SMALLSPACE - MODEL SHOW REPORT

The new model show smallspace was a huge success - outside the hall, Daleks rampaged the streets, while inside model-makers showed off their skills.

Thunderbirds are Go

Gerry Anderson’s famed puppet and live action TV series were a popular subject at smallspace, so here’s a first burst of pix, to give you an idea of the beautifully made models on display.

More to come

There’ll be more to come throughout this week - enjoy!

Neat 6-wheel Rolls-Royce, with Lady Penelope under the wide canopy.

Tasty red markings sported by Thunderbird 3.

The Meta probe (above) looked a serious design for a deep-space craft.

Plenty of Thunderbirds collectibles and models available here.

SMALLSPACE - THE NEW MODEL SHOW FROM THE HAMEX TEAM

The new model show from the HaMeX organisers is arriving soon, with liftoff planned for Stardate: July 1, 2012. The smallspace event will feature a galaxy of space, science-fiction and fantasy modelling.

Voice of K-9, the robot dog

A fantastic day is promised for UK model fans at the smallspace model spectacular, liftoff due in a couple of Sundays, on July 1, 2012. There’s heaps of stuff on offer, including a special guest from TV’s famed Doctor Who, none other than the 'voice of K-9' himself, John Leeson (above). And the actual special effects prop K-9, as used in both Doctor Who and The Sarah-Jane Adventures, will be alongside. You will be able to chat with John, have your picture taken, and maybe - for a modest fee - get a signed photograph.

BBC VFX duo

BBC Visual Effects Designer, Mike Tucker (above) will also be attending smallspace. Mike is seen here with the Big Ben clock tower model he designed and filmed for the first series of the new Doctor Who. Mike’s presence means that, along with the show's co-organiser, Mat Irvine, you have two BBC Visual FX designers, and both the authors of BBC VFX, a unique book that details the story of the BBC Visual Effects Department.

Prints on sale

Mike Tucker also writes his own novels, and novelizations of both Doctor Who and Merlin stories. And at smallspace, his own series of limited-edition prints will be on view, where they will be available to buy for the first time.

Props and models

Scores of FX props and models will be on show at smallspace, from Star Cops, The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf, to Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Moonbase 3, and Space Vets.

Meet the Daleks

The Doctor Who theme starts before you walk in the doors, with a squad of real-life Daleks waiting outside. Steve Fletcher will be co-ordinating them in greeting (or exterminating) visitors arriving at smallspace - assuming the Daleks obey him, of course!

Thunderbirds Are Go!

There’ll be an amazing display of replicas from the Gerry Anderson series, expertly recreated by David Sisson. Look for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, plus an actual Eagle spacecraft, as used in the live-action Anderson series, Space 1999.

No Strings Attached

See the equally amazing puppet recreations by Duncan Willis, including examples from Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Stingray.

It’s all happening with smallspace at Hanslope village, Bucks, UK, on July 1, 2012, and of course there's much more besides. Full details here.

Here's Mat, surrounded by tasty stuff, and (below) heaps of kits for sale.

SMN's Mr J (above) will be there, as will space models by the planetful. Look out for the Gerry Anderson Starcruiser at the SMN Crew Dock, along with displays of original art, and signed prints.

“THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW” OR “BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.”

MAT IRVINE WEEKENDER

If you start a model build, then it’s best to complete it in a reasonable time, as there’s little point in your latest creation hanging around in a partially-built state. Well that’s the usual idea, but plans can go awry...

Back-of-the-box text says: “The TARDIS looks like a small wooden box on the outside...” But there’s no mention of its British police box origins.

Late news

I suspect all of us have kits that have sat around half-built for longer than intended. But eventually they mostly get finished, and as this one - the Airfix science-fiction Doctor Who ‘Welcome Aboard’ pack - has finally been completed after two years or so on the back bench, then I reckon the story qualifies as some sort of ‘news.’

Comprehensive instruction booklet and spreads. 

Parts count

The Welcome Aboard kit is to 1:12 scale, with the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) - aka the BBC TV British police box lookalike - standing 240 mm (9.5 in) high when built. Accompanying it are two same-scale figures, Doctor Who and his assistant, Martha Jones. The component count for the time-and-space-machine stands at 41 parts, including the roof, which has an excellent built-in sound and light unit. The Doctor figure accounts for another 30 parts (including his Sonic Screwdriver) while Martha makes up a final 16 parts.     

Opening the door reveals the control console within. The left-hand ‘free for use of public’ door also opens.

Detailed kit

This first Airfix Doctor Who kit depicts the episode when the 10th Doctor first met Martha Jones, and we have very detailed figures of the actors who played these roles at the time, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. This is also the most detailed TARDIS kit to date. Externally, it is a standard-issue British police box, but Doctor Who’s personal box has an interior far larger than it ought to be - and that was quite a challenge for Airfix, given the limitations of our meagre three dimensions.

The roof is largely pre-assembled, only the cage around the lamp is a separate part. The sound chip and light unit are built in. 

Sound and light

Still, Airfix tried hard. You get a fair semblance of the main console, revealed when the door is pushed open. And, as a nod to ‘play value’, the opening of the door triggers the built-in sound and light show. In this case, the Airfix team really did their homework in developing a sound chip carrying a recording of the classic TARDIS materialisation-noise, as developed by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop way back in the 1960s. And there’s a small LED to accompany the audio, allowing the rooftop blue lamp to flash realistically. All in all, these are satisfying extras that give the kit a real lift.

Correct shade to paint the box

The colour of the box as built here is a match to the ‘reel’ TV TARDIS - it’s the shade I chose and painted on the filming FX miniatures that I’d built, and which was used for most of the model filming over the years. It is Humbrol MC8, originally one of the Master Modeller Enamels range - and rather conveniently, I still have a tinlet. The current equivalent shade is number 104. There is also the interesting thought that if this kit had existed when we were doing traditional model filming way back when, we almost certainly would have used this kit. Why spend time creating from scratch, when you can go and buy one? A similar situation applied to the Daleks, when kits from Sevans Models were used for a ‘mass destruction’ scene.

Excellent figures

The Airfix TARDIS was a relatively complex build, mainly due to the work involved in fitting out the interior, but this paled when I started on the figures. Here, both styrene and vinyl parts were supplied, the latter for face and hands. Airfix did an extremely good job on them, producing arguably some of the most realistic-looking figures ever made as model kits. But I came to a halt when I decided that painting was going to take far more time than I had available. So, although the TARDIS was finished, Doctor Who and Martha were put aside and stayed that way for at least two years until a recent tidy-up (I use the term loosely), when I discovered them again, and thought: “OK I really ought to finish these…” So I did, though I admit I compromised somewhat, especially with the paintwork, which I simplified somewhat, just to ‘get those figures finished!’

The completed model. I added the base, so the figures had something to stand on.

Summation

Here’s a final thought - if you think two years to finish a model is a bit of a stretch, I have a couple more sitting around that were half-built when I last moved home - and that was 24 years ago…

A still of the ‘reel’ TARDIS on set during a BBC TV recording. It’s shown as I built it to appear in the Doctor Who episode: ‘The City of Death.’

Afterword

This Airfix kit, and its companion ‘Daleks in Manhattan’ are no longer on sale, but they do turn up on auction websites, though beware the high prices sometimes asked. Both are extremely detailed kits, though that’s nothing to complain about. However, I always felt that Airfix aimed these at the wrong type of modeller, as they appeared in the catalogues alongside Shaun the Sheep – not that Shaun doesn’t appeal to more experienced modellers - but these Wallace and Gromit spin-off kits were definitely on the simple side, so ideal for those new to the hobby. The Doctor Who kits, though also spinoffs from BBC TV productions, and including brush and paints, were at the opposite end of the kit spectrum - their mix of vinyl and styrene components, and complex painting requirements were guaranteed to stretch the skills of even advanced model-makers.

Airfix interpretation of the TARDIS noise!

SUMMER SHOW FOR YOUR DIARY - WINGS & WHEELS MODEL SPECTACULAR

SMN preview:

The ‘Wings & Wheels Model Spectacular’ (W&W) will be held this year over the weekend of June 23-24. The radio control (RC) show’s organizers describe it as: “A Modellers’ Paradise." And that’s fair enough, as W&W is reckoned to be the biggest UK event of its kind, and what’s more it’s now 26 years since the first show made its debut at North Weald airfield in Essex, north of London.

Boats, cars, trucks and... Daleks!

Over the last quarter-century, the W&W show has developed into a spectacular event, featuring some of the biggest RC aircraft in the skies over Essex. Wings & Wheels also showcases model boats, cars, trucks, and tanks - plus there’s a mega bring-and-buy sale and more than 70 trading stands selling hobby gear. There’s even a horde of Doctor Who Daleks on parade from a sci-fi build-group. 

Dawn Patrol flying team

This is a World War I flying group that flies dozens of 1:3 scale model aircraft from the Great War era. Dawn Patrol is only a few years old, with a first public display at Wings & Wheels in 2008. There were a dozen or so models in the team then, but at the last count that number has just about tripled, so we can expect some pretty amazing displays, hopefully including some of the melee-style mass air combats of the later war years.

Legendary Len

Another visitor to the display team roster will be modelmaker Len Mount, who’s been leading-edge in RC model helicopter flying for nearly four decades. With more than 20 helo championship titles under his belt, Len's experience of all things rotary is second to none, and he was in high demand for technical challenges such as mounting model helicopter sequences in the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye, and again with the 1999 box office hit The World is Not Enough.

Sponsored by Red Bull

A trademark Len Mount feature is attention to working detail - doors, hatches, lights and other moving features - all are are faithfully reproduced in his models. That detail impresses more than us modelmakers, as energy drink maker Red Bull is currently backing Len. Naturally enough, the MBB Bo 105 model helo is finished in the familiar red-and-blue Red Bull colour scheme. Mind you, Len’s Lego-style Sea King has the  bright yellow markings of the real thing, as seen in Royal Air Force markings.

Diary date

If you’re in reach of the Wings & Wheels North Wield airfield, then keep the diary open, as the 2012 show promises to be better than ever. Excellent stuff, and we’ll bring you updates nearer the time.

Visit Wings & Wheels Model Spectacular here.

Dawn Patrol here.

Len Mount here

RC trucks here.

RC tanks here, though feel free to ignore Thomas the Tank Engine, who managed to sneak into the page!

Other RC stuff here.

There's more:
Here's some of the action promised by the show - trucks and diggers, tank-buster in action, and a vast array of visitors' cars, parked at the end of North Wield's main runway!

Pictures courtesy the show organizers.

DALEK SECRETS REVEALED IN ‘BBC VFX’ BOOK FROM MAT IRVINE AND MIKE TUCKER

David Jefferis turns the pages

First things first - BBC VFX is a thundering great tome that tips the scales at not far south of 2 kg (4 lb) and is an encyclopedic 240 pages from end to end. And in fact, that’s just what it is - a show-by-show encyclopedia detailing the work of the BBC Visual Effects (‘VFX’) Department down the years.

SMN contributor Mat Irvine

The two authors behind BBC VFX are long-time experts in the VFX field. We know Mat well for his contributions to SMN, and for his droolworthy Model Museum, packed with examples just about every kit ever made. Mike Tucker worked at the BBC until 2003, and now runs his own company, The Model Unit, based at Ealing Studios near London.

Daleks to Moonbase 3

So what’s between the covers of BBC VFX? Quite simply, the most complete listings, descriptions, and behind-the-scenes information about virtually every BBC TV show that’s featured the Department’s expertise. Some of these are world-renowned - Doctor Who and the Daleks, for example; others are less well known - I’d never even heard of the 1970s series Moonbase 3, much less seen a show. But famous or not, Mat and Mike have put together a showstopper of a book that is packed with fascinating facts, whatever the TV show they are talking about.

BBC VFX picture-fest

The densely packed text is backed up by hundreds of pictures, many of them new to print, so there’s a massive value here in archival terms alone. And because of the show-by-show presentation format, you can dip in and out at leisure, which suits my magpie reading style a treat.

Should you buy BBC VFX?

If you have any interest in the world of visual effects, then there’s no choice really - BBC VFX is a must-have, to sit on the shelf next to books on other VFX-masters, such as US concept artist Syd Mead, French illustrator Jean ‘Moebius’ Girard, and a galaxy of others. 

From a personal point of view, I’d like to see BBC VFX also available as an enhanced ebook for the iPad and other ereaders, as SMN Towers is absolutely stuck for storage space. Also, it would be good to see any video clips Mat and Mike have available, as well as personal introductions, discussions and links to specialist model suppliers.

The pictures show, top to bottom:

1  Mike Tucker (left) and Mat Irvine, with Dalek and BBC VFX book.

2  Daleks in extermination mode.

3  BBC VFX spread describing the cult sci-fi series Red Dwarf.

4  This mini-Batmobile was built on Triumph Herald running gear.

5  Along with Jack Kine, Bernard Wilkie founded the BBC VFX Department. Here Bernard sets up a space station scene from Quatermass IV, a proposed TV series which was never completed by the BBC. In fact, it was made eventually by Euston Films for ITV some six years later.

VFX is published by Aurum; you can buy it here.

See Daleks here and Doctor Who stuff here.