle
Scale:	1/144
Manufacturer:	New Ware models
Price	US$ 35,00 + shiping
Description	Resin casting with photo-etched metal parts and decals
Comments	This is another great kit from New Ware models. The Litlle Joe II was a solid fuel rocket design used to test the escape system for the Apollo Moon Vehicle. As you can see from the video below, it proved that this system work perfectly! New Ware´s kit is nicely produced with yellow resin for all the major parts, with photo-etched metal parts for some airframe details and the escape tower. Fit is very nice and construction is simple. There is a fantastic decal sheet with all the tracking markings. The base was scratch built.