If I had to choose my all
time favourite sci-fi spacecraft, and I can't imagine
ever being forced at gunpoint to divulge such trivial
information, but if I were, the choice would be easy.
It would be, without a doubt, the Eagle from Space 1999.
You can keep your Flash Gordon tin toy spaceships, Enterprises,
Death Stars, and shiny hubcaps dangling on strings. To
me, the Eagle was the Coupe de Ville of futuristic off-world
transportation. Take one Sikorsky Skycrane, blend in a
healthy dose of lunar module, add a dash of Harrier and
you've got an Eagle; plausibly functional and versatile
but smacking of über-coolness.
Lasting just two seasons from 1975-76, Gerry Anderson's
second live action outing was a must-see program for an
impressionable wee lad such as myself. I was too young
to catch any of the "Super Marionation" shows
he was so well known for in the sixties and I couldn't
get into them in later years; the puppets were just too
silly and the models too toy-like for me. I vaguely recall
watching episodes of "UFO" in the early seventies,
but I was too young to understand or fully appreciate
it (especially the fuchsia haired Lt. Gay Ellis in that
skin tight sparkly suit), though I did find the alien
antagonists to be mildly frightening and I loved the sound
the UFOs made. When Space 1999 hit the screen, I was hooked
right from the second that funky first season opening
music hit my ears. With its fantastic crash scenes, cheesy
costumes and often dodgy plotlines, I loved every minute
of it.
I splurged on this kit
6 years ago as a 40th birthday present for myself. At
the princely sum of £60.00 it was, at the time,
the most money I had ever spent on a single kit. After
all, you only turn 40 once, so you may as well make it
an even more depressing event by spending a big chunk
of cash on a kit that turns out to be about as much fun
as a trip to an abattoir with a troop of necrophobic vegetarians.
The kit consists of white
metal and resin parts varying in quality from "mildly
concerning" to "run screaming in horror".
There is a great build up of this kit by E. James Small
on Starship
Modeler and I strongly recommend to anyone
considering building a Warp Eagle to read the article
and heed his advice, especially regarding the brittle
nature of the resin. I thought he may be prone to exaggeration
as I found it difficult to believe his model actually
collapsed under its own weight, however after I snapped
one of the pod mounts off with little more pressure than
it takes to fold a piece of paper, I decided I would take
his words of wisdom seriously.
I also highly recommend reading David Sisson's article
on his restoration of an original studio model in the
Volume 9 issue of Sci-fi
& Fantasy Modeller and also on his own
website.
I followed a lot of his painting guides for the panelling
detail in various shades of grey.
I worked on the model on
and off for 6 years with it spending protracted periods
of time out of sight under the workbench, for its own
protection as well as that of my sanity. As I progressed
in the build however, it became obvious that whoever made
the masters did a superb job. Sadly, the same cannot be
said for whoever made the moulds and did the casting.
The resin parts were full of pits, bubbles, wrinkles and
general nastiness, and the white metal had all the same
features but with the added bonus of copious quantities
of flash. In many instances there was more flash than
part (see construction
page for pics - not for the faint hearted!).
The main engines and,
to a lesser extent, the lift engines underneath, took
a lot of time and effort to get them looking anywhere
near reasonable. Two of the main engines were cast in
a dark green resin and two in a poor quality tan coloured
resin, the same horrible stuff that was used on the pods.
This material was particularly awful and appeared to be
prone to shrinking, pitting and wrinkling, in addition
to the fragile nature noted earlier. The lift engines
were cast in both types of resin, along with a third pale
grey resin which was somewhere in between the two quality-wise.
Clean up started by using a scriber to remove the blobs
of resin in the grooves and any pits were carefully filled
with small amounts of a cyano/talcum powder mix. This
was tidied up with the edge of a fine file when dry. The
engines were primed with Mr. Surfacer, then turned against
400 grit sandpaper used wet to smooth the surface. This
process had to be repeated countless numbers of times
before I was happy with the finish. The four openings
in the rear of each engine bell were cast solid, so these
were drilled out for a bit more depth. When I figured
I just couldn't get them any better, a coat of gloss black
was sprayed on with the final finish being Alclad Polished
Aluminium. The combustion areas were sprayed Humbrol Matt
Black. Careful consideration was given to placement of
the engines so that the best sides faced outwards!
It may surprise you to
learn I actually would build another of these, and I am
giving serious consideration to the Eagle with the extended
laboratory pod or perhaps the freighter version. Maybe
when I hit the big five-oh I'll splurge on another one
and have it finished before I reach retirement age. If
the bastard government ever lets me retire that is.
Back
to Sci-Fi/Real Space Main
Construction