Progress report -
You've got to build this kit with a kind of modular approach. The assembly can be broken down into -
Atlas Booster and Mercury Spacecraft
The launch pad and ramp
The rocket support truss
The support vehicles and equipment
Ancilliary bits and pieces that embellish the launch pad - ladders, stairs, railings, light poles, pipes and plumbing
I am at varying degrees of of completion on different components.
As you can see, the support truss is essentially completed and painted. The rocket body has been assembled and primed in preparation of a coat of Alclad polished aluminium. At the moment it is sporting a coat of Halfords matt black which I have rubbed down to a semi-matt sheen. Next on will be a coat of Alclad's own gloss black underlay which is required for their polished aluminium finish. I have not tried this technique before so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
If it works, it may appear again on some of the all metal finish aircraft kits I've been reluctant to attempt up to now.
The main structure of the pad is complete and primed.
There's still a lot of work to do on this.
When checking through the components I discovered a date stamp which shows the moulds actually originated in 1959 - so almost as old as me. I have to say I am pretty impressed with the work the Revell tool makers did 56 years ago. Looking at pictures of the actual pad used for the Mercury flights (Launch Complex 14), they got it mostly right. The only thing wrong I can spot is the colour scheme they give for the pad which shows the piping being yellow and red. In reality, everything was painted various shades of (probably salt resistant) greys.
