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Mercury & Gemini Collection
Mercury & Gemini Collection
FREE INSTRUCTIONS!
This is a digital download and NOT a physical product!
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Build and launch your own historical collection of crewed rockets from the Mercury and Gemini programs!
Standing 23-30 cm (9-12 in) tall, these models are 1:110 scale (the same scale as the LEGO® Saturn V set) recreations of the first three American crewed rockets: Mercury-Redstone LV, Mercury-Atlas LV-3B and Titan II GLV (Gemini Launch Vehicle). Despite their small size, they manage to capture the details and proportions of these three historical rockets in a very scale-accurate design. In total, the three rockets consist of 460 pieces, at an affordable price of around $50. The bricks are bought separately following the "How to buy the bricks" section below.
The digital building instructions you'll receive for free are high-quality and easy to follow, even for less experienced builders.
The models feature:
- Accurate staging in all three rockets, with the Mercury-Atlas featuring an accurate stage-and-a-half separation.
- Easily detachable spacecraft capsules on all three rockets, with the Titan II GLV featuring a custom-built Gemini capsule and service model.
- Sturdy and detailed constructions, with a high attention to detail.
Learn more about the Mercury and Gemini programs
Project Mercury and Gemini were the first two US crewed space programs during the space race, and laid the groundwork for the Apollo program. Project Mercury (1958-1963) succeeded with launching the first American into space, Alan Shepard, on Mercury-Redstone 3 in 1961, and later the first American into orbit on the more powerful Mercury-Atlas 6 carrying John Glenn in 1962. Project Mercury launched 6 crewed flights and was followed by Project Gemini (1961-1966). The two-manned crew launched on the Titan II GLV (Gemini Launch Vehicle) with the objective to test and perfect the methods that would later be used in the Apollo program. These included, among other things, the first American spacewalk, conducted by Ed White on Gemini 4 in 1965 as well as rendezvous and docking with an unmanned spacecraft on orbit with Gemini 8 by Neil Armstrong and David Scott in 1966. Of the 12 flights under Project Gemini, 10 were crewed.
Thank you for checking out my Mercury & Gemini Collection and if you are considering buying the instructions I am especially grateful to you for supporting my work and directly enabling me to continue producing more designs in the future!
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Product specifications
The entire collection contains 460 pieces, costing approximately $50, while each variant contains 68-223 pieces, costing approximately $5-25 (prices on Bricklink vary depending on region and current parts availability), see the buying guide in the section below.
Dimensions:
31 cm x 13 cm x 5 cm
12 in x 5 in x 2 in
Internal colors:
The model includes internal colors which aren't visible when the model is completed. Replacing these reduces the piece price, but can make the building process more confusing, especially if you aren't an experienced MOC builder.
These following colors can all be replaced by "Any color" when exporting the pieces to Bricklink: blue, reddish brown and tan.
Variants
This product comes in four different variants, which you'll all have access to with the single purchase. Use these explanations to determine which instructions to use and parts you need to buy to build your desired variant:
1. Mercury & Gemini Collection [460 pcs] - builds all three included rockets.
2. Mercury-Redstone LV [68 pcs] - builds the Mercury-Redstone LV, that carried the first American into space.
3. Mercury-Atlas LV-3B [169 pcs] - builds the Mercury-Atlas LV-3B, that carried the first American into orbit.
4. Titan II GLV [223 pcs] - builds the Titan II GLV, that carried the first two-manned American crew into space.
How to buy the bricks
I recommend buying the bricks required for the model from Bricklink.com, which is the largest online marketplace for LEGO® parts sellers.
There are other alternatives, like the official LEGO® Pick a Brick site, but they rarely have all the required pieces and it's often more expensive there.
The process to buy from Bricklink is easier than it seems, and is explained thoroughly in this step-by-step guide to help you:
- After buying the product, you need to download the folder named "Part lists" and unzip it.
- Choose the part list(s) you want to buy using the guide in the "Variants" tab below.
- Next go to Bricklink.com and log in or create an account (it's very easy to set up).
- Click on the "Want" tab in the top right corner and "Create New List".
- Once you've done that, click on the upload button and drag and drop the part list you want to include in the order. Then click the blue "Proceed to verify items" button.
Repeat step 5 for each part list you want to order. - [Optional step if you want to slightly reduce the part cost] In the wanted list, you can sort by colors and select all the internal pieces (described in "Product specifications" above) and click on "Color" and apply "Non applicable" since all those colors can be substituted without affecting the exterior look.
- [Optional step if you only want new pieces] Select all the pieces and change their "Condition" to "New" (needs to be repeated for each page). Note that this will lead to a higher price and the risk of some parts being unavailable. The default option gives you a price around the estimate and will include both new and used bricks.
- Next click the green "Buy All" button and then adjust the settings to your preference. For lower shipping costs, I recommend beginning by choosing your region/country first and only change it if the pieces aren't available there.
- Once that's done, click the blue "Auto-select" button, uncheck the box in the pop-up and click "Start".
- This will give you a list of stores whose orders together will include all of the pieces in your wanted list. Confirm that all the pieces are included by clicking the "Wanted Items" tab to the left and control that there aren't any pieces left there.
- If you are happy with the selection and price, click "Create carts", followed by "Checkout" for each individual store and buy the pieces!
(If you are not happy with the price or if you're missing any pieces, you can click "Remove All" and redo the auto-selection with different settings)
If you're having any issues with ordering your bricks, don't hesitate to send us a message through the "Contact us" tab in the menu and we'll do out best to help!
Change log
2024-02-12 The part lists were updated to work with the changed BrickLink part numbers and their format was changed to BSX-files to simplify the upload process to BrickLink.
The instructions have also received a visual update with new front and back covers.
Really enjoyed building the Mercury and Gemini sets. For a second, I thought I didn’t have enough parts to finish the Gemini rocket, but looks can be deceiving! Very happy to have these gracing my rocket wall, and I can’t wait to add to the collection!