Saturn V Moon Rocket (1967)

Scale: 1/96
Initial Release: 1970
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

America's Saturn V -- so named because of the five massive F-1 engines in its first stage -- was the largest successful booster system ever built.  (The Soviet's N-1 may have been larger, but it failed repeatedly in test flights.)  This three-stage launch system was designed specifically to take men to the Moon, and was only the second NASA booster not originally developed as a military ICBM.  (The first was the Saturn V's predecessor, the Saturn 1B.) 

Completely assembled, the Saturn V -- including the Apollo spacecraft and escape tower -- stood 363 feet tall (110.6 meters) and weighed over 6 million pounds (2.7 million kg.)

The first Saturn V launch (Apollo IV - unmanned) took place on November 9, 1967.  The last, the launch of Skylab 1, was on May 14, 1973.  No Saturn  V rockets  have been built since.

About the Kit

This massive kit -- which stands nearly 4 feet tall -- was an unusual product for Revell.  Because of the kit's size and weight, only a select number of structural components, specifically the base, engine bells,  stage end-caps, and the Apollo spacecraft system itself, were made of injection-molded plastic.  The "skins" of each stage were made of thin polystyrene sheets that the builder folded into tubes and glued at one edge.  These "skins" had their decals pre-printed on their surfaces.

The 3rd stage shroud for the Lunar Module had a clear plastic panel so one could see the LM within.  The LM and Command modules were also released as a separate "Apollo Spacecraft" kit, and the Command and Service modules were subsequently packaged with a 1/96 scale Soyuz in 1975.

This Saturn V kit has been released several times, first in 1970, then again in 1982 as a History Makers kit and in 1994 as a Selected Subjects model.

This is a copy of the original 1970 model.