Hopefully, the pictures that will be included here, combined with some narrative, will be useful to those who are building the 1/12 Atomic City Mercury kit. I found very little online in terms of what others have done with this kit, and it has been difficult translating the Mercury Familiarization Manual with available photos to make sense of the interior mess of cables and components. I will post photos as I go along…
More developments - all batteries are now in place. Some relays and inverters have also been added to the right side. Finally, I added a floor, which features heel and toe guards (the latter fashioned using spare B-52 bomb tips) and will eventually serve as the base for the periscope and instrument panel.
Finishing up with various component boxes. The remaining components, located in the bottom sections, are environmental equipment, mostly tubes, pipes and so forth.
I also started on the instrument panel, which in the case of Mercury must be built up on both sides because the backside is exposed when the hatch is removed. I primed the subassembly to see how things are going. Next, I will paint the multicolored sections, then add knobs and toggle switches. Final bits will be decals of each gauge, clear covers for each, and stenciling.
Thanks, Pete. The entire interior is being scratchbuilt, it seems, including the instrument panel. The panel in the kit is inaccurate, and is too thick in profile…
Looking forwards to seeing more on this WIP!
It’s not until you see the actual components through something like this excellent kit, that you realise the kind of low tech used to originally send people up into space. Having said this, it’s not all that different these days, in some respects!
New developments. Added the final component to the main instrument panel - the navigation aid with globe.
Also added the right console, which includes, among other things, manual engagement of RCS. The toggles, pull rings and some knobs will be added after painting. These insturment panels are multicolored and will present a significant painting challenge, so I left some of the complex switches off until later.
The main instrument panel is complete, except for some random knobs and pull rings that will be added after painting. Added this evening is the auxiliary panel, which is on the astronaut’s left. This panel was a bit of work, to be sure…
I also added these cool hex-nut pneumatic fittings (the silver things), which are apparently aftermarket accessories for armor. These are attached to the pull rings (which will be added later) - the astronaut pulled or pushed these rings to enable or disable his ability to manually control the RCS system. The rings were literally attached to tubing that led directly to the thrusters.
The instrument panel mount and periscope housing is more or less completed in terms of construction and priming. The things that are missing are a few handles and a casement for navigation documents which will go on the front part of the housing facing the astronaut.
Again, the main reference for scratchbuilding has been NASA’s Mercury Spacecraft Familiarization Manual, which contains detailed drawings of all spacecraft components.
I also test fitted the assembly with the aft bulkhead and seat and stuck the whole hing into the capsule to make sure averything fit ok. So far, so good…
I am finally approaching the painting stage, though this will be complicated by the addition of wiring harnesses…
Painting of the instrument panel has begun. As those who are familiar with the Mercury Program know, the instrument panel was color coded using Earth tones. It is rumored that John Glenn was responsible for this, but there is no confirmation that is true.
In any case, it is a major challenge to airbrush these sections, as I expected. But I did not want to paint the panels before gluing all the switches on, because the glue could mar the finish. On the other hand, I could not paint the assembly with all the switches in place. So I had to make a compromise.
So far, so good. I will just need to do some very minor touchups with a brush at the end. I expected much worse…
Basic painting of the instrument panel is complete. What remains are the periscope display, knobs and switches. Next, I will affix decals, which include analog dials and stencils. Finally, I will add clear plastic disks in each dial. Once done, I will paint the other side and begin the process of adding the wire harness.
Following is the same image, but with paint colors used. All paints are Polly Scale acrylics over Tamiya Gray Primer. Mix ratios are unclear - I eyeballed it, mostly because different photos show different values. I aimed for “close enough” here.
Made some progress on the instrument panel. The panel and periscope alone constitute a model, it seems. I’m still far from finished with this assembly. By far, the most difficult, or the most frustrating, are the toggle switches and transparent toggle guards.
The dials are decals made from diagrams of the panel itself from the NASA Mercury Familiarization Manual. Clear plastic disks will eventually be pushed into the circular recesses.
I also successfully printed out some stencil decals for all the switches. Application of these decals is going to be an adventure, to be sure.
