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Space:1999 Eagle Transporter - Scratch Build


Karl

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Hi chaps,

 

Hope you don't mind me posting this; this is my scratch built Eagle Transporter from Space:1999. It's been languishing in the loft since we moved house, but since getting the two recent publications from Sci-fi and Fantasy Modeller about Space:1999 my interest has been piqued. I actually started building this 17 years ago - in 1999, using whatever plans I could get hold of in books and magazines I set out to make a large scale Eagle about 1/48 scale but at approximately 24 inches I think I may be just a bit out but not too much to notice. It compares well to a 1/48 Revell Astronaut.

 

I wanted it to be a strong structure so basic construction is wood boxes for the walkways and leg-pods, passenger pod and beak frame work. The space frame's major load bearing structure is made from steel rods cross drilled and pinned to the wooden walkway blocks. The remainder of the shape and detail was made from plasticard, sprue and resin castings and parts from the scrap box. I painted it white and a few details and then it all stalled for some reason and I never finished it to my satisfaction.

 

Well, after I finish my current LEM build I think I'm going to bite the bullet and finish this off once and for all. Looking at the model close up after 17  years of extra knowledge and experience shows up tons of defects that I would never allow to happen now. I'll have to re-do quite a number of things I'm not satisfied with. One of the most noticeable to me immediately was the fact the upper (non-loadbearing) part of the space frame is totally warped like some heat warped railway tracks. This will have to come off - fortunately it wont affect the strength of the structure. I need to clean up the rest of the cages and think of a new way to build the main engine bells as the shape is quite off. I suspect that there are going to be areas that I'll find are wrong and won't be able to correct without a near total re-build and I don't want to do that.

 

So, a WIP that goes straight on to hold - I just wanted to put it out there as I'm a bit excited by the prospect of finishing this off!!!

 

To pictures...

 

Wobbly space frame...

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Passenger pod

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Karl

 

Edited by Karl
Photobucket...
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wow - 17 years old and very unique. I've got a great admiration for scratch builders and this model really makes a difference. I've seen scratch builds of Blakes 7's Liberator and similar cult sci-fi vehicles, this Eagle is a welcome new addition to the batch and I will enjoy watching this come back to life and the Launchpad once you can get back on the job.

 

lovely work;)

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  • 4 months later...

Right, now the Lunar module is complete, it's time to bring this project forward and move on with this rather different Eagle..

 

As previously noted, there are quite a few issues with this old build regarding the shape and detail in some areas. The first major problem I have is with the main motor; the engine bells at the rear of the ship. When I originally built them I only ever intended them to be a sort of place holder until I could come up with a way of making them look better.

 

Ideally, If I had a lathe I could probably turn something in wood or aluminium, however I don't and I can't turn anyway. My current idea is to make one engine bell using the existing engine cone as the basis and build up the 'bell' shape using formers and ribs and then car body filler. This was how the 'beak' of the ship was originally made so I know the method is sound. Then depending on what a pain that is to do I can either make another five using this 'direct build' method OR I can try something new and mould the one bell and then use a slush cast of car body filler and resin to do the rest. Ideally I want to end up with six engine bells.

 

I hate doing disassembly because things look a lot worse before they get better.

 

The thrust structure and main motor pods

 

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The engine bells and inner diffusers.

 

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This cardboard template shows the issue; the shape I have to start with and the shape I want to get to shown in the outline.

 

35570932101_91eed3a67e_o.jpg

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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On 04/02/2017 at 9:48 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

I recently unearthed an Airfix Eagle I'd built in the seventies.

It needs serious renovation so I'll tag along with you if you don't mind.

 

 

No problem Pete; might be slow progress though!!

 

Karl

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Little update.

 

I'm partway through the process of shaping the engine bells using the old plastic cone engines as a basis. You can sort of see the progress left to right, with another layer of filler having been just been applied to the right hand one.

 

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Karl

Edited by Karl
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More progress on the engine bells, I now have six; the original four are nearly done and just need some fine sanding and filling work.

 

The new pair were formed the same way as the originals; I made an internal cone from thin plastic and added the rings as made for the original four, then filler applied and shaped.

 

Just to give the general idea, I've connected one to part of the engine assembly.

 

35570935461_e15363003f_o.jpg

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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Time for cleaning up the engine pods and filling in any problem areas. I've neatened up the interface area between the engine bell and the engine pod with some short lengths of plastic tube and some filler.

 

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Here, I've given everything a coat of Halfords Filler Primer to cover any small imperfections. This will cover any small scratches and bring out bigger blemishes I'll either need to fill or sand down. The yellow/brown colour will be a chore to cover with white though, probably need to go to grey primer first I suspect.

 

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Karl

Edited by Karl
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Test fitting to the thrust structure.

 

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The thrust structure is the next thing on the list for modification. I also need to  look at the baffles inside the engine bells.

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been working on the engine support frame, cleaning and filling some of the joints and moving four of the support struts to a slightly better position behind the rear cross member rather standing on it's edge.

 

When I was working on it I felt there was something wrong but couldn't put my finger on it until I put it on the table and aligned it to the cutting mat grid:

 

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The rear cross member was twisted by quite a bit. The only solution for this was to saw the rear cross member off using a razor saw and re-position it so it aligned with the rear frame work. I also took the opportunity to do a bit more cleaning on the inside of the frame.

 

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I them re-attached the rear cross member.

 

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I also did some work on the engine baffles; trying to make them look a bit more like the Saturn V parts they were originally made from by adding some raised edging.

 

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Still some cleaning up  to do!

 

Karl

 

Edited by Karl
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More work on the engine section.

 

Once the engine thrust structure was finished, I gave it a few coats of Halfords high build primer, then a couple of coats of grey primer and then finally the top coat is Halfords matt white primer. When dry I masked up some of the more obvious detail areas and brush painted them. I also added some decals from the spares box, mostly using stencils from missiles (Lightning's Red Tops) and some Hawk decals. Not too many but just enough to keep it interesting. I'm not actually trying to copy any one particular Eagle. The decals were given a brush over with Humbrol MattCote just locally over the decal areas and the coloured areas to blend it in to the matt white.

 

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When all this was dry, it was time for assembly. Here are the part ready to go. The engine baffles have been installed inside the engine bells with a little drop of epoxy resin. The Engine bells are going to be Epoxied and screwed in place with self tapping screws.

 

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More to come.....

Edited by Karl
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Time to attach the engines.

 

Initially I simply attached the engine bells with just screws, but I found that they didn't align very well so I decided to fix them in place with epoxy resin glue. I mixed up a batch of glue and attached all of the engine bells in one go, making sure to align the baffles to the cross members. I placed the assembly on a flat surface so they all lined up neatly and left the resin to go hard. I then put the screws in and added a little more epoxy.

 

When all dry it was sanded smooth and any areas that required it were touched up with paint.

 

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I've left the finish pristine at the moment; I'll do any dirtying up when the whole model is complete. I don't like doing too much dirtying so some simple pencil graphite will do later.

 

Much better than it was; I acknowledge that there are some surface details on the engine bells that I have not attempted to replicate, however if I had attempted to scribe them in I don't think it would have worked out that well and it would have spoiled the eventual finish.

 

Karl

Edited by Karl
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Test fitting of the engine assembly on to the main space frame. The assembly is attached onto an aluminium rod however this appears to be bent thus stopping the assembly lining up with the rear box frame.

 

I'm going to replace the aluminium tube with a brass tube when I come to do the proper assembly.

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Karl

Edited by Karl
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The  next part I'm going to look at is the passenger pod.

 

This really isn't too bad. I'm looking at a bit of a clean up of some of the joints and hiding the nail heads in the woodwork. Also adding extra detail to the bottom of the pod and upgrading the shape of the lift engines. Finally a repaint and detailing.

 

This is how it look now.

 

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Karl

Edited by Karl
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