Aoshima 1:48 Thunderbird 4

[Kallisti]

Here are the compelted phtoos of the brand new Aoshima 1:48 scale Thunderbird 4. I ordered this direct from Hobby Link Japan late last year and it arrived in January. I didn't do a WIP thread for this but its a nice kit without any major faults. The kit comes with a choice of underside plastes to allow you to add wheels and a the kit includes a small electric motor that can be used to turn this into a toy.

It also comes with a light bulb to put in the lighting panel at the front, but I replaced this with 2 Surface Mount LEDs. You also get a selection of tools that can be fitted to the front, including the rams that are used to free the trapped Martian Probe capsule in "Day of Disaster". There are also 3 torpedoes and the two central tubes have springs that can be used to fire them.

The shape is excellent, much better then the old Bandai kit, my only complaints being the scaling of the Gordon figure and the way the thruster tubes are attached to the main body. I also think they are too long (they are the red tubes st the rear).

The kit somes with a nice base and even some lichen to stick to the base. I just painted the base brown and dry-brushed some grey over the rocks.

The kit provides decals for the red stripes, but I masked and painted them. I had troubel with the decals as they were VERY delicate and the "Thunderbird 4" decals on the sides and rear rolled up on me during application never to be usable again, so I had print my own using th etemplate I'd created previsouly for the Bandai kit.

So here are the photos

And now for a couple with the Bandai kit

In this one you can really see how bad the shape around the cockpit is on the Bandai kit!

[whitestar12chris]

Cracking job, looks a very nice kit, well done Kallisti, look forward to seeing this in the flesh.

All the best Chris

[Hunter Rose]

Oh cool, nice tidy build, great work!

[Canadian Pirate]

F-A-B!

[Gimme Shelter]

Yet another cracking bit of modelling Andrew - so I'm guessing you now have 2 entries for this months competition on the 14th... Eagle vs TB4

[HL-10]

After TB2 this is my favourite of International Rescue's machines.

Great looking model, very impressive

[ged55]

Hi. What yellow did you use for Thunderbird 4? The colour looks bang on. Thanks

[Kallisti]

Its s custom mix of Tamiya XF-3 matt yellow with a few drops of X-7 gloss red. It took MANY attempts to get a colour I was happy with and I've had to reproduce similar yellows since for things like The Mole and a a couple of smaller Thunderbird 4s in my Fireflash diorama and Thunderbird 2 and 4 build.