Atlantis Nike Hercules

The MIM-14 Nike Hercules was a United States surface-to-air missile (SAM) serving in the anti-aircraft and (ostensibly) anti-ballistic missile (ABM) role from 1958 until it was phased out in the 1980's in favor of the Patriot missile system. 

The Hercules was an upgrade to Nike Ajax, the world's first guided SAM. The Nike rocket, around which the Ajax and Hercules were based, was a two-stage missile with solid booster stage and liquid-fueled second stage (though the liquid-fueled rocket was toxic and dangerous, and eventually replaced by a solid rocket). The Hercules had an improved range, speed, and altitude: 100 miles, > Mach 4, and 150K feet, respectively. This was achieved by essentially strapping 4 Ajax boosters together. An early and continuing concern with Project Nike was radar resolution, particularly the missile's inability to resolve individual Soviet aircraft flying in close formation. To "solve" this problem, it was proposed to arm the missile with a W31 nuclear warhead. The Nike Hercules was also demonstrated effective against shorter-range ballistic missiles (a Corporal missile was successfully intercepted at White Sands in 1960), but it was never seriously considered for this role. 

Guidance involved a suite of ground-based target- and missile-tracking radar systems. After launch, the missile would gain altitude rapidly in order to more easily increase range in the thin air aloft. This sequence would culminate with the missile approaching the target from above, at which time a command signal would be given for detonation.

Throughout the Cold War, some 25,000 Nike Hercules missiles were deployed across 145 sites throughout the United States, Europe, Taiwan, and Korea. Thankfully, no Nike Hercules were ever used during hostilities, though a missile accidentally launched from Inchon, South Korea in 1998 exploded over a residential area in Songdo, where it caused no injuries but surely scared the pants off everyone in town.

The Kit

The 1/40-scale Atlantis Nike Hercules is a re-release of the ancient Revell 1957 kit. The box art and very likely the instructions (which have a very 1950's air about them) are original. For a mid-century kit the molding is excellent, with some nice raised rivet and panel details. The kit includes the missile and a fairly detailed launcher assembly (it even moves!). The Atlantis molds had several divots and sink holes, many ejector pin marks, and abundant flash. So be prepared to do some surface and edge prep. 

The scale is a little unusual, though Revell has done at least one other missile (the Corporal) in 1/40. I would have preferred 1/72, but the only offering in that scale is by DF-HeloStuff and virtually impossible to find.

The instructions are not too clear on decal placement or paint: in fact, I don't think the Atlantis instructions tell us at all what color the launcher should be. I had to consult the instructions from a recent re-release from Revell for that. The missile is to be all white, which is fine as far as history goes, though there is apparently some variation in photographs. I decided to add some contrast with NATO Green (Tamiya XF-67) Ajax tubes. The decals are outrageous, outfitting a probably very unrealistic, pimped-out version of the missile (I don't think you could fit one more red thunderbolt onto this missile if you tried). Even the launcher appears to have many more warning stencils than the real thing did. I therefore chose decals at my discretion to more closely match reality, and so didn't fret about the poor instructions. 

The missile itself was very gently weathered with some light gray enamel wash in places for contrast. I tried to bring out the raised rivet detail by tracing over them lightly with a gray weathering pencil. But these things were kept in pretty nice shape (except for the occasional missile in the silo) and so don't really need weathering. Even the launchers look to be in decent shape: not pealing, rusted, or corroded. I allowed myself some dry brushing to highlight raised details: I used a slightly lighter shade of green so as not to simulate wear or paint loss, as dry brushing a stark edge can sometimes do. But, I seldom get to paint immobile hunks of steel and so I had a little bit of fun adding some sun fade, rust, and grease effects to the launcher with oils.

A final note about decals: the instructions explicitly tell us that the decals are not compatible with setting solutions. But this is a lie, they work fine. I had no need for anything stronger than Micro Sol but there were zero issues. 

The finished missile is about a foot long, resulting a good-sized and striking model.