International Rescue (Thunderbirds) Firefly

[Boldman]

While building the Spitfire Mk VIII I've been also working on another model, the IMAI Thunderbirds Firefly.

This is quite a small and "toy-like" model - it has wheels that hide behind moulded on tracks that don't move. Its cast in yellow plastic, with grey/silver dozer blade and other items. Here is the sprue shot:

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For references, I've got a tiny Firefly model from Konami shown here:

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plus a wealth of Internet based resources and also this:

"Thunderbirds" Secret Files: The Inside Story of International Rescue: Amazon.co.uk: Chris Bentley, Graham Bleathman: Books

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So first off lets look at those horrible tracks:

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This is just nasty!

The original studio models were built around a toy tractor called the Vickers Vigor

and the real thing in action

The toy tractor is now incredibly rare - mostly I think because Century 21 Productions bought up so many of them for Thunderbirds!

So a bit of work with a razor saw, scalpel and sanding gives this:

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Much better! So to replace the tracks I've bought a cheap Airfix Sherman Tank as the tracks are a close approximation to the Firefly ones and at this scale, that should be good enough. I've been reading some detailed scratch build articles such as this where they've cast the track segments and wheels in resin. If I were to build my own larger scale model (something I'd LOVE to do one day!) then I might consider that, but at the scale I'm working with here, its not worth the trouble.

What is interesting looking at the builds and at other pictures is the back of the main body. In most of the pictures there is a cylindrical "turret" at The back with a sort of gantry over it. In this model the back section has a square section built up and the gantry is very inaccurate. Looks like a lot of scratch building will be required on this, before I even get onto the base If you've followed any of my other models on here before you'll know I love my diorama bases! I have some thoughts on this one and it might even be MORE interesting than the actual model!

So now lets turn our attention to the body. Can you spot the problems in comparing these two pics?

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So we have:

1) badly shaped nose

2) badly shaped rear of cabin, curved instead of flat.

3) square block on the rear platform instead of truncated cone

4) One "barrel" on each side instead of 3

So to begin to rectify this, lets get rid of that square monstrosity:

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then lets start some proper scratch-building:

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What you see here is

a ) the wheels separated from the track earlier this week now stuck to some thick card ready to be cut out to give the road wheels some proper width

b ) 5 concentric discs of plastic card in the process of being sanded down into a truncated cone

c ) two sets of 3 "barrels" made from plastic rod stuck to plastic strip

d ) the hole in the rear of the body covered with plastic card ready to accept the cone.

The nose is giving me issues. I'm not sure how best to approach this problem. Its a complex shape and I'm not sure that my initial idea of slapping some Milliput on there and reshaping it when it dried would be such a great idea as it would be tricky to get it symmetrical. I thought about carving it in balsa first as that would be easier to work with.

I can't believe how bad this model is lol Its truly awful. The silvery plastic is almost polythene as opposed to polystyrene. I've assembled the dozer blade and that alone took a great deal of sanding to get the mould lines cleaned up.

Still, if I can make this model look good it will be a major achievement!!!

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[yak face]

Fascinating stuff andrew, and very timely-- ive just been on about gerry anderson stuff on another thread!! Looks like youve got a fair bit of alteration to do but im sure its going to look brilliant, nice work on seperating the wheels. ill be watching this with interest , cheers tony

 

[andygh]

It certainly will be an achievement, good luck with it

One of those weird coincidences this, I've been slowly going through the DVD boxed set of Thunderbirds in recent weeks, it really is as good as I remember it

 

[CDW]

not exactly the biggest model to have to faff about with is it!!

Good job with the wheels ... that must have been painstaking work.

Looking forwards to seeing how this progresses.

 

[Boldman]

Catching up on the postings here...

As was seen in the last photo, I had extracted the road-wheels and stuck them to backing plastic card to increase their thickness in preparation for the replacement tracks I had sourced from the old Airfix Sherman kit. The wheels then got mounted onto cocktail stick axles, with a 3mm space made from plastic tube to space them out from the chassis. Adjusting the tracks to fit and you get this:

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which when compared to the original

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So the other area of activity is the body of the Firefly an din particular the nose. Well first off, all those holes behind the tracks were filled and sanded and the gaping hole above the tracks was covered over and the top and bottom of the Firefly joined together:

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You can also see the work done on shaping the nose. The nose has been carved from a block of balsa, super-glued to the existing flat nose and sanded down and shaped to the complex shape of the nose.

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the filler was then sanded down and the shape adjusted further, adding the "step" underneath the nose and priming it to seal the balsa to allow a smooth finish

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This is after 3 layers of primer and a lot of careful sanding! I've sadly introduced a couple of scratches into the surface of the balsa/primer/filler coating which I think I'll have to adapt into surface damage on the real thing. The tip of the nose will be receiving the large bore cannon.

Getting this shape right has been a bugger and frankly its still not right. The model itself has bad dimensions. For example if you compare it with the previous pic of Firefly leaving the pod, the front doesn't drop down very far in front of the tracks, but the model has a distinct "mudguard" shape at the front. I think I might have to indulge in some more major surgery!

Anyway, progress continues... the cannon has been added to the front of the nose. This comprises two concentric rings cut from 3mm and 4mm diameter brass tube

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Next the surgery started with the shape of the rear of the cab and some cutting:

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and then back filling and sanding...

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What you can also see in this last one is I've sanded off the raised moulding for the red band that goes over the cab, but was moulded straight across rather than the proper chevron pattern. I'll have to mask and paint this as there are no decals with this kit.

So lets look at that nose again... Its just wrong if you compare the screen grab, the bottom of the nose is flat, level with the tracks. Mine is sloping upwards.. .so lets do something about it!

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Lots of green stuff added so while waiting for it to cure, further surgery performed on the front just before the tracks where the model dips down to far. A bit of work with the razor saw and some putty will fix that.

Returning to it a couple of days later, with soem sanding and priming we get this

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As you can see I've also cut back the area in front of the tracks. Its still not exactly as per the original model, but its a much closer shape. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to get this model the correct shape, its just not right in the end. However I'm going to do the best I can!

You can also see that I've cut into the nose to create the windscreen. This was a very tricky job since the underlying material is a mixture of yellow plastic, balsa wood, dried CA glue, paint, green filler and white filler, so getting a smooth even surface is going to be an exercise in patience!

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and keeping the opening even and symmetrical is also not easy!

Phew!

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[CDW]

You say "phew" i say "wow"

Some work has been put into where you are now Andrew, it's looking more and more in line with the TV version but i can see the little differences you mention when pointed out.

I really like the story board way you post ...very clear and well written .... it's like reading a short novel.

 

[treyzx10r]

This is awesome love the work going into this . Sure is great to see some off the beaten path subjects get this kind of treatment keep it comin'!

 

[yak face]

Excellent stuff andrew! its fantastic seeing something being altered and re-created like this, keep the pics coming , cheers tony

 

[Boldman]

While stuff dries and time is spent waiting, I started on the base. What? You didn't think I'd be making a model without a base did you?

Here is the beginning, using some of my favourite plaster cast rock mouldings left over from previous experiments plus some balsa columns

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I'm using the City of Fire scenes as a sort of inspiration, so we need some building rubble as well

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which consists of some distorted sprues, come wire mesh I had left over from the Meccano Land Rover and some scratch built girders and trusses.

Next the gaps were filled with some more plaster and some debris was mixed in

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and when its given its first coat of black acrylic via the spray bottle it turns into this:

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which actually looks very effective, with blackened rocks and "ash" everywhere.

More rubble has been created, consisting of offcuts of balsa, balsa chips and some scratch build girders and trusses

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Back to the Firefly itself. After a few days spent sanding, filling, shaping, scoring, sanding, priming, sanding, filling, sanding, priming, scoring, sanding, priming, sanding and polishing... it got to this stage:

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I am now very happy with the shape of the nose and the windscreen is looking good too. So next I think is the assembly of the various items of equipment on the back and putting the cannon back onto the nose.

Meanwhile another problem lures its head... While test fitting the dozer blade into place, I discovered that during its assembly a while ago it appears to have gone wonky! At least the plastic of this is quite soft so it will just be a case of applying some heat and bending the supports so that it sits true again.

It never ends, it just never ends...

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[papa 695]

Coming along nicely Andrew

 

[Boldman]

Having got the nose "better" if not exactly right, we move onwards and into the assembly and painting. I've been using grey primer up to now but realised this probably isn't a good move for a yellow overcoat, so I've been spraying white primer over the model.

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The dozer blade still retains its grey primer as this is going to have various metallic colours. The cone that will sit on the rear of the body is already taking its yellow colour. This is from a can of Halfords paint - Rover Inca Yellow which I thought had the right tone. This is after several coats. I've put tape masks on the main body where items will be attached once painted.

The body needed about 4 coats of yellow to get a good colour, and in between required a bit of rubbing down to maintain the surface.

Next is masking up the cone for the red stripe with black outline. This was a bit experimental because of the various shapes but came out quite well as can be seen here:

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The cone was masked for the black first then I painted the whole stripe black. When this was dry I moved the masking inwards for the red. I don't think this was the best way to do it as the red took several coats to overcome the black undercoat. I will not be doing this for the stripe on the main body!

So as for the stripe on the main body, in the photo above, you see I masked and painted the leading black stripe. Once the tape came off, I touched up the line a little as it was slightly uneven and then re-masked for the red. The red over yellow went much better, although it still needed two coats.

Finally the last black line was added and the finished result looked like this:

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Getting the stripe right took a long time and careful masking and touch ups afterwards. Even still there was some creep under the masking tape and the only way to touch it up over the yellow was to try to decant some of the yellow from the can into a separate container where I could paint. This wasn't wholly successful, but the areas where it went wrong are not very noticeable and I can use some weathering tricks to hide it

Next will be assembling the various components and painting the windscreen!

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[Boldman]

And here is the painting finished-ish!

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Masking that red stripe was a bit of a bugger to say the least. I'm very pleased with the way the windscreen turned out. I masked the frame to plaint metallic grey, then freehand painted the "glass" a mix of Tamya X-4 blue and X-1 semi-glass black

Still need to do some more weathering on the tracks and roadwheels which so far have been given a base coat of metalic grey with a dark wash added for now. Think its needs a bit heavier work. Need to dull down the steel frame at the back a bit more along with some more on the dozer blade. Also need to add the headlights and horn on the top of the cab.

The final touch is to complete the diorama base, with all the extra pieces of rubble added and some extra weathering...

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And done... well apart from the fact is has no decals yet - that will get fixed at a later date when I find my decal film which I believe is still in one of the unpacked boxes left over from my house move earlier this year - at least I HOPE its in the boxes!

Phew that was quite a job in the end. If I'd known how hard this little model was to get looking good I'm not sure I'd have undertaken this project at the outset. I did however and I'm pleased with the end result!

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[andygh]

Brilliant, I love it:clap3:

 

[Boldman]

Thanks for the nice comments, glad you liked it

 

[Plastickitbasher]

Great work you should very pleased.

 

[yak face]

Fantastic build andrew , i love it. Its a real change to see something like this and all the work you have put in has certainly paid off, Great skills and 5 stars from me , cheers tony

 

[mossiepilot]

This is a beautiful bit of work Andrew.

And considering the ammount of change and rebuilding involved you can be very proud.

5 stars no doubt.

Tony.

 

[papa 695]

Great work Andrew you would think that Jerry built that himself well worth 5 stars

 

[Gern]

I'd missed this until now. Glad I caught it, that's a fabulous piece of work! Well done for taking the time and effort to reproduce a 'fantasy' item so accurately.

Gern