Old Carded Mercury Capsule

After seeing Manuel Mejia's card stock Mercury Capsule from Saturdays launch, I asked him to send the PDF to me to share.

This looks like a free premium from the early 1960s. Many companies sent these out to schools or would mail them out if you sent a letter asking for information. McDonnell Aircraft produced the Mercury Redstone capsule.
To get the PDF of the Friendship 7 capsule: CLICK HERE
This one perfectly fits the diameter of a Pringle's can.




As a kid I remember making card stock models. Sometimes you'd find them on the back of cereal boxes.

This one reminds me of the old Estes Mercury Capsule kit. This PDF is larger, better drawn and prints up black, not white with black lines..

To get the back story, CLICK HERE

Dr. Zooch Redstone Pics

I got a question regarding the capsule wrap shroud on the BT-50 based Dr. Zooch Freedom 7 kit. (Picture on the left.)
The picture on the right is the Dr. Zooch Mercury Redstone, BT-60 based kit.
Daniel E. had a concern about the fit of the conical shroud over the balsa capsule.
His shroud didn't fit all the way down to the bottom of the nose cone shoulder lip. The balsa capsule might have been made a little large. It doesn't take much to throw off the fit of the conical shroud.

Here's my response:

Hi Daniel,

I thought about your email today, regarding the fit of the capsule shroud on the Freedom 7 model. Hopefully I got it right! I knew you had said the Freedom 7.

The two Zooch Redstones are different.

The BT-50 Freedom 7:

See the first picture, the shroud does fit all the way down to the bottom and butts up against the body tube when slid into the tube.

There is a ring wrap on the body tube end to simulate the wider, flared base of the Mercury capsule.

BT-60, Mercury Redstone:

Second picture - 

Same thing here except the ring on the end of the body tube is actually a narrow  reversed conical shroud (wide end facing up)

At the capsule base there is a thin red ring wrap.

Both of the built up rings also make up the wider base at the low end of the capsule. 

I hope the build is coming along well!

I'll probably end up building two of the Estes Mercury Redstones down the road.

Estes Mercury Redstone Available!

The Estes Mercury Redstone (Kit #1921) is available from Estes mail order CLICK HERE and soon from your favorite vendor.
This is the Series 20 tube, 2" diameter Centuri version. The capsule and escape tower are highly detailed plastic. The fins are laser cut "wood".
Recommended engine is the C6-3 with an estimated altitude of 200 feet.

In the future I hope to build this one on the blog. I'll get two kits, one to make the Mercury Redstone and the second to make a Little Joe I.

The Most Difficult Kit - Ever! Part B

From those dowel sticks you made three sides for the complete tower.
The long side piece is only about 2" long.

After the tower was glued on you cut slits into the top of the capsule.
Glue in the cross member and touch up the paint.

If you want to see how it used to be done, get the Dr. Zooch BT-60 based Mercury Redstone. It's the same size of the Estes kit and the capsule print detail is much better.
You still make a tower from supplied (actual) dowels.
The fins are only two pieces - whew!



Why did I pick the Estes Mercury Redstone as the most difficult kit?
You couldn't make a decent looking model with the supplied parts.
The tower was very hard to construct with the pressed wood  "dowels".
The multi-piece fin grain couldn't be filled unless it was done before gluing it all together.
The capsule print wasn't clear.
A close second for a tough build would have to be the Estes Saturn 1B.
The 1B fins were card stock over a balsa frame and would be smooth when finished.
The Apollo escape tower was made with actual dowels. All the fine details could be constructed and looked pretty good when finished.
It was a bear to mask and finish though.

The Most Difficult Kit - Ever! Part A

An email asked - What was the most difficult kit to build?
For me it was the Estes Mercury Redstone, Kit #K-41.
To see the instructions, go to JimZs - CLICK HERE

"Although it requires care and precision in construction . . ."
This was a true Skill Level 5 model.

Estes is bringing back the Centuri version of the Mercury Redstone.
The body is 2" diameter, the capsule and tower are plastic.
I'm looking forward to getting two kits, one to build as a standard Mercury Redstone, the other will end up being a Little Joe I.


In the Estes K-41 kit - 
The fins were FIVE pieces, all hand cut (no laser cutting then) and formed from balsa.
Enlarge the picture to see the the work involved.
Can you imagine trying to fill the wood grain?







The tower was nearly impossible to construct with the "dowels" I got in my kit. It looked like they were heat pressed into a thin piece of mahogany.
I tried to cut and separate them from the sheet but the half-round sides didn't match up!

"Twirl sanding" easily broke the dowels.

Mercury Redstone Capsule Re-make

After the last tower was crumpled from a long delay and late ejection,

I printed off another and made a new one.

This time around I made some changes.

In this new build, the LES Canister Module (the red tube on top) was glued into the tri-fold tower. On the first try, I simply glued it on top of the edges of the tri-fold.

By slightly recessing the LES Can Mod into the tower, it is much stronger.

The Aerospike was glued on after the clay nose weight was installed.

On the first capsule, a hole was cut in the back of the heat shield shroud to insert the clay nose weight.

This time clay was pressed into the capsule, then the heat shield was glued on. Now it's much stronger and looks cleaner.

It flew very well on November 6, 2010 with an 1/2A3-2t engine.

Mercury Redstone Family Portrait

Here's all three of my Mercury Redstones,

From left to right:

1. The carded Redstone just built on this blog.

2. Dr. Zooch Freedom 7 (BT-50 based mainframe)

3. Dr. Zooch Mercury Redstone (BT-60 based mainframe)

The large Zooch Redstone is a close as you'll get to the original Estes K-41 kit.

It's the same height and diameter.

The printed capsule detail is better in the Zooch kit.

In the Zooch version, there is less detail in the fins, which was fine with me. The Estes kit had five formed pieces in each fin!

If you want to see how scale kits used to be made, check out the Estes Redstone kit at JimZ's:

http://www.spacemodeling.org/JimZ/k-41.htm

Mercury Redstone Part 5 FINISHED!

A 5/16" hole was cut into the back of the heat shield shroud and clay was loaded into the capsule.

The white shoulder coupler was a roll of 110 lb. card stock.

The shock cord mount (from the post a few days ago) was glued to the inside of the shoulder coupler.

I held the rocket to give an idea of the finished size.

You can see it's ready for flight.

Check out the October 31 launch blog for flight results!

I'll try to make a new capsule before the R.O.C.K. launch this Saturday.

Mercury Redstone Part 4 Fins

With the mount in place, the fin under hang is too wide.

I simply trimmed it back until the root edge touched the body tube.

The fins glued and the fillets are drying.

With the engine in place you can see a slight overhang. If I were to build it again, I'd set the motor mount another 1/16" inside the mainframe tube.

Mercury Redstone Part 3 Centering Rings

The fit of the rings was near perfect on the outside of the body tube.

The fit of the BT-5 tube was too tight.

Here I'm peeling out a layer or two of paper from the inside of the centering rings.

Look closely and compare the wall thicknesses of the two rings. I took off too much paper on the right side ring.

To build up the inside diameter of the ring, a bead of white glue was added. When dry it should be a better fit.

Here's the completed mount.

The two-strand shock cord was made by unraveling a four-strand piece of 100 lb. Kevlar. Two strands, or 50 lbs. should be plenty strong for a model this size.

Mercury Redstone Part 2 Engine Mount

I'm finally home from the cruise with normal, fast computer downloads!

While on the ship, I built two of the small, carded Mercury Redstone models. One non-flying version was a gift to the Cruise Director. I kept the other for flight conversion.

On the model I brought home, the fins weren't glued on yet. I slid an 18mm engine casing in the rear of the main rolled tube and it's a near perfect fit! I decided to make an engine mount for 13mm engines.


1/4" wide segments of the casing were cut to make centering rings for the 13mm mount.

Without power tools, the easiest way to cut them is with a hobby miter box.
TIP: Don't try to saw through the entire casing. Saw a bit, rotate the casing and saw some more. You'll get through the casing much faster this way.



After you've cut off the first 1/4" wide ring, sand the casing end flat. It's easier to sand one side of the ring square before cutting the ring off the casing, there's more to hold onto. Cut off the 1/4" piece and then sand square the other side.






Here's the rings, before and after sanding the cut sides square.

Mercury Redstone - A Cruise Diversion

I’d printed this one off about a year and a half ago thinking I’d put it together on a cruise.
This turned out to be the cruise.
Carded rockets are great for travel, I carry a few printouts in a folder.

This free Mercury Redstone printout is available from the Delta Seven Studios at:
http://www.delta7studios.com/dl.htm

While not as detailed as a Dr. Zooch Redstone kit, it would be easy enough to convert it to fly with “T” engines. It’s an easy first-time carded build.

For being a simple rolled shroud, the capsule is stronger than you would think. The tower goes together easy enough, it’s a simple tri-fold. The rolled body tube is right around 3/4" diameter but this model is better suited for a 13mm engine mount.

The directions show the two side fins simply being simply glued. I added an interior of cereal box cardboard to give it a tapered “scale” profile. The lower root edges hook under the body tube. I’ll have to wait until I get home to make the engine mount. After the mount is glued in place, the fins will follow.

While easily converted for flight, you’ll have to add some nose weight. Give it a swing test before flying.

Cruise Update:
Last night’s shows went great! The new travel guitar worked well and I’ve gotten some good comments about the show.
Now, while walking around the ship, my anonymity is shot! Everybody knows who I am. I spend quite a bit of time answering questions about the instruments I played in the show last night.