Non-railway modelling

[50A55B]

Is that one of those ‘unbuildable’ Airfix 1/48 Buccaneers?

[railroadbill]

On 08/02/2020 at 12:56, Darius43 said:

I remember that diorama, built by the late great Shep Paine.  It had a crewman sitting on a box beside the aircraft looking at a bullet hole in his helmet.

 

Shep Paine B17 diorama

 

I have the Monogram B17 kit in the stash - intending to build it as an RAF Coastal Command aircraft.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

The Shep Paine web page you linked to is very interesting.  I can remember Shep Paine and his dioramas from quite while ago (the web page is dated 1975).  The Monogram  B-17 in 1:48th scale was, I think,  an unusually large model back in the day, although there's a 1;32nd Lancaster kit now...

One thing that struck me about the diorama is that it says the aircraft has an authentic colour scheme for the period but has fictitious markings, so there's a modelling thought, create  plausible and typical  but not actual markings for an aircraft model.

 

While on dioramas, the backgrounds you use for photographing your excellent series of models are very effective imho, Darius.   Enough detail to suggest a hanger wall and tarmac without distracting attention from the model.

 

 

[Barry Ten]

The story behind my own Monogram B-17 was that I had some pocket money and my dad had agreed to pick up a Monogram B-52 kit from a model shop in Swansea, near where he worked. I'd seen the B-52 and really wanted it, so was a bit nonplussed when my dad came home with the B-17 instead! Once I got the box open and looked at the Shep Paine book and the quality of the parts, though, I forgot all about the B-52. I don't think my dad made a mistake, I think he just preferred the B-17.

[Darius43]

On 08/02/2020 at 21:39, 50A55B said:

Is that one of those ‘unbuildable’ Airfix 1/48 Buccaneers?

Alas no one told me they were unbuildable so I went and built a couple of them.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[50A55B]

19 hours ago, Darius43 said:

Alas no one told me they were unbuildable so I went and built a couple of them.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Glad to hear it, I’ve got four in the stash, I’m contemplating starting the first one soon.

[railroadbill]

 

Airfix 1:72nd Harvard. I built this prob. mid 1980s.  It's been sitting on a shelf over the layout for years.  However, I'd never fitted the air scoop that's just behind the engine cowling.  Very recently I came across the sprue with the scoop on it in a box of bits and pieces. Scoop now painted and fitted,  so finally finished after 35 years or so... made a new tail wheel as well.

 

 

 

 

Prototype: 1943 Noorduyn built AT-16 Harvard IIB C/N 14A-1415       One of 3 still flown by RAF in early 1980s (at Boscombe Down as part of test flying i believe).  RAF serial FT375.

It now flies in Italy as I-BWUL

Edited February 12, 2020 by railroadbill

[Barry Ten]

Angel Interceptor:

 

[Barry Ten]

Fireflash:

 

 

[railroadbill]

On 22/02/2020 at 11:46, Barry Ten said:

Fireflash:

 

 

 

 

F.A.B!

Edited February 23, 2020 by railroadbill

[Rugd1022]

On 22/02/2020 at 11:44, Barry Ten said:

Angel Interceptor:

 

 

The old Airfix kit Barry...?

 

Just came across this rather cute paper kit of the 'UFO' SHADO Interceptor elsewhere, about a tenner on ebay apparently....!

 

 

[Barry Ten]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

The old Airfix kit Barry...?

 

Just came across this rather cute paper kit of the 'UFO' SHADO Interceptor elsewhere, about a tenner on ebay apparently....!

 

 

 

 

Yes, Airfix reissued the Angel kit about ten years ago I think - the moulding are a bit duff in places but it has a good decal sheet. I started

my Angel the day Gerry Anderson died but only finished it last week.  The Fireflash is an Aoshima 1/350th kit.

 

That SHADO interceptor looks very nice, pretty convincing for a paper kit. Not sure I'd have the skills to build it so neatly.

[Rugd1022]

1 minute ago, Barry Ten said:

 

Yes, Airfix reissued the Angel kit about ten years ago I think - the moulding are a bit duff in places but it has a good decal sheet. I started

my Angel the day Gerry Anderson died but only finished it last week.  The Fireflash is an Aoshima 1/350th kit.

 

That SHADO interceptor looks very nice, pretty convincing for a paper kit. Not sure I'd have the skills to build it so neatly.

 

'A sharp scalpel and patience is required' according to the description I found! 

 

I wish someone did a large scale model of the Angel Interceptor, wouldn't mind some larger models of any of the Gerry Anderson stuff come to think of it.

[Barry Ten]

26 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

'A sharp scalpel and patience is required' according to the description I found! 

 

I wish someone did a large scale model of the Angel Interceptor, wouldn't mind some larger models of any of the Gerry Anderson stuff come to think of it.

 

I seem to remember reading that the Airfix one is a bit small if it's  meant to be 1/72nd scale.

 

There seem to have been a bewildering variety of different kits in different scales and media for the Anderson craft, but many of them expensive and/or hard to come by. There's been a large resin kit for the SHADO interceptor and I know of three different kits for the Zero-X, as well as a die-cast model and a radio-control toy.

[Rugd1022]

Some of the studios models were quite big...… just in the mood to watch it again now..... 

 

 

[Barry Ten]

Not sure if I posted this before, but this is a half-scale model of the 48" studio model Eagle:

 

 

This will only just fit in my modelling cabinet so plenty big enough for me! It's scaled precisely from the studio model so includes correct features like tiny Airfix Apollo lunar module parts used for detailing, as well as correctly "incorrect" features like the lack of any plausible gangway connection between the nose module and the rest of the Eagle.

 

Still a fine looking spaceship in my view.

[Phil Parker]

Spotted at the London Toy Fair:

 

 

£2500. 100 made. 100 sold. I'd have one (if I could afford it and had the space). Best looking space ship ever...

[Barry Ten]

You've got me looking at their website, Phil... some very tasty models there.

[Fat Controller]

On 10/02/2020 at 23:34, Barry Ten said:

The story behind my own Monogram B-17 was that I had some pocket money and my dad had agreed to pick up a Monogram B-52 kit from a model shop in Swansea, near where he worked. I'd seen the B-52 and really wanted it, so was a bit nonplussed when my dad came home with the B-17 instead! Once I got the box open and looked at the Shep Paine book and the quality of the parts, though, I forgot all about the B-52. I don't think my dad made a mistake, I think he just preferred the B-17.

Redana's Model Shop, perhaps? Essential visiting on Saturday afternoons, along with 'Atkinson's Sports' in the arcade next door.

[Barry Ten]

53 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Redana's Model Shop, perhaps? Essential visiting on Saturday afternoons, along with 'Atkinson's Sports' in the arcade next door.

 

Too long ago to remember, alas.

[railroadbill]

 

Following on from Thunderbirds and re the Gerry Anderson shows,  got this dvd fairly recently. (It was £3.38 on Amazon).

It's a 2014 documentary where some of the original production teams are reunited and recreate  some scenes to show how it was done.  Some archive interviews with Gerry Anderson  as well, explaining the rise and fall of their company with TV puppetry children's shows.  His stories of meetings and negotiations with Lew Grade are very entertaining. 

It covers everything from Torchy the Battery Boy to the rather regrettable Secret Service with Stanley Unwin. Gerry Anderson's account of Lew Grade's reaction (it wasn't exactly positive!)  to seeing the first episode of Secret Service is a good story, although that was to be the end of it.

 

Anyway, the majority of the film covers the models, puppetry and special effects. One point made was that the puppets became better proportioned  as new shows were developed, head/body proportions were better on Captain Scarlet than Thunderbirds for instance, but that made them more difficult for the puppeteers to operate. 

Also aircraft, veihicles and so on had markings like warning signs or entrance/exit markings added and were weathered to make them look as if they were actually operational, and the point was made that special effects models in feature films or certainly TV at the time didn't bother with the amount of detail that Thunderbirds had applied.

 

Some clips from this are on youtube.  

 

One thing I learned is that in  "Four Feather Falls"  Tex the cowboy was voiced by..... Nicholas Parsons!

 

F.A.B  Virgil.

Edited February 26, 2020 by railroadbill

[Barry Ten]

One thing I learned recently is that the James Bond theme guitar and the Joe 90 theme were both played by Vic Flick. 

[railroadbill]

And the theme to Juke Box Jury.  (And Crossroads, but perhaps that's one to hide..)  Just looked up his biography and Vic claims that he was paid £7 10s for playing the Bond theme...

[railroadbill]

 

Rugd1022 posted a pic of a card model SHADO interceptor, so while we're on the subject of card science fiction models, here's my card built robot.  It's 15" tall.

 

It's the robot from "The Last Mechanical Monster" a web comic by  American cartoonist Brian Fies.  The plot is that in 1942 or so a brilliant but evil scientist has released his hoard of destructive robots on an unsuspecting world. He is of course defeated and sent to prison. Many years later, a parole board decides to release him.  He is now 99 years old.  He finds himself in a bewildering world where everything has changed.  There is now the internet, for instance.  And credit cards.   But the snag is, he is still bent on world domination....

 

His nemesis turns  out to be a librarian, her friend a woman who runs a vintage radio repair shop, and also a bus driver.  Fies took a  rather worn vintage sci-fi trope and made it into an investigation of what it means to be old, looking back at what you used to be able to do when young.

 

I got really hung up on this a couple of years ago and at the end of the run Brian Fies  produced a web page as the last installment of the story with the parts of the robot to be printed out, cut out and assembled. So I just had to make it. He'd designed the robot with lots of straight lines so he could draw it consistently each episode.  

 

Here it is.

 

[Northmoor]

On 12/02/2020 at 12:56, railroadbill said:

 

Airfix 1:72nd Harvard. I built this prob. mid 1980s.  It's been sitting on a shelf over the layout for years.  However, I'd never fitted the air scoop that's just behind the engine cowling.  Very recently I came across the sprue with the scoop on it in a box of bits and pieces. Scoop now painted and fitted,  so finally finished after 35 years or so... made a new tail wheel as well.

 

 

 

 

Prototype: 1943 Noorduyn built AT-16 Harvard IIB C/N 14A-1415       One of 3 still flown by RAF in early 1980s (at Boscombe Down as part of test flying i believe).  RAF serial FT375.

It now flies in Italy as I-BWUL

They were still flying a Harvard at Boscombe until at least about 2012; I was involved in helicopter flight trials there until 2014 and can remember hearing if not seeing it (very distinctive sound).

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

52 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

They were still flying a Harvard at Boscombe until at least about 2012; I was involved in helicopter flight trials there until 2014 and can remember hearing if not seeing it (very distinctive sound).

 

2016 apparently: 

It was certainly the oldest aircraft in British military service at that point (discounting stuff like the Battle of Britain flight).