Ron Turner Excavator

Back in 1966 that year's "Thunderbirds" annual was packed with the usual mix of comics, details on the characters and machines and stories of real disasters and accidents where International Rescue could have been of use... had they been around.
One of the comics, by famed TV21 artist Ron Turner featured a new pod vehicle. It was never given a name, and was simply referred to as the excavating equipment. Why he never used the machine as used in "The Martian Invasion" is a mystery... maybe he was never given reference photos? Whatever the reason it's typical of his design work: outlandish, exotic and pure '60s futurism. Quite why Imai then chose to model this is also a mystery... had an exec somehow seen a copy of the annual and thought, yeah... that would make a cool model.
To my knowledge Imai made this vehicle in three sizes: a large battery-operated model around 200mm long with rubber tracks, a smaller model with wheels, and a tiny one as part of their pod series of kits. It's also probably the only time that anything created by Ron Turner has been made available in plastic model kit form.

Here are some images of the vehicle from my edition of the 1966 annual...

As you can see, it's a weird beastie... rather than using toothed rollers to eat away at the rock, Turner's machine uses bizarre hand-like devices to feed the rocks into the maw, where presumably rollers and grinders reduce them to fine rubble, ejecting them from the large exhausts at the rear.

Imai's version of the Excavator, dubbed the X-Car, is very close to the artwork, which is so weird. It was originally issued in 1967, motorised and with the gears visible through the open maw. At some point it had the motor removed and the maw covered by a new panel which looks like it's meant to represent some kind of fringed curtain screen. The switch lever slot is still on the top, the battery compartment remains, and the rear is somewhat ugly and unfinished-looking.

Photos of the model...

Typically the box art is exciting and beautifully done... I love Japanese box art. 

You can see the curtain moulded to the front of the vehicle in place of the open maw of its earlier release.  I don't know when mine came out, but my Imai book says it was re-issued with this box art in 1971 and 1974, but the 1500Yen code on the end seems awfully high for early '70s.  All I can think is that sometime in the '80s or '90s the de-motorised version was brought out in old style boxes.

The cockpit consists of a shelf with an upper torso and arms... a separate head completes the figure.  Needless to say I will be scratchbuilding a new one.  Scale wise, I'd say it works out to be around 1/48, or as close as makes no odds.  The ribbed section behind the pilot matches Ron Turner's artwork.

In this shot you can see the slot where the on/off lever used to poke through... I'll fill that and leave a nice flat front end.  The light cowls and 'curtain' make it look like it's smiling... weird.

The rear end... yuck!  Turner never had that line of vents, so I will fill them, and add the three engine exhausts as shown in the drawings.  There are other holes all over this thing... really was an unassembled toy, so there are access holes and slots everywhere.  Never mind... half the fun is in turning a pig's ear into a silk purse.

Rubber tracks... these have Sherman tank style treads, so I might replace them with decent modern Sherman tracks in 1/48 scale... no reason why I should stick with lousy rubber.

The claws, front flap and some other details.

Cockpit canopy.  The original release had this in tinted green plastic, as you can see this is clear thankfully.

Claw arms.  Interestingly even though this kit was still bagged there is a part missing: one of the two hinges for the front flap, but as it's a flat piece with a hole in it I can replace this fairly easily.

Wheels, grinder exhausts and the arch which fits over the canopy.

Stickers... I won't use these.  The drawings don't show any markings on the vehicle, so I will just use generic International Rescue markings as featured on some of the other pod vehicles.

Imai show the vehicle with yellow (earlier orange) accent parts, but the drawings show it to be all blue.  I think I'll go the Imai route... the colourists in these annuals tended to be rather, er, creative.  

I will cut away the 'curtain' and detail the interior with rollers from an old... something with big chunky cogs and stuff.  Turner only showed rocks in the maw.  

I wish Imai had delved deeper into the annuals and TV Century 21 comics... we could have had some seriously cool models.

Quick update

I just bought this from eBay...

While it looks a bit odd, it is in fact an officially licenced model... in the 1966 Thunderbirds Annual this vehicle, the "X-Car" features as one of the pod vehicles.  So, since we all know that the '60s Annuals were published by Anderson's own company, this model has the stamp of approval.
It's a weird bugger, though... it does what the Excavator does in "The Martian Invasion" episode, only instead of a practical piece of equipment at the front, the X-Car has a couple of silly metal hands and a scoop, with the ground rocks being ejected out the back.

I'll give a review when it gets here from the Far East.

Paint on TB1!

Yes!  I've started painting the Aoshima Thunderbird 1kit... well, the red nose cone anyway.

Hardly the most exciting update, I admit, but it IS a start.  I was planning to spray the blue section of the main body, but I got the wrong shade... which was rather stupid of me.

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.

Tragic News

I have only recently heard (within the last half hour) that Gerry Anderson has died... he passed away this afternoon according to the BBC, at the age of 83.

Gerry's series were such a big part of my childhood, and made me want to make models.  As a child I had the Angel Interceptor from Airfix, as well as the Dinky toys from Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and UFO.  His series introduced me to science fiction (as well as Dr Who and Star Trek).

Rediscovering the Supermarionation series thanks to video in the '80s rekindled my love for Gerry's creations, so much so that I have never lost interest in them since then.  Indeed I am now a bigger fan of his work than at any point in my nearly 49 years on this planet.


Thank you for adding such a HUGE part of the soundtrack to my childhood... many millions of fans the world over will be feeling upset today, but we should rejoice in the fact that you leave us with a legacy that will never age, will never lose its magic.

Rest in Peace, Gerry.

JR21 Thunderbird 3 conversion update

After ordering some prezzies after work I decided to try and fill the gaping hole in the side of the JR21 Thunderbird 3's lower hull.  Using copious amounts of Plastic Weld followed by superglue I was able to insert plastic card into the cavity, blocking it off.  I then added a couple more layers to bring the level up closer to the surface ready for my first layer of Revell Plasto filler.

Apologies for the photo - taken with my mobile late at night.

I am now much more confident that this is going to work, and I can have a decent-size model of TB3 without forking out for an expensive resin kit.  Old broken toys can have their uses too.