posted 01-20-2012 12:14 PM               

The plastic: The kit contains 43 parts (44 if you count the metal support rod for the rocket). The Mercury spacecraft contains most of the parts, although a few of them you don't use for this build. The rocket bodies are molded as complete cylinders as opposed to halves, making assembly of this kit a breeze. They divided the body into four sections (fin unit, lower half, upper half, Mercury Redstone extension) and I would say they may do a Jupiter C version or perhaps a Redstone Ballistic missile in the future (and a Sparta Wresat conversion might be nice for fans of Australia's first satellite).

Compared to Glencoe's Jupiter C in 1/48, which is the old Hawk kit, the Dragon kit is a bit simplified in spots. There are no exterior details on the rocket body showing access covers on the bottom or some of the recessed areas. Seeing the three Redstone/Jupiter C boosters that Alabama Space and Rocket Center has in their collection, Hawk did a good job on their Jupiter when they tooled it up over 50 years ago. Dragon may have left these details off to make it easier to mold, but I can see an aftermarket space kit supplier maybe having a field day with a photoetch detailing set for this kit. In my case I will probably just build it and try to represent what I can with paint, scribing and maybe some sheet styrene in spots to represent missing details.

The capsule represents a typical Mercury spacecraft of the orbital type and they spent a lot more time on the detailing here. It has the center window next to the hatch, NOT the two portholes of Freedom 7 or the test missions. Many of the Mercury parts you do not use because they are for the ship in space, not on the rocket (unless you build MR-1 after the abort). So there are two front cones (one with part of the escape tower on it, and one that a separate braking flap attaches to). One thing I do NOT like though is it appears Dragon tooled up all the parts for the capsule, but there is an empty section on the sprue tree that likely has the heatshield and the retro rocket package. So you HAVE to put this capsule on the Redstone. I know they tooled those bits up as the posigrade and retrograde rocket motors are present on the parts tree (and they are TINY). Would it have really killed them to not include up to five more parts?! (heatshield, retropack, three straps) So I guess we HAVE to buy complete Mercury capsule kits separately when they come out.

In terms of detailing on the parts they provide, I like what I see. The Rene 41 panels are nicely rendered and the cone shaped capsule structure is molded in one piece as well (it is hollow if anyone wants to carve the hatch off and scratchbuild an interior for it). As I said, this capsule is not accurate for Freedom 7 with its two portholes. I believe I can adapt mine using the recommendations in the MRC Atomic City Mercury Capsule kit by cutting a proper shingle from the hatch and putting it over the window area, then cutting two portholes in the proper spots. Since I believe Freedom 7's hatch was smooth, I would just have to plate over the shingles on the hatch anyway. On the backside of the capsule, the port for the periscope and its cover is not well rendered. I can probably represent that with a piece of sheet styrene.

Decals: Decals are for Redstone MR-7, which was Al Shepherd's Redstone. You get Mercury capsule markings for Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7, but they left the crack off (probably easier to paint anyway). They do not include "MR-8" numbers to do Grissom's rocket though. Yes they are small and nobody will likely notice, but considering you can not build an accurate Freedom 7 out of the box without modifying the capsule, it would have been nice if the MR-8 markings were there to do an accurate out of the box Liberty Bell 7.

Conclusions: Price paid in my case was $23.99 US. I've seen it advertised online for $21.99 and there is shipping of course, but this is a pretty light weight model and I don't anticipate having to pay too much for it to ship. I like what I see as I rate what is in the box about a 7 or 7.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. It might make a great first project for a modeler looking to get into real space and even with the inaccuracies, it will still look good if you follow the directions and paint callouts. But if Dragon can take care of some of these basic research errors in spots (a few of which won't add to the cost of the model) they can really have something special on their hands.

posted 01-30-2012 03:16 PM               

Granted it is a relatively minor thing, but for Dragon to want to squeeze a nickel like that and NOT have one or two more parts on that tree to force you to buy a Mercury spacecraft later seems kind of like a cheap shot.

posted 01-31-2012 04:12 AM               

Another problem is given the kits that are out there, very few projects can be done quick if you want them done right since most of them are reissues and many of the original kits came out before the craft even flew (common in Revell's case). Granted these new Dragon kits are better than a lot of what we have seen for the past 40 years, but they aren't perfect either.

posted 03-08-2012 06:58 AM               

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Originally posted by Daugherty54:
However, even at $48, it is way overpriced.

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I do hope though they will finish this series with a Mercury Atlas, a Gemini Titan and a Saturn IB in this same scale.

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