MIM-14 Nike Hercules
The missile with its main wings and boosters. These fit reasonably well, if you’re careful putting them together.
However, the main fins leave a big gap 🙁
Connecting piece between missile and boosters, again with fairly big gaps between some parts. It’s also difficult to put together because there are almost no usable locating pins coupled to loose fit.
Missile launch rail, showing the kind of seam that’s typical for all the large parts that make up the launcher.
Putty, putty, and more putty on other parts for the launcher. Well, putty, filing, and sanding, and I suspect you’ll still see seams after painting.
Trying to get the chassis square. You need to clamp it front and back, else it will come apart at one end or the other. The rear crossbeam (on the left in the picture) is not glued here, but the others are.
With the clamps on, the whole chassis was skewed to the right (towards the bottom of the picture here). I had to push it to the left quite forcefully (and several times) to get it reasonably square. This photo is from after the whole thing dried overnight, and as you can see, it’s still only just about square.
The two main elevating arms needed a LOT of putty to get rid of the seams. This is after two layers of putty (filing and sanding after each), then Mr. Surfacer to check if the seam was still visible, then a third layer of putty. I don’t care anymore at this point if perhaps the seam is still visible — I’m done with these parts 🙁
Just for kicks, a close-up of a typical part as you find it on the sprues. That seam line and soft detail are not what I expect in a 2020s kit — the whole kit reminds me very much of 1980s Italeri, if I’m honest.
The chassis with the elevating mechanism. I only put this together because I had assembled the elevating arms and their crosspieces, but you have to make sure they line up with the chassis. The rear crossbeam is still loose, as are the shorter longitudinal ones and the round bits between them at the rear (on the right of the photo). Without the clamp, everything would come apart — it was rather tricky to get the parts into place at all, especially because the glue on the elevating arm is still wet.
Cover on curved part of launcher erecting beam replaced by some plastic card, because that’s easier than trying to fill the seam on it. Bolt heads added to both covers on the beam (but hard to see on the round one, because the picture is a little over-exposed).
The gaps at the back of the chassis when the parts are assembled without any glue. After taking the photo, I filed down the main trunnions (the round bits on either side of the launcher erecting beam), which helped but didn’t eliminate the gaps.
All the main launcher parts fitted together, now with glue. The parts intended to be moveable still are, but I’ll glue those later on when the details have been added.
Upper side of launching-handling rail, with a bit of thin plastic card covering the part that will be visible once the missile is on the rails.
Underside of the rail, covered in thin plastic card to get rid of the huge seam down the centre of it.
Launcher (almost) fully assembled, with the launching-handling rail still loose. The tread plates over the hydraulic pistons will be added after painting.
Missile and booster fully assembled. I filled the huge gaps on the front of the booster assembly, losing some rivet detail in doing so. But better no rivets than wide gaps.
Most of what you get in the kit assembled, still loose as above, for painting. I’m not going to build the reloading rails that stick out of the sided of the launcher because I won’t put it onto a scenic base, which leaves those rails very vulnerable.
Everything sprayed in basic colours: Mr Aqueous Olive Drab (2) for the launcher and rail, Olive Drab (1) for the rocket boosters, and GW Corax White (actually a light grey) from an aerosol for the missile.
Finally got round to spraying lighter areas on all bits, followed by a dark wash over the olive drab parts and painting the panel lines grey on the missile, then drybrushing everything with a lighter shade.
Finished model, with an unpainted figure for size.
For another idea of size, here’s the Nike together with a Trumpeter S-75 Dvina that I built when that kit was new, about twenty years ago.
Komentáre
8 1 March, 15:32
JohnNice build log. I was thinking of this kit since I actually live near one of the decommissioned batteries but it's not a must have and the poor fit is kind of a deal breaker for me. Hey, if you build five more and connect them, you can have your own battery!
7 March, 21:54
Jakko Thanks 🙂 It's not a kit I would recommend unless you like ones that need a good deal of work. The missile is much better than the launcher, though — except for the gaps around the main fins. On the whole it seems pretty accurate, just not that well-designed or -moulded. It is also lacking all of the hydraulic and electrical lines, as well as other minor detail, but I didn't feel like adding any of that. Those who want to, I will refer to ed-thelen.org/#NumDoc which has a whole bunch of technical manuals on the Nike Hercules (and Ajax); TM9-1400-250-10/2 has good drawings of all kinds of stuff. Also, the kit gives you a non-nuclear missile. To make it nuclear, you need to scratchbuild a probe with four vanes on the nose (or the protective cap for it).
As for the battery, the kit's instructions actually mention you can put four launchers together. After having built just the one, I don't want to make a second, let alone any more than that … Though I would have been lucky with this one if I did, because Dutch batteries (which this missile will be marked as) had only three launchers each 🙂
8 March, 10:14
Album info
The Freedom Model Kits kit of this missile. I'm building it on here so you don't have to do that for real 😉
