A DAY OUT AT SMALLSPACE 5

I spent a really enjoyable day at the latest Smallspace event yesterday, meeting up with a few familiar faces and seeing an incredible display of original props, and excellent fan made models from classic Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and some of Gerry Anderson's TV series.

The event, organised by television visual effect designer Mat Irvine, is the fifth of it's kind , and was held at the hall in the Buckinghamshire village of Hanslope, with all proceeds going towards the upkeep of the building.

Special effects wizard Brian Johnson was the special guest, along with another main attraction,  a newly restored original Shado Jeep, as seen in the feature film, Journey to the far side of the Sun, and the TV series UFO.

The Jeep, which was meticulously rebuilt by mega collector, James Winch, was discovered languishing in a scrap yard in Tenerife,  James set to work rescuing it from the crusher, and after having it shipped over to the UK, began a labour of love restoring it over a period of just under two years.

Mat Irvine's connection with the event meant a marvellous display of original models and props used in several cult BBC Sci-Fi series. The only surviving Liberator  filming prop from Blake's Seven was there, looking a little worst for wear, but still impressive.

The look of the Liberator model which is more or less complete, apart from the fronts of two of the weapons pods,  is covered in 'space virus' as it was left, following the filming of the final episode of  third series of Blake's Seven.

I liked the look of this Shuttlecraft , and it's smaller brother, from the Doctor Who story that introduced K-9, The Invisible Enemy.  The model was designed to take inter-changeable payloads , ambulance or tanker, so it could appear as two different ships.

There was a large amount of original filming props from Space 1999. Apart from two original 44" and 22" Eagles seen in the top two photos showing Brian Johnson, there was the strange looking spacecraft from the episode 'Earthbound', and a trio of Alpha Space Tanks.

I was told by those 'in the know' that some of these props belong to a collector in Belgium, who has been more than happy to have them displayed here in Britain, however following the Brexit vote, here in the UK, will reluctantly have to store them permanently back home, as there could be problems shipping them after the UK separates from Europe.  A shame, but I can't say I blame him.

The usual suspects were all in attendance displaying their excellent fan- made scratch built models. David Sisson brought along several of his models, including his huge Battlehawk, and his impressive Starbug from Red Dwarf . He even took a photo of me chatting to fellow 1999 fan, and one of the organising volunteers, Paul Stankevitch.

Chris Potter brought along his laboratory Eagle  with additional boosters. The attention to detail on his model is incredible.

As well as the gifted amateurs, there were several professional and semi- professional modellers showing off their marvellous creations.

This particular replica model of Thunderbird 4 was used in the recent fan produced Kickstarter project 'Thunderbirds 1965.

As well as models from Gerry Anderson's series, there was a nice display of puppets from Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons and Joe 90, all with original heads apart from Captain Scarlet.

Considering this might be considered by some to be a relatively 'small' event, there was still so much going on. Mat and all the volunteers who helped put it all together did a fantastic job. The exhibitors provided excellent spectacle.  You're even welcomed by a talkative Dalek and a noisy robot. Even the cosplay costumes would fool me into thinking they were real!

Many thanks for a brilliant day.