Kit: No. ISS7001
Scale: 1/144
Manufacturer: InterMountain Railway Company, P.O. Box 839, Longmont, CO 80502, phone 800-472-2530
Price: $159.95
Comments: Injection molded, 320 parts.
On December 10, 1998, Mission Commander Robert Cabana and Russian Cosmonaut/ Mission Specialist Sergei Krikalev opened the hatch between the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the first element of the International Space Station. Scheduled for completion in 2004, the finished station will have more than 460 tons of components orbiting the earth at approximately 17,500 miles per hour.
Not surprisingly, InterMountain Railway Company is primarily known as a manufacturer of model railroad kits. The company's International Space Station is available in several versions, from a $1,500 assembled museum-quality model, to the 320-part kit shown here. A display stand (No. ISS8001, $29.95) is also available.
All of the kit's components are painted and decaled; they arrive packaged in more than 20 numbered plastic bags. Many of the station's parts are similar, and none of them have molded-in numbers. To help keep things straight, the instructions include a book with detailed drawings that identify the parts in each bag. After I located each part, I numbered it using a fine-tip permanent marker - usually on an inside surface that wouldn't show on the finished model.
Step-by-step written instructions lead you through the model's construction, aided by a separate set of exploded-view drawings, a parts list, and the part-identification drawings. You begin by assembling 36 individual modules, then combine them to build the station.
Initially I was put off by the thought of a predecorated model, but a close look at the parts changed my mind. All of the parts are nicely molded and flash free. Everything fit together beautifully, and I had to pull out my sanding sticks and files only a few times. After a little test fitting, I assembled the model with gap-filling super glue.
The kit's decals are nicely printed and applied. They look a little shiny on the flat-white modules, though, so I'll probably add a coat of clear flat to even things out.
Although this kit has more than 300 parts, it was easy to build thanks to the beautifully molded parts. I put mine together over a long weekend. Even in 1/144 scale, the finished model is big - 30" x 22" x 15". I'd highly recommend buying the optional display stand. Beginning modelers with a few kits under their belts will be able to add InterMountain's ISS to their spacecraft collections.
- Matthew Usher