Anyone out there build missile kit models?

[gwb123]

I meant to post this earlier, but your models reminded me of the difference between how the Army and the Air Force viewed missiles.

 

In brief, the Army considered them to be "rounds of ammunition", while the Air Force considered them to be "guided, unmanned aircraft".

 

If you keep that in mind, it explains a lot of the design differences.

[coli8344]

Gil, excellent point. Carlos

[coli8344]

I'll be putting this Belcher Minuteman II ICBM model together soon. The parts don't transition exactly from one stage to another so I'll have to sand and trim before doing any gluing or painting. Wish me luck. Carlos

 

Some Minuteman II facts (I wouldn't call them fun facts, more scary-trust me many of us slept very little knowing what we were responsible for-which also accounts for my major hair loos which has saved me a bundle on haircuts)

—-59 feet tall, over 5 feet wide at the base, weighed 7000 lbs

-—Distance: over 7000 nautical miles or 8055 miles.

-—Speed: Traveled 15,000 miles per hour or Mach 23

—-Accurate to within 656 feet

—-The payload: single Mk-11C reentry vehicle single nuclear warhead - explosive yield of 1.2 megatons of TNT (1 megaton = 1 million tons of TNT)

—-1 Megaton is equal to 77 Hiroshima bombs-Minuteman II war head was 120 times more powerful than the A-Bomb dropped on Hiroshima

 

 

[Proud Kraut]

Some Minuteman II facts (I wouldn't call them fun facts, more scary-trust me many of us slept very little knowing what we were responsible for-which also accounts for my major hair loos which has saved me a bundle on haircuts)

 

Carlos, are you referring to the "000000000" nuclear launch code? Don't worry I would have been afraid to forget this one as well.

 

Your next project looks interesting.Looking forward to see the finished Minuteman. I'm sure you'll transform these parts into another gem as usual! What's the scale of the kit BTW?

 

Lars

[coli8344]

Lars, sorry I always forget that, it should be 1/72 and will measure around 10". I will place it on a wooden base and hope to get an engraved name plate put on (that's my goal at least). Carlos

[coli8344]

My goal with the Minuteman II model is to paint it in the in silo colors. There tends to be some slight variations in these colors but overall they tend to be as shown in the following pictures. Note that this kit states it came with decals but it didn't, it doesn't bother me because I wasn't planning on painting it in the white traditional display model colors.

[coli8344]

Lars you can tell me if this is ok to do: I'm going to try and post my progress now and then with the minuteman II model as I go along and address some issues with this specific Belcher Bits model (which may not be the case with all Belcher models-so just want to address what I encountered so far with this specific model and what I did to remedy the issue). That way the experienced guys can tell me what they usually do-I'm still learning.

 

I've taken a picture of the warhead and third stage put together and then a picture with the second stage attached. I encountered what all of us do, the need to sand and trim before and after test fitting and then gluing. I did have to apply putty to fill in the joint gaps since the sections were slightly off in size at the joint seams and then sanded the areas which will not be visible once painted. The main issue I encountered was when I test fit the second stage to the third I didn't notice that the top part of the second stage was not perfectly flat so when I glued 3rd and 2nd stages together the warhead looked off-center, looked like it was slightly tilted. I took it apart, cleaned off the glue/putty from the 2nd and 3rd stages, trimmed & sanded the 2nd stage top until it was even and flat (the top of stage 2 is a solid piece so when I say perfectly flat I mean as as best as I could get it without removing too much off the top and risk taking off too much), I added glue and used the putty as a leveling mortar and put them back together. After filling the joint seams with putty and after drying and curing, I sanded the joint areas and the result is what you see in the pictures.

[The Meatcan]

Personally, I enjoy seeing the progress pix and reading your narrative of the build. I hope you'll continue to do so as it provides a fascinating glimpse into all the hard work you are putting into the kits. Keep up the nice work!

Terry

[coli8344]

Thank you Terry. I hope others do the same. It may open up some building tips for other model folks.

[coli8344]

Here are pictures of 2nd stage attached to the 1/2 interstage collar. One picture shows before sanding and putty (right picture) and the other after (left picture). Now I'll let it cure for at least 24 hrs.

[coli8344]

(The plastic storage cup and lid picture are explained later in this post)

 

While I'm waiting for the parts to cure I worked on the 1st stage which comes in two pieces with this kit (actual minuteman II 1st stage is one piece). One picture shows before sanding and putty (left picture)and the other after (right picture). The two pieces of the 1st stage fit snug and were easy to put together. They required very little putty.

 

Thinking ahead, I've been exploring ways to get as close as I can to the in silo color for the war head cone-sometimes I think the color match is harder when you have to custom mix than building the actual model. It will need to be a color that I custom mix. So that may take awhile. Once I find the correct mix of colors I usually use a disposable mini cup with lid by Diamond that I get from the grocery store, it comes in 50 count bags (used to put dressing and such in for lunches) to mix and save my custom color mixes. That way I don't have to re-mix this colors and try to match the original especially if I have to do touch-ups later or as has happened to me before, totally remove my paint job and repaint. There is probably a better way and I hope those that have done this before share what they do.

 

I'll let everything cure and dry and probably keep sanding seams until I have everything that way I want it before I add anymore parts. In the mean time I'll tackle the war head paint mixture. I'll post my Picasso results once I get at least two colors that come close to the actual shade.

 

Carlos

 

[coli8344]

So I think I may have lucked out, it took some research on how to get started color-wise (obviously I don't sleep much). I started out mostly working with testors flat sky blue and flat white. After that was mixed I started to add drops of flat yellow and then flat green, mixing thoroughly as I went along to make sure all the paints blended in. I ended up with what you see in the picture after 5 trials (and errors). The fresh paint in the cup dries lighter as you can see in the picture with the arrow showing the sample once dry. Which very closely matches what I remember of the warhead cone color from years back. The cone shown in the picture shows darker on the web site I got it from but transferred lighter when I printed it out.

[viking73]

Neat thread guys. Some great builds on here!

 

I have the old box scale Revell Nike-Hercules I keep fooling with. The poor fit, sink marks, and flash make me keep putting it back on the "shelf of doom". But I do want to finish it eventually...

 

In the meantime, here is the great Horizon Models from Australia, Atlas D kit in 1/72. This kit was a gem, fun from start to finish. I really wanted to do an F since I've visited several of the former 578th SMS sites around Abilene, TX (Dyess AFB) and have become friends with several folks who own former silos. Upon further review, the F is a lot different externally than a D so I shelved that idea for the time being. Perhaps someone will be a resin conversion kit or Horizon will do an F. I'm hoping they do a Titan I and II at some point.

 

Anyway, here's a few shots of my completed build.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

-Derek

[coli8344]

Derek, awesome Atlas. Always great to have someone join the thread especially one that builds these models. You did a great job. I've lived in Texas since '87 and I should really try to visit one of the Atlas sites. And really, your model looks great. As far as the Nike-Hercules there may be a way to compensate for any of the model defects, don't give up. There might be someone on the forum that could have some suggestions. Consider posting some pictures of your model concerns to see if anyone can help. Keep the pictures coming! Carlos

[coli8344]

I've been allowing several days for sections to dry as I add them because unlike the usual model kits such as Revell and the other more popular brands where the missiles are usually hollow, this model has some solid pieces which tends to extend the drying time, no air flow slowing drying times is what I figured . The nozzles came attached to a solid base (see picture) and had to cut each off and sand each. I used a heated exacto blade that attached to my wood burning tool and it made a clean cut. I painted the nozzle base flat black (as well as each nozzle but did not glue them to the nozzle base) since it will be attached to the bottom of the 1st stage and the nozzle shroud will be attached over that (the shroud will not fit over the nozzles once they are glued in place so the shroud has to be glued in first). The last parts I will be adding will be the 4 nozzles. I will be taping and painting each section and I don't want to damage the nozzles during that process & another reason is that once I decide exactly what type of mounting base I will use, it will require a means of attaching the missile to the base and I don't want the nozzles in the way if I have to drill a hole for the support stem which will then attach to the base.

[coli8344]

Here is the 2nd stage and 1st stages attached. And finally the shroud and nozzle base attached to the 1st stage (putty and sanded to get everything even and smooth). The difficulty has been that the design of this model requires some kind of linear adjustment as I add each stage to ensure the warhead cone stays centered at the top otherwise the whole model will go off kilter and you will notice a slight lean. Overall the model is to scale with a few exceptions especially the spacer (see picture) between the Re-entry vehicle (warhead location) and the cover which houses the guidance and control section, it is about twice what it would be on the actual missile (see picture)-don't get me wrong, overall this is a good model (more work than I expected) but I know there may be folks that are looking for accuracy in their model scale when building kits. I've included a labeled diagram.

 

 

Request: Anyone out there that has built display bases for their missile models, if you can add pictures of what you did to this thread I know others, especially myself, would learn a great deal.

[coli8344]

Have started painting the missile. I started at the top and in order to maintain clean lines between each section requiring a different color of paint I used Tamiya Masking Tape 6mm width (Hobby Lobby) which I can trim down if I need the width to be narrower. This model has shroud areas that are cone shaped so the tape needs to be modified to fit in those areas-I cut slits down one side of the tape so that it would allow it to bend and maintain a straight line as it followed the contour of the cone shaped shrouds. Please see pictures below.

[coli8344]

Here are the stages of painting the Minuteman Missile. I applied 3 coats to each section with drying times in between. I lightly sanded the sections after painting and ensuring the paint was completely dry to ensure the paint transitions were as smooth as I could get it from one section to another.

[coli8344]

Here is the Minuteman model with the final sanding and paint coats on. The first stage is a light green. I had to custom mix that using flat white and flat green. What's left are:

-creating a wooden base for the missile which will include an identification plate, mini senior missile pin and small Strategic Air Command pin.

-Adding the 4 nozzles (thrusters)

 

Anyone have any suggestions for a method of mounting the missile to a wooden base?

 

[coli8344]

Request: Please post your pictures, if you have any, showing your process when building your missile model. Your completed missile model pictures are of course always welcome.

 

Still working on a base idea. Leaning towards a hexagonal shaped base to represent the hexagon shaped launcher closure door that lies above the missile & protects it while it sits in the silo.

 

The LF (launch facilities) Launcher Closure Door is the massive structure that sits directly above the Minuteman missile which has been emplaced into the launch tube. Its design consists of 110 tons of a hexagon shaped cap of reinforced concrete and steel that is 3 and 1/2 feet thick. Its design is such that in the event of a nuclear blast, the Launcher Closure Door functions as a shield, that protects the Minuteman missile that sits down inside the launch tube, from a blast in the event of an enemy attack. If we were given the command to launch, once we turned keys (no button like in the movies) the missile receives it's signal and the closure door has several charges around its base which helps propel the door along the rails (rust color in the pictures) out and away from the silo opening, which also helps clear any debris which may have fallen on the door,& ensured the missile had a clear opening for launch.

 

 

 

[Proud Kraut]

Great idea for the base! Thanks for all these background informations, very interesting!

[coli8344]

Thank you Lars. The two black mini phone tower looking devices within the fence line and just above the launcher closure door are motion sensors. Those things went off all the time, flocks of birds flying through, protestors, even semi trucks rumbling down a highway nearby, our security police had to show up every time because we had no video (I'm sure we have more advanced systems now). I'm hoping to see the NHS Minuteman site in SD when we retire in August.

[coli8344]

Here is the base set-up I was looking for. I didn't make the hexagonal or round bases. All my major tools are packed pending our retirement move in August. This is a test fit just to see how the display will look. I still need to:

-Drill the holes through the hexagonal & round pieces

-Drill a hole at the center of the base of the missile where the thrusters go

-glue the thrusters in place and then secure the missile to the round base

-The name plate is ordered and should be here soon

[Jay V]

It's looking really Nice Carlos,can't wait to see the end result

[coli8344]

Thanks Jay. Now the big question is will it make the move once I'm done. Should be interesting.