Ton Noteboom's 1/24 Scale Mercury Capsule

[Ekuth]

On to the final parts: The Retro Pack!

ITTY BITTY PARTS WARNING!

Parts cut out and ordered:



First step is to form Part A into a cylinder. The dotted line goes at the top. Glue Part B to the inside of Part A, aligning the bottom of the notches along the edge. (Although you may want to omit this part. More on that in a moment.) Then, flip Part A over and glue Part C on the inside to that it butts up against the bottom of Part B. Roll Part D to fit inside Part A and glue it inside, just a single card layer thickness from the bottom edge of Part A. This will give us an edge to glue Part E onto. Speaking of, glue Part E onto the bottom of Part A, flush with the edge. This finishes the Part A assembly.

Topside:



Underside:



Now form Part F into a cone shape:



And glue to the bottom of Part E, on the underside of the Part A assembly:

[George b]

Originally Posted by Ekuth

GAH! So much for the easy parts.

The upper latticework is a living nightmare of precision cutting.

Attachment 95

I feel your pain. Look at what I've been putting myself through. 17 levels (four sides) of hand cut railings and 18 levels of stair railings.

Excellent build BTW, great step by step photos!

[Ekuth]

Now we take this entire subassembly and glue to the bottom of our capsule assembly, inside the blue circle. Now we see the reason we might want to leave out Part B above... while it does provide nice teeth to glue to the heat shield, it also makes it difficult to get a nice tight seam between the two parts. Deciding that there was plenty of surface area to make a good bond already, I carefully cut the teeth off of Part B and glued it flush with a nice fillet of glue:



Now for the fun fiddly tiny bits.

Take Parts G and form them into cone shapes. Take Parts H and form them into cylinders. Glue Part H inside of the center of Part G, aligning the stripes to match. I used CA glue for this step.

Now Glue Part I on the edge of Part H. I found it easiest to push Part I into Part H from the backside, gently working it down the cylinder until flush with the edge. Put a drop of glue on the inside to secure. White glue was used here.

Repeat this 3 times until you have these nice little guys:



Now glue our assembled Part G's to the blue circles on Part F. I noticed that Part G is slightly larger than the blue circle, so run your glue bead accordingly. White glue seemed the best bet here. Try to align the stripes on Part G to match the outside edge of Part F.

At this point, roll the incredibly tiny Part J into three cones and CA glue them in place on the teeny tiny circles on Part F. Look close, you'll see them.

All parts in place:



Now for the tie down straps. Take Parts K and center them along the edge of Part F, between Parts G. Refer to the photo below for proper placement. A drop of CA on the edge of Part F seemed the easiest way to attach these. Angle them down slightly as show.



Now take Parts L and glue them to Parts K, aligning the bottom section of Part K with the triangular section of Part L. See below:

[Ekuth]

Now, secure the long black sections of Part L to the middle of Part F, running them between Parts G. Attach the other end of Part L (the pipe looking section) to the edge of our heatshield, trimming as necessary. Secure this end with a drop of CA. With that, the retro pack assembly is finished.



Side View:



Now, the moment we've been waiting for: Let's glue that latticework assembly in place!

Place a SMALL drop of CA inside the bottom of each of the latticework beams. Place the beam ends on top of the small parts we left sticking up on the top of the capsule. Very, very, very carefully (and quickly) align the latticework on top of the capsule, checking for straightness.

If you mess this up, it will never look right and will haunt you in your sleep for all eternity.

And with that, our 1/24 Mercury Capsule is done!

Glory shot time!

Straight and tall:



Close up of the tower:



Close up of the capsule:

[Ekuth]

Close up of the Heatshield/Retro Pack:



The whole enchilada.



I found it a fun build, not as complicated as other of Ton's offerings.

Model Rating (1 to 5; 1 being Easy, 5 being Insanely Hard): 3

Difficulty of construction: 3
Quality of Instructions: 3

Hours spent: Roughly 8 to 10 (a good weekend project)

Synopsis:

Like all of Ton Noteboom's models, this one is extremely well designed and accurate. While I would not recommend them for beginners, this particular model is a good way to get your feet wet on his style. As noted in the build, he prefers friction fit over tab construction for his formers, which can be challenging.

Instructions are almost entirely done with exploded diagrams and a few reference shots, but these are generally very sparse and can leave you scratching your head at critical junctures in the build.

Often, it can be difficult to determine whether a part goes on the inside or outside of another. Occasionally, steps are not shown, such as the latticework construction.

By the same token, more experienced builders might enjoy the challenge in figuring out the finer details for themselves.

If you're looking for a beautiful and moderately challenging build, try this one on for size. You won't be sorry!

[Ekuth]

Originally Posted by George b

I feel your pain. Look at what I've been putting myself through. 17 levels (four sides) of hand cut railings and 18 levels of stair railings.

Excellent build BTW, great step by step photos!

Thanks George! BTW, how the devil do you get the photos to appear full size? All I get are the thumbnail versions when I attach them...

[rlwhitt]

Hey Ekuth! Nice job on the thread transfer. I'm thinking of doing some of this myself. How long did this all take you, for all 14 or so posts?

Rick

[George b]

Originally Posted by Ekuth

Thanks George! BTW, how the devil do you get the photos to appear full size? All I get are the thumbnail versions when I attach them...

I was thinking I prefered the way you did it...takes up less screen real estate. All my images are simple links to my photobucket account where I U/L and store them. So I don't use the forum's attachment method.

[Ekuth]

Originally Posted by rlwhitt

Hey Ekuth! Nice job on the thread transfer. I'm thinking of doing some of this myself. How long did this all take you, for all 14 or so posts?

Rick

All told, probably an hour. First step was finding the attachments on the old board.
In time, I'll most likely transfer what I have over there over here.

Thanks George, that explains it. I use the attachment through the board method. Come to think of it, it does give things a cleaner look.

[George b]

Originally Posted by Ekuth

All told, probably an hour. First step was finding the attachments on the old board.
In time, I'll most likely transfer what I have over there over here.

Thanks George, that explains it. I use the attachment through the board method. Come to think of it, it does give things a cleaner look.

I'd go back to using that method except when there's a problem with the forum and everything goes south you loose all your images. :(