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Mike Grant
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Getting Snarky

August 14, 2014 · in Aviation · · 29 · 3.3K


's Northrop SM-62 Snark missile, originally tooled in 1957. A pretty basic toy-like kit, but a fun build. I sanded off all the rivets and re-scribed some of the lines, and added a bit of detail here and there. Revell supply decals for the white areas but I wasn't convinced they'd fit well so the white stripes were masked and painted.

The kit's a weird fit-the-box scale; 1/81 or something like that. Revell supplied the launch pad too which I left pretty much as-is, except for replacing the steps and adding a few console instruments.

Reader reactions:
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3 additional images. Click to enlarge.


29 responses

  1. your usual perfect work mike

  2. Boy, does that conjure up some old memories. I must have built that kit some 50-odd years ago, but I can state unequivocally that it looked no where near as nice as this. Beautiful work, sir.

    • By the way, did you use any sort of photo enhancement program to get the kit to "jump out" like that with no shadows or was it just a matter of proper lighting ? How'd you do that?

      • Thanks for commenting Craig. No Photoshop trickery, other than to adjust the levels slightly. The model was shot in one of those light tent thingies which diffuses the light nicely.

  3. Defending the Free World one unusable missile at a time. (/snark) 🙂

    Nice work (as usual).

  4. Hello Mike...Nice job on a classic old Revell kit. It's really fun to take on one of those old kits and work with it to make it a sharp-looking model and you certainly accomplished that. Very nicely done.

  5. said on August 14, 2014

    Showing my age but I bought the 'first issue'. Excellent job! I've been thinking of doing a detailed Snark build but you did it for me :). Thanks for sharing!

  6. Nice Snark Mike. Not only does the missile look much better but so does the launch pad.
    Have you done the Bomarc?

  7. said on August 14, 2014

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    I love your self explanatory red coating over white coating & masking tape, Mike.

    Nice model. Congratulations !

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  8. No snarky remarks from me 😉
    Well done Mike, beautiful finish.

  9. even when I was a tyke that kit really impressed me. I just never went all the way and bought one. It is nice to see a real good job done on one for a change. It is very impressive.

  10. Very, very neat job, Mike.

  11. Fantastic job and really nice pics ! you make a very good job with this old kit !

  12. When they were testing the Snark at Cape anaveral, so many crashed, they used to joke about "snark infested waters". I only saw that kit built a couple of times, by other kids, your work is amazing.

    • Cheers Merrill. And apparently they lost one when its guidance systems failed; they found the crashed missile 30 years later in a Brazilian jungle.

  13. Nice job on an unusual subject. I'm working on Lindberg's 1/48 and was going to paint the stripes on as well. I did notice you also masked off the area for the insignia. I would've missed that and had a line through my stars 'n bars! When people talk about a missile, one usually doesn't think of something the size of a Thunderchief! These things were huge! (As the person in your display indicates.) I do wonder why there is no horizontal tail though. They might have flown in a more level attitude with one!

    • Thanks Josh. I masked off the star-and-bar as I wasn't sure about the opacity of the decals. Definitely a big subject, I'd love to see your 48th model when it's done.

  14. Mike, very nicely done old kit.

  15. Boy does that model bring back some memories. Build one as well but it looked nothing like yours. Job well done mike

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