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posted 04-22-2014 10:05 AM               

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Updating the tooling would take additional time and increase the cost of the kit (and as those of us who have the "modified reissue" of the USS Forrestal kit know, you also run the risk of those modifications not turning out as well as you'd hope).

Aside from that, a big reason model companies reissue these old kits is for the nostalgia factor, giving the buying public another shot at kits remembered from younger days. It's both less expensive and much easier/quicker to just reissue the kit as-is from an existing, paid-for tool than commission changes or updates, if not the multiple tens-of-thousands of dollars that a new tool costs.

We as subject-matter specialists may wish we got something different, but the average model builder will probably buy it, build it, and think it's cool, and not care about the missing heat shield or that the window coves are off, or so forth. As much as I wish the ratio was reversed, there's a lot more of them than us, and that has a bearing on Revell's decision to reissue the kit as-is.

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posted 04-22-2014 04:52 PM               

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I see your point.

I'll just do the best I can with styrene and odds and ends. As good as the detail parts might be I just can't come to spend what they cost for a $17 model.

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posted 04-22-2014 09:32 PM               

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When I think of the detail kits, I look at it as just buying what you want to add to give you the model that will make you happy. I doubt I will ever look at the interior of the model after I build it, so I will just need the RealSpace kit for the exterior. A super detailed kit of a 1/24th scale Gemini would cost a lot more than $18.

I have always found it strange that this kit was done in the first place, since a 1/48th scale Gemini was made by Revell with the Mercury. But no Mercury capsule was ever done at 1/24th! I like the 1/48th scale Gemini since it represents a prototype design with the landing gear.

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posted 05-28-2014 10:04 PM               

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Gemini was one of my favorite models as a kid.

Even though it never flew, I always wanted to build the 1/48 version with the landing gear just once. When I was a kid I couldn't do that because any model kit was a treasure and I couldn't buy two at a time and put the Mercury kit to waste.

Thanks to adulthood and eBay I now have the 1/48 in both versions, along with a full Mercury and the landed capsule with the deployed bag which I never somehow figured out to do when younger!

And I never had the 1/24 version at all. Now with eBay and this re-release, I can do the 1/24 orbital version and really scratch my Gemini itch with a 1/24 landed version with scratch-built landing gear made in more detailed fashion than the original 1/48.

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posted 06-16-2014 07:37 AM            

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I bought this kit a couple of weeks ago and just started looking at it over the weekend.

I think my two biggest disappointments with it are a lack of the gold thermal shield and that there is no detailing of the support struts along the exterior of the service module.

I certainly don't have the money to buy detail kits and I'm not for scratch building, so the gold thermal shield is pretty much out for me. But, I am thinking of ways to add the structuring to the outside of the craft.

By the way, does anyone know of a paint color that is accurate for the capsule exterior? I always seem to see blue in it, so a solid black doesn't quite work for me.

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posted 06-16-2014 11:06 AM               

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The colour of the Gemini spacecraft is one of those topics that comes up again and again on the model forums.

The colour of the flown craft is black or very very dark grey with a subtle metallic sheen. The most widely published photographs of the Gemini 6/7 rendezvous tend to show the craft as having a blue tint or hue as do photographs of some the early engineering mockups which were often shown as a medium blue grey as opposed to black.

The blue appearance of flown spacecraft in orbit is caused I assume by the reflectivity of the Earth on the spacecraft skin and the photographic processes.

I've built quite a few of the kits over the years and the finish that I would suggest is Testors metalized dark "exhaust" which I think replicates the actual craft finish nicely and is more interesting than just a solid black.

I'm a little unsure what you are referring to as support struts but if you don't want to make too many modifications you could always just build it "as is" and it makes a nice representation of the McDonnell mockup so often seen next to a mockup Mercury spacecraft in publicity photographs during the 1960s and this is almost certainly what Revell modelled their kit on.

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posted 06-16-2014 02:05 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by sprocketship:
... there is no detailing of the support struts along the exterior of the service module.

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I'm guessing that you're referring to the black stripes. The retro and equipment modules did not have any raised struts or stringers on them. The black stripes on them were actually black paint. The black and white paint pattern acted as a thermal regulator for the coolant tubing along the inside walls of the modules. I don't recall whether the coolant tubing was under the black or white areas.

The black stripes were found to be unnecessary, so later Geminis did not have them, but had patches of black Velcro for EVA astronaut handholds.

The modules did have various opening experiment doors, maintenance hatches and riveting, but nothing resembling raised stringers or struts.

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posted 06-17-2014 08:25 AM            

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Thanks for all of the input.

I didn't realize that the black lines on the service module were paint. They always looked like shadows cast from some kind of raised structural support...

I'd love to know how to scratch build the thermal shield if anyone has any ideas. I don't know why, but I really don't like the open backside of the model...

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posted 06-17-2014 09:35 PM               

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Amazing job on the Gemini spacecraft. Gotta love that Bare Metal Foil.

Looks awesome!

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