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Space:1999 Eagle Transporter - Scratch Build


Karl

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Just a small update - I'm still working on the passenger pod.

 

Some filling after a clean up and punching down exposed nail heads and other gaps

 

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Scratch built VTOL thrusters; made in the same way as the main engine bells, basically a plastic cone with disk's and rings, built up with filler then sanded. A short length of brass pipe at the bottom of the cone finishes them off.

 

 

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For some of the small detailing parts required at the bottom of the pod I made a master part from scratch, made a simple mould from plasticine and cast them using FastGlass resin + hardener. Just mix up the resin and drip it in to the tiny moulds to keep the air bubbles down.

 

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Here are some half spheres and a part that appears to have been top of the Airfix Apollo CSM from the Saturn V kit. mine is considerably smaller so I scratch built one and cast the remainder. I needed two but cast about eight to make sure I got a couple of good ones.

 

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Karl

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still working on the passenger pod - it's a bit slow going at the moment.

 

I'm removing some of the old detailing and replacing it with some newly made parts. The door is also being removed and replaced by the one in the next picture.

 

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The new doors under construction; I'm making four - two for the pod and two for the Eagle's corridor sections.

 

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The VTOL engines were sprayed with silver.

 

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The underside of the pod. I have added some of the cast items from my previous post. The whole pod was then sprayed using Halfords white primer.

 

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After the white was dry I've made a start on the detail painting, with a bit of weathering to start with. My basic method is to use a bit of Moon dust (A.K.A. Windsor and Newton Davy's Grey pastel) and a straight edge template to simulate

panel lines where the dust is being blown backwards during atmospheric entry (I guess...) To seal it all in and tone down the grey I did another light over spray with the white again.

 

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Next I'm going to do some dirtying of the underside and then some smaller detail panels.

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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Subtle weathering. Like it.

 

According to one of the Apollo astronauts,

Moon dust just rolls around like tiny beads,

it does not puff up like we see on films.

It was on Radio 4 so it must be true.

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Just a small update in relation to the size / scale of my Eagle.

 

I've just got hold of one of the new(ish) 1/48 scale MPC / Round 2 Eagle's. I've compared the size and measured some of the components against mine and from that I'm pretty sure mine works out to be about 1/43 scale. Not a bad guess as I originally judged the scale using a man's height against one of the pod doors and scaled from that!

 

Karl

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Final update on the pod.

 

I have masked off some separate panels and painted them with light grey. The shapes are a combination of what looks good to me and a bit of research as to what others have done and the filming miniatures.

 

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The 'Alpha Moonbase' insignia were done by my son James using Photoshop and printed on thin paper. These were then glued to the sides of the pod. I also added some other random serial numbers and markings from the spare decals box. The VTOL thrusters were then glued to the underside.

 

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Next, on to the Eagle it's self...

 

Karl

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Great work Karl!

    This is one of My favourite Gerry Anderson machine (designed by Brian Johnson) and I've got many favourites!!

 

I would like to build this in studio scale (1/24, 44" ), and I am planning to do this when I retire and set up a small machine shop (Lathe and mill/drill) so that I can machine the engine bells and mill the brass tubes to form the space frame...... a few years away! :crying:

I was going to ask how You made the beak and the cargo pod, but You've answered that question already!

 

I'm sure You're aware of the Eagle Transporter Website,lots of useful info on here! :-

http://www.eagletransporter.com/

........ AnDaniel Prud'hommes superb Blueprints, I am sending for some of these soon (they are in 1/48th scale, I'll just double 'em up):-

http://pages.infinit.net/danielgp/

 

I wish You continued sucess with Your Eagle, keep posting!

....and Keep Sticking!     Cheers,   Pete

Edited by morty_3333
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 03/05/2017 at 4:55 PM, morty_3333 said:

Great work Karl!

    This is one of My favourite Gerry Anderson machine (designed by Brian Johnson) and I've got many favourites!!

 

I would like to build this in studio scale (1/24, 44" ), and I am planning to do this when I retire and set up a small machine shop (Lathe and mill/drill) so that I can machine the engine bells and mill the brass tubes to form the space frame...... a few years away! :crying:

I was going to ask how You made the beak and the cargo pod, but You've answered that question already!

 

I'm sure You're aware of the Eagle Transporter Website,lots of useful info on here! :-

http://www.eagletransporter.com/

........ AnDaniel Prud'hommes superb Blueprints, I am sending for some of these soon (they are in 1/48th scale, I'll just double 'em up):-

http://pages.infinit.net/danielgp/

 

I wish You continued sucess with Your Eagle, keep posting!

....and Keep Sticking!     Cheers,   Pete

 

Cheers morty.

 

Thanks for the links. I'm a member of the Eagle Transporter forum, although only as a lurker, lots of good ideas and information on there.

 

Good luck with your 44" build; a lathe would definitely be advisable for the engine components! Make sure you post it on here when you start!!

 

Cheers.

 

Karl

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Time to start working on the main body of the Eagle itself.

 

I've removed the old doors and end plating, bringing it back to it's MDF internals ready for the new doors and end plates. When I originally built the Eagle I made the MDF corridor sections as wide as the spinal frame thinking that the top of the spine attached to this area, when in fact it attaches to the side frame work and the corridor slides inside of the frame work. Because on my model the corridor is an integral part of the structure I can not change this without completely rebuilding the model and I don't want to do that as my structure is very robust in its current configuration so I am going to try to disguise the error.

 

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Along with the new doors I have made new end plates that have a recess down either side (these have since been made narrower from the following picture) so I can add a vertical rod down either side of the corridor to simulate the frame work as it should look. I've chiselled out a section of the MDF to create the recess. This looks much better, even hough you will only see it if the pod is removed....

 

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I'll mount the door, bars and plate work later during final assembly

 

Karl

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Moving on to the Beak.

 

The original plating on the beak was quite good, however some of the symmetry left a lot to be desired; different panel gaps all over the place! So, I made a couple of templates as best as I could and marked out and cut the panels to a more consistent shape and size. I also did a bit of filling of any old gaps.

 

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The old sensor dishes were drilled out with a big drill and countersink bit. I then filled these with P38 Cataloy and pressed a screw cap cover in to it face down to make a dome shape. The P38 won't stick to the rubbery plastic of the screw cap  so when the P38 was set I could just pull it off.

 

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I then just needed to trim the P38 whilst it was still a bit rubbery and then sand down the remainder to make it smooth.

 

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I then just need to add a small plastic disc to the centre of each sensor dish, I'll punch these out later before final assembly.

 

I still need to do some filling here and there and add some window frames for the cockpit windows and blend these in to the surface of the beak.

 

Karl

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  • 3 weeks later...

More VTOL Thrusters and detailing the walkway 'shelves'.

 

I needed to make four more VTOL thrusters for the Eagle so I used the same method as used on the pod's thrusters, just a slightly different shape. I used a new device that I added to my armoury; an OLFA circle cutter to make the disc components. Much easier than cutting them free hand with a knife.

 

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Then finished off with some car body filler and a lot of sanding.

 

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The next major part of the re-build is to remove all of the old cages, the shelf and walkway detailing and most importantly the top of the spinal frame. Originally I stuck the detail parts directly to the wooden structure with superglue so to get it removed it was literally a case of hammer and chisel (albeit a small one) and just get brutal on it. The spinal top frame was very hard to remove; I'd forgotten that I had used some bent steel rods to support the top of the spine, these being fixed in to the wooden walkways and inserted in to the top most length wise rods. When I put it back together again I'll have to do the same although I might have to adjust the steel rods to make it a better shape as I think this might be why the top frame was out of shape in the first place.

 

Hammer (and chisel) time..

 

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Before starting the detailing again, I laminated the wooden sides, top and bottom with very thin styrene sheet so I could glue the detail parts to that using normal model glue rather than CA. The side plating was attached with epoxy resin glue.

 

The shelf detailing was a combination of newly made parts and old parts that I could save that I liked. I tried to follow the plans for Eagle One loosely but ended up just making most of the detailing up as I went along rather than sticking to a fixed plan.

 

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Finally a long shot of my work bench, AKA the kitchen table - all getting a bit messy by this point and in need of a good tidy up.

 

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A big thank you to my wife for putting up with all of the mess I create and for letting me keep my toolboxes in the kitchen - Thank you my love.

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

I've completed rebuilding the cages. (NB: Please note I've edited this post quite heavily due to an error on my part regarding the detailing I had done on the upper surface; I got it completely wrong and will have to re do it again)

 

The remaining parts of the frame work for the cages was then added. The original issue that I couldn't really correct (only disguise) of the walkways being the wrong shape and size reared it's head as I tried to close the frames up. Unfortunately I had to ad lib it a bit and make it up as I went along. It's quite close, however some areas have ended up being double up, plus a slight misshape towards the top of the cage. Still looks a million times better than before, and you'll only see this area when the pod is detached.

 

OR, if build a cargo pod......

 

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Karl

Edited by Karl
I've edited this post quite heavily due to an error on my part regarding the detailing I had done on the upper surface; I got it completely wrong and will have to re do it again
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  • 2 weeks later...

After the initial issues I had with the upper walkway surface details, I had another go. This time I used a combination of sources for information and my own imagination.

 

The front walkway is loosely based on the Davis Sissons restoration of the 44inch Eagle One model. The rear is based on some imagination and an old black and white picture. most parts are out of the spares box or scratch built or cast using resin and car body filler.

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Next comes the job of cleaning up and modernising the leg pods.

 

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I've removed the detail on the upper surface and sanded all of the surfaces back to primer or plastic, filling and repairing where necessary. I have also added a new plate to the top of the leg pods so I'm not detailing directly on to the wood. The top plates are installed slightly oversized and then filed and sanded back to match the angle of the leg pod sides.

 

34892320823_ea33e64ea9_o.jpg

 

Karl

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  • 2 weeks later...

On to the next major part of the reconstruction - the spinal frame.

 

In an attempt to get this one nice and straight I made a rudimentary jig from cardboard, taking the dimensions from a blueprint drawing in the old Sci-fi and Fantasy model magazine that I scaled up to the correct size and printed it on paper.

 

I also made a very basic mitre block that would enable me to cut various lengths of tube and pipe a bit easier. The mitre is made from thick sheet plastic and filled with resin and car body filler slush mix to give it some weight.

 

It was then a fairly simple process of cutting all of the lengths or rod and tube and assembling them in the jig. The cross members were cut and then a curve sanded on the inside ends to match the profile of the tube I was gluing them to. Using this method gives a strong bond and minimal filling to do.

 

Jig:

 

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The mitre:

 

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The completed top of the space frame. I left a little gap at the end of the jig intentionally.

 

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Karl

 

Edited by Karl
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The lower spinal frame details are now just about complete.

 

To simulate the frame detail along the steel rod, I wrapped and superglued very thin plastic sheet cut to the length of the tube work on the frame. Due to the steel being quite thick it's a bit oversize but it looks better than just a plain rod.

Could be a heavy duty Eagle...

 

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Karl

 

Edited by Karl
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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm back from my summer holidays and work has continued on the Eagle!

 

I have completed the spinal frame work using Evergreen plastic rod and tube of various diameters. I used cardboard templates to space the top and bottom assemblies at the correct position from each other. I then started cutting and gluing the upright sections in enough places to keep the upper frame in place so I could remove the cardboard. I then completed the uprights and then the diagonal rods using the Evergreen.

 

The upper spine is a lot straighter than the previous incarnation!

 

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I have then given the whole assembly several coats of Halfords Filler Primer. This highlighted some areas that needed a bit more conventional filler.

 

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And all that remains of the old spine frame; I think I'm going to keep it...

 

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Karl

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  • 3 weeks later...

Time for more paint!!

 

After the filler / primer coat it was time to get the beast to it's final white colour.

 

First came a coat of grey primer. this also highlighted some more imperfections - I'll never get them all:

 

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Then White. All coloures are Halfords aerosol spray paints; these are just superb and cover brilliantly.

 

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After it was all dry, I did a bit more reserch in to panel lines on the shoulder pods and the Eagle as a whole. I cut out some cardboard templates and used them to help apply the panel lines as had shown up on my reserch. That, along with some pre-shading using dark grey chalk pastels to give a bit of depth. The panel lines are applied with 0.3mm pencil.

 

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The shading and panel lines were seald in using Halford matt clear lacquer. I still need to paint in some more details in blue/grey and grey.

 

Karl

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a bit of a desaster during the pannel lining. Trying to remove the pencil line just went from bad to worse! In the end I had to sand it back to the primer and mask all the rest off and then spray the white again.

 

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Doesn't look like much, but this masking took ages. I tried to paint the bands and stripes freehand but it was too much and I had to mask (nearly) it all up.

 

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Karl
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