A Mess of Marks
 

I thought I'd use up a bit more of my BT-30 tubing and knock out a couple of clones from the early days of the hobby. In this case, the Astron Mark. I felt they'd make good company for the Carlisle Mark II that Carl had kitted.

Even though it's not BT-30 based, I'll start with that Semroc/Carlisle Mark II. The photo below shows the model I had built in 2011 and had gifted to Carl & Sheryl at the time. A second one was also built, and it sits here on the shelf.

Next is the first of two Astron Marks, finished in the "checkers" scheme found on the early kit artwork. The second Astron Mark is finished in the scheme commonly found in the catalog illustrations.

I have the later Estes Mark II (#1202, the one with the mid-body separation) most of the way through the paint process, but its completion has been prolonged due to an ill-considered decision to paint with enamels instead of lacquer. I'll post him up once he's done baking.

And since it's getting to be that time of year, let me say Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to the YORF community, and to Scott in particular, for making this community a reality.

I don't know why it didn't occur to me until now, but the "catalog" Mark reminded me of the Little John in the White Sands missile garden.

https://wsmrmuseum.com/22-littlejohn/



Kinda curious whether the old model color schemes (that Mark is typical of early-era Centuri paint jobs) were inspired by real rockets, or whether that paint scheme on that Little John was kind of inspired by the basic designs that were popular with model rockets in the early era. I've looked at a ton of period real rocket photos, and the only one I can find easily that's really close to the look of that WS LJ is that specific rocket. There are lots of LJ photos, but that paint scheme isn't used on any other examples that I recall seeing.

Those are killer, but I especially love the checked fins. :cool:
Merry Christmas and a healthy New Year.

Beautiful finishes on those birds! Great job!!

Earl

Thank you, John! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well.

We all appreciate the many contributions you've given to us here over the years.

Very clean work and good gloss finishes!

Fantastic finishing John, such crisp paint edges! For the second Astron Mark, is there a verttical line on the opposite side? I noticed the early 1970s header card suggests darker NC & Fins - being monochrome, it's hard to tell, of course - thoughts? Type V, Countdown Hangtag, on this page http://vintageestesrockets.com/k-ki...astron-mark.htm Just asking myself, how would I paint mine if I ever crack open the kit?

Anyhow, thanks for sharing!

Hi Paul!

Thanks for the kind words, and the great questions.

The earliest instructions suggested finishing the model in Red (or other color of your choosing), with a hand-painted black stripe down one side, and "Astron Mark" to be hand-lettered somewhere on the model; This scheme is illustrated in the 1961 catalog. There never was a decal sheet included over the life of this kit that I'm aware of, although "Astron Mark" did eventually show up on the old Estes D-6 Kit Names sheet.

You're quite right about the apparent darker nose cone shown in several of the catalog illustrations and face cards, but it's anyone's guess what that mystery color might have been. The model photo shown on JimZ's site is all yellow/yellow-orange but for the nose, which is black. As good of an interpretation as any!

In my case, I used the photo from the 1972 catalog as the excuse to go all one color. But hey - they're old rockets. The color interpretation was left to the modeler to decide any way he/she liked.

One could make the argument that the "checkers" version could/should have been white. But I found the yellow more to my liking.

As for the black body stripe, I've not found any documentation that shows an opposing vertical airframe stripe. Adding such a stripe would mean tackling the masking around the launch lug (it's on that side), and with my waning masking enthusiasm I made the assumption there was no vertical stripe on that side. The photo in the 1972 catalog comes closest to revealing the edge of that opposing side, and I couldn't make out any stripe there. So, I just went with what I saw, and the assumption that the lower horizontal stripe was carried over the not-shown launch lug.

Hope that helps.

John,

Wow, beautiful finishes on those! Especially love the checkerboard-finned one.

Nice set of birds! Now all you need to do is round out the collection with a Carlisle Mark I and a Mark II-1/2.
The latter is (I think) a Stine modification of the Mark II in which the round nose is replaced with an ogive version. There are existing photos of both models in a Stine article publshed in an old American Modeler magazine.