Mercury 9 Rocket

Another retro look kit that captures the spirit of pre-space age designs. This is another kit that begs for LED lighting, although it can be a bit challenging to conceal wiring. My only disappointment with the kit is how the spaceship has to be mounted to the booster rocket, making it difficult to separate for demonstration purposes.

This kit is truly a fun build and enables lots of opportunity for adding creative components and scratch building. The seams are practically invisible and the panel lines are clean. The launch pad and structures are a real plus and give a good deal of realism to the diorama. Although it's a fictional rocket, the structures are close to N-scale so you can add buildings, people, vehicles, etc. and they integrate well. In the accompanying photos, The kit can be lit in several areas including the engine nacelles and the buildings (if you drill out the windows). Here's a short list of the items I used in the build, most of which are available from Hobbylinc: * Alclad polished aluminum lacquer for the rocket * Tomy N-scale train platform for building up the launch pad * Tomy LED lighting for the search lights around the pad * Plastruc corrugated siding and tread pattern for completing the pad * Tomy and Walthers tanks and piping * Simulated printed tarmac * Tamiya panel line paint * LED strip lights for the buildings and 3mm LEDs for the engines

This is a fantastic model with lots of parts and great detail. The model is a good size and the included diorama when assembled makes a great show piece. This model just begs for added LED lighting in the base buildings and rocket. It will take much time to assemble and paint as it is somewhat advanced with over 65 parts mounded in grey plastic. There are a few clear plastic parts and a small decal sheet. Also included is about 12” of insulated copper wire (red & black) that is used as an umbilical. This wire can be very useful as it can be used to transfer current for the LED lights….another bonus. The only thing I wish is that it included an actual base for the rocket and buildings to sit on, but getting a sheet of styrene could easily solve this. A nice diorama and cool looking retro rocket….a fun and rewarding build that you can take it as far as you want.