posted 01-20-2025 05:04 PM
Any comments about this kit now that it has been released, or any photos of a completed model? This is a versatile kit, offering the chance to build it with various launch vehicles also offered by Revell in 1/110th scale - Redstone, Mercury-Redstone, and Jupiter IRBM. The latter can be modified into a Juno II.
How about a model representing the Jupiter that launched Able and Baker? I have seen some nicely modified kits depicting MR-3. I have thought of that but am probably going to install an early Redstone in place of the Jupiter C.
***EDIT: I discovered the Revell Redstone and Jupiter (IRBM) are not 1/110th scale -maybe around 1/120th. The Jupiter does not fit on the launch pedestal, though the Redstone barely does. The latter's diameter should be the same as the Jupiter C if it were the same scale, but is not. The Jupiter C can be modified to become a Mercury-Redstone, though, by trimming off some of the upper section of the "C" and using a 1/110th scale Mercury spacecraft from the, "Everything is go," Mercury-Atlas Revell/Atlantis kit. Convert the Atlas to an early Atlas A or B.***
There are some errors in this kit. The tracks for the mobile gantry are not correct. The rails were embedded in concrete for the actual system, not tracks with cross ties on the ground. The markings are not correct for the Explorer 1 launcher, but are right for an early test Jupiter C.
Overall, though it is an extremely nice kit, especially considering when the tooling for it was made - the late-1950s. The gantry can represent the ones at Pads 4, 5, and 26. Pad 6 was very similar, but the gantry had a square top rather than the A-frame design.