I know exactly what the fins should be like. I've been to Huntsville and to the Cape and have plenty of photos of the Redstone boosters. The physical shape of the fins are identical for both the Mercury Redstone and the Jupiter-C. I have Alway's Rockets of the World, which also shows the fin dimensions. I have already built both kits, but didn't notice the ugly enlarged fins of the Jupiter-C until after it was completed and sitting beside my Mercury Redstone. I know the MR fins aren't scale either, but they look much better than the Jupiter-C fins.

I'm just saying that having both Estes models side by side looks goofy because not only are the fins not scale, they aren't even the same between the two models. I didn't want you guys to make the same mistake I did and build both kits in stock configuration.

I see three options for a good pair of Redstone based models for your display shelf. Any of these three remedies will make both kits much nicer to look at than if you build both of them stock. If you only have one of the kits and don't plan to build the other, don't worry with it.

1. Make both rockets with fins as close to scale as possible based on Alway's book or other scale data. Most importantly, the fins will be identical to each other so they will look good sitting side by side..

2. Keep the Mercury Redstone kit in stock configuration and make the Jupiter-C fins identical to the MR.

3. Keep the Jupiter-C in stock configuration and make the MR idental to the J-C.