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One Giant Leap For Mankind, Just A Pootle Round The Garden For A Martian


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By a strange coincidence a mint kit is on its way to Cape Martian as we speak.

 There's a good article on the kit, here on my favourite rocketry site, Ninfinger. It includes a useful guide for super-detailing the thing...right up Martian's alley.

 

http://www.ninfinger.org/models/dwgemini/gemini_b.html

 

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Great to see a real space rocket thread from you Martian, I do recall we talked a lot about such things when we last spoke on the phone. It's good to see some good old fashioned modelling from you again, and look at this thread, page 3 already. What newspaper was it that used page 3 for the more interesting news......? 😜

 

Terry

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Space rockets you say?

Wonderful to see you back at it especially with such a different kettle of fish 🐠 🛸. Albeit a very apt kettle dear Martian.

The kits look great and the scratch building is ace.👏👏👏

I’ll tag along for the ride if I may.

 

Johnny.

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17 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Space rockets you say?

Wonderful to see you back at it especially with such a different kettle of fish 🐠 🛸. Albeit a very apt kettle dear Martian.

The kits look great and the scratch building is ace.👏👏👏

I’ll tag along for the ride if I may.

 

Johnny.

Your are more than welcome Johnny. Our mutual friend Macbeth is pleased you are here as well.

 

Martian 👽

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5 hours ago, Martian said:

Your are more than welcome Johnny. Our mutual friend Macbeth is pleased you are here as well.

 

Martian 👽

It’s been a while but as it’s you.

 

ahem.....

 

 

”Hot potato orchestra stalls puck must make amends”. 👃🤏 🗣ouch. 🤣🤣🤣

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I have been a bit busy with the Mercury Atlas. I had been dithering about what to do about the kit engines. They were not the best fit and in the end, I decided to go for a tricky masking job to get the stronger joint of plastic to plastic, instead of relying on a potentially weaker joint where we might be gluing plastic to paint. This decision made, the rest of the model went together really well and other than opening up assorted vents, very little in the way of remedial work was required and the model is now ready for paint.

 

One change to the kit I did make was to beef up the kit supplied stand. Horizon would have you just perch the model on the stop of the stand,

 

clearly a recipe for disaster. With this in mind, I added a length of brass tube into the stand and drilled a hole in the base of the centre rocker nozzle. The model now site securely on the stand. 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

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6 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Thanks for building. 👏

Will it be paint or foil for the metallics of the main cylinder Martian?

Thanks Tony, it is going to be paint over some pre-shading. I have yet to decide between Mr Hobby, Vallejo or Alclad though.

 

Martian 👽

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4 hours ago, LorenSharp said:

Heres an idea Martian, although it is pricy. I want to get a bottle to see how good it it is. Mike swears by it. which means it must be pretty good.

https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/mirror

Thanks Loren. How much?  I want to buy some paint, not the factory! I hate to think what it would cost once US postal charges are added. (falls down in a faint clutching his wallet)

 

Martian 👽👽

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I did a double take myself when I saw the price. That's what Mike used on his little Sputnik. Apparently you can brush it on and it still comes out perfect. But of course for that price it not only should go on smooth but do the painting itself and play God save the Queen while doing it, or My Country Tis of Thee, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.🥴

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1 hour ago, Martian said:

 (falls down in a faint clutching his wallet)

 

Martian 👽👽

All the while Calling out I'm coming home Elizabeth, Meanwhile Mrs Martian is looking down quizically "you're already home Silly... and WHO IS Elizabeth?"

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On 25/01/2021 at 03:07, Martian said:

Thanks Tony, it is going to be paint over some pre-shading. I have yet to decide between Mr Hobby, Vallejo or Alclad though.

 

Martian 👽

Not wanting to question the mighty tentacled one himself (but I will because I’m curious) 🙃 I never seem to get a pre shade to work on metallics. Usually it’s a thicker, wetter spray than usual. I always post shade. Prying minds need to know. 
 

Johnny

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17 minutes ago, The Spadgent said:

Not wanting to question the mighty tentacled one himself (but I will because I’m curious) 🙃 I never seem to get a pre shade to work on metallics. Usually it’s a thicker, wetter spray than usual. I always post shade. Prying minds need to know. 
 

Johnny

I have never tried it with metallic paint  but if the contrast between the primer coat and the pre-shade is stark enough, I think it should work and I have seen it done on YouTube. Doubtless I will be eating my words before long but we shall see. 

 

Optimistic of Mars 👽

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In other news, I managed to get the old Revell 1/48 Mercury and Gemini kit for under forty quid the other day. This is good news as the 1/24 Gemini kit was the most I have ever paid for a kit and, being new to this genre, naturally I don't want to muck it up. I can use the Mercury parts to have a fiddle about to see what will work from a super detailing point of view and can have a play around to see how I might display the detailing on the Gemini. Revell would have you glue all the detail in place and then hide much of it by gluing all three parts of the spacecraft together. I am thinking of doing something with magnets; at least I will when I remember where I put my stock of magnets!

 

I have made a start on the Mercury model. The kit would have one glue the front half of the astronaut to his rear half which is moulded as an integral part of the rear bulkhead, which in itself, has some very woolly and suspect detail moulded on it. I have begun by gluing the three parts of the capsule together and fabricating a new bulkhead and floor from plastic card. (This is the bit where @Navy Bird will start getting over excited as there will be a lot of white styrene going into these kits.) Although the exterior of both these models is well moulded, the interiors are going to have to be pretty much scratch built. I have glued the rear bulkhead to the heat shield and can then do most of the scratch building away from the capsule and insert the completed article from the rear when the time comes (Fnar, Fnar). The mess you can see inside the capsule is Mr Dissolved Gloop used to clean up the seams on the inside and to fill the prominent ejector pin marks.

 

I might get some more on this and the Canberras done today but I am in the middle of a massive reorganisation of the Martian cave. Mrs Martian bought me the Trumpeter 1/350 Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier kit for Christmas and before I can even think about starting it, I need to free up some serious amount of space; not easy in a room that measures six feet square.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

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This looks like it will be more fiddly than the 1/24th but you seem to have made a good start. And added your own F'nar's to boot!

Now as for doing something with magnets, I can only advise caution, and that you make sure your appliance is grounded.

 

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1 hour ago, Terry1954 said:

Great thread Martian. Takes me back to when I was a young lad and built the Revell Gemini capsule.

 

Thanks for the memory ............. that's a song isn't it?

 

Terry 

You mean you were a young lad once? You learn something new every day!

 

Martian 👽

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8 hours ago, Martian said:

The kit would have one glue the front half of the astronaut to his rear half which is moulded as an integral part of the rear bulkhead,

 

It's actually a reasonable representation of the Mercury "seat". Unlike subsequent spacecraft, each Mercury was flown with a form-fitted couch moulded to the individual astronaut's body. It was known that the ballistic re-entry would exceed 10 "g" and it was decided to give the pilot all the help he could get by supporting him as best they could.

 

Subsequent spacecraft, including Gemini, used an offset c.g. to enable some aerodynamic lift on re-entry both to allow manoeuvring for accuracy and offset the "g" loading. The Apollo CM took this further with a lift/drag ratio of 0.4 and of course the Shuttle was even better and kept the "g" to about 3. All these used "normal" seats (Gemini's were ejection seats, of course) so Mercury remains the only (US) spacecraft to use the form-fitting couch.

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9 hours ago, Martian said:

. I am thinking of doing something with magnets; at least I will when I remember where I put my stock of magnets!

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don't forget to get the poles in the right orientation before attaching. Otherwise it may cause you great annoyance and displeasure.:oops: Ask me how I know.

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51 minutes ago, KevinK said:

 

It's actually a reasonable representation of the Mercury "seat". Unlike subsequent spacecraft, each Mercury was flown with a form-fitted couch moulded to the individual astronaut's body. It was known that the ballistic re-entry would exceed 10 "g" and it was decided to give the pilot all the help he could get by supporting him as best they could.

 

Subsequent spacecraft, including Gemini, used an offset c.g. to enable some aerodynamic lift on re-entry both to allow manoeuvring for accuracy and offset the "g" loading. The Apollo CM took this further with a lift/drag ratio of 0.4 and of course the Shuttle was even better and kept the "g" to about 3. All these used "normal" seats (Gemini's were ejection seats, of course) so Mercury remains the only (US) spacecraft to use the form-fitting couch.

Do you have a picture of the seat without an astronaut sat in it?

 

Martian 👽

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