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Eagle Transporter Refurb


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Ok, those of us of a certain age will remember the Space 1999 series of the mid seventies, and no doubt clamoured after the Dinky toy Eagle Transporter from the series. I certainly did, as it was and still is my all time favourite science fiction spacecraft.

I was mildly surprised to find that the Dinky version was a lurid metallic green as opposed to the more conventional white of the prototype, but that didn't stop this seven year old having a whale of a time in the playground with it. A friend had the Eagle Freighter, which for some reason WAS white, and I was unsuccessful in getting him to swap his Freighter body for my Transporter body.

A few years later when I started painting models, I gave my poor old Dinky toy a badly brushed coat of white Airfix enamel in an attempt to bring it closer to the TV version. Eventually it went west as did all my toys from my childhood, and I can't remember who it was passed on to.

Fast forward a few decades, and idly perusing ebay one day I found quite a few Dinky Eagles for sale for spares or repair, and thought "why not?" From a couple of auctions I managed to gather enough useable parts to rebuid one Eagle. I actually had the idea of building a better replica with scratchbuilt parts, but as I've recently acquired an Airfix Eagle for an extortionate amount (and guess what's being reissued by Round 2 next month?!) I decided to leave the scratchbuilding for that. I decided to just refurbish a Dinky Eagle instead, but just like the one I wanted as a kid, rather than had.

So, I started off with a pile of bits:

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Which I then soaked in Fairy Power Spray to get rid of the old chipped paint:

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Good stuff, eh?

I gave the metal parts a good going over with white Halford's primer, and then a liberal coating of Halford's Appliance White, as I've heard good things about it and wanted to try it out:

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Remember I'm not going for accuracy here, or even originality - just giving it a good coating like it would have had in the factory:

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The engine cluster was given a spray of Plasticote Chrome from an aerosol can, which resembled the original chrome plating on these parts:

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The passenger pod was given a coat of Appliance White on top:

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...and Halford's Satin Black on the underside, as per spec. All this so far and I haven't used my airbrush, only spray cans:

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With all the red plastic hardware added, it looked pretty original:

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The main body was then reassembled, as I couldn't resist seeing how it looked:

eagle9_zps5028079e.jpg

But then I had to do a bit of masking for the cockpit windows:

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...and I thought using the airbrush would be easiest for this:

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After that, the engine bells were added, and the refurb was complete:

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Ahh, that takes me back...

Now, what's next..?

Cheers,

Dean

Edited by Deanflyer
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I had 2 of these when I was a boy, as I had the one with the nuclear waste pods which had a green body the other had a white body, if i remember there were some small yellow stickers that you placed on the sides of the front module. All you need is a box and you can sell it for £150, not sure how much they go for to be honest.

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That's an excellent save! Never understood the reasoning behind the metallic blue TB2 and the green UFO interceptors,perhaps they thought they would appeal more to kids?

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That's an excellent save! Never understood the reasoning behind the metallic blue TB2 and the green UFO interceptors,perhaps they thought they would appeal more to kids?

Ah, that explains it - I was misremembering my metallic blue Eagle, it was the TB2 that was blue! I had a UFO interceptor too. God I must have been a spoiled brat :bounce:

Chris

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Cheers folks...

Apparently they DID come in metallic blue, metallic green, and white for the Freighter. It seems like the guys at Corgi thought an all white Eagle would be too boring for the target audience, so made them blue or green instead.

Nice to have whipped up a bit of nostalgia,

Dean

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