UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Space!

From Apollo and Soyuz, to Gerry Anderson, Irwin Allen, Star Wars and Trek to Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica and those strange, doe-eyed Japanese school girls...to any model kits you can think of, that only exists in imagination.
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Narayan
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UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Space!

Post by Narayan »

Greetings!

This kit was a fairly recent purchase from Hannants.

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However when it turned up on my doorstep the little alien fella and his canopy were nowhere to be seen. I contacted Hannants looking for either a refund or the missing parts. Within about 10 days Hannants came through as I knew they would.

First up the parts. All 10 of them. And a decal.

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The alien (pilot) is luminous so at first I was unsure what to do with him.

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I'll get back to him shortly. In the meantime I glued the engine nacelles together aswell as the main 'disc' and gave the a spray of Humbrol Silver (H11).

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I started painting the alien but was unsure what to do about his bonce. Leaving it alone would be pretty cool as I'd have a glow in the dark alien. However, I don't display any model so they can be seen in the dark. So he got the inevitable colour.

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Before I move on there is quite an interesting (to me anyway) story that comes with this kit. So forgive the indulgence but I'm going to retell it. Feel free to scroll down if you just want to see the finished kit!

Flying Saucer History

There have been sightings of strange objects in the night skies throughout recorded history, but it was an incident at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 that really captured the attention of the public and unified thoughts on strange visitors from other planets. The apparent crash of an alien spacecraft at Roswell had people searching the sky for flying saucers and other unidentified flying objects.

There was also a strange sighting in Skokie, Illinois in the early 1950s. This wasn’t in the night sky, but rather on the drafting tables at Lindberg Products, one of the leading manufacturers of those new fangled plastic model kits that were pushing the traditional wooden models off the hobby shop shelves. While the most popular subjects for plastic models were aircraft, cars and ships, manufacturers were quick to exploit the advantages of injection moulded plastic and were coming up with a variety of subject matter, including trains, horse drawn fire engines, wagons, bicycles and even fish! The designers at Lindberg tried something totally unique, something tied in with the news reports of the day – a flying saucer!

The timeline of the Saucer kit has gotten a little muddles over the years, but reports indicate that it was in development as early as 1952. The kit may have been on store shelves that year, but 1953 or early 1954 seems more likely. What is certain is that the silver Flying Saucer with its little green alien pilot was the very first plastic spacecraft model kit made for retail sale. (An unassembled plastic moon rocket intended as a promotional item in Europe might have preceded the Lindberg kit)

As the 50’s progressed, development of guided missiles was at fever pitch and the race between the United States and Russia to go into space was daily news. Kit manufacturers turned out an endless array of kits of real, hypothetical and totally imaginary missiles and spacecraft. Lindberg followed up their Flying Saucer with four spa of original design in 1958. The saucer was included in the “5 Space Ships of the Future” gift set that was also released that year.

Lindberg kept the Flying Saucer and the other four kits in the line until around 1965. By 1970, the space kits were back under the series name “Mars Probe”, but the Flying Saucer was missing and remained so, even when the kits were reissued as “Star Probe” in 1977. Apparently Lindberg felt that the Flying Saucer wouldn’t fit into an assortment with the other kits because of its differences in package size and price point.

That changed in 1978 when the Saucer, renamed UFO Unidentified Flying Object, was given new life in a glow-in-the-dark reincarnation. The UFO, in two different boxes, and the “Star Probe” kits remained in production until 1981. Fifteen years passed before the UFO became available again, this time in Glencoe Models packaging. The Glencoe edition reverted to the silver colour of the original kit, with just the alien pilot in glow plastic.

The Design

Lindberg never stated a scale for their Saucer kit but 1/48 was the most popular scale for aircraft kits in the early ‘50s, and the size of the pilot would seem right for this scale. With the model at 6 ¼”, the prototype would scale out at 25’ in diameter, making it a good scout ship, but in need of a much larger mother ship to make the long trip from its home planet.

There seems to be a contradiction of design elements in the makeup of the Saucer. The guns, podded jet engines and cockpit indicate a linear direction of travel, but the four edge mounted rocket exhausts suggest a spinning motion. The most likely explanation is that the outer rim rotates around the fixed centre in order to stabilize the entire craft.

The Film Star

Scale models have been used as stand-ins for the real thing since the earliest days of film making. So, it’s rather appropriate that the first plastic space model kit was, in all likelihood, the first such kit to be used in a movie. In 1956, film maker Ed Wood used a few Lindberg Flying Saucer kits in his “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Minus their jet engines and suspended on wires, the Lindberg models were mistakenly thought to be spinning Chevvy wheel covers, a myth perpetuated by Tim Burton in his biopic of Wood.


So. Are you still with me? There wasn't really much else to do on this kit. The cockpit got some paint. I did some tidying up, although probably not enough. Having said that I'd be forever tidying up my models and never finish them if I kept that up.

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I didn't think to take any pictures of the cockpit before putting the canopy in place.

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I must say I liked this simple kit mostly because it's a bit different.

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Narayan

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.

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Ian
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by Ian »

Clean and simple. What a nice job!
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Chris
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by Chris »

Love the golden oldies.
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Eric Mc
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by Eric Mc »

Really nice.

Burton revisited the "style of the era" with "Mars Attacks".
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by general rocket »

It's always nice to see the unusual.
And nicely done.
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by IvanV22 »

Looks great!!!
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Re: UFO Flying Saucer - The Original Invader from Outer Spac

Post by Tarkas »

Very nicely done. And fascinating to learn of the kit's involvement in Plan Nine From Outer Space. In a way, it's almost a shame: part of the charm of the film is the zero-budget SFX, and to find out that the flying saucers were actual models rather than hubcaps, Chevy or otherwise, makes the film just that little bit more respectable -- but it's still the deserved recipient of the Worst Film of All Time award! :mrgreen:
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