The Little World

The advantage of building to a common scale is the insight it provides you into the relative size of things.

Prior to this build I had no idea these first-generation ICBMs were so large. My mind saw the toys of my childhood – the Cape Canaveral set gave totally false impressions. But then I went on to a career that depended upon them…

Never mind – I’m sure the Horizon people have made an accurate Atlas D and it is genuinely a monster. If they were to bring out a gantry or military launcher for it I’d buy it in an instant – but then regret not having enough space to show it off.

The polished metal is Mr. Color Super metallic Stainless steel with a gloss overcoat. The engine section is flat aluminium. No custom colours needed, and no extra decals needed either. I am afraid some of the tiniest stencils have not survived the gloss coat, but most are in place. Curse them as you will, but they are essential to give the feel of the piece.

This is good enough to encourage me to send away for another horizon product – a US Army Redstone IRBM. A lot simpler, by the look of it, and possibly the sort of missile you could build an diorama around. This one may take pride of place in one year’s Big Local Scale Model Show as I intend to show a series of Cold War airfields and emplacements.