Gerry Anderson's Angel Interceptor

An iconic TV series from 1967-68 on ATV this was part of the Gerry Anderson Science Fiction range of programmes. A follow on success from the outstanding kids show, Thunderbirds and with Aliens as the perceived 'bad guys' this had everything including Armoured Cars, Tanks AND Girl Fighter Pilots.

With the Spectrum Angels defending the Skies how can the Mysteron's possibly win?

Destiny - French
Melody - American
Symphony - American
Harmony - Japanese
Rhapsody - British

If they ever re-made this today as a live action series, they would all be supermodels. And, they had by far the coolest fighter jet, ever!

OK, so they were puppets, but it was the 1960's dude! and I was 9 years old when this came on TV and it had to be good to follow THUNDERBIRDS!

Apparently this came out in 1984, but the moulding on the fuselage is dated at 1980 so, take that as you will!

At ONLY 23 parts, this is not a complex kit and is indicative of early Airfix. Care should be taken however when removing parts as the 'new' plastic is quite soft and the surface will damage easily.

You know? It doesn't really take that long to assemble this kit BUT, you do need to take care with that assembly. Lots of moulding flash coupled with soft plastic means the sanding can cause stringing so only mild sand paper or sanding sticks here guys.

Locating pins are, let me say it simply, HUGE by the standards of today's modern injection moulding processes. I do suggest that you remove them and do some mild sanding to the fuselage halves to ensure a flush fit.

Once you have achieved and even fit of the fuselage, repeat for the wing sections which, surprisingly do fit quite well but will need some of the flash removing. After some mild sanding and a bit of fettling, the wings do sit into the fuselage really well, I was surprised once again.

Now, I have many years of model building under my belt but when it comes to aircraft, that's a whole other issue. Quite frankly, I'm a bit of a novice but, with raised panel lines this kit doesn't look right, especially for such a cool fighter jet.

So, I decided to create the correct (remember this is a Sci-Fi jet that never really existed except to a 9 year old boy in the 1960's) recessed panel lines and turned to my trusty Line Engraver which is part of Trumpeters Master Tools line.

Scribing the lines was actually fairly straight forwards, as I had a raised line to work from and I had a small steel ruler. Just take your time as you'll have to fill in any mistakes.

I proceeded to cut a shallow groove with the engraver, remove the scarf (bits of plastic) and worked my way around both wings and the tail section.

I then covered the whole area with a felt tip marker pen, ensuring the ink went into the new grooves. After that, I took some old sanding sticks (which feel really soft) but which still have some life in them, and sanded the surfaces of the wings and tail. You can see the staining from the marker pen in the picture above but, you can also see all the panel lines.

My next step is to do the same to the main fuselage and tail fin. Once this is done I can apply paint to the cockpit interior, glue the fuselage together and finish detailing the outside of the airframe.

Painting! Mmmm Yes, that's a story and a half.......

Well, I applied a grey undercoat. AND the marker pen has bled through, so I applied a black coating, all good. Then later, I went for the top coat of white and it all went very well.

2 hours later, and the marker pen has bled through (purple!) again! so, I applied copious amounts of Fairy Power Spray, leaving it for a couple of hours, and have stripped all the paint off.

THREE COATS later, and I'm still trying to get the marker pen off (I think I'm flogging a dead horse with this one). I think I'll apply a sealing varnish first, and then build up the paint layers and see how that goes.

A new direction....

OK, so I scrubbed and scrubbed to get this ghastly stuff off my aircraft and now it's been a few months since I last touched the darned thing.

In the meantime however, I have knocked together 2 more Interceptors but each with a different configuration which I have designated as Mark.2 & Mark.3

Mark.1

1.1 The conventional configuration which may have an alternative scheme - this is, as yet, undecided.

Mark.2

2.1 The wings have been installed upside down and a spare fuel tank has been cut in half and attached to the underside. This will form part of a weapons pod mounting 2 large anti-satellite missiles. Next comes a coat of Grey Primer.

Mark.3

3.1 The base kit has had the Tail planes separated and lowered. The wings have also been clipped and the extensions fixed to the fuselage to create a tighter footprint for the undercarriage. The canards have also been moved back and angle down approx 5 degrees.

2.2 The model had random squares of tape added then sprayed with Vallejo Game Color 72.029 Sick Green

3.2 Undercoated with Vallejo Grey Primer this has unified the differing finishes ready for the main coat.

2.3 More tape squares, some overlapping others followed by a spray coat of Vallejo Game Color 72.035 Dead Flesh. The aim of this is to produce a digital scheme.

3.3 Using Vallejo Model Air P.R.U. Blue I have outlined the 'darker, shadow' areas. The Vallejo colour appears to be a full scale match to the original colour and will need to be 'toned down' for the top coat.

2.4 All tape squares removed and you can see the effects. There has been some paint 'bleed' but some minor touching up with a hairy stick will resolve this.

3.4 Taking the P.R.U. Blue and adding some light grey to tone down the strength I have covered the entire aircraft.

2.5 After the touch ups, a coat of Klear followed by a few decals - I'd thought about doing a National Scheme but, I had these spare so F.A.B.

3.5 A varnish with Klear and more Spectrum Decals from the original kit - well? Why not! After all, I've been referring to them all as Angel Interceptors Mk's 1, 2 & 3 anyway.