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Scratchbuilt USAF Lunar Interceptor


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Hi all.
This is a build I finished a little while back.
It's my own take on the classic UFO interceptor. After all, perhaps SHADO didn't have the resources to fend off the aliens on its own and so maybe they got some help from the US, the Brits and even the Soviets.

This interceptor has two missiles on stub wings and a roof-mounted 30mm cannon. It's mostly engine and fuel so it can get into position as fast as possible. The side-mounted rotating exhausts give it VTOL capability.
Back in the real world, I based the design on the Apollo CSM as I thought that maybe the USAF would have to reuse some of the original NASA hardware.

The tubular body is plastic pipe, the nose was carved from a pyramid of MDF slabs and sanded into shape using 40 grade sandpaper which is basically rocks glued to paper. So it didn't take long. The engine is 22mm copper pipe and the engine bell is part of an old light fitting. Most of the other details are styrene card and the usual greeblies.
The decals caused me some problems as I had nothing in the spares bin that would fit, so I downloaded some F16 1970s vintage markings along with a few others. I made a few up as well. The final set was printed on waterslide paper.

The missiles are ballpoint pens with bits of sprue, while their rocket bells are wheels from a Tamiya tank kit, drilled out to resemble a bell shape.

Hope you like it and all comments welcome! I enjoyed this so much I'm working on an RAF gunship from the same scenario, and after that, it will have to be a Soviet gunship, just to balance things up a bit.

Cheers and happy modelling
Monty

 

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Thanks very much everyone, I'm glad you like it. @Bandsaw Steve yes it's bonkers 😀. @Serkan Sen Hi, the diorama was made of a grey painted cloth as the base, with grey painted tin foil as the hill in the background. Love tin foil, that stuff can be made to look like just about anything. The moon rocks are from my garden, they got sprayed grey as well. In fact they look surprisingly convincing, I might sell them on Ebay (maybe not).

 

I just started on the RAF interceptor which is a very different design to this but the same scale, roughly 1:35. Watch this space!

cheers

Monty

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Very interesting take on an alternative Interceptor design, and extremely well made.

 

HadesOmega mentions the Millenium Falcon as a design influence; I'd have said the Apollo CSM myself -- which would fit, time-wise -- with a touch of Mike Trim's original Interceptor design, which the model resembles somewhat. But only the maker knows for sure, if he does; strange indeed are the processes of the creative mind. 😉

 

Anyway, it looks great. Any chance of some other types? Serkan Sen's MiG-37 looks more like a Sky 1 alternative to my eye, but YMMV. I'd expect a Soviet/Russian "assistant Interceptor" to have lots of little engines rather than one big one, and a crew compartment to be based on an expanded Soyuz capsule. Soviet practice was never to reinvent the wheel, so there are components on modern Soyuz craft that date back to Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 -- it ain't broke, so they don't fix it -- so I could see a UFO-era Interceptor following the same philosophy.

 

Whether you do or don't do more in this vein, what you have done is great work.

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Thanks @Tarkas, that means a lot to me.

 

See here (if you haven't already seen this):

 

for another build, in the same UFO universe, but (as the name suggests) an RAF interceptor. Actually I changed it later to a Royal Navy interceptor because I liked the colour scheme on the RN Buccaneers. In fact, I like the Buccaneer full stop, so a touch of that crept into my design.

 

I am still sketching out a design for a Soviet interceptor, probably something with a lot of scaffolding and a sort of rough and ready appearance. They certainly did like to keep it simple. None of that streamlining nonsense.

 

BTW spot on about Mike Trim, I saw his design on the web ages ago and thought it was superb so a dash of that got added into the mix as well.

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