Mike N Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 (edited) Largely forgotten by the tv schedules now, The Invaders was a 1960’s sci-fi show about hostile aliens coming to Earth from a dying planet, and witness David Vincent’s efforts to frustrate their evil plans. Although it now has cult status among fans, it seems it was not a great hit at the time and was cancelled after two series without a conclusion. A model kit of the flying saucer featured in the series was produced by Aurora at the same time as the show was on. The moulds were sold to Monogram in the late 70’s and the kit has appeared surprisingly often, with one site stating six times, and as recently as 2003. In all cases the kit is essentially the same. The version I have I bought in 1997. Interestingly, there is absolutely no mention of the tv series it is based on, simply a loose description of the aliens in the instructions ‘history’ blurb. It does however still have the ‘copyright 1966 Quinn Martin Productions’ moulded inside the lower half of the saucer, which is hidden during assembly. The kit is very simple, consisting of about 30 parts and including 4 figures (but David Vincent isn’t one of them ). There is a fair bit of moulded-in detail, albeit soft, but will be good when painted. The landing gear can be posed up or down, and the top can be removed to show the internal details. I'm hoping this will be fairly straight forward to build, the challenge will be the metallic finish (first time using Alclad) and building a simple diorama. Stay tuned! Edited June 15, 2012 by Mike N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeley Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 (edited) That's ARCHITECT David Vincent to you, fella! Looking forward to this one Chris Edited March 3, 2012 by cheeley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 The kit is very simple, consisting of about 30 parts and including 4 figures (but David Vincent isn’t one of them ). Do the figures have stiff little fingers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyG Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Heh, got one of these somewhere up in the loft, in the box of (mainly broken) kits i built as a lad. Pretty sure there were more than four figures in it though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 That's ARCHITECT David Vincent to you, fella! Looking forward to this one Chris Haha, indeed! Do the figures have stiff little fingers? Not yet... but one will acquire one Heh, got one of these somewhere up in the loft, in the box of (mainly broken) kits i built as a lad. Pretty sure there were more than four figures in it though? It depends which boxing you have; check out this site for a run-down on the different releases and their contents: http://home.earthlink.net/~peredhil/Invaders.html Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyG Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Ah, that explains it - mine is the old Aurora one with the plastic base. Never realised there were sooo many variations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Slow progress on this one, despite the simplicity of the kit and few parts... But I have made a start. Act I It began, not with a closed deserted diner, but with all the parts being removed from the sprues and cleaned up. There are mould seams and ejector pin marks on pretty much everything. Quite a few need filling as they are visible after assembly. The first assembly step is to glue the upper and lower saucer parts together. I also decided to fill the slots that are intended to allow the stilts on the landing struts to be fitted in the retracted position; I think it’s fair to assume that these would retract on the real thing! This would have been a bit easier to do before joining the upper and lower pieces, but never mind. Plastic card in the slots to fill most of it: I then used Milliput to fill all the gaps. Like I said, almost every part has ejector pin marks to be filled - even the seats which were a pain And after a whole lot of sanding: I scribed in an entry hatch inside the craft on the floor of one of the rooms as there was no other way in (unless the roof comes off in ‘reality’?!). I also scribed hatches above the ladders on one of the landing struts. All the parts were then sprayed gloss black This is in preparation for two shades of Alclad 2 to be sprayed to get a nice and shiny finish From the photo I can tell I have a bit of polishing to do first Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Slow progress on this one, my Phoenix build is taking priority but I've fitted in a few sessions here too. I've basically added the Alclad (polished aluminium), but had some problems getting a good finish in places. Where the gloss black was nice and smooth and didn't need sanding it went on a dream and looks lovely! However, when polishing near the edges of the saucer, I went down to the base plastic - and the difference is massive when Alclad goes on! So I tried to take a shortcut by brushpainting black at the damaged areas and polishing it to remove any brush strokes and edges, with not great results. For the sake of these small areas, not to mention my sanity and health (this stuff stinks!), I'm going to leave it and hide it at the back The lesson really is to get a good shiny undercoat and not to take shortcuts! Anyway, a couple of pics to show where I've got to: Pretty much everything was treated the same way, the interior will get some details painted in, while I'll be trying something on the exterior to get the dodgy special effects look of the TV original! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham77 Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 This one is also looking great Mike, that metal paint looks really good. Out of interest what do you use to polish the paint? I haven't used the alclad range before and am curious. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the inside Nice job Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 mmm shiny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 This one is also looking great Mike, that metal paint looks really good. Out of interest what do you use to polish the paint? I haven't used the alclad range before and am curious. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the insideNice job Graham Thanks Graham The metal effect is amazing, when done properly I used Micromesh polishing cloths, produced by Alclad II themselves. I bought mine from the big H. There are various grades of cloth included, down to 12000 grit which really does bring out a shine Hope to get some work done on the interior in the coming days, so stay tuned! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 The exterior is almost complete now. I tried out a technique to get the sheen from the special effects used to depict the saucer itself in the show. I used Alclad 2 Violet over their polished aluminium. (I was going to order this via t'internet as my LHS could only get it in bulk, and it is hardly a common colour request I'd think. They then got a damaged one by accident in another order, and gave me it free - the benefits of having a friendly model shop nearby!) Here is the result of the sprayed on violet: It's nice but not quite what I was after (very pleased I didn't pay for the violet now!) but I honestly have no idea how to better it, so I'll be leaving it as is. The central engine exhaust (?) needs painting and then it should just be assembling the remaining parts before the kit is complete. Here is the interior after using some random colours to depict buttons, switches etc, all of it is made up by me. I still intend to make a small diorama to give it more interest, so a little further to go yet. Thanks for looking. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Lovely finish on there. I was looking through the list of shades available from Alclad, earlier. This one stood out. "Holomatic Spectral Chrome". Sounds like it might have an other worldly quality to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Lovely finish on there. I was looking through the list of shades available from Alclad, earlier. This one stood out. "Holomatic Spectral Chrome". Sounds like it might have an other worldly quality to it. Thanks Smiffy That finish is very shiny indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 The ship is almost finished now I painted the engine glossy orange followed by transparent red, although it is a little redder than I wanted. I then added the interior. All the walls are just push-fits as they are a tight fit (I had to trim some of the parts after dry fitting them at the start of the project). The seats are superglued in, although the bond isn't very good, possibly due to the metallic finish. The legs were also push-fits: I'm quite pleased with the violet finish now, it may not be 100% authentic but it looks pretty nice The only bits left to fit are the lights under the saucer. These are green in all the pics I've seen from the tv series, but for some reason are moulded in clear red I still have to make a start on the diorama base, which is something I haven't done for about 20 years! Thanks for looking. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 That really looks the business! The internals really look "sci-fi" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 That really looks the business! The internals really look "sci-fi" Thanks Kallisti! The parts have some nice detail on them, all it takes is some careful painting on the whole. Some of the panels are a bit bare hence some random not so neat splashes of colour. The lights may be sci-fi, but there is also a bank of dials - the 1960's vision of the future! No digital readouts! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 Wow, can't believe it's been 2 months since I last updated this build thread! But a big thanks for Graham to getting an extension back to the original deadline! Last bits on the saucer were the lights underneath. As noted earlier, these are provided red, so to match the 'real' ones I decided on Japanese Interior colour from the Xtracolor range, which gave a decent impression of the tv ones. These were then bathed in Klear to get them glossy: And installed: Now the figures. I wanted to find one to play our hero, and discovered the best option was one from a cowboys set; included was a sheriff: I trimmed off his badge, gunbelt, and hat, followed by some sanding to try not to make him look too much like Kryton from Red Dwarf! I also shortened the gun barrel as Vincent always seemed to choose the shortest gun possible! After painting the figures looked like this: One of the aliens had a peculiar pose with his arm outstretched with clenched fist, but not apparently holding anything. I decided to give him a disintegrator gun, and also added a stiff little finger from fuse wire The only thing left now is the base. I picked up a base from a show last year, and decided to add some raised terrain using some wood offcuts: To this I added Polyfilla and then primed it: While on holiday in Florida last week I picked up this, to add some interest: Just got these and the base to paint, and then it should be a case of bringing all the components together Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 All finished! I painted the cacti (with yellow flowers to add interest) and then added them to the base, they make the scene much more realistic. Add in the previously shown figures and the saucer and it's all done. The scene I'm trying to show is of a landed saucer waiting to pick up an alien, only David Vincent has dispatched him already and is waiting for them! I used black pastel to draw out the charred remains after the alien has burned up on dying. The other two aliens are inside the ship. I've quite enjoyed this build although the metallic finish was troublesome, but I'm happy to learn on this project where it doesn't matter as much. Thanks for looking! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little-cars Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Thanks Graham The metal effect is amazing, when done properly I used Micromesh polishing cloths, produced by Alclad II themselves. I bought mine from the big H. There are various grades of cloth included, down to 12000 grit which really does bring out a shine Hope to get some work done on the interior in the coming days, so stay tuned! Mike Just a note. The Micro mesh cloths that Alclad II sell are the the standard micromesh cloth product cut off 6" wide rolls, they don't manufacture them they are just bought in from the same source as the products that little-cars and other retailers sell. A nice loooking saucer, are you bringing it along to Smallspace in a couple of weeks ? Paul little-cars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Just a note. The Micro mesh cloths that Alclad II sell are the the standard micromesh cloth product cut off 6" wide rolls, they don't manufacture them they are just bought in from the same source as the products that little-cars and other retailers sell.A nice loooking saucer, are you bringing it along to Smallspace in a couple of weeks ? Paul little-cars Thanks for the clarification Paul, and the comment I hadn't heard of Smallspace before, unfortunately it's on Waddington airshow weekend so won't be able to make it Looks interesting though! Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMChladek Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Wow Mike, you work FAST! Nice job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Great work Mike - the dio looks really good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 That is a great finish and a superb diorama too. I'm not familiar at all with the show, but I already feel I know the basic story! Excellent effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike N Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Many thanks guys This is the first diorama I've done in many years, and very pleased with it! Thanks for looking. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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