A Plastic Model Conversion Gold Mine !

 During a recent trip to the local Hobby Lobby I stopped by the plastic model aisle where I found this:

This is a "U.S. Space Missiles" kit by Atlantis.

The kit includes small plastic 1:128 scale models of  36 historical missiles, mounted together on a display base.

In the back of my mind, I thought I had seen this one somewhere before.

Of course! An old issue of Model Rocketry Magazine!

Pulling out my collection of MRm copies, I found what I was looking for in the November 1971 issue.

There on the front cover is a photo of three models from this kit.

Back in 1971 the kit was marketed by Monogram. After over 50 years later Atlantis has re-issued it.

The MRm article, beginning on page 14, was written by George Flynn and details the flight conversion of the kit's three largest models, Titan II, Atlas, and Jupiter.

Here is a photo of the kit from the magazine article:

Back then MPC had just recently introduced their 13mm Minijet engines, which were small enough to make the conversion of these models possible.

George also states that a couple of the other models in the set could possibly be flight-converted - the Thor and Minuteman.

Today, I am pretty sure that a number of additional models in the kit can be converted to flight using the modern MicroMaxx motors.

Interesting....

A downloadable file of the November 1971 issue of Model Rocketry Magazine can be found on the Ninfinger website.

Here's the link:

Model_Rocketry_v04n02_11-71.pdf (ninfinger.org)

Cheers!