I built the AMT “Man in Space” model about a year and a half ago. I wanted the original, but prices on these were out of reach. The AMT kit fit the bill, but it is different from the original in that the original had backdrops to go with the separate models whereas these rockets are set on one display stand with no backdrops. However, the kit, in my opinion, is well worth it. Plan to have at least 22+ inches of vertical clearance, the Saturn rocket is huge, even in 1/200 scale.
If you are even half way serious about decorating your kits accurately, it is a MUST to have the Tango Papa decal sheet for this kit. I got mine by mail order straight from Tango Papa Decals. Their website is tangopapadecals.com. It is pricey, but you get ALL the markings on 2 1/2 sheets, a few are duplicates, and few minor extras that I think may go for other versions of the kit rockets, but you use upjust about all the decals for this kit. They are thin, but very workable decals, good register, good color. The trickiest part was putting on the beautiful silver roll marking for the upper stages of both Saturn rockets. I removed all the clear sections where the white shows through with a new Xacto blade, then cut it in three sections to help apply it. It includes all the black roll panels, however you will still have to paint some areas black. I chose to use extra black decal film and some airbrushing in these areas to minimize the masking time and get the lines straight. The down side is, you have to have good reference material for all the rockets as no instructions are included with the decals. According to Tango, the kit instructions should be enough to put all the decals on, but instructions are a really just a good start on where they go. A comprehensive review (which I used and concur with) of the decals was given in the IPMS Journal, Vol. 12 Issue 1, Nov/Dec 99, pg 45. My main reference material was Rockets of the World by Peter Always, 2nd edition. This has all the markings for all the rockets in the kit. Great book for a lot of other rockets, too.
Building this for pleasure, I did not spend a lot of time researching every flaw and correcting it. It looked good enough to me straight from the box with the only correction being the capsule for the Mercury rocket was too big. Had to cut it’s diameter down to better fit the missile. The capsules did have a bit of an overlap, but this was too much. Fit was good overall, and typical for round sections, they needed filling and careful sanding with a curved sanding block to eliminate the step created by the joint down the sides. The three larger rockets were better secured to the base with 1/8 in screws & nuts through the rocket motors.
Painted all the white areas with Model Master Gloss White 17925 with a small drop of blue added to a full bottle (supposedly keeps white from yellowing with age). All decals were installed with a layer of Future first, decal, then Future on top. Then over sprayed lightly with Floquil Flat to reduce the high gloss and give a good scale effect.
The aluminum parts of the Atlas and Gemini Titan were sprayed with Model Master buffing aluminum, then polished with SNJ aluminum powder, coated with Future.
That’s my input, for what it’s worth. Have 2X the cost of the kit in decals and reference material, but have a beautiful example of our early space exploration vehicles I really enjoyed putting together and am proud to show off.