TB1 is here!

Well, my Aoshima Thunderbird 1 arrived from Japan yesterday and what a thing of beauty she is.  Compared to the Comet Miniatures kit I was working on this is such a joy to build, parts that fit, surface detail, no sink marks and mis-matching hull halves... such a nice model.

I have built up a few sub-assemblies and done a quick stack shot to see how she looks...

The kit is around 24cm tall, which, compared to a length of 34.9 metres or 115 feet makes the kit almost exactly 1/144 scale, as stated on the box.  Oddly, this is exactly the same size as the Comet one, but that states a scale of 1/72, making the craft half the size as quoted in various publications.  If you go by the access door the scale should be around 1/80, but scale was never a real consideration when these were originally designed... I mean look at the size of TB1's cockpit, and then the pod... scales are all over the place.

I prefer not to get too hung up on it, and will go with what's the most common size.

Here is the kit with a Tomica Sagawa delivery service can in 'N' gauge, not far from the right scale.

Really happy to finally have this kit.  I'll use the Comet kit's decals on this where I can as the older markings seem to have the correct font.

Now all I need is Fireflash, Zero X and the new TB3 (when it comes out)... I wonder where I can get a Zero X for a decent price.....

Happy days!

I just realised it's been six months since I updated this blog... wow!

Anyway, when I was in Japan last year I was looking for the reissued "Thunderbirds" kits by Aoshima all I managed to get were FAB1 and the MOLE.  I saw a Fireflash, but when I went back to get it... gone u_u
However I have at last managed to get their 1/144 scale Thunderbird 1, which is on its way from Japan to me even as I write.

Although Aoshima are using old Imai artwork, the kit is newly tooled and as accurate as any modeller could hope for.  It's around the same size as the Comet one I have, but less work!

On the new kit front Aoshima are giving us a newly tooled Thunderbird 3 to 1/350 scale, and it looks very nice.. this is the kit from Aoshima's site:

As you can see it's a beautiful model which is around the same size as my JR21 version - which I will replace with this piece of plastic goodness.

Finally it was announced a few months ago that ITV in the UK have commissioned a brand new "Thunderbirds" TV series to air on their CITV channel.  It will be a combination of CGI characters and real sets - how this will work is anyone's guess... but it can't be worse than the recent feature film version.