Thunderbirds Pilot Set
The kit is designed for some of the ships to "launch", but the springs don't hold in place well, so most will remain static
There is no explanation for this hole and missing fin, it's not needed for the launch mechanism. Flash and mould marks are pretty bad on this one
Filling that pointless cutout, Step 1, a bit of plas card to build up the body
A quick sand and the engine body is looking better
the fuselage and engine are supposed to be separated, the kit doesn't allow the full depth, but a jury rigged lathe allows a clean deep panel line to be cut in a couple of minutes. The polishing pad keeps the nose striaght
Built up engine body now taking shape
Adding the missing fin to match the others, once this is cured, some filing and filling will match to the others.
This one won't be launched, so filling the holes in the display base and filling the slot for the launch switch. Scott Tracy glued and sanded.
A very puzzling feature of this set is the massive size difference in the hands. Virgil's hands are tiny compared to Scott's
Virgil is the only one where the head needed filler on the joins.
The tail section was quite tricky to attach, the uprights are too wide, and there is no positive location to the body. Added some extra cement to fill the gap.
TB3 will be launchable. Alan has Tiny Hulk hands.
Ready for Primer
TB3 Is actually a nice little model
TB4 is probably the best reproduction of the five
Ready for Primer
For some inexplicable reason, there are 4 holes on the Underside of TB4. My best guess is this is the same mould used for the container set, and these are for the launch cradle.
I started this Set way before I discovered Scalemates, I'd put the heads together and some of the vehicles, this is how far I'd got.
This kit had a lot of flash and the vehicles are tiny. Detail isn't great and Fit leaves some gaps and holes. On the bright side, the joins are fairly good and not much filling to be done, I found it best to leave the flash until after glueing, this allows sanding of joins to be mostly completed without filler.
The Pilot's heads rotate freely, with a perfect amount of wobble that is reminiscent of the actual puppets.
Joins not too bad after sanding. They feel like primer will fill most of the gaps.
Prime time
Scott Tracy - Reference
Virgil Tracy - Reference
Alan Tracy - Reference
Gordon Tracy - Reference
John Tracy - Reference
Masked and ready for first colour. I masked the belts and sashes because test swatches highlighted that the Blue will show through any of the light colours used for these.
Vallejo 72.723 Game Air Electric Blue used for Uniforms, I chose this as a reasonable match, but when painted and dried, it's almost perfect. I am continually amazed by the quality and coverage of Vallejo paints, this is just one heavy-ish airbrushed coat. This picture also shows one strange oddity of the set, Scott Tracy (on the left) is an entirely different figure style to the rest of the team, there are no creases on his uniform to speak of, and he's shorter and stockier than the rest.
First coat on the major details for pilots and bases
Main colours airbrushed on the vehicles. Colours used are all vallejo
TB1 & 5 Model Air 71.062 Aluminium
TB2 Game Air 72.729 Sick Green 10:3 Game Air 72.728 Dark Green,
TB 3 Game Air 72.710 Bloody Red
TB 4 Game Air 72.706 Sun Yellow.
TB1 & 5 Model Air 71.062 Aluminium
TB2 Game Air 72.729 Sick Green 10:3 Game Air 72.728 Dark Green,
TB 3 Game Air 72.710 Bloody Red
TB 4 Game Air 72.706 Sun Yellow.
TB 3 finished. Sadly no decals come with this kit, hopefully I'll find some black 3s in my decal stash to add the booster pod numbers
Thunderbird 1 ready for launch
Thunderbird 2 is Go. Yellow stripe cut from a curved stripe left over from a biplane alt decal set i think.
Found some black 3s in my old decal stash
Thunderbird 4 dive dive dive. Stripe Decals donated by a 1970s Matchbox A-10 that never had them applied.
Thunderbird 5 is watching. 5 decal donated from unknown 1970s Matchbox kit
Pilot major colours completed, next time I'll spend the masking time and airbrush light colours, these were a complete pain, so many coats.
Pilot major colours completed, next time I'll spend the masking time and airbrush light colours, these were a complete pain, so many coats.
Pilot major colours completed, next time I'll spend the masking time and airbrush light colours, these were a complete pain, so many coats.
Pilot major colours completed, next time I'll spend the masking time and airbrush light colours, these were a complete pain, so many coats. I just can't seem to get the orange right on Gordon, resorted to trying a Tamiya Gloss orange. Might flat down and try again with Vallejo when cured
Pilot major colours completed, next time I'll spend the masking time and airbrush light colours, these were a complete pain, so many coats.
Remainder of the Bases completed, this will be varnished in very high gloss. Should have IR in red on the badge here, but can't find a suitable decal. Perhaps I'll print some
Remainder of the Bases completed, complete with IR blue curtains and stone clad chimney
This will have High gloss on the earth portion - going for a Blue Marble. Tempted to try some clouds, perhaps between gloss coats so it's easier to remove if I get it wrong.
Zombiebirds are Go! I'm finally happy with the Sash colours and coverage, and after a couple of repaints, I'm happy the skintone is a reasonable representation of the show's puppets. John finally gets his hands attached too, and I'm starting to get some of the details in.
One issue I've realised, I've never done figure faces before, and there are hundreds of How to tutorials out there - on how to do REALISTIC faces on model figures. All the ones I can find on Marionette faces are how to do this on REAL faces!
One issue I've realised, I've never done figure faces before, and there are hundreds of How to tutorials out there - on how to do REALISTIC faces on model figures. All the ones I can find on Marionette faces are how to do this on REAL faces!
One 8 hour session later, and here's the results. Quite a lot of trial and error, and one complete face repaint later, and I'm happy with the result for my first time on anything more than a 1/72 pilot.
I struggled to get shadows into where I needed them. Washes wouldn't behave the way they are supposed to, and everything dried way too fast I was starting to get a little despondent after doing the eyes, then I added the white highlights in the eyes and suddenly everything changed.
One thing I wish I'd done is to paint the heads before assembling the bodies. The heads were kept matched to the bodies they were packaged with, but the shapes are all wrong for the various Tracy brothers, some head swapping would have improved that.
So, they don't look all that much like the Tracy brothers, but at least they do look like puppets.
I struggled to get shadows into where I needed them. Washes wouldn't behave the way they are supposed to, and everything dried way too fast I was starting to get a little despondent after doing the eyes, then I added the white highlights in the eyes and suddenly everything changed.
One thing I wish I'd done is to paint the heads before assembling the bodies. The heads were kept matched to the bodies they were packaged with, but the shapes are all wrong for the various Tracy brothers, some head swapping would have improved that.
So, they don't look all that much like the Tracy brothers, but at least they do look like puppets.
Wish I could remember what colours I mixed for the blond hair, I'm really pleased with it. I used Beasty Brown from Game air for the brown, and Gordon's is a mix of the blond I made, and the brown.
Some dry brushing and washes changed the overall tone to pick up on the subtle colour differences between the 2 browns and the two blondes.
Some dry brushing and washes changed the overall tone to pick up on the subtle colour differences between the 2 browns and the two blondes.
TB2's launcher causes the base to tip, even with the pilot figure. Some golf club lead tape underneath will stop that
I went to add some more detail to TB2. I only meant to paint the 2 under the nose, ended up doing the T2s on the wings, wing tip, tail & engine exhaust stripes (painted), and I found a couple of 2s for the tail
Just to illustrate scale, the vehicles are about 2 inches long each. The pilot figures are 1/24 scale give or take.
TB2 also 2 inches long
One of my test planes. Right wing tip is satin over Vallejo red and random decal. Left wing is satin over some Vallejo metallic. No reactions and a nice smooth finish after 2 coats. Think 4 would be needed to embed the decals nicely
Scott Tracy & Thunderbird 1 Are Go
Virgil Tracy & Thunderbird 2 Are Go
Close Up detail of Thunderbird 2
Alan Tracy & Thunderbird 3 Are Go
Gordon Tracy & Thunderbird 4 Are Go
John Tracy & Thunderbird 5 Are Go!
Seems somehow John managed to get himself a black eye. I have a feeling I did a test of doing the irises with a sharpie, and it's bled through. I'll go back and fix that in a week or so when the varnishes have all cured.
Seems somehow John managed to get himself a black eye. I have a feeling I did a test of doing the irises with a sharpie, and it's bled through. I'll go back and fix that in a week or so when the varnishes have all cured.
Scott Tracy & Thunderbird 1
Virgil Tracy & Thunderbird 2
Alan Tracy & Thunderbird 3
Gordon Tracy & Thunderbird 4
John Tracy & Thunderbird 5
Comments
18 April 2020, 17:11
Chaz GordonI'm in two minds about working with these older kits with mould flash and fit issues.
On the one hand, build is slow and a lot of work. Inevitably, along the way you have to make decisions whether or not to keep some of the smaller details, based on how much work it is to restore them.
On the other hand, it's very satisfying when all of that work pays off, and you've made a low quality kit look good. Particularly as most of these older kits have no modern made equivalent, or at least not an affordable one.
25 April 2020, 14:37
Chaz GordonThanks John. Fortunately, this little kit doesn't frustrate too much. There's a lot to be said for making a model of a puppet, total realism isn't what is called for fortunately. For inspiration and "research", I have Thunderbirds playing in the background while I am working on this one. This is also a good test run for the larger kits, I have TBs 1,2,3 & 4 in larger IMAI kits to do at some point, so I am carefully recording my colour choices here to go back to later.
3 May 2020, 12:10
Chaz GordonToo small for that John, I'm going to paint them. Unfortunately, the kit does not come with Decals for the IR badges on the Sash & Cap, I'm trying to think how I will deal with that, I could print the black part, but trying to cut out a white background decal that small could be a bit of a challenge.. As for the decals for the Vehicles, some will be covered by a raid on my old decals box.
9 May 2020, 09:36
Chris GreathouseAwesome! Have you seen any of the WETA Workshop videos about Thunderbirds? They were the set and model creators for the newer 2015 show (puppet/CG). You can see alot of the work. Youtube Video
13 May 2020, 01:22
Chaz GordonReally pleased with progress this week on the vehicles. My old decal box yielded up everything I needed, except for white 2s for TB2. All the decals used have been in my decal stash since the 1970s, so I'm quite impressed that they didn't disintegrate.
17 May 2020, 04:49
Chaz GordonGlad you stopped by JD, only the Hood secretly watches International Rescue
17 May 2020, 13:03
Chris GreathouseI love how FAB means nothing as an abbreviation. (although it was used to hype missions... good to go, let's rock, orders understood, etc...)
Not to threadjack but one of my favorite acronyms is from Stargate... The device the team uses to open the stargate from offworld is called a GDO... it literally means Garage Door Opener as said by the producers and the acronym was created as a joke, but it stuck around in the script, and became official Stargate lingo. 😄
17 May 2020, 18:59
Chaz GordonI believe that GDO was explained in-show at one point. Don't sweat the thread jacking, I doubt we'll see much SG-1 Discussion on an SG-1 thread here any time soon, as far as I can see there are no officially licenced kits, and just a handful of Resin & 3D Print offerings around. It's a shame, some Sci-Fi series get hardly anything, some get offerings like the Imai kits here, then others are bombarded with choice like Trek & Wars. Sadly not much affordable out there for Andromeda, Babylon 5, Firefly, Lexx, Red Dwarf, and even Dr Who is pretty limited. Sadly it looks like the BBC isn't one for licensing plastic Kits, there was the Comet Miniatures Blakes 7 (I have one) and Dr Who tie ups, and a couple of Airfix Dr Who, but not much else Mainstream.
17 May 2020, 23:44
JDWhat can you say about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson? They're the main reason I love models and miniatures and sci-fi and other cool kid stuff..watching Space 1999 back in the 70's with my Dad before Star Wars was even a thing...Stand by for Action!
18 May 2020, 01:07
Chaz GordonA lot more progress, pilots are near ready for facework and details. Just having trouble with the orange on Gordon's sash, tried some tamiya gloss, may go back and flat and repaint
21 May 2020, 01:27
Chaz GordonAs they are self contained with their own display bases, I will initially display in my cabinet on those bases. When I have more space, I may put them on a plinth with the Pilot pictures from the show on a background
21 May 2020, 07:30
Chaz GordonNo Pics yet, but I've been experimenting with a couple of different techniques with this model/game air paint. I am now applying from the brush as a kind of controlled transfer of liquid rather than brushing on the paint. This allows the paint to self level for a good coverage and lack of brush marks. It's tricky, because if you get it in the wrong place, it will flow where it shouldn't be, and it takes ages to dry, but the results are great.
I am finding that some colours in the range are quite transparent and difficult to get coverage with a brush. I was surprised to find this with the Dark Blue that I used on the Base for TB5. I ended up flowing the paint onto the model directly from the eyedropper bottle, allowing the dropper tip to contact the plastic in front of the paint edge, letting the paint flow out instead of dropping out. This gave a good finish, but I was concerned about runs.
I'm working on details at the moment, and the Communicators (I think that's what they are) that they carry on their belts should be orange and blue. Both colours with high transparency, but in places that will flow the paint where you don't want it. Probably touch up over the excess later. Fortunately the Electric Blue on their uniforms is highly opaque.
22 May 2020, 10:41
Chaz GordonI have some micromask from microscale, and some vallejo liquid mask, the vallejo comes off easiest in one piece, but it's no good if you need to cut it if you get some where you don't want it, and the surface tension is too high (or is it too low?) it'll climb raised edges and pool in corners. The Micromask goes on much better and doesn't climb, plus it doesn't tear when cut, but when painted, comes off in crumbs. both clean off brushes fairly well with water.
But I'm always open to try other products, I've just had so many bad experiences with Humbrol products, the acrylic clear sprays are excessively high in solvent, and dry white. I used to use the enamels, but found white spirit clean up a real pain.
23 May 2020, 11:22
JDHey Chaz, ever tried Silly Putty? It's super fun to use, and you can get sharp or feathered lines, plus it's re-useable, and can be found at the dollar store World war toons Panther V | Album by Mithran’dir (1:Egg)
World war toons Panther V | Album by Mithran’dir (1:Egg)
23 May 2020, 21:03
Chaz GordonThanks for the Tip JD, I've seen this used on Aircraft cammo, worth a thought. It's different stuff here - Playdoh, not sure if it's got the same properties, but worth a try when I can find some. Welcome aboard Torsten
23 May 2020, 21:41
Bill NewcomerHave you ever tried Parafilm? It lays down tight. It can be pushed around with a toothpick. It does not affect the gloss of whatever it has been applied to and generally can be pulled off in one piece. The best parts is there is no bleed under between colors. Layered applications seal great whether you use more parafilm or masking tape. You can also leave it on for months with no ill effects.
24 May 2020, 07:23
Chaz GordonBill, As in the Lab tape? I get pretty good results with the 2 & 6 mm tapes I use, and on the odd occasion I get bleed, it's usually me not pressing the edge of the tape down, and I just go back and fix those with a brush later. The pain with tapes is getting it in tight internal spaces, like under the arms of these pilots. Traditional figure painting, I'd do the fiddly bits of the body before attaching the arms, but these are two piece figures. What's the adhesion level of parafilm? seems it would be quite high and likely to remove the vallejo colours.
24 May 2020, 14:22
Bill NewcomerAdhesion is excellent and paint removal is near non existent. Kind of like heavy duty post-it note adhesive.
24 May 2020, 17:16
Chaz GordonThanks John, I was getting a bit frustrated and despondent with them, so I thought, what harm can it do? and put the flecks into the first figure, and it was immediately WOW! I had to go back and second coat the flecks on only one of the five.
Today is the tricky bit, Varnish!
The boots needs to be High gloss, the rest I'm going for Satin first. and see if that works for me, I like a bit of sheen on my models for display. I have some Matt ordered from Amazon should turn up thursday, so if the satin is too much, I'll try the matt. I have found that Tamiya Matt is nasty on metallic finishes, turns them flat colours, so I'm interested to see how the Vallejo works. I have a test piece prepped with plain, metallic and microsol'd decals on it, so just plucking up the courage.
I've had good results with the Vallejo gloss on woodcrafts, so I'm optimistic. I have found the Vallejo Acrylic varnishes hard to get recently in the UK, probably spanish lockdown related. Amazon had the Matt come in stock at £4 above MSRP, so I grabbed up a 500ml bottle, they're sold out already.
25 May 2020, 13:31
Chaz GordonThanks Chris, the secret is a 5x magnifier and toothpicks in craft knife handles. Generally, if it looks "Just ok" under the magnifier, it looks good without.
Just completed my first test with the Vallejo satin, the finish is pretty much the slight sheen I'd want on my Matt finishes, so i guess it's going to be my go to. Think I'll have a try with a 50/50 satin gloss mix for a more semi gloss finish at some point.. but the satin should be perfect fot this project.
25 May 2020, 16:44
Chaz Gordonvarnishing has gone reasonably well, I tried out the 50/50 and it has definitely improved the metallics, TB 1 & 5 have been recoated and look much more metallic, TB2's launcher looks terrible in satin, so it's going to get the semi gloss treatment tomorrow. Now just have to wait 24 hours before I can think about masking to gloss the boots. I had a try at freehand varnishing them but the gloss is too thick to go through the nozzle on fine setting. I don't want to over thin the gloss too much, the recipe I'm using gives a great gloss.
25 May 2020, 23:33
Chaz GordonFound out that White Tack is a good UK alternative for Silly Putty, so used that to mask and complete the Gloss Varnish on the boots today. 4 of the 5 are complete for now, just waiting for the cement to dry on TB5 as it is the only one that does not sit naturally on the stand without using cement.
28 May 2020, 03:28
Chaz GordonSo, I'm about done on this set for now. Couple of things I still want to fix:
John's black eye
Missing IR badges on the sashes
Missing IR cap badges
Missing IR lettering on the TB2 Base
Add gloss varnish to the eyeballs
The black eye is easily fixed with some fleshtone mix, the missing badges I'll have to make some decals, but I'm not using up a whole sheet just for those, so I'll print them with the next decal sheet I do. Everything should be well cured and hard by then.
Overall, a fun build, plenty of things learned along the way:
I learned how to Paint EYES! I'm so pleased with that!
IMAI plastic only needs sanding, no filler on the joins if you leave the flash on. But you still need to get rid of the occasional nobbly bit.
I learned how to do detail with a toothpick
Some Vallejo model air colours are best applied only with an airbrush.
In some applications, flowing thick Vallejo air paint onto the model with a brush gives a great and level finish
White tack is a reasonable masking solution, but I wouldn't use it for a hard edge colour change.
It was definitely worth saving all those decals for the last 40 years!
Unused Matchbox Decals can hold up for 40 years, Hasegawa don't.
Cheap kits can be satisfying if you're willing to put in the effort and patience.
Vallejo Acrylic Varnish will gum up a 0.2 airbrush real fast - need to get a 0.5 for clears.
70:30 is a good thinning ratio for Vallejo clears with de-ionised water.
28 May 2020, 04:05
Chaz GordonPhotoshoot done, and that'll do until I have a need for some DIY decals. On to the next project
69 Camaro | Album by Volvo Man (1:25)
14 June 2020, 15:01
Chaz GordonIn this case, I'll be printing with a colour laser printer onto Transparent laser decal paper (no coating req as laser is waterproof). As the badges have a need for white background, I'll make a template of the white shape out of paper (painstakingly) then airbrush a white base, then position the transparent decal with the colour and black details over the top.
15 June 2020, 12:33
Chaz GordonFirst step is to print a bunch of plain paper versions to get the size right, then I can cut that plain paper version out as the stencil.
15 June 2020, 12:34
Chaz GordonJD, its a simple choice, either painstakingly cut 10 decals with a knife, or cut 2 paper stencils with a knife.
15 June 2020, 20:20
Album info
My first large (4 inch) Figure project.
