Understand I don't want to nit-pick. I was excited to finally get the Centuri sized Mercury Redstone, re-issued by Estes. The detail on the Centuri plastic capsule is very good.
I bought two of the new kits, one will get a 24mm upgrade, the second kit will end up as a Little Joe test vehicle.
There are some incorrect details. Maybe this is why the face card and website description don't mention it as "scale" but an "Historic" model.
On the forums, questions were raised about the decals in the re-issued Mercury Redstone kit. While the kit version is the Liberty Bell 7 Gus Grissom flight, the MR7 decal block near the top of the fins should read MR8. It is confusing, the Mercury Redstone flight number and rocket designations don't match up.
Check out the graph listings from Wikipedia:
"Mercury-Redstone flights were designated with the prefix "MR-". Confusingly, the Mercury-Redstone boosters used for these flights were designated in the same way, usually with different numbers. (In photographs, this designation can sometimes be seen on the rocket's tail end.)
| Flight designation | Rocket designation | Launch date | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| MR-3 | MR-7 | May 5, 1961 | Carried astronaut Alan Shepard |
| MR-4 | MR-8 | July 21, 1961 | Carried astronaut Gus Grissom |
Here's the MR7 decals from the new version of the kit. It should have read MR8. As I understand it, the previous Liberty Bell kit (#2167 with the plastic fins) also had the MR7 decals.
The red color on the Estes kit decal sheet looks a bit pink. It is interesting to note, the decal "red" matches the shade of the red plastic molded parts.
The vertical UNITED STATES font is too bold.
To see the correct font use, check out Jim Pursley's website and his scale Mercury Redstone - Amazing Work! CLICK HERE
Look close at the "S" in STATES to see what I mean.
The pull out plugs are now formed from wood and cardstock. The original Centuri version had plastic details.
For fun, check out the original Centuri instructions on JimZs: CLICK HERE
EDIT: Apparently those Centuri instructions aren't available right now!
Email me at oddlrockets@bellsouth.net and request the old Centuri Mercury Redstone Capsule Instructions. I made a copy that is available.
The new kit has a single 15" parachute for both the body and capsule/tower. I'll add a 12" chute for the capsule. The capsule will angled to land with the base down protecting the tower from damage. See the second page of the Centuri instructions for details.
I got the MR #1921 kit recently, and it came with updated decals. MR7 was changed to MR8. On the large wrap around decal, the horizontal red lines above/under hatch are gone, replaced with 3 gray stripes. The dots color was changed from red to cyan. The letters look red to my untrained eyes. The photo of the new updated version of the decals is on Este's website: https://estesrockets.com/product/067145-mercury-redstone-waterslide-decal/
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
DeleteI found out they made some changes after Estes heard of the initial release mistakes. The "UNITED STATES" is still not the correct font!
It's so nice to know a lot of people noticed this! I am trying to work with the guy from stickershock23 on getting factory estes mercury redstone decals. I scanned my originals with the correct font on the UNITED STATES and sent them to him and is currently making me a couple of sets. Email him and tell him you want em too! And also by the way, the new estes 1921 (with the wrong font on US) is also missing a UNITED STATES for the capsule! Epic fail on China Estes' part. No regard for historical details.
ReplyDelete