Wednesday 23 January 2013
SNOW TREK
Well with all the wintery whinging going on, schools off, pipes frozen, traffic at a standstill, its always amusing to consider what we might do in England if we were faced with real cold (eh Arto ?)! With this in mind Woodsy asked me to rustle up a 'toy' inspired version of the Snow Train.
Eric Eden originally designed the 'Snow Train' in A TV21 Summer Extra during a look at futuristic travel concepts. The vehicle was then adopted by the Project SWORD annual as the Beetle, in a slightly shortened version. In the lead story, the Beetle attempts to cross New York which has been devastated and now sits on top of a volcanic area. In order to get through the lava, the Beetle deploys an odd looking heat shield arrangement, covering the vehicle.
This strange contraption was seemingly adapted into the nearest toy approximation of the Beetle/Snow Train we have seen so far - the Imai Thunderbird 7 kit.
The rounded shape bears more than a passing resemblance to the Beetles heat shield and does not feature in any Thunderbirds material. Using Ferrymans photos of the completed model, I set out to try and create a hypothetical 'Snow Train' toy.
Maybe we will find that there is a legitimate Beetle/Snow train toy out there one day!
Let's hope so, Bill. It would make a great toy.
ReplyDeleteThe photo interpretations are great! I can see this trundling across a frozen permafrost wasteland.
ReplyDeleteExcellent image Billster. I imagine its not impossible to really combine two Imai TB7 model kits together like this! As regards the unshielded Eric Eden original, the front cab reminds me of the cab of the radar truck found in the Thunderbird 2 pod. It also recalls the Tractor from the SpaceX range. Bill, you've got a big one haven't you? A spacex tractor I mean! We just need some carraiges for the back!
ReplyDeleteHa ha Scoops git a veritable snow train of tractors on his recent post!
ReplyDeleteRealistically youd need 3 TB7 kits to make it articulated, but with photoshop i can do it for nowt!
ReplyDeleteThere's synergy for you....
ReplyDeleteI printed off your cardboard version yesterday! Realising I'd need two cab-units I printed two of them, then realised the track units were on the passenger-car 'sprue', I obviously had to print two of them too!
This left me with two passenger units on card, so I thought "Well...it is a train!", but that left me needing another set of tracks and no card...so I've printed a third unit today on paper, and I'll laminate the tracks onto a card off-cut.
Started cutting them out about an hour ago...watch my blog in about a week?
Hugh
Hugh ,- send us some photos for moonbase too - never been patient eniugh to attempt myself!
ReplyDeleteWell...started glueing and realised there are both ends on one sheet, so didn't need the second sheet! Might 'pimp' the second cab unit! But will still have the two passenger cars....maybe?
ReplyDeleteThe rear 'obs' unit is a bugger!! But I will succeed, and I've always got a spare if the first goes pear-shaped, but had to drop the glue to go midnight snowman building!