Thunderbirds props - part 4

The chair is finished.

It was painted a dull silver with the ribbed sides picked out in Bare Metal Foil for some contrast.

It isn't brilliant, but I'm more than happy with it as a first attempt.  Console next.

Here is the chair with Scott Tracy trying it out for size... very happy.

Thunderbirds props -part 3

Very quick update...
My perspex discs arrived today and used one for the base of the Thunderbirds chair. 

The chair is now stable and surprisingly robust... it has to be really, the figures are quite heavy and a less solid construction would collapse.

Next, painting it and adding the cushions... here they are just resting on the seat and backrest.

Overall silver with chrome tape used on the edges.

Thunderbirds props -part 2

Back to the chair...

My red PVC arrived and I started on the seat cushion and the back... I'm no upholsterer, so forgive the roughness of the final parts.

I made these by gluing a template to a piece of thin packing foam and cutting the shape out. 
I then glued the foam to the back of the PVC (which has a kapok type fibre backing), cut it oversize and then went through a process of folding and gluing the PVC to the 'cushion'.

This is what I came up with...

Once the chair has been painted I will glue the cushions so they look a lot neater than in these photos.  I chose the quilted look as that seemed to be the most common design for Thunderbirds utility type chairs.

Next update should have the circular base added.

Thunderbirds props -part 1

When Big Chief Studions announced they were going to be producing action figures based on Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet I was a bit dubious.  The photos looked amazing but I'd been caught out by prototype photos before.  Then I ordered them...

These figures are half puppet size, so while they appear nominally 1/6 scale their proportions are those of mid 1960s Supermarionation puppets, so best to think in terms of them being 1/2 scale.

Captain Scarlet is still on pre-order and probably won't be out until before Christmas 2018, but Scott and Virgil from Thunderbirds are out now... and they are exactly like their prototype photos.  With them in hand I knew I needed to build some props for them to be photographed in some sort of context with their surroundings.

So I sat down and worked out a design for a basic Gerry Anderson style chair and instrument console... the setting could be anywhere, but I needed some sort of objects for the figures to interact with.
The console still needs work, but the chair was designed to look like this...

Simple but looks the part.

I built the two main parts from 3mm Foamex PVC board and added ribbed plasticard to the edges and back.  The support was made from a cut-down fizzy tablet tube.  As yet I have not added the disc shaped lower 'foot' for the chair or the upholstery.  The latter will me made from a red PVC material, for that nice authentic 60s look.

Here is where I am at the moment...

 Here you can see the ribbed surface... this will add some visual interest to what could have been a very boring surface. 

Once the circular base has been added I will spray this silver and add chrome to the edges for a really nice effect.

The Mekon - Part 1

Many moons ago (the 1980s) I discovered Dan Dare through a Tiger oversize luxury reprint of the "Voyage to Venus", which had run for over a year in the pages of "Eagle" from 1950.  In that volume I found myself swept up in the very first adventure of Colonel Dan Dare and his friends and they journeyed to Venus in search of answers to problems on Earth.
That first story also introduced Dan's long-standing nemesis: the Mekon.

The Mekon was a wizened little creature clad in a lilac one-piece suit with oversized head... his massive intellect made up for his small stature. 
So weak was he that the Mekon needed a flying chair to ferry him about.

 

In the early 2000s I was fortunate enough to get one of the rare Day2Day Trading Dan Dare action figures in 1/6 scale.  The figure was an accurate representation of Dan as he appeared in the comic's early days, and there was the promise of more figures to come.  The next issue was to be Dan in his green Space Fleet uniform... Sadly the sales were so poor that the rest of the line was cancelled... so there would be no Mekon.

Then the other day I was trawling through Timeless Hobbies' website and there was a model kit of the Mekon in 1/6 scale... I pounced!

The model comes in a stout card box with the Mekon broken down into: head/neck, arms, legs and torso, all cast in a grey green resin with some prominent mould parting lines. 

There is no manufacturer's name on the box or enclosed instructions.  The suggestion of using car body filler and car primer shows the model's age.

The right hand is cast with a strange extrusion from the wrist, so they need separating and mating together at the right angle.  Why they did this baffles me.

The surface detail is good, but quite soft in places - I suspect this may be quite an old model.
The detail on the head is really nice and will reward some careful painting.

I will smooth off the eyes so that I can paint them more neatly.  The engraved detail will only hinder that process.

Since it is to be displayed with action figures my approach has to reflect that, so the painting of the figure has to be more subtle... so no forced shadows on the skin or clothing.

The onesie he wears will need the join between torso and legs filled and smoothed and then painted in such a way that it looks like clothing rather than solid vynil.  No idea how to do that just yet.

He comes with a vacuum formed lower half of his flying chair with a resin seating platform.

I cleaned up the vacform top edge and fixed a sheet of plasticard to it, tidying up the edges once the glue had properly dried.

This is a 'stack shot' of the model so far...

This is where I am so far...

Generic Door Diorama

Like my other photo background projects this is made from Foamex PVC board as used for signs - in this case 10mm thick.
It represents a generic doorway, either in an alley or at the back of a store/some other establishment... a good hangout for Judges, villains or police/SWAT/SO13.

I used some PVC pipe for... pipes, and there are a working outside light and a working red light above the door.  The security type light is a small LED lamp sold as a novelty reading light.

I had it lying around for a good six months before I got my finger out and decided to start painting it.

I sprayed an undercoat of Rustoleum matt black and oversprayed that with a medium grey...

 The hexagonal item is the base of the LED lamp, while the object next to it comes from an old Aoshima 1/6 Pioneer stereo model kit.

 General overview of the model 

 Bricks are from a 2mm thick cork board and the pipes are 90 degree PVC aquarium pipes

Peep-hole is from a rifle sniper sight, door handle is a map pin with a model spare part added and the door panel is textured styrene sheet. 

The red LED above the door...

I then started to add more colour - I added a brick colour base coat to the... bricks and painted around the door with a grey shaded with black pigment powder.

Overview of the model so far... the bricks will receive weathering and grout (dirty).  The stereo piece has been painted a metallic green, and will also be weathered.  The sign on the wall is a sample warning sign I bought from eBay and is printed on 2mm PVC board.

Much more to come...

Fishy trees

Diorama accessories in any modelling scale are a must, but in 1/6 scale there are few and those are expensive, but there are alternatives to those manufactured for the scale.

Remember my fish tank cavern walls?

Well, I have once again dived into the murky waters of the fish-keeping world... and found tree trunks!

Cast in resin the tree trunks are hollow and well detailed, although swarming with pin holes.  Since the cast bark texture is very coarse (realistically so) these are nearly all unnoticeable.

I shall repaint them and add the likes of moss and other plant growth on them, but for £2.99 each I really can't complain.

They work well with 1/6 figures as smallish fallen logs... perfect for rural, forest or jungle dioramas/photo set-ups.

I shall be diving back into the fish tank soon to see what else I can find...

From junk...

You know how it is... you're feeling below par, feeling sorry for yourself and just lying down hoping to sleep the sickness off... lying there staring into space wishing the churning in your guts would stop... I was like that on Thursday evening, just lying on my bed staring into space and my eyes lighted on an old air freshener like one of these:

With the label peeled off you are left with three or four leaf-shaped holes.
So what? you may ask... well, the model maker in me saw something else...

I added a couple of knobs I was sent by my mate Bob Aucutt and instant retro style radio.

All I need to do is paint it a nice bakelite tortoise shell pattern, add some screening material behind the cut-outs, paint the knobs and add a frequency dial and hey presto nice little diorama accessory :)

Always pays to look at something you would normally discard with a fresh perspective... sometimes junk is junk, but other times...