Jupiter-C Rocket with Gantry-299

Revell (Megahobby), 1/110 scale

Reviewed by Cookie Sewell

Summary

FirstLook

On October 4 1957 there was a seminal change in science history when the USSR orbited the first space satellite with its Sputnik craft. The result was that the US jumped in to catch up with first the unsuccessful Vanguard from the US Navy and then the successful Explorer I from the US Army.

This fact, as well as new concepts like the TWA sponsored Moon Ride at Disneyland, soon motivated all of the model companies to dive in to the new missile and space craze. The main efforts came from Revell, Monogram, Hawk, Lindberg, Aurora and Strombecker. The choices included both military missiles as well as space craft and also hypothetical ones from engineers like Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell.

Revell committed the most effort to this and over the next few years produced 30 kits in this line as their H-18xx series. One of the first was the US Army Redstone operational nuclear battlefield missile as kit H-1803. Modeled in 1959 in what became their go-to scale for most missiles, 1/110, it consisted of a base, the rocket and three crew members plus a radar van for only 79 cents. They followed it up later in the year with the “Jupiter C” space launch vehicle with an orbital module, the Explorer I satellite, and the complete launch gantry assembly as used at Cape Canaveral, Florida, as kit H-1819. (They got further amortization out of the molds in 1961 as kit H-1832 as the Mercury Redstone with a new module for the Mercury 1 and 2 capsules.)

The kit was very impressive as it provided the missile, launch platform, moveable gantry with folding work platforms, and a crew of seven. This kit was molded in white, grey and red so that younger modelers (the ones that did not paint models) could have it present the proper colors scheme for the launch gantry. This kit went for the princely sum of $1.98.

But nearly as fast as the demand appeared for missiles and space vehicles, it soon vanished leaving the companies scrambling to cut production and losses. There were occasional re-releases or attempts to repurpose the kits as space aliens but for the most part they were dead and gone.

With the wave of nostalgia and the rise of collectors, these kits suddenly gained new fans, new fame – and new values. The XSL-01 space craft and launch assembly (H-1800) now showed up as worth up to $1200 as a “Holy Grail” kit with the “Coffee Can” Space Station (H-1805) rising up to $2400. This kit of the Jupiter C and launcher was less but still ran from $180 to $380 when it surfaced.

Now Megahobby, a shop in Magnolia, NJ near AAA Hobbies and according to one of the sales personnel there run by a member of the same family running AAA, has obtained the molds and re-released the Jupiter C kit at a nice real world price. The same salesperson indicated they made about 1,500 kits of the missile and are now offering them on sale either at their website (Megahobby.com) or at the AAA Hobbies store.

The kit is typical of the more advanced late 1950s models in that it does make some compromises in accuracy in order to provide working features. The missile consists of seven parts with a removable orbital module and Explorer I satellite and a two-piece launch platform. The directions are happily copies of the original Revell directions and not the banal “Stick here” picture ones so common these days with re-releases!

The gantry is assembled from modules starting with the base consisting of a frame with a generator set. There are 24 parts in the base and painting directions are called out.

The gantry sections are oddly assembled, but the reason for this is that the original model had them alternate between white and red so painting was minimalized. Here you have to watch out closely to track the colors required. The entire assembly is supported by two lifting arms (parts 41 and 48) and if properly assembled the gantry will fold down to move back from the missile.

There are four sets of working platforms that fold up as well and care must be taken when assembling them so they also fold. Four small non-rolling trucks are used to attach to the gantry to permit it to be posed either in service position (forward with platforms down) or launch position (rolled back, folded and retracted). The gantry also has an elevator that can be slid along its tracks

One figure is shown climbing the gantry and the other six have “shadow bases” (popular with model companies in the 1950s) for posing them around the launch module. A set of decals is included for the missile and gantry.

Overall this is a nice kit to re-release and one which with those of us who were excited the first time around will be appreciative to now have a reasonably priced “builder”.