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Dan Dare 'Anastasia' model


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I've been a Dan Dare fan for donkeys years and have the entire collection of Eagle comics. (As well as TV-21)
I also have the Dan Dare strips in the gigantic, superb Hawk hardback book collections.

I've been trying to get a good model of Anastasia - Dan's ship, for many years but for whatever reason, nobody makes one.

SOOO - The upshot is I'm going to make one myself.
I think that to do it any justice, the finished model will need to be around 18" (460mm) in length at least.
TBH, I'd prefer it at around 24"- 30" but my vac former can't make the parts large enough without resorting to loads of bits that need fixing together.
Even at 18" though, I'll be able to add interior detail through the 'greenhouse' windows.

I'm going to make it in clear plastic, vac formed, so I will be able to have all the windows just by careful masking before paint. That way, there will be no fiddly adding separate clear windows to the model.

As a vac form, I'll have to create the masters first but after that, I'll be able to make as many as I want if things go wrong.

 

The attached pic is a model someone else made for themselves.


Am I potty...
Are there no other people out there who have wanted a model of Anastasia?
WHY has nobody ever made such a kit???
Am I the only old twit who has wanted one?
 

ANNIE.jpg

 

Edited by roymattblack
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I'll follow along on this, Eagle was weekly grist to our mill when I was a kid, pity we didn't keep ours like you have, they'd be brilliant to leaf through nowadays. As for Anastasia, I was definitely a fan but my favourite was the Zylbat, that really rocked my preteen boat. :)

Steve.

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4 hours ago, roymattblack said:

(As well as TV-21)

Would you consider a lend/lease arrangement for them? That's where half my pocket money went in those days.

Eagle was read on an opportunistic basis, that is, whenever I could scrounge a copy from someone.

I loved the Dan dare artwork and Anastasia has a lovely shape, so I'll don my Spacesuit and hitch a ride too.

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I too thought that Anastasia was a super craft. Do we have dimensions? My great mentors Ada and Jim Winterbottom up in Lancashire, helped make my childhood in Oldham a magical place. They bought me the Eagle every week and gave me materials to make things with. Now look where that led too.

 

John

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My brother who is four and half plus older than me used to have the Eagle and so I was reading it at an early age andI used to love the Dan Dare hardware. I wish I had collected the hardback collections when they came out, but with have young children at the time was a bit of a non starter (the downside of having a wife ten years your junior, but I proud of my children). 

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13 hours ago, John Aero said:

Nothing wrong with younger wives, Mine's 25 years my junior, and it's been that way for 20 years 😀

 

John

And a very nice lady she is John, I cannot believe that it is so long, mind you I first met you nearly 40 years ago. Give her my regards

Martin 

1 hour ago, roymattblack said:

Mine is 15 years younger than me...

Glad I am good company here, oddly enough Mrs T's sister also married someone somewhat older than herself and also able to cook, do DIY etc, not daft the pair of them. 

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Occasionally the Avatar hides the person behind quite successfully to a 'T'.  Martin, of course you also knew my dear late wife Angela and you must certainly vie for being one of my oldest customers.  We are certainly fortunate.

 

John

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My wife is only 1 year younger than me. What on earth am I doing wrong?

 

Re Dan Dare, of the 3 tea chests I stored in a friends woodland for 10 years in Wales  when I moved to the Netherlands, the one with the few Eagles I'd kept was the one I never found again. (Luckily the one with my modelling stuff, and Airfix and Scale Models magazines did make it).

 

Paul.

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Yes of course I remember Angela and the sadness of her passing. My avatar comes from when I was working when the secretary I had and her friend who was the receptionist at uni used to always call me Mr T and it seemed a good one when I joined Britmodeller

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3 minutes ago, Paul Thompson said:

My wife is only 1 year younger than me. What on earth am I doing wrong?

For me  and John it was second time around and of course older  more experienced men are just that more sexy (I have always had the ability to kid myself). 😉

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Scoot up fellas and make space for a little one, ( I do bring Hob Nobs though)... 

 

Being of a slightly younger vintage I was blessed by the 1982 version of Dan Dare, (the original's great-great grandson Daniel)..Incidently, my eldest ended up being called Daniel after 'my' Dan Dare.

 

My Father had read all the original Dan Dare stories as a child and naturally when the Eagle comic was re-released in 1982 he made sure I got swept up in the stories of Dan Dare, 

 

One of the most memorable things about the 'new' Eagle was the artwork by Ian Kennedy, the spaceships were so futuristic but believable, I loved the stories that lasted many issues,

For example, I can remember to this day the first story about (New) Dan's return to earth only to find it enslaved by the Mekon, and his fight to free the earth from the Mekon and the Treens. During this story Dan stole the Mekon's personal 'fighter', a ship called the 'firefly',  

 

spacer.png

 

The conclusion of this story and the subsequent defeat of the Mekon would then lead on to a story called 'The Dare Report', which via a bit of 'retconning' would tell readers how the original Dan Dare, a decorated Battle of Britain pilot, and Test Pilot would end up slipping through time into the future, and then bring the story up to date for the 'new' Dan Dare,

For years I wanted my own model of 'Firefly', but alas it never happened...

However those memories will stay with me for ever.. 

 

Anyhow, excuse the ramblings above, I'm soooo looking forward to this build...can't wait to see how this progresses. 

 

p.s. I'd love to know if this is still available

 

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_061110b.htm

 

Edited by langy
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Looking at the posts...............Nostalgia by men of a certain age. Yes, I too read the Eagle when I was a kid. I have a book entitled the Best of The Eagle that brings back a lot of memories.

When I was a small boy back in the late forties early fifties I can remember mum and dad buying my brother and me a little check jacket each that had the Dan Dare Starfleet logo on them.

I also loved the detailed cutaway drawings of different subjects across the top half of the middle pages of the comic.

 

The Anastasia was a lovely looking spacecraft, but cannot see anyone investing in a kit of a subject from a 1950's comic, unless an enthusiast make a limited run resin or vac form.

The Treen spaceships looked good too.

I think that someone did a white metal figure of the Mekon some time back.

 

I can remember watching an American sci fi movie at the local cinema where the alien invader's victims had an implant stuck into the backs of their necks. They were trooped to their leader who had an over sized head.

Some joker in the audience said out loud' Well Look who's turned up here! It's our old friend the Mekon!' The suspense was immediately shattered as a lot of ex Eagle readers in the audience started laughing,

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  • 3 months later...
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15 hours ago, TEXANTOMCAT said:

I also remember the relaunched Eagle which my Dad got me to get me into Dan

My dad used to get the Eagle comic as a lad himself, and when he got married and I came along (Dark pre-historic times...), he continued to get it for me from the newsagent.

I loved the Dan Dare strip. Can't really remember much else about it (I do have a couple of Eagle annuals somewhere - 1952, 53 & 56 if I recall).

It went downhill after it was merged with Boy's World comic. Too many WWII strips for me. Dan Dare was a lot more nuanced than 'good guys - us, bad guys - them!

 

Ah well. All things have to come to an end...

 

Cheers,

Alan.

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  • 1 year later...

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