Apollo- Soyuz, as I lived it a half century ago EPILOGUE

 

I've always felt that the second best thing to come out of ASTP, next to Deke Slayton finally getting to fly in space, was the Revell 1:96 scale Apollo - Soyuz model kit.

As best I can recall these models began showing up on the stores in late June of 1975. I do not remember when I purchased mine. Normally, I'd pick up plastic models when the Michigan weather got so bad that I couldn't fly my balsa and paper tube model rockets any longer. I may also have gotten my original Apollo-Soyuz kit as late as 1976.

The kit seen here I picked up on e-bay in June 2025 for just $12. You can tell it's a 1975 original because the box has no UPC. The box was open, thus the lower price. The Apollo CM's apex was missing from the kit, but I had an extra Revell 1:96 CM on hand, and that's what you see in the lead picture.

Garnished with some remarkable artwork, the kit's box seemed to tell us exactly how to paint the Soyuz as well as the Docking Module (DM). During the mission, however, our only views of the actual vehicle were by way of fuzzy, washed-out TV sent down by the Apollo crew. The actual clear photos of the the Soyuz would not come to the public until months after the mission.

Of course the kit's instructions tell you to paint Soyuz very much like the mock-up displayed in Russia and not the way it looks on the box cover.

In the kit itself, the Apollo is the same basic Block 1 that was released back in 1967. However, there are a few minor changes. The aft Service Module (SM) bulkhead was updated to a more accurate configuration from the 1967 version. Additionally, the S-Band antenna was made far larger. Finally, there is no way to lock the CSM to the DM. In the original Apollo on the Moon model there was a small hook in the apex tunnel of the CM and a notch in the APS of the LM. That way you could put the two together, twist slightly and they would remain coupled. No such luck with the ASTP model. Personally, I solved the issue by using two small rare-earth magnets glued in place with some E6000. Other folks have used a dowel, which IMO is way more clumsy than the big nose Revell placed on the Soyuz.

True coolness of the kit resides in the Soyuz and the DM. Both are easy to assemble. 

Personally, I departed from the painting instructions in a major way here. They call for the DM to be painted black. And many of the NASA display models of the era show it as being flat black. But a study of the on-orbit photos do not show it as being black (compare it here to the SM's engine bell skirt, which actually is black). So, I went with Testor's 1181 Aluminum for the DM. You can argue about it, but the DM burned up in the Earth's atmosphere a half century ago... so the point is moot.

I used 1171 Flat Bright Green on the Soyuz. I also added some crumpled foil on the aft of the Soyuz IM skirt and behind the skirt I added four little balsa wood squares covered in painted crinkled foil to better represent the on-orbit photos. One of these days I'm gonna foil and paint that IM's mid-band, but I didn't get around to it while writing this. I also departed from the instructions by not painting the solar panels dark blue (just be be rebellious I guess).

The kit's decals, however, were so old they were unusable.

The instructions are written both in English and in Russian... as if someone in the Soviet Union was gonna buy one of these models in the late 1970s. 

My original 1975 Soyuz. All that's left of my kit from a half century ago.

For all I know, it was probably against the law for a Soviet citizen to actually own a Soyuz model in those days. Imagine, getting sentenced to work in the salt mines for building a 1:96 Revell Soyuz.

BACK STORY...

When I was shopping e-bay for this kit I found the one seen here up for auction- so I bid $12. Then I saw another one, still factory wrapped for $35 on a Buy It Now. Figuring I'd never win the auction, I bought that kit outright. Three days later, I got the message that I'd won the bid! Thus I ended up with 2 ASTP kits. What to do? Well, I have a close friend who is a big time collector of  Great Lakes items and also model kits. So, I shipped the factory wrapped kit to him and said "Happy ASTP 50th anniversary."

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