Futuristic Cop Car from Thunderbirds

I'm a big Thunderbirds fan and I have never seen the Silhouette used in any of the episodes. Please let me know what episode it's in so I can go and watch it and possibly work on one ofthese myself.

thanks
Steve

Do you have a picture of the cop car?

Damn, I have watched all of the episodes many times and NEVER saw that. I'll have to get busy. THANKS!!

Steve

I loved the Thunderbirds when I was a kid ! I never forgot the theme music. Looking at those pictures, it looks like they bought a bunch of AMT 3 in 1 kits and added some of the custom pieces to make them look futuristic . Since this was a British program, they would look very different than the cars they were driving . I see that the car dealership has a Car craft sign and a dream rod sign on it. Did they cut up a magazine, or maybe a model box ?

They definitely did that kind of thing; yes. Anything to save some bucks (err, pounds) and some time; and squeeze more shots and more models into a given filming day. I'm enjoying finding out about such things.

[Thunderbirds geek hat ON]The pink car with the dual front wheels is Lady Penelope's Rolls, and there's a fairly simple kit available from one of the Japanese outfits. [Thunderbirds geek hat OFF]

Well I'll be darned. I'm not much of a Thunderbirds aficionado, in fact, as a kid, they kind of scared the crap out of me. Creepy..those big heads and eyes! LOL. That sure as hell is the Silhouette though! Amazing! Wonder if Cushenberry ever saw that!? Very cool. In fact, all those sets were just amazing as well!

Nice build so far. Man, I loved that show as a kid.

Interesting that you should mention that. This is intended as a magazine article build -- it's already been approved, in principle, for a future article in Sci-Fi & Fantasy Modeller -- and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to say about certain aspects of this kit. Originally, I wondered if the lack of alignment pins and the like would be perceived by some builders as horrible. Over time I figured out that had the instructions been more clear, the lack of "tell me where this goes" indicators wouldn't be all that bad.

Anyone got any further comments along those lines?

In other news -- the new hood is coming along well. Front part is being inspired by Ford's GT (or GT-40); with bits of an L88 and other car hoods, behind that. Pics later...!

Here's a few more in-progress pics. I'm open to the idea of this being a bad way to go; or needing adjustments, etc. It's just, at this point, sort of an initial "feeling my way around" type of deal. Lots of room left for changes -- even some fairly radical ones! So, if anyone thinks it looks awful ... feel free to speak up! ;-)













The gist of what I am doing was to tape the upper body down, onto a relatively strong, relatively flat surface; then to "sculpt" the main shape I wanted, using Silly Putty. I put some mold release over that -- mostly on the car's body, actually -- and then sort of painted a thinnish layer of Evercoat's Glaze Coat, over the top.

I worked on that, some, to get closer to the shape I wanted. And when that looked okay (but in reversed "negative" form) I used a really good mold release wax (Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax) on the hardened auto body filler, and made castings from that. So I had sort of made a mold, out of Silly Putty; made a casting, from that; and then used that casting as a mold, to make castings.

Hopefully, the pictures will make sense? The main thing is: if you guys hate it, or think I'm missing opportunities: say so! I'd much rather have criticism now, when it's change-able, then a set of add-on pieces that ultimately say, "coulda done better".

That dent or hole on the scoop / bump thing is just an air bubble that I haven't fixed yet. I'm not sure I like that scoop's shape. (I was mainly going for a bit of shaped clearance around the valve covers and carbs / air cleaners.) I toyed with the idea of forward-facing openings, but originally was going to go for a rear-facing opening -- sort of like on 1960s Thunderbolts. (If I'm remember that drag cars name correctly.) I'm not sure I love that or hate that, as yet. I'm toying with making that into the bottom of a snorkel-like hood scoop: one of the newer aerodynamic types.

One big consideration is that I'm trying to "hide" whatever I put over the engine, as far as seeing the car from the sides. What I mean is: on the Thunderbirds show, they didn't really show this model from the front, or a "looking down, from the side" angle. So I'm trying to come up with something that would cover the kits engine, completely; while not sticking up very visible, as seen from the side view. Anything that those fender add-ons would mostly cover, as seen from the side, would be fair game.

Thanks, man. Appreciated!

But folks, I'm still quite open to the idea of "it sucks" ... so, if anyone doesn't love it or wants to chime in, along those lines: how could I make the shape or idea of it "suck less"? I would rather just start over, if that's what it takes -- which isn't as hard as it sounds, once you have an "intermediate master" you can use to make castings from, and modify each casting.

I know "car guys" are pretty nice to one another, in general; and this board has Play Nice rules which get self-enforced well by the group... but in this case, I'm asking for "negative feedback," in the hopes of making something "less sucky". ;-)


Part of the design problem is that the area involved is over twice as long as it is wide. (By my measurements the open space in the kit is about 27 mm wide by 62 long.) Visually, when that area is "fenced in" by two large fender extensions, it looks really long and skinny. Almost like that area is a long valley, between two long hills. Hence my having tried two different hood types, in that one space. Which I'm not sure I really like; but may not come up with anything that looks better.

Something else that I didn't notice right away, but saw when I was "claying up" the rough shape (using Silly Putty): one other concern is that anything that looks long and skinny and round, and that looks like it might be a speartip sort of shape, going down that center area ... made the whole nose of the car look like a "Mach 5" from "Speed Racer". Which is interesting, in a sense -- there's maybe a kitbash idea waiting there? -- but it wasn't the direction I wanted to go, with this particular project.

Can anyone suggest something out of the ordinary, that might be a "crazy idea, but interesting if one could figure out how to pull it off" sort of thing -- additions to that center area of the hood, while keeping the car's outlines and fender extensions?

The only other thing I can think of, at present, to sort of work around the idea of two different hood sections, back-to-back, would be to take the current idea and "go asymmetric" with it. Sort of a long skinny GT-40 "exit" for the radiator, on one side; with a sort of forward-facing hood scoop, along the other side of that? Sort of like putting those two elements in, as Ying & Yang?

If there's no alternate suggestions, I might put the current work aside for a while, and play with some other projects? (Which I tend to do, anyway.) Give my brain time to work things out.


What about the idea of NOT including the kit's engine, at all? That would allow other hood designs, more easily. Are there any really weird or cool alternate engines that can be purchased, in some other kit, out there?

Preferably a kit that's still relatively cheap / easy to get; versus a "nose bleed" priced, Pure Unobtanium collector's-only kit! I guess the idea thing would be a kit that no one really likes -- but the rough parts look like they'd be cool, at bashing fodder?)

What I'm thinking is that might be a better way to keep "bumps" off of the hoodline's "profile"? Since the screen-used car was supposed to be from 100 years in the future, anyway, the idea of an alternate engine doesn't sound all that bad ... maybe?

Turbine engines? Rotary engines? Some crazy sci-fi thing? A motorcycle engine that might look like it belonged in that car?

Great project and stuff, Ward! ;D ;D ;D

I like the kit-bashed jets too, great work!

In looking back at the pics I posted, earlier, I think I need to try to clarify what I was doing. If this still isn't clear, tell me so, please: as I'd like to figure out where my "blind spots" are, on trying to explain some of the weird things I sometimes experiment with!

Basically, I ignored the engine, at first. I taped the body down and filled that open cavity with Silly Putty. I made that level with the upper surface of the new hood -- but it was solid, under that upper surface. Solid with Silly Putty, however, isn't very usable as the final part of the model.

The next step was to put some good mold release wax over any kit-plastic area that might get stuff gooped over it. I then put a thin coating (1-16th to 1-8th inch) thick layer of Evercoat's Glaze Coat, on top of that. The intent here was to make a mold. The upper surface that's visible in the pics wasn't the final surface. The important surface was where the auto body putty was laid over the Silly Putty. So in the first step, I was making a positive form; but in this step, I had switched, and was making a negative form. A shaped cavity. The inside of a mold, basically.

I then took that relatively strong "mold" piece off of the model; and took all of the Silly Putty out of the engine compartment.

I then put the mocked-up engine into the engine compartment, and put the "represents the top of the hood" mold piece over it. I could then grind things deeper, on the insides of that mold -- to clear minor bumps like the valve covers, basically. But where the twin carbs stuck up, with their air cleaners, I had to cut a hole in the mold piece. That was the only way they'd fit, there.

The next step was to lay a thin layer (1-16th inch or so) of Silly Putty over the entire mocked-up engine -- which had been put into the model. The intent here was to make an upper surface out of Silly Putty, that would tell me how high the bottom of the hood piece would have to be, to clear all the major bumps.

After I had a relatively thin "clearance" layer of Silly Putty, laid on top of the engine, I could then lay the modified mold piece over that; and lay some more Glaze Coat over that.

The intent at this step was to have a shape that "told me" two things: what the upper hood's surface should look like, and how big of a "tent" I'd need, to have a final hood piece sit over all of the existing kits parts. (Unless someone were to use the pieces for the blown engine -- that would be further mods!)

At this point, I basically had a fairly refined, rough-initial-pass at what I thought I wanted -- but in a negative "mold" form. I waxed up the inner surface of that mold, and "cast" some Glaze Coat into it, by sort of half-brushing, half-dabbing on a thin coat.

Due to the complex shapes involved, and the idea that I was using a "hard mold" instead of something like flexible RTV mold-making rubber, I had to think about where things would tend to hang up -- and avoid putting Glaze Coat onto adjacent surfaces that had a problem area of "undercut" in the middle.

This was one reason I made a front hood and a back one: that sudden dip in the middle would prevent the hardened Glaze Coat from ever coming off of the mold -- even if I used release products. So, I made a forward section, and a seperate one for the back half. These relatively thin casting shapes were sort of opposites of opposites, if that makes sense? The important part of these castings were the upper, visible surfaces. But to keep them from being too weak, I had to make them too thick to actually fit over the engine. But that's okay -- if the upper surface got to the point of meeting with my (and other's) visual approval, I could later make castings off of that upper surface -- to make yet another mold -- and do something later, like make the final parts out of vacuformed plastic -- which would (hopefully) be the right "tent" shape to fit over the engine, while also looking good on the upper surfaces. (All this work being done more as a sort of extended learning experience for me -- trying to figure out how I would go about meeting all those seperate challenges.)

Once I had two castings done, I showed you guys the work to-date, and asked for feedback. (Which I got -- and thanks for that! I'm still open to feedback, by the way. Chime in, as you see fit.) I had to go off and work for a while, on other things -- but I then came back and sort of created a "version two". (Just posted.)

The main things I'm doing that might be "huh?" moments are the use of Silly Putty, to get into that initial ballpark; and the idea of "thinking backwards" as far as positive or negative forms.

The Silly Putty is just the best stuff I've found, to date, for doing that sort of "ballpark shaping" of parts that may be "hollow" in their final form. The main reasons I use it is that it won't stick to auto body putty. You can easily pull the two substances apart. At the same time, it sticks well, temporarily, to things like plastic kit bits. So you can put it into place, and shape stuff around it.

The idea of thinking about what the "opposite" of a certain shape might be, takes some getting used to! The best way to develop that would be "over time" and by playing with molds and castings. I'm not aware of any tricks, beyond that, to help a person visualize what a convex shape would look like, if it were flip-flopped (as it were) into being a concave shape.

The mold release wax I'm using depends on what's handy, at my bench. I usually use a product called "Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax". (I got my container of it from eBay, for around $15 if memory serves. It's fantastic stuff, if you're using "hard molds"!)

I'm also experimenting with some stuff from Micro-Mark, that's intended as a brush-on-able, rubber-to-rubber liquid release.

So ... do those words help explain the previous pics ...or no?

Hey I'd love to see you work on a 6 foot silhouette.
I'm going through the nightmare of building a 1/24 kit now.
BiLL..