Atomic City 1/12 Mercury Capsule Preview

looks like a lot of fun. will look cool next to my old Revell Atlas booster/pad kit. Hope a 1/12 LEM is in the works!

Craig

Michael Benolk> is online at

Craig wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net:

How about a 1/32 LEM to go with the 1/32 Apollo!

One thing I'd like to address with regard to the review is the mention of overly-large holes in the retropack, where the wiring for the retro and posi-grade motors goes. These holes are accurate, but still confusing. The overall shape (body) of the retropack is mainly sheet-metal and the holes are designed so the wiring passes through, to connect with terminals on the inside. The easiest way to fix this is to simply replace the plastic 'wires' with some real wire, which would hold up to handling better, too.

This is our first injection-molded kit and thankfully there are few (and minor!) problems. We knew from the start we'd be making a model that would stand-alone right out of the box, but that there was room for improvement/mission-specific details that modelers would want to add to really make this a showpiece. As for the colored plastic-- well that was a hard decision. I know how hard it is to get a decent red paint job over dark plastic, but couldn't do the whole thing in red and I didn't want to do the sprues with the really small detail in the darker plastic of the capsule body, so we decided to go with the colors you see in the review (though the orange quoted in the review will definitely be red when the kit goes into production!)

The decal sheets have all (and I do mean ALL) the exterior markings found on the real deals. Even the correct logos for the Escape Tower rocket motors! The instructions will address all the concerns voiced in the review (things we have been aware of for a long time!) and will also have extensive diagrams for placement of all those markings. We will also be adding dial faces for the instrument panel to the production decal sheets.

MRC is about to place the order for the first production run and hopes to have the kit ready for delivery no later than October. For those of you in foreign countries reading these posts, we are working on acquiring distributors in both Asia and Europe.

Scott Alexander Atomic City atomiccitymodels.com

This kit looks great and it may force me to detour of the "mass-produced mainstream kit" road.

Since MRC is distributing these kits, will they be readily available in hobby shops and other retail outlets where MRC products are usually sold?

Thanks,

Martin

Atomic City is making the switch from a resin-kit producer to being the producer of injection-molded kits-- we're going big-time ala Polar Lights or any other company that deals with steel tooling! This kit will be in hobby shops all over the US before the end of the year, if not sooner. And it is not a limited run item. It should be on the shelves for years!

Scott snipped-for-privacy@AOL.com

how's about a really big, really good saturn V? i would love to build joseph from anthony's macroscope.

Oh boy I smell a large scale flying Mercury Redstone!

Gene DiGennaro Baltimore, Md