Nike Hercules 1/40
This is a Nike Hercules surface to air missile operational between 1958 and 1973,the kit was a history makers reissue.1/40 scale by Revell.
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"An amazing website, and a great bunch of modelers that give me encouragement to build better models." @marq
One of my favourite models when I was a kid. Great name and full of menace.
PS when I saw the first photo I thought you had a 1:1 in your back yard!
Me too... - 🙂
I remember building that "back in the day"...looks right nice, Robert.
Nice forced perspective Robert !
The overcast sky help a lot, thanks
Robert, that first photo fooled me, too. Though the barracks in the back look too well kept...
I saw a full size one at a show, years and years ago. It was impressive. They raised it up, and simulated firing it, complete with smoke bomb. The crowd was impresssed. I was probably 10 at the time.
Who doesn't need a SAM in their backyard these days, with all the gov't drones flying around...(ok - enough with conspiracy theories.. 🙂 )
Nicely done, and nice to see an unusual subject.
This one brought back some memories. I grew up near Ft. Bliss, Texas, which is the US Army's home for air defense artillery. There used to be batteries of these lined up along Airport Road across from the El Paso airport and just down the road from Biggs AFB. Biggs was a SAC base, so it was on the Soviet's target list, hence the missiles. In addition to the Hercules, you could on any given day see the Nike Ajax and Chaparral on duty, as well as various tracked and stationary anti aircraft guns..
If I remember correctly, the Hercules carried nuclear warheads. There is a railway line that cuts across Ft. Bliss, through the corner of the El Paso airport and on to the bomb dump at Biggs. The tracks are still there, but there hasn't been a train on them in many years...
Long Island/ NYC area had a few sites as well, I remember going to an open house '63/'64 at Ft. Totten where they had one on display, probably from Ft. Tilden, where a launch site was[ I'm sure it wasn't armed], as well as a mock up of the X-15. Yes, the Herc. was a nuke.
There's a NIKE site across the Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin County. I didn't see it, but did see a photo, and there's one on a launcher. The whole area had old coast defense pillboxes and gun emplacements in various states of repair. You can tell what the old buildings were, the distinctive Army type construction, now being used for other uses.
Your backyard photograph fooled me as well