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Robert Royes
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Mercury and Gemini Space capsules 1/48 Revell, reissue

December 5, 2018 · in Space · · 14 · 3.4K

This a 2012 selected subjects program reissue of a kit originally issued in 1964 of, which I built as a spaced out kid, This time I wanted to do it 'right'. Granted, I don't recall how the original kit was. but should be ashamed of the condition of the molds, every part had some degree of flash, and were easily broken if not careful. I guess it would be to much to clean up or improve upon them. They did modernize the instruction sheet it went from six pages to twelve, with all that safety stuff included. Oh well some times you can't go home again.

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11 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. Robert: You made those ancient kits look great...excellent!

  2. Masterful. I'll have to do them as well.

  3. Nice job...I like those. 🙂

  4. Very cool builds on both.

    I'll never forget Gordo Cooper telling me the story of Gemini IV. It was the 14 day mission, to find out if they could survive in space long enough to get to the moon and back. It had a fuel cell, the first time one was ever used. They got into orbit and on the third go-around ground control told them the fuel cell was operating "outside limits" and they would have to abort. They told ground control it was working fine and opined that perhaps the "limits" might not be right. Then they refused to come down so ground control agreed and they decided they would stay up till it stopped working (it didn't). Then, the third day, the thrusters froze up and they didn't have control for roll, pitch and yaw. So they let it just go. And they modified its trajectory by ejecting their waste at regular times. So basically, the super-advanced space ship was being controlled by the ejection of garbage, urine and feces. And they made the whole 14 days! They defrosted the thrusters at the end, to allow them to set re-entry configuration.

    And here you thought NASA was telling the truth about perfect astronauts flying perfect spaceships perfectly. 🙂

  5. Robert, I remember building the Gemini, I think mine came with space walking astronaut. Of coarse my favorite was the 3 foot tall Saturn 5.
    Nice to see them built into some nice looking models. Well done !

  6. Well done Robert. Actually did a science project on the Mercury Program, which included a Revell model with the capsule on top. Still have a hand written postcard John Glenn sent to us wishing me and my project buddy success on our project.

  7. Very cool, well done! Love them! I was too young for Mercury, but swear I must have watched every Gemini launch on our old black and white console TV. I have an 80s reissue of their 1/24th scale Gemini capsule I built years ago and have been planning to rebuild with some new decals I bought. There was an original 60s boxing at Skyway models for $50 I kept walking past until it finally was gone. I hadn't started my whole searching for original moldings of old kits bit yet. Had I known how much cleaner those old moldings were, man $50 is not a bad price for an original. Probably pay that much for a re-pop these days! Ah well, I still have that '80s one!

  8. Thanks everyone.

  9. Nice models Robert. A very exciting time for space travel.

  10. Me gustan, traen recuerdos de la Ă©poca de los Gemini...te han quedado muy bien!

  11. that's awesome

  12. Those are so nice. They take me back to my childhood when I scraped up the 2 dollars they cost at the local supermarket and brought them home. I built both in less than an hour and painted them with Pactra paints. I found this kit at a hobby shop about 20 years ago and bought two of them.

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