The Project Sword Annual and the Sword Make A Model books both carried unusual vehicles which have never made it into toy form. The first Model book held punch out card models of the Beetle/Snow Train and Hovertank and the second, the Survey Vehicle/Sand Flea and Scramble Bug. The nomenclature is slightly confusing, as the Snow Train/Sand Flea names only appeared in a TV21 article which predates SWORD proper, but both vehicles appeared in the annual using the same cover artwork, but with new names.
We were contacted some time ago by master modeller Joe Murray, who was keen to build the card models of some of the craft. After completion, Joe kindly sent us photographs of the models, including the Beetle/Snow Train making its way across the snow covered Conneticut landscape!
Not content to stop there, Joe embarked on the Scramble Bug too!
Most recently, he sent me shots of one of my favourite unproduced vehicles, the Survey Vehicle or Sand Flea! Amazing!
Now if anyone fancies making a scratchbuilt version of this or the final model, the Hovertank....
Beautiful models Joe. I'never seen them constructed. In fact I'm not sure I knew about the Make a Model books when I was a kid! The Sand Flea is also my fave unproduced SWORD vehicle and this takes us one step closer to having an actual toy! Cheers Joe!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work !
ReplyDeleteThat Sand Flea is really crying out for a 'proper' model to be made of it