Monday, 9 April 2012

I am the god of hellfire!

Recent aquisitions to the Wotan Archive have included a few Thunderbird kits, mostly from the Imai Rescue Set series, which include two simple kits. Previously, I posted the small Excavator with came with a small three inch Mole. Since then, I managed to find a partially complete box set of the Firefly and TB4. Both kits are very simple, with a maximum of about 10 parts in a model. The partial kit was missing the windscreen and rear fin from TB4 and one of the tracks from the Firefly. The tracks were one piece moldings with no moving parts, so it was no great loss to be missing one. As the body of the Firefly was quite nicely made and generally detailed, I decided to cannibalise an old Bandai diecast Mole model that was missing its tracks. The wheels on the Mole and Firefly are very similar, so they fit the new body quite well. The only remaining problem was the actual rubber tracks, which were missing from the mole and on the model. I managed to find a single track from a old JCB toy, but had to substitute the second track with a black rubber band. This done, a minimal paint job to reveal some of the body detail was all that was needed. After I had painted, the back of the model still lacked something, so I found a small external tank and added it beneath the 'roll cage'  on the back to flesh it out. 
The model itself is greatly simplified due to size, but also doesn't follow the design of the tv original exactly either, but does make up to a nice, toy like model.

7 comments:

  1. A veritable swarm of fireflies Wote! Are you going to have a go at the other Bandai Thunderbird toys like the Jet Gyro?

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  2. The external tank you added does look natural; not only adding balance as you say, but function to the roll bars (which look made for it).

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  3. An adorable kit from a marvelous design, and I am sure this is where IMAI also got the idea of their remarkably similar SF Ziggurat 2000.

    Rob

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    1. Just had a look at the Ziggurat box art on your site Rob and I see what you mean. Wonder of the original Firefly is a Derek Meddings design like so many others?

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  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69K0bdOAChw&feature=fvst

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  5. Arthur always was a bit of a hot head

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  6. I hear he used to crucify himself on stage.

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