A CLOSER LOOK AT THE V-2 ROCKET FROM SPACE MONKEY

 

Mat Irvine looks again at a big rocket kit

Earlier this year, I had a preliminary look at a 1:24 scale V-2 kit from a new company to the field, SpaceMonkey Models. It’s taken a while, but now I’ve finally had a chance to have a more detailed look at this big-scale release. For the picture above, I added an AMT 1955 Chevrolet Cameo pickup. It's a few years more recent than the V-2, but gives a good sense of scale.

Construction starts by removing two end-mouldings, one of them here the ‘ball’ at right. This is replaced by the conical top, a standard injection-moulded part. 

During fin assembly, the gates - where ‘injection’ takes place - need removing and the area sanding flat.

Blow moulded ‘Vengeance Weapon’

As I said first time around, the kit is made of the usual material - polystyrene - but the way the main part of the kit is moulded is not so usual, as the blow-moulding technique is used. It’s common for flying model rockets, where weight is the primary consideration, but not so much for static models, Still, no complaints here, as it makes for a very strong finished model.

Using a supplied template, connecting bolts between upper and lower sections are cut and cemented in place.

Small rear fairings fit between the tailfins.

Assembly

The Space Monkey V-2 is a simple kit to assemble, not that the V-2 was a complex rocket, externally at least. Four identical runners are supplied for the four fins, each coming in two halves, and the various fairings required.

Marking options

The Space Monkey kit supplies four V-2 marking variations, two wartime, two peacetime. A World War II splinter camouflage finish is as depicted on the V-2 on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The olive-drab V-2 shown is presently on display at the Imperial War Museum, London. 

V-2 removed from storage, ready for Operation Sandy.

V-2 on the deck of USS Midway

Rocket launch from USS Midway

The post-war finishes supplied are from the display missile at the White Sands Proving Ground (now White Sands Missile Range), New Mexico. The last option is an really interesting one, representing the one and only V-2 ever launched from a ship on September 6, 1947. This was from the aircraft carrier USS Midway during Operation Sandy.

Moments after the successful deck launch.

My earlier article here.

Thanks to James Duffy of SpaceMonkey Models for the sample kit.

Check out Operation Sandy here, and do watch the fascinating newsreel video clip.

Archive V-2 pics courtesy US Army, US Navy. 

V-2 ROCKET VENGEANCE WEAPON PRODUCED AS BIG-SCALE KIT

Mat Irvine looks at a new model company’s premier release

Despite the number of German V-2 rocket kits that have been made (and, ahem, a comprehensive list can be seen in my book Creating Space), 1:24 is a scale that’s not been used before. It is not a standard scale for military or aircraft models, which tend to be 1:32, 1:35, 1:48 or 1:72. However, 1:24 is one of the main automotive scales, so this new V-2 kit could open the door for those interested in building dioramas, with a whole range of interesting additions.

The sturdy box in which your 1:24 scale V2 arrives.

First kit release

This V-2 comes from a new entry in the field, the intriguingly named SpaceMonkey Models, run by James Duffy out of Georgetown, Texas. This is the company’s first kit, although James also runs rocket.aero (pronounced ‘rocket dot aero’) which specializes in DVDs of aircraft and missiles. 

The comprehensive decal sheet features mostly markings for captured V-2s, launched from White Sands, New Mexico.

Big kit manufacturing technique

At 584 mm (23 in) tall, the 1:24 scale V-2 is pretty large, so SpaceMonkey Models has taken the step of using blow-moulding techniques for the main structure. Blow-moulding - it’s by a method more or less as it says on the tin - is a process that has long been used by flying-model rocketeers, as it results in large, lightweight mouldings, even if they are sometimes not up to the detail standards of true injection moulding. Some static kit companies have used it before - Dragon is one - but I’m pleased to say that the styrene moulding here is very detailed and once finished, you’d be hard pressed to tell it’s been produced by this method.

Full-colour booklet includes pictures of V-2s on display around the world. The one on the right-hand page here is currently in the Imperial War Museum, London.

Disposable balls

The oddly-shaped piece in the middle of the parts layout picture at top is the V-2’s blow-moulded main structure. The ‘balls’ either end are disposable, and are removed when you are ready to start. There are separate injection-moulded parts for the nose cone, rocket nozzle, and fins.

DVD bonus

A bonus with the kit is that the SpaceMonkey DVD is included. It’s multi-region, or Region 0, so will play anywhere in the world, and includes footage of V-2s as flown in the US after World War II, much of which hasn’t been seen before, or not available in a popular format. The DVD and kit together mark a very important chapter in rocket history.

This is just a preliminary open-the-box review - more when we get the thing actually built!

Thanks to James Duffy for the review kit.

See more at SpaceMonkey Models here.

Visit rocket.aero here.

Assorted rocketry here.

Mat Irvine’s Creating Space here.

Finished SpaceMonkey V-2 here.

BIG AND SMALL ‘DESTINATION MOON’ ROCKETS FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

David Jefferis looks at some classic science fiction

It was couch potato time the other evening, with a chance to munch some sweetcorn while eyeballing a sci-fi movie from more than 60 years ago. George Pal’s Destination Moon of 1950 remains one of the best of its kind - a realistic future vision, dressed up as fiction by the addition of a lukewarm plot and wooden actors. Destination Moon may have been shot in black-and-white, with indifferent acting, but... it also featured a handsome spacecraft, the Luna, looking like a sleeked-up version of a World War II German V-2. And Luna became the prototype design for virtually all sci-fi rockets of that era, streamlined beauties that soared through the midnight depths of space. 

A post-Apollo rant...

If only it had turned out that way: here we are now, more than four decades on from the first Apollo landing, with any thoughts of returning to the Moon pushed into a vague and distant future. US astronauts may have got there first, but here at SMN Towers we’d put our money on the Chinese or Indians to plant the next flag.

Spacecraft Luna from Fantastic Plastic

Still, all that shouldn’t get in the way of a bit of nostalgia, and that’s the spirit of the 1:288 scale Luna kit from those interesting people at Fantastic Plastic. FanPlan’s 157 mm (6.2 in) long offering is an ultra-simple piece of kit engineering, with just seven parts, including the meteor-pocked lunar surface base. One of the components is a rather inelegant landing prop, poking out of one side to stop the nuclear-powered craft from falling over. It’s odd that the original designers didn’t simply use a triangular pattern for the landing legs - the kit simply reflects that bit of rather poor thinking.

Building and finishing the spacecraft

Assembly should be a speedy affair, as will be the finish. All you really need to do is spray the ship silver overall to represent the original’s bare-metal finish. A little airbrush weathering will do no harm at all, especially around the airlock door and rocket exhausts, plus the control surfaces and landing-leg areas. When Luna looks good, you can set it off by carefully detailing the cratered base, after which the rocketship should make a great addition to a sci-fi model collection. 

Micronauts

One thing you may not be able to do is populate your miniature moonscape with a set of convincing astronauts. At 1:288 scale, they will be only about 6 mm (0.25 in) tall, which precludes any great detail. Figures to this size are not difficult to find, as 6mm is a wargaming scale, but while it’s easy to get Romans, Germans, even fantasy elves, we’ve not seen any astronauts, though the Baccus 6mm company does offer various sci-fi sets. If anyone knows of a source for 1950s-era astronauts, let us know!

Bigger alternative

However, all is not lost on the size front, because Fantastic Plastic also offers the humongously huge alternative shown above. It’s the same subject, but now to the six times bigger 1:48 scale. This Luna has been created by Masterpiece Models, and is cast from the same studio miniature used in the original movie. There are even fewer parts (just five, plus a circular chunk of lunar surface) though wire is provided if you are patient enough to construct the rung ladder from the airlock to the cratered ground far below. The model stands some 940 mm (37 in) tall, so would make an impressive display piece for a classic sci-fi movie buff.   

The pictures show, top to bottom:

1-2  The neatly produced 1:288 Luna from Fantastic Plastic.

3  Image from the set of Destination Moon, with astronauts in their highly realistic spacesuits.

4  1:48 giant-size version from Masterpiece Models.

5  Movie still showing Luna safely landed tail-first on triple fins and ‘that prop’.

Baccus 6mm make figures at this scale, including sci-fi sets here.

Visit Fantastic Plastic’s 1:288 model here.

The 1:48 Masterpiece Models version is here.

There's more rocketry here.

1:72 SCALE A9 LONG-RANGE ROCKET MISSILE FROM SPECIAL HOBBY

SMN reports
Here’s a look at the A9 piloted missile we brought back from the La Coupole rocket base in northern France. The A9 was one of many ‘Luftwaffe 1946’ secret projects that never saw military action before World War II ended, in this case luckily for the Allied towns and cities that could have been in the target zones.

 

Vengeance weapon
Developed from Wernher von Braun’s V-2 ‘Vengeance’ weapon (technical name A4) the A9 was the winged upper stage of a two-stage rocket, the A10 first-stage boosting it to high speed and altitude. Blueprints of the time showed that the wings would have given the A9 range enough to hit targets as far away as Scotland, more than doubling the standard V-2’s reach of some 320 km (200 miles). It wasn’t good news for the pilot however, who was expected to bale out and parachute to safety moments before impact - a fairly unlikely scenario.

Later A9/A10 designs had bigger wings, and were planned for attacks on US targets such as New York and Washington. You can see how this might have worked in the video, and also the pages from ‘Popular Science’ magazine, shown above.

Special Hobby A9 kit
Back to the Special Hobby kit, which comes neatly boxed, with art that should be useful as a painting guide. The 52 parts are presented on three runners, with a vacuum-formed cockpit canopy, which needs trimming out before cementing in place. There is an attempt at cockpit detail - seat, stick, floor, bulkheads - but no pilot figure is supplied. The long, vane-like wings are supplied separately, though there are no fitting stubs, so assembly will have to be careful.

The A9 itself has just 19 components - the other 33 are for the stand, which is something of a fiddly job, recommended for the patient model maker, equipped with fine tweezers. The smaller parts need some cleaning up before assembly, but there’s nothing major to worry about.

Summation
An interesting kit, though it’s hardly a new release, and can be quite difficult to obtain - you’ll probably have to search around for one, but for Luftwaffe 1946 fans, it’ll be worth the hunt.
  
Visit La Coupole here.

There are further A9/A10 project details here.

For a look at a nicely assembled A9, visit our friends at Fantastic Plastic here.

NAZI V-WEAPONS AT LA COUPOLE ROCKET BASE, NORTHERN FRANCE

SMN reports
If you’re in reach of Northern France sometime this year, then a trip to the site of a World War II Nazi rocket base ought to be on your list of must-go visits.

La Coupole (‘the cupola’) was a planned launching site for the fearsome V-2 rocket, the aim to launch them towards Britain at a rate of up to four an hour. Parts for the rockets were to be assembled in secret workshops all over the Reich, final assembly and launch preparation by slave workers in the long, dank tunnels of La Coupole’s underground complex.

Secret rocket base in a quarry
A massive project, La Coupole had a metres-thick concrete dome built in and over an old quarry, but luckily for the Allies it did not stay a secret for long enough to go into serious action - and timely bombing raids managed to crack the dome and finish the place off as a threat.

For the SMN crew, the place made a fascinating daytrip from the UK, with many interesting machines to look at - from twisted propellers to rocket motors, and even a piloted V-1 flying bomb.

Wernher von Braun
The V-2 is also there of course, and it’s backed up by a display of post-war space progress - for Wernher von Braun, the genius behind the V-2,was also the man who masterminded the Apollo program which safely landed a dozen men on the Moon, from 1969 to 1972.

After the tour, it’s model-maker time, and La Coupole’s visitor store has lots to interest, including one of our day’s purchases, a neat 1:72 scale A9 rocket, made by Special Hobby from the Czech Republic. We’ll be showing you details of this ‘Luftwaffe 1946’ kit in the next SMN report.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  The thick concrete dome.
2  Entrance to the tunnel network.
3  Piloted V-1 'Buzz Bomb' prototype.
4  Tail and steering vanes of a V-2 rocket.

Visit La Coupole here.

Dome picture courtesy Eric Desrentes at Panoramio here.

And here are some interesting models to inspect.
V-2 Wehrmacht1/48 Snap, V-2 RocketV-1 Luftwaffe

DESTINATION MOON ROCKET FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

George Pal’s Destination Moon movie of 1950 was a classic of its kind. The acting was rather indifferent, but it did have a handsome spaceship, the Luna, looking like a sleeked-up version of a World War II German V-2. And that became the style of virtually all sci-fi rockets of that era, streamlined beauties that soared through the midnight depths of space.

If only it had turned out that way - here we are now, 40 years on from the Apollo landings, with a return to the Moon that seems further away than ever. Euro plans include human landing by 2030 at the earliest, while China and India may even end up beating the US back there.

Still all that shouldn’t get in the way of a bit of nostalgia, and that’s the spirit of the 1:288 scale Rocketship Luna kit from Fantastic Plastic. It’s an ultra-simple piece of kit engineering, with just seven parts, including the meteor-pocked lunar surface base. One of these is a rather unpretty prop, to stop the nuclear-powered craft from falling over - it’s odd that the original Luna designers didn’t simply use a triangular pattern for the landing legs, a much more elegant solution.

Sprayed silver to represent the original’s bare-metal finish, and with some careful detailing on the cratered base, plus a little airbrush weathering around the airlock door, rocket exhaust, control surface and landing leg areas, the Luna should make a great addition to a sci-fi model collection.

Visit Fantastic Plastic here.