Two related questions arose immediately: Which Gemini mission to model and how to display the finished capsule? There were twelve Gemini missions--the last ten were manned. In reviewing the literature, it seems that a lot of emphasis has been placed on Gemini VII, perhaps due to the first-ever space rendezvous (with Gemini VI-A).
I've aways thought about doing Gemini 3, the first manned Gemini flight, mainly because of the corned-beef sandwich incident. John Young smuggled a corned-beef sandwich on-b0ard and, once in orbit, both he and Gus Grissom took several bites before restowing the sandwich before floating crumbs could wreak havoc with the capsule's electronics. Both were reprimanded when they returned to Earth and all future crews were warned not to pull the same stunt. I can see Young and Grissom in their seats with a sandwich floating between them :)
That leads to the display question. I want to be able to show the added improvements and details of the kit. That means that doors would both be open and that one or both of the crew would be absent. I also want to show the detail in both the retrograde and equipment sections. So... my preliminary idea is to show the capsule in an "exploded" display with the three sections moved slightly apart from each other. Maybe a corned-beef sandwich on the center console? I won't make the final decision quite yet. I want to see how construction proceeds.
Starting with the capsule interior, the first thing that needs to be addressed are the seats. As you can see below, the Revell kit seats are rudimentary, at best. Compare that with a drawing of the actual seat:
Thankfully, the seats are addressed by the LVM Interior Detail Kit. The seats on the kit bulkhead will be cut away and the resulting hole covered by Part A. Parts B & C will be fabricated into much better seats.
That's it for this chapter. Now, where did I put that Dremel tool?
