PhantomMJI

This is a really nice build, I like it! Have fun modeling! Mike

This is an outstanding build of the old Revell Nike. Well done! Have fun modeling! Mike

Excellent build! The underside photo really shows the nice work you did on the engine nozzles. Have fun modeling! Mike

You did great work on the Sputnik I and R-7 launcher! I really like the way it looks. Thanks for posting the photo of the finished model. Have fun modeling! Mike

This is an excellent build! This kit has been around for many years, but I rarely have seen it built. Well done!!

Thanks everyone for the great compliments! Mike

Thanks for the nice compliments Jeddahbill and Peter2!

Thanks Dmitriy! This is a great chart to have comparing the rocket pods. The photo you included of the back ends of the rocket pods on a Hind is excellent for the detail, this will be very useful for my build. Have fun modeling! Mike

Perfect, thank you Vultures1!! The fact that they are a bit unusual may explain why my searches for typical Hind weapons came up blank. I appreciate your heads-up that ResKit offers them in 1/72. I am now off to order a set! Have fun modeling! Mike

Hi! I am working on a model way out of my usual topics and ran into a problem where I could use some help from modelers more knowledgeable than I. I am building a Zvezda 1/72 Mi-24V Hind and want to depict a scheme that caught my fancy. All I have for reference is a few not-so-clear photos I found on-line. The markings are no problem. My question involves some of the weapons stores that this particular Hind carried in a few of the photos. These don't look like the weapons in the Zvezda kit. They appear to be the same pod with one having a fairing (?) at its end while the other is truncated. Sorry these are small but I wanted to focus just on the weapons. Any idea of what these are and if there are any 1/72 aftermarket replacements? My initially option was to simply have nothing on the wing pylons but these would add some more interest to my build. Thanks! Have fun modeling! Mike

For the last several months I have been working on the old (1960) kit of the proposed Atlas Space Station for Project Outpost. I have posted my build steps in the "In-progress" section. Here's a selection of final photos starting with a single photo of what I started with. Enjoy the photos! Have fun modeling! Mike

Well, I do believe this build has reached the end point. I am happy with the way my interpretation of the old Hawk Atlas space station turned out. Here are a few final photos of the completed model. I'll post more photos in the completed builds forum. Thanks for following my build as it meandered towards completion. Have fun modeling! Mike

This is an excellent build! I especially like what you have done with the moon base. Well done! Mike

I am just about finished the last bit of work on the Atlas. While I am working on adding the last few bits like the antenna and cooling radiator and take some good photos of the completed model, I thought I would show how I built the final base for the Atlas. I used an old trophy plaque that I won at a local model contest as the starting point. I tend to recycle my model trophies that are gathering dust on my storage shelf. Here's the pieces that I will use to assemble the base. I have already pulled the metal trophy sign off the wooded base leaving a rough scar. I'll cover the entire surface with a cut piece of black styrene sheet to smooth out the surface. If the adhesive on the sign had not pulled up some of the surface of the wood I would have skipped the black plastic sheet. The photo is a night shot taken from the International Space Station (ISS) of the southeast section of the United States. While it is not the traditional blue seas with white puffy clouds type photo, I thought that a night photo would go well with the spy nature of the Atlas station. Finally, I have a small segment of brass rod that will fit into an aluminum tube sleeve that I inserted early in the build. It is a smaller version of the aluminum tube that is shown in one of the early photos in this build. Here are the components in the order that they will be placed together in the completed stand. In this photo, I have glued the photo to the black plastic sheet. I then carefully placed the photo on top of the wood base. I decided where I would want the brass rod to be placed and marked this with a sharp metal point. I drilled the hole in the photo for the brass rod separately form the wood base. If you look carefully, you can see the dark hole in the center of the photo. I then placed the photo on top of the wood base and made a mark through the drilled hole in the photo on the wood base. The hole for the brass rod was then drilled into the wood and the brass rod glued into the wood base using 5 minute epoxy. All that was needed was to slip the brass rod through the hole in the photo and glue the styrene base sheet under the photo to the wood base. Voila, one decent looking stand for the Atlas space station. To finish things up, here's a photo of the Atlas while it had the gloss black undercoat on the stand. I think the stand will look good with the Atlas when that is finished. At least it will look much nicer that the wooden block with holes that I have been using throughout this build! We should know for sure in another week or so. Have fun modeling! Mike

Life has got in the way so not much new to report on the Atlas build. I went back and forth on what markings, if any, should be on the Atlas. The kit decals were beyond saving so I was on my own. As this was essentially a military manned reconnaissance station, in the end I went for the minimum markings so it would look somewhat sinister. Basically, I added the US "stars and bars" and some USAF lettering. I hope to post photos in the next week showing how the final base for the Atlas is assembled. I just need to take a few more photos of that part of the build. Have fun modeling! Mike

Hi Matt I recently finished converting a Vostok kit to the Sputnik launcher in 1/144 and did a bit of research to answer the color question. The R-7 launch vehicle is a very pale light gray. It does look like white at a glance but the general consensus now is that it is overall light gray. The first two Sputnik launch vehicles were this color before they changed to the greenish gray of the later launchers. Here's a photo of Sputnik 2 on the launch pad. Here's my take on the color. The photo makes it look white due to the lighting I used but it is a pale gray. I am glad that you decided to build the Cutting Edge kit. I have one in my stash and will be following your build! Have fun modeling! Mike

My focus has finally moved on to finishing the Atlas itself. Once I completed the overall assembly, I gave the Atlas an initial primer coat of Alclad Gray Primer. I posted this photo before but thought it might be useful again as a reference for the next few photos. The LOX line in this photo was removed and set aside as I'll add it at the end. Once I was satisfied that most of the seams were filled, I gave it several coats of Testors Gloss Black enamel. The reason for the multiple coats was due to how effective the gloss black paint highlighted missed seams! It is surprising how much of a challenge it is to take photos of a shiny black cylinder and keep it in focus! Once I was satisfied how it looked and the paint fully cured, I then gave the Atlas its final paint coat using Alclad Steel. While it is very difficult to see in the photos, I also gave some subtle color to the tail end using a few light passes of Alclad Violet and Blue. That's it for now. Have fun modeling! Mike

This is a great looking model! The detail painting and overall finish really comes together for an excellent representation of the "real" movie car. Have fun modeling! Mike

While I am working on finishing the Atlas, I have one more small scratchbuilt part to complete. The original model and most of the Outpost drawings show a typical dish antenna near the hatch. The HAWK kit has a very simple "TV antenna" or "towel drying rack" for the antenna. I decided to make my own antenna. Here are the parts: The antenna mast is a thin brass rod, the main body is a leftover resin part from a Verlinden 1/48 F-104 detail set, some thin plastic disks that I punched out (only need one but made extras) and the main part of the dish from a kitchen sink drain strainer/filter. The metal strainer was originally flat but I already had press molded it to a more dish-like form before I thought of taking the photo. The next step was to paint the individual components where necessary. The main body (resin part) was painted with MRP bright aluminum and weathered with a wash to give it some visual texture. Here are the components assembled. I used part of a straight pin for the antenna horn. I like this a lot better than what came in the kit! Have fun modeling! Mike

Hi Bill I believe you are spot on regarding the purpose of the cone structure around the hatch. I believe it is supposed to be an aid for the astronauts entering the station to be "captured" and get to the smaller open hatch. I think of this as simply making the entryway to the station much larger as there were a lot of unknowns as to how easily astronauts could move around in space at the time. I deleted this option in my build as I don't think it is very practical and by the time the Atlas would have been launched, there would be enough confidence to think the cone as being unnecessary. Mike

Richard, thanks for the heads-up on Rowland White's book "Into the Black"! I was not aware of that book. I'll see if I can get a copy (through my local library?) as there is very little in print on the Outpost project using the Atlas. Mike

I felt like I was on a roll with the way the lifeboats were looking, so I went ahead and finished them. I gave them a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss to get a smooth surface then applied a few decals that I scrounged up from old, partially used decal sheets in my decal collection. After the lifeboats were leaned up and another gloss coat applied, I gave them a final oat of Alclad Light Sheen. I also highlighted the engine exhaust bells with a metallic weathering pencil. Remember when earlier on in my build I modified the kit's astronaut entrance hole to have an aluminum "tunnel" to prevent the open hole look? While I was sanding and priming the Atlas body, I realized that the portal should have a proper door as the entrance would likely not be kept open to the external space environment. So it was on to scratch building a small door that will be positioned open on the model. I cut a small flat plastic sheet to a slightly oval shape to match the opening. I then took a scrap piece of photoetch from an old sheet and made an internal door handle. After trying to figure out how to mount this to the external surface of the Atlas, I came up with a simple hinge system. I cut a piece of a "U" shaped Evergreen plastic rod and glued it to the outside of the open hatch area. The door will sit inside this hinge in an open position. At least, it sounds good in theory! Have fun modeling! Mike

Hi Bill! Thanks for your positive comment on the lifeboats. I actually did not have much of an option in completely removing the raised panel lines. I damaged a few of the panel lines trying to eliminate the large seams that I ended up with when assembling the lifeboats. I decided rather than struggle in an attempt to replace the missing/damaged raised lines, I just sanded everything smooth. It does look pretty good in this small scale not having the raised lines. The pink primer that I used is Stynylrez Dull Pink primer SNR-409. I have really been liking how Stynylrez lays down as a primer. It also comes in a wide range of colors but I mainly use the white, gray, black and pink primers. It seems to work as a base with every paint I have tried so far. I am using up some of the other primers that I have and likely will only use Stynylrez and MR Surfacer primers for most of my modeling in the future. I started to use Mission Models pink primer a few years ago and found that it worked better than a white primer for most of the yellow overcoats that I did. I got rid of my Mission Models paints and primers a year or so ago as I found that they were a real pain to spray and also when cleaning the airbrush. Have fun modeling! Mike

I agree! I immediately thought of one of the ships from the expense, perhaps in the MCRN navy? This is very creative! Have fun modeling Mike

I agree with you Uncle Monty! The proposed and sometimes started Real Space concepts from that era tend to be colorful and very creative! Speaking of colorful, I thought I would post an update on my build that actually has some color. While I am working on priming/gloss black painting/fill seams and remove dust in paint/repeat, I pulled out the two small taco chip looking lifeboats and started work on them. They are only a couple of parts, but the underside of the body and top half only fit where they touched. After filling in the seams and removing the raised panel lines, here is what they looked like. Note that the top surface of the ships are very smooth, the old raised panel lines are very visible after sanding! Once I was happy with the overall finish I gave each one a final coat of pink primer. Why pink? I like to use pink primer when the final coat is either red or yellow. It gives the final coat a bit of warmth and reduces the number of yellow coats needed to get a good depth of color. The final coat is MR Color Character Yellow which gave a slightly orange yellow finish that I was looking for. I plan on painting the undersides a dark gray/black to break up the scheme and suggest something along the lines of shuttle tiles as heat protection. The kit that I am using was missing the decals although after all these years they likely would not be useable. I'll forage through my spare decal box to come up with something. That's it for now. Have fun modeling! Mike