Project Mercury Capsule

This kit is fantastic! Be prepared to spend a lot of time doing it justice. The fit of the parts is excellent, decals are great, and the level of cockpit and other detail is very good. Anything can be improved upon, however, and the first thing I saw was the clear plastic instrument panel... I gotta light this up!!! It seems to be designed to be lighting-friendly. This is a generic Mercury spacecraft, but it comes with decals for all the manned flights. Everybody wants to build Freedom 7 (First American in space) or Friendship 7 (First American in orbit), so I decided to build it as Sigma 7 (Wally Schirra, almost a textbook flight). A considerable amount of research and modification made it a lot closer to that particular spacecraft, since they were all significantly different. Most notably, the kit instrument panel is missing the periscope screen that was a major feature on the early flights. I installed a periscope screen and lighting not only on the instrument panel, but put in some interior spotlights as well. The best part of the lighting project was using very slender white wire for the lights- I didn't have to hide the wiring, because the real Mercury had big bundles of white wiring everywhere! Bundling up the light wiring to match the prototype added even more realism. The astronaut and a number of hoses are molded in white vinyl, and these parts don't have detail quite as crisp as the styrene, but I'm still very happy with them. There are also photo-etched retro pack straps which fit perfectly. I replaced some of the small molded plastic wires and hoses with solder wire, which comes in various diameters and bend easily. This kit is can be engineered to disassemble major components, so I also added parachute compartment detail. Parts such as the hatch and escape tower are held on with tiny super-strong magnets (added) on the mating surfaces. The decals on the exterior will require your undivided attention for an extended time, because you will have to patiently squeeze them into the hull's corrugations. All in all, a great kit, but don't buy it for a beginner!

excellent size and detail.It doesn't have to be painted.astronaut will be fun to work with