Model of the Week: Another 1/4 scale Merc..the journey begins

[Closet Astronaut]

Progress

Trimming out the main, nowhere did I find in the parts pages the brackets for the bottom ring...so I made some. So far the main without antenna faring it measures 19" high 171/2" in diameter. Currently working on the escape hatch, held off on gluing in the front bulkhead ring untill hatch is done, photos to come.

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Main

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Hatch construction

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Finished product

 

[PaperAir]

Very Very nice

 

[ovation]

Unbelivably good :thumb:

I just havn't got the patience to cut that many repeated bits,
But can't wait for more as its giving me a great refrence to detail up my atomic city Mercury,

JJ-UK

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Thanks Scott

Hey Scott, I don't know if you've been watching this thread but you've put me in a delima, when I checked out Paul's progress today I about wet myself when I saw your post....WOOOHOOO, the aft bulkhead file are up. :thumb: I've been wanting to send a message to see when they might be available but I didn't want to bother you, so i've been plotting my next moves. I have the Mc Donald Douglas manual for this capsule and the pages for the exscape tower look intruiging, thus the delima. I wasn't counting on the next segment so soon, I'm going to build the tower for this model. What a great delima to have, build the bulkhead or build the tower, hmm, what to do, what to do.

Any way thanks again for this great design, it's been a real pleasure.

PS Scott I don't know about other builders but if all you did was post plenty of good upclose photos from all different angles would be enough to do the bulid, maybe save you time in having to write up all the instructions.
At least for me it would be. :yep:

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Antenna complete

So heres the antenna. Everything went smooth.

 

[Closet Astronaut]

This is the first I've used black paper, I had to reprint each page three times to get the graffics to be good and visable, also the black cardstock isn't as ridged as the white, had to double up several pieces.

My daughter put into words what I was thinking while building the outer skin....t looks like a pilgrims hat.

 

[PaperAir]

Looks crisp clean and right on

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Beautiful! It's great to watch this giant come to life. You are really good!

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Thank you sir, I left you a post on Paul's thread

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Periscope photos up

Ok heres the scope. I added a little twist to it

 

[Closet Astronaut]

And heres the finished product

 

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Very nice idea! It looks very good, especially the feathered edges of the picture.
Mercury capsules however, flew very close to earth. Just over 150 to 250 kilometers up. You absolutely cannot see the earth like that from that height. The first time astronauts could see the earth the way it shows up in this periscope was during Apollo 8 in 1968. You got to be several thousand miles up (or out) to get that view.

An average Mercury pilot would have seen even less than what today's astronauts see from the shuttle or ISS for that matter (which resides at 350 kilometers altitude). So, it would have been just a tiny part of the continent which they fly over or the ocean.

For a model which such great detail and minute building this should be corrected. The rest looks awesome, Closet Astronaut! Wonderful stuff to watch.

 

[Closet Astronaut]

OK P.K this ones for you

You are right, as I put this together I knew this photo was too high of a shot for this capsules altitude. The more I looked at it the more I didn't like it, I would have left it, the only ones that appreciate these mods are people on this forum, no family or friends give a fat rats A about the detail, but with your perfectionist cattle prodding (just kidding) I corrected it. i must admit it does look better.

 

[Closet Astronaut]

Houston....we have a problem.

Seems the scope ond instument guage sit too far back. I haven't formally mounted these with the setting block in the files, we'll see waht happens after.

 

[PaperAir]

It,s in the right postion you have the panels too vertical.It should lean towards the front more

 

[PaperAir]

The scope leans forward too It seems you built it too vertical.Easy fix

 

[Mercsim]

Here is a photo I took of SN5 just a few weeks ago. Its purpose was to do exactly what you are doing, verify the periscope position. I was also going to use it to finish scaling some of the brackets that are not usually seen. The CAD file is just a quick screen dump with a bunch of layers turned off to show what you are looking for. I included enough to scale any position dimensions you might need. Whatever you can scale off this picture should be good enough for you.

Paper Kosmonaut, easy there on the quotes "You absolutely cannot see the earth like that...". If you look through the familiarization manuals, you will see the periscope had a special lens on it that could show the entire horizon similar to what Closet shows. it would be a fish eye look but you could see it all. There are also photos out there taken through that lens. Maybe Closet could find one. I'll look when I get a chance. There are also marks on the scope face to align the capsule in different attitudes such as retro, orbit, etc. I put them in the model.

Scott