Just completed this, having started it at the beginning of September for am Emergency Services GB on another board. I chose this because I'd picked it up of ebay not long before and wanted to have a Thunderbird model on my shelf. Little did I realise what I'd let myself in for!!!
The box art looks good:
but what was inside didn't look all that inspiring:
For a start look at those tracks:
and then compare the body with this tiny version i got a couple of years ago@:
so the nose is totally the wrong shape, the rear is totally wrong, the back of the cab is wrong... oh dear!
So the first job was cutting out the road wheels from the tracks, adding a plastic card backing to make them wider and removing that unsightly block from the back of the body. Adding the new road wheels onto cocktail sticks and some tracks pinched from an Airfix Sherman tank, things start to improve:
Next to sort the nose out:
However that still isn't right, if you compare it to a screen shot of the original model you'll see why:
So the nose is too pinted plus there too much in front of the tracks so that needs to be trimmed back. Lets adjust the nose first:
You can see I've created the windscreen which was not easy gettign a smooth surface since underneath was a mix of yellow plastic, balsa, dried CE glue, white and green filler! However it dod go smooth and a dash of white primer proved it:
Now for some yellow paint. This was some Halfords spray, Rover Inca Yellow which looked the right colour. Here you can see the cone that will go on the rear of the body now painted yellow, plus the dozer blade still in gry primer since this will be metallic colours when finished:
The body took about 4 coats of yellow spray paint to get a good coverage. There are no decals with this kit so the red stripe is going to have to be masked and painted! The story behind that would take a book so to keep it simple it was done very carefully and ended up looking like this:
Next came the assembly of the various scratch built components for the rear of the body:
In the meantime I'd been building the diorama base using plaster cast rocks plus some carved balsa:
Rubble and debris needed to be created:
and then put together and painted:
Link to larger version
and finally extra rubble and debris added plus weathering and its complete!
Well apart from there being no decals! I moved house during the summer and there are still a stack of boxes yet to unpack and in one of them I am HOPING my supply of decal film is still hiding! Once I find it I'll create the simple "Firefly" decals that adorn this little monster!
I've only been back in the hobby about a year and this has been my toughest build so far! That said I'm pleased with the final result so I hope you like it too!
Fantastic modelling!
As a certified Anderson nut - that is simply awesome!!
