1:12 Mercury spacecraft instrument panel

I'll look for some referrences for you, (and me!)
So far I have found many discrepencies with the instructions and the actual space craft, i.e. NASA has the window added after Shepard's flight not Grissom's as the istructions say. . .?
How about the escape rocket? Is it a bright red as molded or a Primer Red as listed in the instructions??
Too Many Questions!

Don

The escape tower is Primary Red, not Primer Red, so it is essentially the same color as the plastic.

As for the window, McDonnell delivered the first of the redesigned capsules in time for one to be assigned to Grissom's flight. NASA decided to do this since the flight would be suborbital and if anything went wrong, there'd be no problem getting back.

There are huge headaches involved trying to research Mercury and Gemini. Most of the photos available are post-flight, so many of the markings are burned away or are made much harder to read in photos. Then you have the Smithsonian encasing the capsules in Plexiglass. The curved nature of these cocoons makes photography all but impossible. Then you have the fact none of the capsules have identical markings. They do have some markings in common, but only a few of those can be found in photos, mainly because the only time a photo was shot close to the spacecraft it was to get a good image of the astronaut climbing into it! So, we can see all the markings around the hatches and window areas, but just try to find photos of the rest of the darn things!

Scott
CaptCBoard@AOL.com

Don,check out http://www.atomiccitymodels.com/ go to message board and click on Mercury project,for $17.00usd you can purchase a disc that contains over 200 hi-res pics and 55 nasa drawings,this package also has decals.I think this is a very good deal .These images are from mercury-atlas-10 that was cancelled and never flew.I am sure with the disc and my web resourses I can pretty much model any mercury-atlas or redstone mission.

Sounds as if Atomic CIty will be getting another $17 from me. . .FSM also has a CD advertised with the Mercury Capsule and "Little Joe" Booster used in tests, it is $19.
As the booster stage for that one is only slightly larger than the Mecury capsule and escape gantry it might be easier to model instead of the Redstone or Atlas.
Any way, pictures I have found of Shepard, Glenn, And Shirra in the capsule all show much different configurations, mainly on the left side of the capsule. One has an O2 (?) bottle tied in with a shoe lace looking affair and the next has it secured with that new stuff called "hook and pile tape." ahh advances in science!
Thanks for the correction to the Primer question Captain, that clears that up for me, must learn to read some time. . .

Don

Thanks to the captain,this model kicks ass,I only wish other companies would manufacture models of this quality.LONG LIVE ATOMIC CITY ! and once again thanks to the captain for this excellent spacecraft of historic importance.

Can we hope a Gemini and Apollo are next for Atomic City??
All in all a very nice kit that shows research went into it and that you are honest enough to admit what you don't know!
I don't remember much of the Mercury program but Gemini and Apollo, those were main points of interest for me as well as the rest of the US. I remember having TV sets brought into the class rooms to watch launches and recoveries.
I don't think I will ever forget Walter Conkite interupting programs to tell us the fate of Apollo 1. . .

Don

Hello Folks,

I'm new here but quite old to modeling...thought you might find the following quite interesting for Mercury reference info - do a net search for:

MercuryFamiliarizationManual20May1962.pdf

There seems to be many different links to this document - but, you'll get a 460 page .pdf file that is basically an 'owners manual' for the Merc capsule.. Electrical schematics and everything. It has about every detail you could possibly imagine for the spacecraft. If this isn't enough detail or info for you, why then you're at least half as insane as I am!

Happy detailing,

Rog

WOW!!!!

THANK YOU Rog!

That is BOSS!! Loads of cool stuff!

Last night I went to the library and checked out a book called Friendship 7 and it includes a CDrom that shows the complete mission the imagery was a bit raw but it was also an original film from 1961 or 62 and you can follow most of the dialog from the film between John Glenn and Nasa in the book.....it's also loaded with very cool diagrams and color shots as well! Its new at Amazon for only around 14.00!

After watching that for over an hour, I made up my mind to build mine as Friendship 7 for sure!

Glad you liked it - suppose it'll get alot of people grooved into building an actual working scale model!

I know I'm thinkin about it -

Rog

"Working scale model"??......hmmmmm I'm not too sure about that but I do plan on doing the full works and lights on the MRC 1/12th Mercury Capsule!

I see that on one set of plans that there are these things around the instrument panel called 'flood lights'
I wonder what those are...interior.....exterior? .....there must have been some kind of interior lighting of some sorts?

AND.......That round mirror thingy on John Glenns chest.....what iz that thing?

If I want to display this thing with the door open I guess that means it would be on the floor or not around at all.....cuz I'm pretty sure that it was not hinged.

I like projects like this! by the time I'm done with this project I will know a lot more the Mercury missions.

Having all this is like a field trip back in time. . .Except it is in color now!!
Thanks for all the help!

Don

I agree,

Golly! This is going to be swell!

Holy Smokes! This manual is awesome. What a great find. Thanks.

Rob

That mirror "thingy" was for looking at the instruments. There was a camera in the cockpit that was focused on the astronauts and with the mirror they could see what the instruments were doing. I guess it was an early "black box" idea since the only way they had back then to keep track of stuff like that was to film them.

Thank you eagle!

Here is a link for that FRIENDSHIP 7 book with CD-ROM! it's very cool! I and I highly recomend it. I just placed my order for a copy for $10.00 at amazon.
The cd rom has a 57 minute documentary movie from launch to splash down!

http://www.astronomynowstore.com/us/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24_30&products_id=119

IDEA!:
For the best lighting effects......I'm thinking that those film transparencies you get with photo-etch cockpit sets and the generic sets you can buy for 1/24 cars would work perfect for the guages! ( its just a matter of matching then up the best you can ) and because of this thing being in 1/12 scale the larger Speed and tach auto gauges should be just about perfect! Unless anyone has ever heard of those film transparencies being custom made?

I just know it......I'm jumping on this too fast and after I'm done there will be tons of cool after market goodies for this kit.......Oh well.

Check out this site http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/mercury.html
I got it from the Fluke on another board:)

Fluke?.....whos this FLUKE guy??

I know that my buddy 'qtan' who owns a very nice printer will be doing some of the instrument decals for the the 1/12th Mercury for me.....maybe We should just come up with a master interior DECAL SET and sell it?

hmmmmm.

Well I'm sure glad everyone found the manual beneficial...also thanks for the other links. At this point I think it's as fun trying to dig this stuff up as it is making the darn capsule!

I'm still debating whether I'm even going to use the kit instrument panel or fabricate my own. Being an electronic engineer (amoung a few other things) I'm getting the feeling that I'm going to go bonzo with it. As I live in Chicago, I can get down to the Museum of Science and Industry and look directly at a mercury capsule mockup...I'll probably be pissing off the staff there trying to get them to remove the freakin plexiglass so I can get some decent photos inside. This might actually happen as I know some folks on the inside there...

From what I remember the last time I saw it, there are a ton of wire bundles going everywhere in the capsule - something you don't get a good concept of even on all the web pictures...

Lastly, my top secret idea for doing the actual instrument gauges ( and something that I have NOT seen anywhere in modelers website's, etc:

First, I'm sure everyone knows about either capturing a graphic of an aircraft instrument gauge or panel and printing it out after shrinking it down in the graphics software you may be using...well, you tend to loose alot detail in inkjet land, at least this is what I've found. So, how about printing it out in a slightly larger scale, on clear heatshrink material, Then, shrink it down preserving all the detail? Got this idea from my 4 year old daughter's "Shrinky Dinks" jewelry craft project...the detail remains really good...think I gotta try this...now to find a thinner gauge version of this stuff to get through the inkjet!

Hope this spurs on some further thoughts...

Happy New Years everyone!

Rog

QUOTE: Originally posted by RRossen Hello Folks, I'm new here but quite old to modeling...thought you might find the following quite interesting for Mercury reference info - do a net search for: MercuryFamiliarizationManual20May1962.pdf There seems to be many different links to this document - but, you'll get a 460 page .pdf file that is basically an 'owners manual' for the Merc capsule.. Electrical schematics and everything. It has about every detail you could possibly imagine for the spacecraft. If this isn't enough detail or info for you, why then you're at least half as insane as I am! Happy detailing, Rog Hey Rog, How the heck do you find a pdf file? I just finished my Mercury but am interested in checking this manual out. I don't have the computer skills to find a specific pdf out there on the net...do you have some kind of website to go to?

Griz,

Just copy and paste the link I provided into your search engine (google, etc...). There's nothing unique about getting a .pdf file or whatever. But you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to 'view' the file once you get it. This is available everywhere for free on the net.
Hope this helps...

Rog

Folks,

Re pdf files, here's a great link to a huge number of documents covering various aspects of manned spaceflight:

http://www.geocities.com/bobandrepont/spacepdf.htm

Hope you've got plenty of disk space!

PGD

Thanks PGD!

Good thing I'm installing my DSL tonight or tomorrow!

I have decided to model Gordo Coopers' "Faith 7"as it seems to be best choice for modeling an out of the box mercury spacecraft.I am in need of the june1962 SEDR-104 as this covers capsule 15 and appears to be the capsule the Atomic City model kit represents.thanks for any help you can provide.

Merkin63,

Here's a link to the document for spacecraft 20 (21.72 Mb):

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mscorbaddon/MercuryFamiliarizationManualDec201962.pdf

According to the introduction, this document supercedes the 1 June '62 version.

Regards,

Peter

PS...

Cooper's 'Faith 7' was Mercury Spacecraft no. 20.

Another useful link:

http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/mercury/index.html

Regards,

PGD

thanks for the information,I was aware that Gordos' capsule was # 20,i just think the kits instrument panel is researched from capsule 15,which never flew it was possibly the capsule for the canceled MA-10 flight.I have 3 of the kits and pretty much want to build the first one straight from the box.I am too lazy to scratchbuild the periscope display on the first one,although I think it would not be all that difficult,well,back to cutting .010 guitar string for toggle switches,again thanks for links. J.Christopher West

Rejoice! all of you detail junkies,here is a link where you can take a virtual tour of the exact spacecraft that Atomic-City based there model on. this is an incredible virtual tour of the interior you can rotate zoom to your hearts desire! I'm in heaven.also includes a nother spacecraft and some planes.check it out.requires quicktime. http://www.nasm.si.edu/interact/qtvr/uhc/gtvr.htm I've been told that this link doesn't work.try this enter UHC QTVR ARTIFACTS into the google search engine.this should hook you up.apparently they are working on their site.let me know if this helps.Thanks!

THANK YOU!!! That ROCKS!!

Here is a good Mercury info site as well.

http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/models/mercury/mercury.html

Hi all
I am just coming into this forum, even not enough time to introduce myself and BAM i found this topic.

Just to help, if it was necessary but I guess not,
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=55046&release_id=128652

Those folks are developping an Addon for Orbiter (http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html on case you didn't know) and they are using a LOT of material under PDF format, including those mentionned above, you should just have a look.

Well I will try to introduce my self later.