1/350 Aoshima Thunderbirds Fireflash

[Lee Chambers]

2 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Lovely job!

 

Scales in Thunderbirds are always tricky as to be honest the production team really didn't care. Comparing TB2 and Fireflash or Zero X are perfect case in point as the scales diverge all over the place almost from shot to shot.

Thanks,yes i have to agree about scale,also the 1/350 Imex TB-2 looks to me like the nose is the wrong shape,it's too flat and long,photos make it look worse than it is in person.

[Kallisti]

The 9" Imai TB2 has totally the wrong shape nose as it curves upwards to a point whereas the underside should be flat. 

That said, its still recognisably TB2  The only decent TB2 kit shapewise is the 22" Imai one but that is very expensive (over $300) and very difficult to build as its not injection moulded polystyrene but is instead heavy-duty expanded polystyrene (like the packaging material you get around fridges or appliances) with a resin skin covering it. I built one a few years back you can see it here

 

 

 

 

[Lee Chambers]

52 minutes ago, Kallisti said:

The 9" Imai TB2 has totally the wrong shape nose as it curves upwards to a point whereas the underside should be flat. 

That said, its still recognisably TB2  The only decent TB2 kit shapewise is the 22" Imai one but that is very expensive (over $300) and very difficult to build as its not injection moulded polystyrene but is instead heavy-duty expanded polystyrene (like the packaging material you get around fridges or appliances) with a resin skin covering it. I built one a few years back you can see it here

 

 

 

 

I agree the big 1/144 kit looks good,i picked up a kit from a uk seller that had just had the fuselage halfs glued together,so it was a good buy at £125.

I have seen your build,very nice indeed !

Thier Thunderbird Mole kit uses the same expanded polystrene in the main body parts.

I think the TB-2 kit has a thicker shell of resin compared to the Mole i recently built.

One day i will get round to building "The big un !"

[Michael Morris]

FAB

[Tarkas]

On 2/27/2021 at 8:20 PM, Lee Chambers said:

For your reference to how long Fireflash is,it measures 340mm from tip of nose cone to ends of wing tips.

The Elevator cars measured from front of car to rear of top platform is 40mm.

Hope that is of help.

Definitely. Purely for interest's sake, the model's length of 340 mm scales up to 119 m or 390.4 feet. The supposedly 1/144 Elevator Cars measure roughly 108 mm in length. Using that as a basis gives an overall length for the Fireflash of 132.2 m or 433.7 feet. To anyone who's seen the shots of TB2 flying along a Fireflash, either of those sounds decidedly short, but that could be chalked up to perspective, at least for some shots. Kallisti is dead right about the production team not caring about continuity that way. Still, it's entertaining to think about it.

 

Against that, the Airbus A380 is 73 m long and the Boeing 747-8 is 76 m long, so 390-440 feet is a reasonable figure for a ;large long-haul airliner, though it wouldn't fit on a modern airport very well, being well outside the "80-metre box" that gives the maximum size of an aircraft for jetway access. But then, "London Airport" doesn't seem to be any known airfield, so it could be something new with facilities modified to take larger airliners.