1/12 Atomic City Mercury Friendship 7 - COMPLETE!

Thanks, Kevin.

Everything you see here, with the exception of the outer hull and heat shield pieces of the capsule, is scratchbuilt.

Wow! Is this the kit instrument panel, or did you add detail to it? All those perfect little toggles switches, t-handles, and circuit breakers are amazing. Beautiful work!

Keivn

Long after we are all gone, some historian, museum curator, or archaeologist will come across this gem and gaze at it in wonder. Then he'll scan it with whatever device the future holds for looking into sealed objects and say "The guy that built this was crazy!"

I guess most of us have heard of the fully detailed interiors of some old wooden ship models that were only dixcovered by the use of boroscopes.  The modeler didn't care if anyone would ever see it, he knew it was there.

Fantastic job on the Merc, Astrazoic.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Made significant progress on the wire harness attached to the instrument panel. Mostly, the cable locations and such are made up, since each Mercury had a different configuration and detailed photos are scarce. No big deal - the intent is to make the area look busy.

http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury83.jpg
http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury84.jpg
http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury85.jpg

Much of the detail will be hidden, unless you know where to look. There will be no cutaway. Mostly, I do the extra work because I enjoy it :) 

Wire is from a variety of sources, with some coming from radio parts (copper) and others coming from a hobby shop (very thin wire on a spool).

Connectors are made by bending solder to an elbow, then cutting off ends to size. Paint boxcar red.

Hi Astrazoic!

Nice work yet again. To help me in my project, what type of wire are you using in your model?

And, how do you create the rubber connecting ends between the wire and the instrument boxes? (not sure of the technical term)

Thanks heaps!

Regards

STOP using real photos of the craft and trying to pass them off as "models"...

I have seen some mighty ecellent and detailed work on various models, but nothing really compares, especially that overall finished efect of.."real"!Everytime you add something it's another Wow factor.

This is some of the highest-quality, most convincing scratchbuilding I've ever seen! Crisp, neat, and beautiful work.

Kevin

SUPERB project and amazing scrachtbuilding, I can't wait to see this miniature masterpiece compleated. I have this model in my "to do list" awaiting it's turn to be built and after seeing your rework and build not only shows the amount of work needed for an hyper accurate model but also the potential of this model spacecraft and the 1/12 scale for superdetailing.

Fred

Thanks. Most of the decals on the aft bulkhead come from my scrounge box. I also used the kit decal sheet, specifically the stenciling used for the escape tower, which I will not be building.

The decals for the instrument panel are custom, simply reproduced using scanned images of instrument panel line drawings and making a bunch of tiny text, all printed on decal sheet.

Wow! This is finescale modeling personified.  Could you remind us how you do the labelling and stenciling?

Thanks, Buddho.

Movin' right along with the aft bulkhead details. Seat is now affixed, with additional weathering added. Apparently, the seat received considerable wear and tear before Glenn's actual flight, as seems to be the case with most systems on the capsule. This is nice, because it allows for some weathering fun.

So far, I painted several components black, added battery cables (the black leads), added the life raft, survival kit and whatever the sack is on the astronaut's right (made with masking tape, painted with chrome silver and covered with dullcoat - the effect is exactly what I was looking for). The white tube leading from the green oxygen bottle provides additional pressurization to the helmet area when the visor is down. I still have several details to finish up, then the wire harnesses go in.


http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury74.jpg
http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury75.jpg
http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury76.jpg

Hi,

Really coming along great . i like the weathering that you have done in the interior.

Like all the paint flecks and scratches. Looking forward to see how you wire up all the instruments.

Great work

Thanks, everyone.

I'm basically finished with the interior hull - what remains is more weathering and wire harnesses. Lots of other small details remain - window filters and mirror, coiled cable for flashlight and window pole, assorted small instrument boxes along the forward bulkhead, etc.

The instrument panel is more or less finished, but I need to give it a dull coat and scratch it up a bit. Seat and aft bulkhead painting has commenced, and plans for installing the plethora of wire harnesses will follow...

http://www.philsmith.us/Mercury72.jpg

Wow! That panel is really really great! Of course, being 1/12 scale really lends to allowing for a high level of detail much more readily than something much smaller...

I really can't wait to see all the rest of this when fully assembled.

Wow, this is fantastic work! Not sure how I missed this so far, but I'm definitely paying attention now!

Is that the kit instrument panel? It looks great... all those perfect little toggle switches!

Kevin

whoooooooooooooooooooo...

absolutley fan-freakin'-tabulous. I was pretty blown away by the ctl pnel, but all these sub assemblies and now almost done..beautiful. Huge pat on the back, and waiting for the final!

Everything you see in these pictures, with the exception of the black outer hull and portions of the seat, is scratchbuilt. The kit's interior was pretty meager.

The light circuit is simply two white LEDs in series connected to a 9 volt battery.