I was originally planning to purchase the Daron Executive Series pre-painted Mercury-Redstone. After being disappointed with the quality of some of their Executive Series Apollo models, however, I ordered this kit. It had been a long time since I'd made a model, but I decided that for less than half the price I could do at least as good a job myself. Well, many cans of Testors spray paint later, I'm not sure how much money I saved! BUT I definitely ended up with a much better-painted and more-detailed kit that I'm extremely proud of! It looks great in my cabinet, and next to my Dragon 1:72 Saturn V really showcases the difference in rocket size between just getting up into space, and going all the way to the moon. It is a really great addition to my display cabinet!

Molding on this kit is outstanding. Mine had absolutely no flashing whatsoever and every single part fit perfectly. The only exception was the ring base for the escape tower which had too tight an inside diameter to fit onto the Mercury capsule top. However, that was easily remedied by a couple minutes of sanding with a tiny piece of 200 grit sandpaper rolled into a small tube. Sand a little more than you think you need, to account for paint thickness on both the capsule and the inside of the ring. Another major tip is to micro drill the holes in this same piece for the three framework pieces of the escape tower. This was the hardest part of the model to assemble, and being able to securely install those three pieces in the base makes it much easier to glue them all together--though mine still ended up slightly crooked.

My final tip is to paint the black-and-white "checkerboard" pattern on the base of the rocket separately on the two body halves, and then assemble them together. This was the other part of this model that proved to be a fair amount of detail work.

This kit provides decals and other parts to recreate any one of the Mercury-Redstone missions. Most of you will want to make MR-3, Alan Shepard's first US manned space flight in the Freedom 7 Capsule. Note that an extra boiler plate capsule and capsule display stand will also let you assemble a second capsule if you are not too fussy about accuracy.

In conclusion, this is a challenging but beautiful kit that you will be proud to display.

This kit is absolutely stunning! I grew up in the 50s & 60s, and model the Cold War era. Horizon has outdone themselves with these 1/72 scale kits, they are superb in their assembly and detail. I have the Atlas arriving in today's mail, to complete my favorite Mercury Alan Shepard and John Glenn astronaut set.

Perfect scale

Great model kit of an historic period that set the foundations for the space program. This kit is molded using the latest techniques rendering crisp details even in this small scale. The decals included will let you build any of the initial Mercury missions, including Alan Shepard's and Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7. Assembly is pretty straitforward but the tiny photoetched metal parts can prove difficult for some modelers. Highly recommended.

It's a nice little kit of an historical item! Been waiting for years for one of these!