Ever since I built my 1/100 Saturn 1B clone, I have had the desire to build a 1/100 Mercury Redstone. It fascinates me that the Saturn 1 is a "kitbash" of 8 Redstone tanks and a Jupiter core, and I wanted to show the true perspective of the size difference between the two vehicles.

I found a 1/96 scale paper model of the Mercury Redstone that is actually free from Delta 7 studios, which I planned to scale down and use as a wrap. I had plenty of tubing left over from the Saturn 1B project, so all that was left was to design and built the nose. Thanks to Pete Alway's Rockets of the World, some noodling around on the Ninfinger web site, and some more internet searches, I came up with the capsule dimensions I needed, and modeled this puppy in CAD.

At this size, I chose to forgo buiding the LES tower and just use the printed tower from the Delta 7 model.

Attached Files

MercRedstoneScale.PDF (30.8 KB, 71 views)

__________________
David Stribling
NAR 18402 SR
But it is rocket science!
Get yer Barrowmans here

I modeled the rocket in Rocksim, and found I will need 0.1 oz nose weight f/ A3T-4 motor. It predicts an altitude of 397 ft on 1/2A3T-4, and 840 ft on A3T-4. I plan to fly on a streamer.

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__________________
David Stribling
NAR 18402 SR
But it is rocket science!
Get yer Barrowmans here

Building was fairly simple, except for turning the capsule . I used cardboard fins since they would be covered by the wraps. I used a Kivlar line for the shock cord, and mounted it to the BT-5 engine tube. I wanted to leave a clean ID in that cramped body tube and was a afraid a "fold and glue" shock cord mount would hang up on the streamer.

BTW I know the tip of the cone is longer than the scale dimension. I decided to leave some extra material to glue the tower wrap to. I glued the tower wrap to some 110# cardstock for reinforcment. The LES motor is wrapped around a 1/8" dowel that projects down the length of the LES and attaches to the capsule. Hopefully, this will beef up the tower for flying!

I used 3M spray adhesive for the body wrap, and thinned-down white glue for the other wraps. I did discover that the Delta 7 body wrap was longer than my tube (about 1/4"), so I trimmed some portions out, to try to fit. I had to leave the roll patter at the top and the pattern at the bottom so it would line up with the fins. Even after all the trimming, the bottom sticks past the tube a little, so when I glued the fins on, I smeared a little glue underneath to stiffen the paper.

I glued the launch lug onto a piece of 1/8 dowel to form a stand-off so the rod would clear the capsule.

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__________________
David Stribling
NAR 18402 SR
But it is rocket science!
Get yer Barrowmans here

She looks pretty nice! Sitting next to the Saturns really puts it into perspective as to what levels of power are required to put a human into sub-orbit compared to sending three humans all the way to the moon!

You gotta wonder what Alan B. Shepard thought after flying on the Redstone on May 5, 1961 and then on the Saturn V on his Apollo 14 lunar mission, January 31, 1971. Heck, the "tiny" Launch Escape System (LES) motor at the very top of the Apollo/Saturn rocket produced almost twice the thrust as the total Redstone rocket!!!

Hopefully she will fly at the next Red River Rocketeers launch at the end of April -- just in time to honor the flight of Freedom 7!

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__________________
David Stribling
NAR 18402 SR
But it is rocket science!
Get yer Barrowmans here

Dandy lookin' little Redstone there! It does make a great size contrast comparing it to a same scale Saturn.

I think Semroc has a M-R 1/100 listed in their 'coming soon' que. I hope they do issue it as I'd like to do the same as you and have one to perch beside my Centuri Saturn V for scale comparison purposes.

Good job!


Earl

__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Nice addition to your fleet. I like it.