SM-65D Atlas

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Today I was able to take a few pictures of the first Atlas launcher, which was completed yesterday. Well, it is not easy to take pictures of such a decidedly upright rocket!
This project is a by-product of the Atlas-Mercury, which I was mainly interested in, but it turned out to be quite impressive - Horizon Models did everything to show an Atlas built as detailed as possible.

Naram
very nice picture what is the size of those model. must be huge no?

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thank you Pierre! Well, it measures a round 34cm from crown to sole.

Neuling
Good idea to add a figure for showing the huge size of the missile. Well done build!

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Your words are appreciat, mate, thank you indeed!

Naram
Btw very nice metal finish

Ben M
What a beautiful result.

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thank you very much, Pierre and Ben- very motivating and appreciated!

Juergen Klinglhuber
WoW. Very impressing Roland ! 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thanks Jürgen! Last weekend the two Atlas didn't make it to the "Euromodels" in Ried in time - it's nice that I can show them here! 🙂

Skyhiker
This is really impressive. What paints did you use for the modulation?

Thomas Haberl - (TH SCALE MODELS)
ist zwar garnicht meine Welt, aber sieh sehr gut aus. Gratuliere 👍

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thank you both very much!DThe The metal surfaces were applied in a few spray passes with different metal colours from Alclad. The main colours used were "White Aluminum", "Aluminum", "Dark Aluminum" and "Polished Aluminum" as well as "High Speed Aluminum". Lots of aluminium, it seems! 🙂
Thomas, thank you for your words - I am very interested in civil space travel, but it was the models from "Horizon Models" that made me decide to build a few models.
Thomas, danke für Deine Worte- ich bin zwar an der zivilen Raumfahrt sehr interessiert, trotzdem haben mich erst die Modelle von "Horizon Models" dazu gebracht, auch ein paar Modelle dazu zu bauen.

John
If you're interested, here are a couple of videos of the first operational Atlas ICBM sites (outside of Vandenberg) north of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The drone video is site 564A/B and the ground film is of site 565A. I find these sites fascinating, both for their representation as early artifacts of the nascent ICBM program, but also for their isolated setting on a windswept prairie. Must have been strange and nerve-wracking duty knowing the reliability issues with the missile as well as being at a "soft" nuclear target!

Youtube Video

Youtube Video

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thanks for these links—I watched the clips, and they show a highly distinctive atmosphere and a windswept landscape that I have never seen before—very impressive!

Ben M
I used to fly high power rockets from an Atlas site outside Briggsdale Colorado. The site has since been bulldozed. It was a great spot because we could use the concrete pads to launch from and avoid grass fires. Out there on the plains the wind spreads flames very fast.

North of Cheyenne the Quebec-01 ICBM launch control site is now a museum, you can go down inside the facility and see what it was like to be sealed under the ground waiting for the orders to launch.

Roland Sachsenhofer Auteur
Thanks for the information and experiences, it must have been very impressive!