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Scratching my SHADO


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Scratching my SHADO

 

This was part of a Sci-fi themed group-build on another site. For various reasons, I had only six weeks rather than the full three months…... I managed it in five weeks.

 

I've always loved Sci-fi books, but not really been a fan of Sci-fi films or telly progs. Having said that, loving Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, JOE 90 etc. in the 1970's was as compulsory for boys as wearing flares. It was the remarkable vehicles that caught my attention (hardly going to be the Oscar winning performances is it).

 

When we were kids, we all knew the type. The kid who's parents bought them all the coolest of the cool toys. Fortunately I was bestist mates with this one (still am), so I could play with his toys almost as much as my own toys. I've been mates with Andy B for as long as I can remember. Admittedly I'm not likely to win any gold medals for my feats of memory, but I have photographic proof that we've been mates since year dot (or possibly earlier). Andy B (I also have a mate called Andy C, but I can assure you I'm not collection alphabetically organised Andy's. not consciously anyway) is a life long Gerry Anderson fan, he had loads of these type of toys (and probably still has) one of which was the Dinky SHADO 2 (from 'UFO') the one with the rocket launcher on the top. I remember hours of fun trying to put someone’s eye out with that. It turns out that the Dinky representation is a TRAVESTY! The telly one didn't have the eye-putter-outer on the top. It left me with a dilemma, do I model the real fake one or the very tempting fake fake one.

 

After intensive thinking and a bit of a lie down, I decided to go for the real fake – and this is it:

 

Untitled.png

 

As usual I'll be doing this in 1/48th.

 

The Tracks

 

First thing to tackle is the dreaded tracks (why do I do this to myself?).

The major portion of the tracks on my A7V tank were hidden, but the SHADO tracks are very, very visible, I foresee a number of scratch-built tanks in my future, so this should be filed under 'good experience'. Whichever way I make them, this is going to be a very very repetitive bit. Even if I could get after-market tracks the correct size, it wouldn't work. The SHADO tracks are very distinctive, quite unlike normal tank tracks. I'll show you a photo:

SHADO+Tracks.png

 

This is from a 3D model I found online which should be very useful in this build.

 

After doing the thinking thing, this how I dragged it into being. Forget the plastic, first I'll build a jig (don't forget – the black splodges is just dust inside my camera lens):

P1140948.JPG

 

The base is cardboard and the strips are a good quality (for strength) paper, held on with double sided tape. Originally I was going to cut the plastic strips for the tracks, from the 0.25mm card I already have, but it kept curling, and I was also having problems cutting to a consistent width, so I bought some 2mm x 0.25mm strips. These sit just proud of the surface of the paper jig and yes, there is a reason the plastic strips are staggered – to spread the join over more than just one tread. The first tread base goes on – the start of a very long process:

P1140949.JPG

 

(It didn't take that long to be honest, I'm just trying try add some drama. Pathetic isn't it?). I just space them by eye and checked they were square every now and then. The treads are cut from from 0.5mm sheet into 4mm widths:

P1140950.JPG

 

Bit of a warning if you have a go at this in the future, the track stuck to the paper part of the jig. Which was odd because the test piece I did previously didn't. I decide that it was because I'd left the brass weights, which I used to hold the newly glued tracks down, on too long. To reduce the possibility of the track sticking, only leave the weight on for a couple of minutes, and every five minutes or so, pull the part of the track you've just glued, out of the jig. I was left with paper stuck between the four main strips down the whole length of the stupid thing. Fortunately, brain wasn't busy thinking about chocolate or beer and the track got a bath in water until it was easy to scrape off.

This is the end of the first stage, as you can see, it's very flexible:

P1140951.JPG

 

The tread pattern is very distinctive, but fortunately very easy to reproduce, again from 0.5mm x 4mm plastic – just four cuts. But first it was time to do a little jig:

P1140953.JPG

 

I haven't the time or the patience to make all the cuts perfect, hopefully it won't be noticeable at the end.

 

Bottoms, bottoms, bottoms. I'm usually a big fan of bottoms (not any mind you, so kindly put yours away) but my A7V tanky thing, didn't have a beautiful bottom. This time I decided that I wasn't going to cut corners, and detail the tracks all the way around and although it may not be a prize winning bottom, at least it would be able to show it's face (?) in public.

Each track has 58 treads, which means that both tracks combined have 472 individual parts and each track is nearly 1 foot (30cm) long. I've only made one track so far, I'll do the other when I know this one fits.

P1140954.JPG

 

Yes it was boring, but it was also quite a meditative, Zen like calming experience. So obviously I fell asleep. I think this process would work quite well for more traditional type tracks.

 

God I waffle don't I?

 

Next up, the wheels.

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The monotonous road wheels – all twelve of them.

 

Recently, I bought some test tubes. No doubt you've correctly guessed that I was attempting to clone myself, as I saw it as the only possibility of completing this group build on time. I followed the instructions online to the letter – spat in the test tube and applied a current (I was all out of currents so I had to apply a raisin) but even after a whole seven minutes no mini-me's appeared. The world is a poorer place as a result as I'm sure you will agree. Fortunately, the test tubes were the same diameter as the road wheels, so it wasn't a total waste.

I came up with this idea for ensuring the cut wasn't cock-eyed. The marker is set in Blu-Tak and pushed down to the correct height, then just swivel the tube against the nib. It worked beautifully. What a genius I am (or was it 'what genus am I'? I can never remember).

P1140941.JPG

 

As I looked down upon my first wheel, behold, what rubbish! Wasn't paying close enough attention to the 3D model. I gave myself a damn good talking to and the next one was much better. What I was aiming for on the left and my version (currently only primed).

IMG_0082.JPG

 

This gives you an idea how it was made. The central bit of the part on the left is a tube for the axle. 

IMG_0005.JPG

 

I used my Dremel to round off the many disks that were required (I've just had a look in my brain for the name of the thing the disk is screwed onto, but the space allocated to it's name is currently empty). Basically using it like a mini lathe. 

IMG_0099.JPG

 

This is the best way I could think of making the wedges (this photo is from my first crude attempt, the proper ones were much neater).

P1140943.JPG

 

Now I need to make eleven more. What fun.

When I had to leave work, a neighbour said “You should make those little wooden wheelbarrows that old people grow flowers in. They sell for £25!!!!!!!” he said, emphasising the '£25' as if it was only a matter of working an extra Saturday before the executive jet was all mine. I thanked him for his remarkable business acumen whilst thinking “I'm not spending my spare time making the same thing over and over again”. So, here I am, making the same thing over and over again…... in my spare time…... for no financial gain.

 

Oh, what are those then…..

IMG_0084.JPG

 

Thank god for that!

 

Each wheel is made up from 19 parts, with an additional 26 parts for each of the four drive wheels, and as there are 12 wheels, that makes a total of 328 bits. With the tracks and the wheels, that'll be 800 parts! What the hell am I doing!

 

 

Next up, the next bit (obviously).

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5 minutes ago, John Laidlaw said:

This is brilliant! I'm going to have to follow along on this.

 

Just now, Mick4350 said:

Looking good and lets join the journey ...

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have completed the build (other than the base) and I hope to post one or two updates every day this week, possibly with the final reveal at the weekend.

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6 minutes ago, Gorby said:

 

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have completed the build (other than the base) and I hope to post one or two updates every day this week, possibly with the final reveal at the weekend.

Time to dust off the box set I have, but never watched. Saw it on telly in the early 70's, never again.

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29 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I may have to change my name to Andy Z and hope that it sounds cool enough to be allowed to play with this stuff.

If it was Andy Z it would take ages before you'd be collec…. Eeerrrmmm… befriended. 

I used to know a Pete A. You aren't a Pete B by any chance?:whistle:

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For the first time I carefully studied the 3D model that I provided a link to in my first post, and one thought was very strong in my head, “What the hell have I done”. The shapes in this thing make the A7V look as simple as a minimalist house brick. I considered various options, even thought about carving it in wood, but being reasonably competent with dead tree, it felt like a bit of a cop-out. It took me a while to work out how to approach it. I need to break the shape down into various do-able stages, the first of which will be the hull.

 

Hold onto your hat for what might be a new thingamabob (new to me anyway). It seems that once started, I can't get these scratch-builds out of my head and I was thinking about the effect Tamiya extra thin has on plastic (perhaps I need to get out more) and it gave me an idea….. Normally, for building a box like structure, I would cut each facet out separately and brace and glue as I go, but what if you could just fold plastic sheet?

A quick test with a bit of scrap 0.8mm styrene – cut down to about half the cards depth on one side, put TET down the length of the cut and also on the other side of the sheet, then wait a minute or so. If you bend slowly and carefully, reapplying TET a few times, then finally hold in place while it dries. Yes, apparently you can bend styrene sheet.

IMG_0052.JPG

 

It worked very well for 0.8mm, but I wanted to use 1.5mm sheet. Would it work for that?

 

After drawing the plans for each stage on Inkscape, I had a printed sheet of stencils…..

IMG_0094.JPG

 

…. that made it dead simple to cut the parts in 1.5mm plasti-card.

IMG_0095.JPG

 

Rather than use a scalpel for the bend-cut, I used a panel scriber – mainly because it was easier to see how deep the cut was. The first bend went well.

IMG_0096.JPG

 

As did the second. It is reasonably strong, but still needs bracing.

IMG_0097.JPG

 

Eventually I ended up with this and used a tiny fraction of L-section or box section than I would have normally.

IMG_0100.JPG

 

Of course modesty prevents me suggesting that this earth shattering discovery should be named after me…. Oh, go on then, if you must. Maybe 'Gorby Bending', or 'Bend it like... Um, on second thoughts maybe not. Some genius on the other site said that it should be called 'Gorbygami', why didn't I think of that? Probably too busy thinking about beer and chocolate. Gorbygami it is then (in my head at least) fame at last.

 

The information on the suspension was non existent. It's almost as if this vehicle never existed! Where are those walkrounds? The wheels needed to be 7mm from the sides of the hull and as time is short, I did conciser just putting in a spacer, but I felt it needed something. After toying with various ideas, I settled on this as a believable, heavy-duty, sci-fi-ish possibility (I'm pretty gullible so I'll believe pretty much anything – do you know I own tower bridge? A nice man sold it to me last year).

IMG_0108.JPG

 

Wheels on, and a load of lead araldited in place to give it a bit of heft.

IMG_0111.JPG

 

Finally a coat of primer.

IMG_0115.JPG

 

It's finally starting to take shape!

 

In the next thrilling episode - just more of the same.

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Basically it was more of the same, but on the next sections – the main body bit. It might make it easier if I show you the sections:

Sections.png

 

All the pretty colours denote the different build stages I will be building, other than the red bit, cause that's already done. Aren't you paying attention? The chin bit I'll leave to last (because I wasn't sure how I was going to do it at that point).

The delightful purple bit first (feel free to print out and colour in with your own crayons) and then the vomity green bit, to jointly form the main body. This is the part for the purple bit – ready scribed.

IMG_0109.JPG

 

I folded the angles as before.

IMG_0110.JPG

 

Until I ended up with this.

IMG_0114.JPG

 

This probably wasn't the best position to take the photo shown below, it was more to show that although I'm starting to make my bottom more presentable, my innards are a mess. Unfortunately it's not a very good view to show how I built the sides up, so that the top section would fit perfectly, first time without any messing around (it (expletive deleted) didn't, but we'll overlook that to make it look like I know what I'm doing).

IMG_0117.JPG

 

I've given up counting the parts now, partly because there's only so many times you can count the same fingers and toes before they start bleeding, and also because the numbers are becoming meaningless due to the small, hidden bits that hold everything together. These are generally taken from the scrap pile:

IMG_0113.JPG

 

The scrap pile is a result of an interesting phenomenon. The 'excellent idea' arriving immediate after cutting the part for the previous, 'slightly less excellent idea'. Sometimes there's even a 'stunningly excellent idea' that follows soon after the 'excellent idea' bits have been cut. You get the idea (whether it be excellent or other wise).

 

One of the potential downsides of Gorbygami© , is the gaping gap on the outside of the bend (left):

Gorbygarmi.png

 

Not a problem with this built as most of the edges of the bodywork are rounded off, leaving only a tiny area that needs to be filled (blue bit). The outside edges need to be removed (the green bits) preferably without removing any fingers (I need them for counting). The best tool I had for the job was in my woodwork workshop (you're not kidding anyone, IT'S A BIG SHED) my bullnose rebate/rabbet plane - I feel like a proper modeller now – using a plane!

IMG_0118.JPG

 

It's solid brass, so It's a bit on the heavy side for this sort of work, but I didn't have anything more suited. If I use a plane for this sort of thing more frequently, I may buy a violin maker's plane.

 

After the edges are prettied-up and after a LOT of sanding:

IMG_0122.JPG

 

IMG_0123.JPG

 

I hate sanding.

 

Thanks for havin a look - comments and cheques welcome.

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59 minutes ago, Gorby said:

 although I'm starting to make my bottom more presentable, my innards are a mess.

We'll pass over that and move on I think.

Erm, Gorbygami. I've been doing it that way for years. I thought everyone did. 😕

1 hour ago, Gorby said:

One of the potential downsides of Gorbygami© , is the gaping gap on the outside of the bend (left):

Milliput or thin strips of card or sprue glued on then sanded down sorts that out. Bigger curves bits? like the yellow section, score parallel lines 

(I use a Stanley knife a scriber works too) and the card will curve away from you (Which proves it doesn't like it).

 

I do like what you've done so far. How soon can I order a couple? 

 

Regards, Pete

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22 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Gorbygami. I've been doing it that way for years. I thought everyone did. 😕

Really? I've been following scratch-builds for years and don't remember seeing it being used. Perhaps it's an official secret and I've blabbed. I'll expect a knock on the door from the security service any day now. :o

I know it's general knowledge that a thick strip of plastic (as opposed to a sheet) can be bent using a series of slots on the inside of the bend. I've used the kerfing technique a couple of time with wood.

 

22 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I do like what you've done so far. How soon can I order a couple? 

You can put in your order any time you like. You might need to sort out a suitable the mortgage first though. :wink:

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The yellow bit wasn't easy. As you can see from the diagram in my previous update, it was the section immediately behind the cab that seems to be some sort of enormous air intake. God knows what they're doing in there. It looks pretty simple but it's quite a complicated shape.

Pretty much at the start of this build I decided that my model would be in the flavour of SHADO, not an exact copy. This is due in part to only having six weeks to build it; part because I'm not an expert in this scratch building stuff; but mostly because I couldn't find two examples that looked the same. Obviously the telly one is the definitive version, but there wasn't many photos of that and they weren't the best quality. As an example, here are two of them for you to play spot the difference:

Differences.png

It ends up more like 'spot the similarities'.

 

I used only three of the test tubes I bought for the wheels and was thinking that the other seven would go to waste – what are the chances of me needing 18mm tube? It turns out the odds were quite good as the side bits have a radius of 9mm. Perfect. The trouble is that the tubes are a very hard plastic and that's what finished off my last remaining razor saw blade. The tubes form the curved sides, and to make the shaped even more complicated, they slant inwards very slightly and the bit they sit on at the bottom, slopes downwards.

IMG_0130.JPG

 

Then it was just a matter of filling in the front and providing supports for the intake bit.

IMG_0134.JPG

 

A few years ago I bought a sample piece of metal micro-mesh about six inches square, but as this is quite a large bite out of it, I didn't want to waste any. Out of interest, this is my plastic sheet selection:

IMG_0172.JPG

 

It ranges in thickness from 0.25mm on the left to 1.5mm. The blue sheet is 0.8mm clear and on the extreme right is the paper and card I use for templates, which is what I use if I'm not sure of the shape the piece needs to be. It helps cut down plastic waste and in this case stops me wasting any mesh.

This is the paper template:

IMG_0136.JPG

 

And this is it transmuted into metal:

IMG_0164.JPG

 

As you can see I messed it up near the end by dropping some super glue on the mesh – very annoying as I was pleased with it up to that point. Scraping it for a while with a curved scalpel got rid of most of it, but not even a pin fits in the tiny holes. I tried nail polish remover on it but it was well and truly entrenched. Eventually, after some very careful cutting of a paper mask, I did another bit of mesh that fits so snugly inside the rim, it doesn't need to be glued. It's what I should have done the first time around.

IMG_0196.JPG

 

Thanks for comments and 'likes' and for just having a ganders.

 

Next up, the cab.

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Nice solution to the 'yellow bit' problem. I hadn't noticed the differences before but your pictures point them out.

That grill, I wonder if, in 1970 something someone looked at their Ronson razor and thought, Hmmmm.

 

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7 hours ago, Gorby said:

As an example, here are two of them for you to play spot the difference:

 

The one in the left is in color, the one on the right isn't?

 

7 hours ago, Gorby said:

Out of interest, this is my plastic sheet selection:

 

Very orderly.  I keep mine in order too.  I think it's called random order.

 

7 hours ago, Gorby said:

... I'm not an expert in this scratch building stuff;

 

Well, you certainly keep me entertained.  To me it's all about skill and passion. I've seen some very very skilful builds on this forum, but if there's no passion, to be honest, I tend to find it boring.

It's like bands - I'd much rather go and see a band that played the occasional bum chord(s), as long as they attacked it with gusto and passion, than go see a perfect performance where the band are merely going through the motions.

The term 'expert' is often misused.

Part skill, part passion, and that balance can see-saw back and forth in significant amounts sometimes but as long as they're both there, it'll always catch my attention.  btw, you seem to have both in abundance!

 

I was never a great fan of the SHADO stuff, but am loving this build

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12 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

That grill, I wonder if, in 1970 something someone looked at their Ronson razor and thought, Hmmmm.

That's entirely possible Pete. I'll be mentioning it in a coming post that as I'm building it, I'm recognising bits that are stuck on from kits. Basically the original builders were kitbashers, like you.

 

 

6 hours ago, hendie said:

Well, you certainly keep me entertained. 

Thanks Hendie. I do get a little carried away when I get started. Probably something to do with being new to this scratch-building thing. Wondering how I'm to solve the next problem is great for waking my brain up.

 

 

6 hours ago, hendie said:

I was never a great fan of the SHADO stuff, but am loving this build

Oddly enough, same here. I'm not into sci-fi models and I can't remember watching 'UFO' when it was on the telly, but I was sort of press-ganged into a groupbuild and had to choose something, and something that was feasible to do in a relatively short time. It took quite a lot of Googleising before I chose this one, but I'm very much enjoying the build.

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Right, the cab.

After years of “Only following ze instructions”, I'm on my own with this. The horror! :shocked: From the photos of the telly one, I couldn't find any clues to the interior other than there are two seats. Some of the other references have a little info, but I'm guessing that they're just guessing. Frauds! It's entirely up to me to decide what to put in there, maybe a cocktail bar? Fake beams? Fish tank?

As this was obviously set in the sci-fi'y, space age, distant future, errrmmm, apparently the open credits stated it was set in 1980. Okay, right….. As this was set in the sci-fi'y, space age, distant future of 1980 (pause for gasps :o) I wanted it to look more like a jet aircraft cockpit rather than a Ford Transit. That was pretty much my only guide.

 

Confession time.

A few years ago I bought a 'Lindberg' kit. The shame has been difficult to live down over the years :blush: . In my defence, I was young and foolish and I didn't inhale (much). The experience left me with a dreadful shapeless lump which has has given me much thought over the years as what I should do about it…

….let me introduce Mr. Bob Le Blob.

IMG_0112.JPG

 

At first I thought it was supposed to be something to do with the undercarriage, but I think it's supposed to be a pilot (the rest of the kit was similarly well moulded). I've learnt my lesson – just say NO to Lindberg kits!

 

After a very enjoyable day raiding my scrap box and draining the think muscle, this is what I ended up with:

IMG_0156.JPG

 

I'm not too fussed that it's not perfect, I just needed something to stop it looking like the bailiffs had half-inched the furniture. I have no idea how the crew get out, but that's not my problem. Bob has had significant surgery and is now resplendent in a very fetching silver catsuit, proudly displaying his very shiny red helmet (stop it this instant!). I've often wondered why some, for the sake of argument, lets call them 'people', kit-bash. creating things that never existed has always seemed like an odd thing to do. Apparently it's for enjoyment. who'd have guessed.

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Gorbygami has failed me. :cry:

It was only a partial success on the cab lid (for 'partial success' read 'abject failure'). I decided that it would be easier to make the whole lid out of clear stuff and just mask of the windows. It seems that the bend method doesn't work with the clear plastic sheet that I have. I was reduced to the humiliating situation of just gluing bits together like you mere mortals.

The side bit isn't glued in his photo, it's just to get the angle correct.

IMG_0143.JPG

 

When the three clear bits and the roof had dried, I added two more layers to make the lid as strong as poss. The 'I' stands for 'inside' and the 'O' stands 'for the other side to the inside' obviously (or was it 'outside'?).

IMG_0146.JPG

 

The cab lid is home to greeble central. It's covered in mysterious carbuncles. Foremost amongst these is one of the most prominent features, the top sticky-out thing (I think that's it's full technical name) and it took me two attempts to get right. To be honest, many of the things I show you are the second, third, or even fourth attempt. If I got everything right the first time, this model would have been finished a week earlier. This isn't the best photo, I didn't realise it had focused on the mesh until it was too late – still getting used to my new camera. I have no idea if it's supposed to be an air intake, but it is on mine.

IMG_0163.JPG

 

It would probably have been better to use metal for the bar over the top, but I wanted to try bending plastic rod over a flame, which turned out to be very easy to control the shape of the bend.

 

Anyway, I won't take you through the birth of every protuberance. That would just be painful for all of us. This is what I was aiming for on the left:

Lid.png   And this is how it turned out: IMG_0204.JPG

 

 

 

Also, I have another confession.

I've decided not to do SHADO 2, it's going to be SHADO 1 instead. It's a little bit that I quite like how it looks at the moment; a little bit that I'd like a break from building shooty, bangy things; but mostly because I want to to other stuff for a change – too many hobbies, too little time. Mrs Gorby said that she'd quite like a console table in the hall, so my brain has moved onto doing that (after finding out what a 'console table' is). I'll probably still be doing a model at the same time, but for a while I'll go back to maybe an hour or two every other day. I'll still be looking in here occasionally though.

 

Thanks for the 'likes' and stuff.

 

Next up, chinny-chin-chin.

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Chin-up chaps, third and last update for today.

 

I wasn't sure how I was going to do the chin, but it turned out to be one of the easiest parts of the build. This is what I was aiming for:

Chin.png

 

After messing around with cardboard templates (the cardboard I use can even be filed/sanded)….

IMG_0120.JPG

 

…. I had three main bits.:

IMG_0176.JPG

 

Headlights out of bombs and bulbs out of polished sprue:

IMG_0179.JPG

 

Front parts fitted, without any filler at all:

IMG_0181.JPG

 

Okay, quite a bit of filler was required:

IMG_0191.JPG

 

That was brief. This being precise and getting straight to the point has left me feeling a little light-headed. I think I may need a little lie down.

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3 hours ago, Gorby said:

 I've often wondered why some, for the sake of argument, lets call them 'people', kit-bash. creating things that never existed has always seemed like an odd thing to do. Apparently it's for enjoyment. who'd have guessed.

Who indeed. The phrase, 'hours of fun' springs to mind.

I think I've identified the pencil sharpener on the roof.

And, young man, You just make sure you do keep popping back here!, You'll be sorely missed.

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On 19/08/2019 at 15:28, Gorby said:

Each wheel is made up from 19 parts, with an additional 26 parts for each of the four drive wheels, and as there are 12 wheels, that makes a total of 328 bits. With the tracks and the wheels, that'll be 800 parts! What the hell am I doing!

not buying a resin casting kit, making a master you are happy with, and then making up multiple identical copies.   I bought  a resin starter kit years ago, and found it easy enough to do.  

 

On 19/08/2019 at 14:03, Gorby said:

The SHADO tracks are very distinctive, quite unlike normal tank tracks.

 

Quote

I am a big Gerry Anderson fan.

UFO and Captain Scarlet are my favourites.

When I had the chance to buy a Tiger Joe toy tank, I pounced on it.

It was used as the basis of a number of vehicle in various Anderson series.

The wheels and tracks are used in the rear section of the Crab Logger in the Thunder Birds' episode "Path of Destruction" and as the basis for the Unitron tank in Captain Scarlet's "Point 783".

But it is most famous as the chasis for SHADO Mobiles in UFO.

I had some blue prints for a mobile and by using Dave Sisson's site, http://davidsissonmo...co.uk/index.htm

 

Smobile4.jpg

 

http://davidsissonmodels.co.uk/shadomobile.htm

12 hours ago, Gorby said:

I'm recognising bits that are stuck on from kits. Basically the original builders were kitbashers, like you.

Note the list of what commercial model kits supplied which greeblies.....

Quote

Smobile2.jpg

Kit parts from - 
A. 1/40 scale Honest John Rocket Launcher by Life-Like or Adams
B. 1/24 scale Gemini Capsule by Revell
C. 1/40 scale Tillie-the-Toiler Anti-aircraft gun by Life-Like or Adams
D. 1/40 scale Scissors Bridge & M-48 Tank Launcher by Revell
E. 1/24 scale James Bond Autogyro by Airfix
F. 1/21 scale Long Tom by Tamiya
G. 1/72 scale B29 Superfortress by Airfix
H. 1/72 scale Scammel Tank Transporter by Airfix
J. 1/32 scale H-43b Huskie helicoptor by Testors
X. Faller B-255

 

@Gorby  great bit of scratch building, just linked and quoted the above as I was fascinated when I saw what was made from what... the David Sissions site can be a bit of a rabbit hole though...

 

2 hours ago, Gorby said:

Mrs Gorby said that she'd quite like a console table in the hall, so my brain has moved onto doing that (after finding out what a 'console table' is).

Must part of this... 

mb1.jpg

http://davidsissonmodels.co.uk/moonbase.htm

 

?

 

cheers

T

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12 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Who indeed

Thanks Pete. Obviously I wasn't thinking of you when I wrote that. Honest. :whistle:

 

 

Thanks  @Troy Smith . Very interesting info there, just a shame I didn't find it while I was building it. After seeing the Tiger Joe tank (which I'd never heard of before) and seen the list of bits they stuck on, they did have it easy. I'll let them off as they designed something that is not only believable, but also quite pleasing to the eye.

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