I have built a model of the Mercury Redstone rocket at the 1/48 scale. Having already two rockets with this scale (Soyuz and Titan II - Gemini), I expected to get a range of manned launchers at the same scale. So far three launchers have been built at the scale 1/48
For the launcher itself, I was using the Glencoe Jupiter C / Explorer 1 rocket that I converted into a redstone. I have then added a few centimeters for the extra lenght of the redstone booster compare to Jupiter C. This was done by adding a cardboard cylinder, make sure to fill all imperfections and holes using plaster and sand paper, then painting the model with wood finishing coating. However prior to add the coating there was also a need to add extra details such as the access doors and the antennas.
For the Mercury spacecraft I was using the Monogram 1/48 mercury. Since I wanted to use this model to build a Mercury Atlas booster I decided to build a "copy" of the spacecraft using resin casting. The Mercury capsule was then made of polyester inclusion resin.
For details I was using some of the following information :
Other people have already tried to convert the Glencoe Jupiter C into a Mercury Redstone and two interesting articles have been written on this subject:
These articles propose to use two kits of the Jupiter C rocket but this is not the only option, one is to scratchbuild the instrument section as I did with my model and the other is to use a conversion kit. One is available from New Ware
The model has been completed on January 1st, 2000. Here are the various steps between the Jupiter C and its final conversion into the Mercury Redstone 8 booster of the Mercury 4 mission (Liberty Bell 7).