Two more models are now complete, including Atlas and Thor rockets. In both cases I’ve chosen to create models of the variants of these two launchers that did something interesting – for Atlas, I created a Mercury variant which launched the first American to orbit the Earth, while for Thor, I built the Able 1 variant which carried Pioneer 1, the first satellite launched by NASA after the agency was created.

Pictured below is the Atlas Mercury rocket, sporting my new shiny silver metal shader which will be applied to the other models I’ve created to make the metal parts look more metallic. This is the most complex model so far, taking approximately 18 hours to create, and as  usual, it can be disassembled into parts, including removing the retro rockets and escape tower from the Mercury capsule.

The polygon count totals 3,200 which is more than I was hoping, but there was a lot of detail on the Atlas that was simpler to create as polygons, rather than trying to fake it with textures.

With Atlas and Thor complete, there’s Delta, the Titan family, a few Redstone variants the Saturn 1B and Saturn V left to do for the US list. I’ve dropped Polaris from the list for now because I haven’t been able to find much more than a brief mention of  a possible contribution of guidance systems to other rocket and missile projects. If I can find something more concrete, I’ll add it back later.