Fantastic Plastic Spacecraft & Missiles Banner

Jupiter C w/Explorer 1 (1958)

Jupiter C- 1

Hawk Models Logo

SCALE: 1/48

INITIAL RELEASE: 1959

MEDIUM: Polystyrene

RARITY: (2)

 

Jupiter C- 2

 

Jupiter C- 3

Jupiter C- 4

 

Jupiter C- 5

 

 

ABOUT THE DESIGN

ABOUT THE KIT

First successfully test-fired in 1956, the Jupiter C was actually a Redstone missile (a modified Redstone) adapted for satellite-launching missions.  Based heavily on Werner von Braun's WWII-era V-2, the Jupiter C made history on January 31, 1958 when -- following the failure of the Navy's Vanguard satellite launch the previous December -- it launched Explorer 1, America's first successful orbital satellite.

This Hawk kit has been released multiple times; first in the late 1950s, again in the late 1960s (with new box art), and then in the mid-1990s by Glencoe.  This is by far the largest of all the plastic Jupiter C kits produced by the major American model manufacturers, standing more than a foot-and-a-half tall.

This particular kit was built from the 1960s reissue and was, in fact, built in the late 1960s (when I didn't know better), hence the god-awful gray paint scheme.

 

Jupiter C - Original Hawk Box Art

Jupiter C - Hawk Re-Release Box Art Jupiter C - Glencoe Box Art

Original Box Art

Re-Release Box Art

Glencoe Box Art

 

Spacecraft & Missiles

1900-1930

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Home   X-Planes   Concept Aircraft   Spacecraft & Missiles   Concept Spacecraft   Science Fiction   Grab Bag