# Atomic city 1/12 Mercury capsule



## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the Model section. It starts out in the air, so its sort of an aircraft.

I've been working on this for the last 4 months for a group build over at FSM. I thought some here might be interested.

It's a big kit! Over 2 feet with the escape tower.




























The parts are all well formed and fit very nicely. The hull of the capsule is molded in 1 piece, so no seams to clean up.

Construction starts with the escape tower. Its a kit all by itself! 



















The main rocket body has a seam to fix, also pay close attention to the alignment of the body when gluing it to its base. It has 2 "pipes" that need to mate with pipes on the tower framework.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Next starts the antenna section. 










It's very well molded and the destabilizing flap is moveable, a nice feature.



















The fit is straight forward, but requires lining up a few pieces before gluing.

The recovery section comes next, the detail is very basic here, a weak point of the kit.










The compartment that holds the parachutes is empty. I didn't like how it looked, so I built up the main and reserve 'chute with sheat styrene and apoxy sculpt.




























I painted some straps on the sculpt 'chutes. 

I think it came out good. I painted the chutes off white instead of white/red, I figure they are packed in a canvas wrap so they would deploy cleanly.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Next comes the retro pack straps. 3 straps with 7 parts each.










They come flat and need to be bent, no big deal.

One word of caution, that I din't head. The kits very nice decals have a set of stripes for the retro pack section. It is designed to go on before assembly. I did not do this and it is causing much extra work at the end.

So paint the retro pack parts silver, decal them, and then assemble them!

The fit is very nice!



















See, what I did here is wrong!


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

The Instrument panel is interesting.

Every Mercury mission had a different configuration. The kit panel is a generic Late mission. Meaning it matches no flown mission but is not really far from any either. 

I decided I was going for Gordo's Faith 7, the last Mercury flown. I have taken some liberties though. I'm leaving the "hero medal" mirror on. Coopers mission was the only one flown without it and in my mind it's kind of iconic of the Mercury missions.

I decided not to do major surgery on the instrument panel. It is close to Gordo's but not exact. Also I had grand plans about lighting the instruments that just did not look good at all. I ended up using fiber optic cable on most instruments instead of wire. Because of this the wire bundle would not "bundle" properly and could not be routed correctly. A minor point in my mind as the wires as they are block more area of the forward cabin, which has no detail. More about that later.

Anyway I masked much of the panel:










Painted the cabin and IP:




























The cabin is mostly gray, I used a few different shades so things would show up better.

The "wired" IP:


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Some dry fitting:



















The cabin has no forward bulkhead, you can see into the recovery section. I found this unacceptable and its a very quick fix.
Some sheet styrene made quick work of that issue.











I also added some magnets to the recovery section and the antenna fairing so they could be easily removed. It worked ok, it holds.

I added some wiring to the rear bulkhead for some visual interest.


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## Xenodyssey (Aug 27, 2008)

That is one large, impressive kit.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Indeed it is!

The astronaut figure is white vinyl, I ended up buying some auto bumper primer for him.










So far it seems to be working. 

The figure is painted Tamiya gloss aluminum, with Tamiya white on the helmet. The details are all Model Master enamels.





























The escape tower is Tamiya true red.










It cover beautifully! 

The front of the cabin is very empty, I decided to add the helium bottles on the front for some visual interest.
not much can be seen so they don't need to be perfect.



















They are just wood beads, filled and painted red.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I'm almost caught up to real time.

The interior dry fit to see how the helium tanks look.










I've also added the flexible conduit that crosses the hatch. 

The whole thing dry fit is about 2 feet long.










The outer glass pane has to be cut out of sheet PVC.










And the inner frame/glass.


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

Thanks for the great build up photos and descriptions- I have seen this kit on the shelf before and always wondered what it was like


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Great job! Space Force, is go! :thumbsup:


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I painted the capsule Tamiya semi matt black. You can see the results in post 8. It covered very well and gave a very nice finish.

I then misted on some gloss coat in preparation for the decals. There are a lot of them.

I used Micro set and Micro sol to snug down the decals on the shingled surface. They worked great.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

No new photo's, but After letting the decals set for a few days I wiped the capsule down with a damp cloth and hit it with a coat of semi gloss clear. It was WAY to glossy.

After another day and a half misted it with some flat clear. It's looking much better. Almost the finish I want. 

I got the outer window glued in with Krystol Klear. Let it dry, Then I glued in the inner window. 

That's where I am now. I'm all caught up with real time.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Here are some photo's of the windows:



















I started on round 2 of the Retro pack decals today. 



















Round 3 of the decals are supposed to be the worst.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Round 3 of decals was a pain!

Each of the side stripes on the sides of the retro packs are separate, And the lengths are different for almost each stripe.










Anyway, it took an a few hours to get them on, but its worth it. They really look nice.



















I still have some touch up painting then I'll seal it with clear.

After that It should be final assembly.


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## terryr (Feb 11, 2001)

Nice. I didn't realize the door was offset to the side.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Thanks!

The base kit models a late mission.

The early capsules had different hatches, But it was basically in the same place. The instructions give detail on how to model it. 
The window was added later.

I got a coat of clear on it but it looks too shiny to me. I'll hit it with some semi gloss and see how that looks.


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

Were nice Mercury capsule. It looks awesome.....I have this kit in my stach, unbuilt. I'll built it one day, probably without the ejection tower... As for lighting the cockpit instrument panel, what kind of batteries are you using? Gee, seeing your pictures, I feel like building mine..... The astronaut looks ok, the details are also Ok. I would have to make a research for that kind of details tho. 1/12 is a nice size to add LOTS of details. I did this for my 1/24 Gemini capsule..... 

That remind me, speaking about my Gemini capsule, last month I've noticed by pure luck that it was starting to fall of it's support..... YIKES BATMAN, call for help !!!! I was so lucky to see this before the big mess..... And while I removed it slowly from the support, the cabin started to seperate from the the rest..... Dammit.... I told myself, maybe it's time to fix a goofy error I did while assembling all the sections . I did a brain fart in 2015, I align the handrails on each sections BUT they were not supposed to. They were supposed to be offset....... that was an error....... that I now fix for good..... and this time, I used CA so it won't seperate in a few years...

BEFORE with the handrail error:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZuuRC4kwSjEdeGFx8


And now :
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TvVBAhSX8tePJfEV8


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## aussiemuscle308 (Dec 2, 2014)

impressive build. thanks for sharing!


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

f1steph said:


> Were nice Mercury capsule. It looks awesome.....I have this kit in my stach, unbuilt.



Man, you must have a HUGE mustache!!


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## f1steph (Jan 9, 2003)

John P said:


> Man, you must have a HUGE mustache!!





AHahahaha... just one wrong letter and that changes everything..... YEP, a straight 2 feet long mustache !!!!!!! Hihihihi...


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

....or leaving one out....


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Mustache's side, I made some good progress yesterday.

I plumbed Gordo in his cockpit and started final assembly. The cockpit is all glued together and installed in the capsule. The heat shield in glued on.

I misted some dullcoat on the retropack, I'm happy how it looks now.























































Things left to do:

The retro straps/connections, glue the small retro motors on, and some touch up paint on the retro pack electrical connections.

And lastly figure out where I'm going to display this thing!


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Very, very close to done.

I painted the retro pack straps, glued the small retro motors on the pack, did some detail painting, and I glued the electrical wire bundle to the straps.










There is a plastic pin to anchor the center of all 3 retro straps to the pack. Somehow that got lost, but I found a small screw that works perfectly!
The straps clip onto the capsule and the screw now holds everything together.



















No photos, but I painted the 3 electrical plugs that attach the wiring bundle to the capsule. Those will go on tomorrow. That should finish her up.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

The last parts have been glued on. The electrical plugs that connect the wire bundle to the capsule.

The fit was interesting, I had to trim and force them. I ended up using CA and accelerator to hold them in place.



















So construction is now complete. Some final paint touch up and I'll call this done.

That should happen on Monday.

I'm happy with the build, some things I would do differently if I was building this again but It came out 
not to bad.


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

I thought I had this done, But I realized I left the dielectric panels on the antenna section black!

I have some white and grey decals on the way that should work.


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## robn1 (Nov 17, 2012)

Go Hot Dog, go!


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

The good news is the decals came.

The bad news is the area is not true, it's very slightly conical. I'm going to have to figure out how to cut the decals appropriately. Here is what a true rectangle looks like.










I could touch this up with paint, try cutting new decals, or just masking and painting.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Would they fit better if you installed them upside down from how you have them now? :lurk5:


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## mach7 (Mar 25, 2002)

Milton Fox Racing said:


> Would they fit better if you installed them upside down from how you have them now? :lurk5:


Good idea but thats the 1st thing I tried.


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## Stimpson J. Cat (Nov 11, 2003)

Neat build! I have a half dozen or so of these in storage. I might have build one myself.


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