This is the Atomic City 1/12 Mercury Spacecraft. I’ll be modifying the Capsule to represent Freedom 7. Alan Shepard’s flight on MR-3 May 5, 1961. This capsule had round port hole windows rather than the rectangular window found on the remaining Mercury flights. I purchased a set of drawings from Real Space Models by David Weeks. These are a must have when doing this type of mods. The first thing I did was create a new Hatch. The Hatch that came with the kit will be used to replace the rectangular window. I laminated 2 pieces of .020 Styrene and taped to the Capsule to get the correct shape. 
Created the Hatch Structure out of .060 Angle and .010 X .040 Strip and glued them together. 
I drilled the bolt holes with a #67 drill, then glued the stringers onto the backside of the Hatch. 
Applied the rivets to the exterior of the Hatch. These were made from a .089 punch out of .020 sheet styrene. The entire Hatch was primed. 
The 2 holes not used for bolts are the Explosive Release Exterior Handle and the Exterior Pressure Relief Valve. I’ll try to post updates as I go.
I removed the Rectangular Window from the Capsule. The Kit Hatch will replace this area. 
Not a good start. I didn’t like the way the Hatch looked as a replacement panel. The Rivets were in the wrong place and the corrugation wrong as well. So I started over creating 3 layer .020 Styrene lamination pieces and glued them flush to the Inside of the capsule. 
I started creating the outside corrugation by adding .020 strips and filling any voids with putty. 
That’s quit some modification you’re doing. Just how accurate is the kit compared to the drawings you have?
Nice to see a WIP thread on a space subject. [:)]
Keep posting!
Sorry for the late update. Spent a couple of days in Toronto on Business.
The Inside of the Capsule with putty applied
Added .040 X .040 Styrene to create the Corrugations. 
Removed the Snorkel Explosive Door and started adding the corrugations.
Continued with building of the corrugations by adding putty and doing some rough shaping. 
The upper 2 corrugations are removed by adding putty. 
Determined the upper and lower Porthole window locations, removed the panels, and started building the replacement panels from the inside out. Lower Porthole Window 
Upper Porthole Window 
Lower porthole Window Inner Structure started 
Cheers
I just got a neat birthday gift yesterday from my son and daughter-in-law yesterday. It was a collection of a photographs of a Mercury Atlas and a couple of Mercury capsule photos, and a bit of insulation from one of the capsules, all mounted in a nice Mahogany frame.
Please post a picture of that Don. I would love to see it.
Applied a coat of primer to the corrugations to see how bad they are.
Upper Port Hole Window inside panel glued in place with mask. 
Lower Port Hole Window inside panel glued in place, masked and primed. 
Glued the Upper and Lower Port Hole Window Outer Panels in place.
Started the Escape Tower 
Primed the Port Hole Windows. A lot of work yet to be done.
Upper Port Hole Window
Lower Port Hole Window 
Started the Periscope by adding detail to the base 
Cheers
Spent a little time on the Periscope tonight.
Made the Periscope Lens from .02 acrylic. The outside border is painted black with white marks every 10 degrees.
Added more Periscope details 
Started the Instrument Panel 
More work on the Periscope
Made a test switch tonight
Cheers
Quite some attention to detail, Rob!
Thanks GAF
I made about 30 switches tonight. 16 are in the Instrument Panel.
Front side
Back Side
Eventually they’ll be painted silver on the front side, black on the back side, with white wiring
Painted the switches tonight and made the knobs for the Periscope
Started the Control Panel and Left Panel. Also made decals for all the instrument panel labels
Cheers