Karl Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) Hi All, My Space:1999 scratch built madness continues; I'm going to attempt to build the spine mounted auxiliary booster pack for my 1/48 scale eagle transporter. The spine mounted booster pack was seen in only one episode of Space:1999 called 'Metamorph' where Commander John Koenig called for an Eagle to be fitted with auxiliary boosters. Even though it appeared in only a single episode, this accessory for the Eagle is a definite fan favourite. I did a bit of forward planning and when I built the engine bells for the eagle model I made an extra pair for this project. I downloaded a set of scale plans designed for the Round2 Eagle and I scaled them up slightly to match the size of my Eagle as mine is a couple of inches bigger. First off, I decided to make the four large flanking fuel tanks. For this i needed some 20mm tube and some dome shapes. The tube was easily found in the shed; it needed to be a bit thicker so I wrapped it in thin styrene sheet. This also has the affect of making it easier to glue on details with ordinary model glue as the pipe is some sort of DIY conduit that does not take well to glue. I capped of the ends with plastic disks and with the glue issue in mind I used a central rod to try and keep both ends on the tube. Next up I needed to make some domes to fit the ends of the tanks. I used a spare tube and capped that off, I cut a number of circles and cut them in half and quarters and made a segmented dome shape. I then filled this in with P38 car body filler and then sanded it in to a smooth dome shape. I used this to make some plasecene moulds and then used a slush mixture of car body filler and resin to make cast domes. The plastecene method is probably as large as I think I could go; anthing bigger and I think I would have to make the mould from plaster. I then glued the domes to each end of the tanks and sanded the edges flush, filling any gaps with model filler. Wish me luck! Karl Edited October 5, 2017 by Karl 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 (edited) More work on the Spine Booster pack. I needed to create some smaller tanks; two long top tanks and a pair of smaller side tanks that nestle above the large tanks. These were made from some brass tube wrapped in styrene and then some end caps were made by casting an appropriately sized dome using the usual mix of resin and car body filler and attaching them to the ends of the tanks. Next, I needed to build the main support structure of the booster. This comprises of two rectangular box sections joined together by two tubes. The box sections were measured up from plans and cut from sheet styrene and glues together. Some additional bracing was made internally to give it some strength. Next came the tank support mounts. These were made from styrene sheet and rod appropriately sized and shaped for each size of tank. I made a total of sixteen; eight for the small tanks and eight for the large tanks. The top tanks had a side rib detail; this was made from some half round styrene rod with the ends shaped. This picture also shows the completed main box structure with the top tanks mounted. Karl Edited October 18, 2017 by Karl 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockpopandchips Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Oooo very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Interesting, but I've never been tempted by this or the other additions to the Eagle. Keep up the good work however, its nice to see this sort of thing scratch built as opposed to just buying a resin accessory 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 oh yes, this looks like a good idea - will be watching with keen interest 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Thanks for the kind comments guys! Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Another eight tank mounts were required for the main side fuel tanks. These were made from sheet and square rod. Next came a fairly complicated part; the engine bell mounting / thrust structure. This is quite difficult to do as you need to mount the engine bells upwards and outwards and to get the up/out angle just right on a fixed structure requires measuring several times and cutting/sanding only a little bit at a time! First part of the mount was a simple box structure, then came the angle part. Again this started out as a box structure but with a corner cut off. This cut off had to be just right and the same for both left and right engines. If you put them back to back the cuts cancel each other out and you get a straight box section again. The engine bells are mounted using brass rods, the base of the engine was made from a stack of styrene disks and a modified engine nozzle from a 1/48 Tornado kit that had been filled with resin (earlier) to make it solid. More shortly.. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Another day, another dome... This one is for the two lozenge shaped tanks on the upper surface of the main structure. I created a dome shape from sheet styrene in segments and then used car body filler to fill in the gaps and sanded it smooth. I then cast them using the same technique as all the others. I also needed to made a couple of the distinctive baffles for the inside of the engine bells, fortunately I had made a template when I made the ones for the Eagle so it was a fairly simple job to make them. All of the parts I've made so far for the booster: [/url] It's now about time to start putting it all together, main side tanks first. There is a little intertank tube or ring made from a short length of styrene to go between the tanks. More soon.... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Rose Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Thats some seriously nice scratching! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gav G Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 (edited) Good to see this, I followed you Eagle rebuild thread On 10/5/2017 at 10:09 PM, Karl said: The spine mounted booster pack was seen in only one episode of Space:1999 called 'Metamorph' where Commander John Koenig called for an Eagle to be fitted with auxiliary boosters. Even though it appeared in only a single episode, this accessory for the Eagle is a definite fan favourite. I don't remember this one and will have to watch it later, especially as it feature Brian Blessed*! Full episode: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x53j2t1 Apparently the booster pack is seen briefly in 'The Exile' using a reused piece of footage from 'The Metamorph'. I might build myself an Eagle one day. I'm sure I still have my original die-cast Eagle from 197? somewhere. * Met him once, lovely guy, why he hasn't been knighted yet is totally beyond me. Edited November 5, 2017 by Gav G 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted November 6, 2017 Author Share Posted November 6, 2017 (edited) On 05/11/2017 at 4:27 PM, Gav G said: Good to see this, I followed you Eagle rebuild thread I don't remember this one and will have to watch it later, especially as it feature Brian Blessed*! Full episode: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x53j2t1 Apparently the booster pack is seen briefly in 'The Exile' using a reused piece of footage from 'The Metamorph'. I might build myself an Eagle one day. I'm sure I still have my original die-cast Eagle from 197? somewhere. * Met him once, lovely guy, why he hasn't been knighted yet is totally beyond me. Thanks Gav. Totally agree about Brian Blessed - OBE but should be Knighted though! Karl Edited November 6, 2017 by Karl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 wow - some amazing engineering and creative modelling going on there on your workbench really interesting work - I always enjoy a good scratch build - I learn so much from them - thanks for the visual educational journey so far looking forward to more from you, and of course, to seeing the end result 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted November 17, 2017 Author Share Posted November 17, 2017 It's been a few weeks since I last posted an update, however I have been making progress. Previously I'd just started to assemble all of the tanks and supports, including the tap and side tanks and the lozenge shape middle tanks. Time for some more detailing work now that the main assembly is complete. There is a large and distinctive detail panel underneath the booster - if you ever see the underside that is... plus lots of kit-bashed parts on the surface that I raided my bit's box for. It's not exactly the same as the original but close enough that all of the areas are covered by similar parts. Underside detail: The results of my kit-bashed detailing: A slightly more complicated part to do was the area where the booster clips to the Eagle Spine. This has to be precise or it won't sit properly. This required measuring the Eagle Spine and some testing of the mounting assembly. This was made using styrene tube cut open so it would clip around the smaller spine tube. These were then glued to the underside of the booster assembly. Next will be to apply some high build primer and fill any imperfections. Karl 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted November 17, 2017 Share Posted November 17, 2017 Great work! Love it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimme Shelter Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 this continued to delight me - brilliant creative home brew modelling 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 (edited) With construction now complete comes painting and detailing. I gave the booster pack several coats of Halfords high build primer (yellow in colour) and after sanding this back and filling any major imperfections I sprayed first grey primer (see picture) and then white primer as the final colour. When dry this was over coated with Halfords matt clear lacquer. From there the engine bells were painted Vauxhall star silver and lightly dusted with matt lacquer. Other details were picked out with dark red-brown and gloss orange. The decals were a mixture of spares from the bit box and some specific markings were printed on white paper and glued in place and lacquered. I also used some Humbrol weathering powders to add a little dirt but not much. The booster is now complete; I'll post it in Ready For Inspection and place a link in here shortly. Edit: Space:1999 1/48 Scratch Built spine Booster Pack - Complete Karl. Edited December 2, 2017 by Karl 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niknak Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 (edited) Excellent scratch build. I have never seen any plans for the booster pack. Have You thought of doing the laboratory Pod for the eagle? Edited December 4, 2017 by Niknak 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted December 5, 2017 Author Share Posted December 5, 2017 22 hours ago, Niknak said: Excellent scratch build. I have never seen any plans for the booster pack. Have You thought of doing the laboratory Pod for the eagle? Thank you. I found the plans on a Facebook group I am a member of called "Space: 1999 Props & Ships", that and lots of other downloads on the files page. I have thought about a Lab Pod and a Winch Pod; should be fairly easy to do. I would like to do an in-scale Laser Tank and a Hawk Mk.IX at some point. Karl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niknak Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Thay should look great, I'll look forward to seeing them. Nic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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