ATTENTION CAPTAIN SCARLET FANS - AIRFIX ANGEL INTERCEPTOR APPROACHING CLOUDBASE NOW!

SMN update:

It’s good to report that Airfix have reintroduced an old sci-fi classic kit, the Angel Interceptor from the Gerry Anderson supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet, first shown in the late 1960s. It’s to 1:72 scale and is an ultra-simple build, with just 23 components to assemble. From canard-equipped anteater nose to Spectra-Fan air ramjet tail, the model measures some 185 mm (7.3 in) long.

Female pilots

As portrayed, Angel Interceptors were fast, being able to fly from their Cloudbase HQ at more than Mach 4.5 - approximately 4800 km/h (3000 mph) - at altitude. They were flown by a group of female pilots, codenamed Destiny, Harmony, Melody, Rhapsody, and Symphony, who sat in what must be the biggest cockpits ever made. A glance at a closeup shot revealed room inside for a grand piano... or maybe a male admirer or two, as those girls were rather dishy, even if they were only puppets.

The Airfix Angel story

The kit has a long history, going back more than four decades. It was first on sale from 1968-1984, with a concurrent Snap’n’Glue version added to the list in 1981. There are other versions of the aircraft around, notably various Imai kits, but the Airfix model seems to be the most accurate. However, the scale is a bit difficult to work out, and that enormous cockpit is the giveaway. The Airfix kit has a pilot figure that fills the cockpit more effectively, but it also has the effect of reducing the theoretical 1:72 scale of the Interceptor by maybe 20 percent overall. However in other respects the kit is neat enough, and questions of scale aside, looks good when built. 

Farewell puppets, hello computers

The New Captain Scarlet series first aired in 2005, and was a massive upgrade in terms of technology, with no more puppets. Instead, impressive cgi was used for animation - now called Hypermarionation - and all the vehicles were redesigned, mostly with great success. Watch out for a closer SMN look at the series and available models, especially a pair of Corgi diecasts - truly excellent stuff.

Heaps of Gerry Anderson stuff here including the White Falcon, the updated replacement for the Angel Interceptor.

TSR.2MS rocket bomber

And not forgetting another notable Airfix sci-fi kit here, the TSR.2MS, which can be built either as the RAF supersonic bomber that never was, or as a rocket-boosted sci-fi asteroid-killer - take your choice! 

AIRFIX TSR2 SCI-FI VERSION NOW AVAILABLE

SMN report.

The 1:72 scale Airfix TSR.2MS, a rocket-boosted, missile-equipped aircraft designed to destroy deadly space rocks, is now available. And the good news is that if you change your mind and decide against the sci-fi version - based on the Japanese anime series Stratos 4 - then the box still contains the decals that allow you to finish the aircraft as an epitaph to British aerospace achievement and while you’re at it, a blaming finger at the sadly misguided politicians who cancelled so many brilliant projects in that era.

Stratos 4 the series

As an asteroid-killer, the TSR.2MS is an interesting concept - especially the reaction-thrusters used for attitude control at peak trajectory - and when we get our hands on one, we’ll pass judgement on fit and finish of the kit. SMN featured the TSR.2MS in late 2010, but the world of ‘what-if’ models makes the standard TSR2 a strong interest for anyone interested in advanced aviation from the 1960s.

A TSR2 that might have been

Over at Gregers.7, which styles itself ‘The Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum’, there’s some fascinating stuff, including the superbly made 1:48 scale Airfix TSR2 in full camo markings we show here, renamed the Eagle GR.1 by model maker 'Viper'. The real thing never got further than white paint, RAF roundels, and a few flights before cancellation, but had the beast gone into squadron service, who knows, we might be seeing her in the Gulf rather than the Panavia Tornado.

Visit Gregers.7 here.

Viper's 1:48 scale TSR2 build is here.

Agape Models has another what-if TSR2 here.

More TSR2 stuff here, including Edouard cockpit details.

The pictures show, top to bottom:

1  Airfix 1:72 scale TSR.2MS.

2  Prototype TSR2 at Imperial War Museum Duxford, finished in nuclear strike anti-flash white.

3-5  Very neat build of the 1:48 scale Airfix model, complete with underwing stores.

Many thanks to Viper for the build pix - we’d love to see more of your stuff in future. 

DECADES AFTER ITS FIRST FLIGHT, THE TSR2 RETURNS - AS A MISSILE-TOTING COMET KILLER

David Jefferis reports.
A fascinating new Airfix release for the New Year will be a modded 1:72 scale BAC TSR2. This is the ‘TSR.2MS’, a rocket-boosted, missile-equipped aircraft designed to home in on and destroy incoming space rocks headed for planet Earth.

Defending the Earth
Well now, NASA hasn’t suddenly issued a world-wide doomwatch alert - in fact, the TSR.2MS is one of the machines that feature in a Japanese anime (cartoon) called 'Stratos 4', a sci-fi series that’s set in the near future, around 2024. Scientists have spotted a group of comets on collision course with our world, and to answer the threat, global defences include the space-based Comet Blasters, and the ground-based Meteor Sweepers (the 'MS' of TSR.2MS). The action is based mostly on Shimoji Island off Japan, where heroine Mikaze and her friends are last-ditch defenders of the planet.

Modified aircraft
Ooer! But weirdly, Stratos 4’s creators decided to modify various aircraft from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s as anime machine stars. Still, not for us to ask the reason why - after all, why NOT have a Caravelle twin-jet to fly to a party?! The TSR.2MS is the main interceptor, and it makes a really interesting ‘what-if’ design - after all, the anti-comet missile could just as easily be a Blue Steel standoff weapon, and the tail rocket could have been lifted from a Saunders-Roe SR.53!

Mission plan for the TSR.2MS
According to the blurb, the TSR.2MS is: “...lifted by ZELL (Zero-Length Launch) like a surface-to-air missile, flying to a mid-altitude using the two jet engines and RATO (Rocket-Assisted Take Off) rockets equipped under the wing.  After the RATO rockets finish combustion they are dropped from the wing. The main rocket in the bottom of the vertical tail is then ignited, and when she has gained altitude to the stratosphere, she locks onto the meteorite, and launches the big missile that is mounted under the fuselage.  She is controlled by a pilot and a radar operator, both situated within the cockpit in a riding position. When the TSR.2MS interceptor returns to base, in very thin air, she rolls her fuselage by RCS (Reaction Control System).”

A carrier-borne TSR2?
And talking of ‘what-if’ TSR2s, there’s an ace build of the larger 1:48 Airfix kit by Jon Bius, over at Agape Models. This kit has been finished to match markings sported by that oh-so-elegant US Navy jet, the RA-5 Vigilante, one that was based on the USS Enterprise in 1975. The TSR2 and Vigilante are not that dissimilar, in both looks and top speed, so the markings transfer across very well indeed.

TSR2 details
Jon has added extra detail to the Airfix kit, especially in the cockpit area, of which he says: “I decided some discs of various sizes would dress things up a bit on the instrument panels. I tried to add a few things that I saw in photos…. a radar looking thing (the machine that goes “ping”), some dials and so forth. It’s certainly not accurate, but it gives the interior a bit more of a busy look.”

All of which sounds fine to us - appearance is really what counts in a what-if build like this. Well crafted Jon - it looks a really neat model.

Airfix has a competition going on the TSR.2MS kit here.

Visit Agape Models for lots more pix and info here.

Find some TSR2 stuff here.

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1-2 TSR.2MS box, plus missile launch sequence.
3-6 The what-if TSR2 built in USN markings by Jon Bius of Agape Models.