Captain Scarlet
aircraft
Marc J. Frattasio
This aircraft was used by the Director General of the United Asian Republic in
It would appear that at least two of these models were made, probably of wood. One was destroyed at the climax of
Winged Assassin and the other was reused as an airport background aircraft in a number of
Captain Scarlet
episodes.
Note the model's landing gear. As aircraft models like this often had to be operated on the rolling runway or dragged along airfield taxiway sets, the wheels had to rotate. Typically, strong wire was used for the landing gear struts and the wheels came from plastic model aircraft kits or from Matchbox toys. The landing gear was often merely pushed into small holes in the fuselage of the model aircraft so that they could be removed to simulate gear retraction.
The DT19 was a large commercial airliner featured in Winged Assassin. In this episode, the aircraft was made to crash into the Atlantic Ocean by the Mysterons and then recreated under their control to be used as a flying booby trap.
The DT19 appears to have been a one-of-a-kind model which was made from wood. Lettering was made from Letraset dry transfers and automobile striping tape was used for the various trim lines.
Trivia note: this
Captain Scarlet model was used in a famous
TV21
photo of the Tracy Island
Thunderbird 2
runway set.
This is the helijet which was used to take an incognito
Colonel White
to a mid ocean rendezvous with a World Navy Clam class submarine in
.
This helijet is a familiar sight in
Thunderbirds
as it was used in a number of episodes. In fact, it also appeared in at least one episode of
Joe 90
later on.
This helijet model appears to have been based upon some kind of helicopter toy or kit. It looks a lot like a Boeing-Vertol helicopter but the overall shape is not quite right. It is possible that the helijet's fuselage was made entirely by hand and it only resembles a Boeing-Vertol twin rotor helicopter by chance! No matter how the basic fuselage was made, the model was detailed with a variety of kit parts. For example, the forward fins were made from Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit parts and the rear fins were made from
F-104 'Starfighter'
parts.
This miniature was made from parts from a number of different plastic model kits. The main body came from a Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit. The tail is the forward fuselage of an F-4 'Phantom' kit which has been turned upside down combined with F-4 stabilizer fins. The pontoons are bombs from a B-58 'Hustler' kit.
This same model, or an identical duplicate, was used for the medevac helicopter seen in
and a few other episodes of Captain Scarlet. The Hawk 'Husky' helicopter was a popular kit with the Supermarionation model makers. One of it's most attractive features was that it came with a battery operated rotor motorization kit.
This helicopter was used to take Captains
Scarlet
and
Blue
to
Cloudbase
in
Place of the Angels when it was feared that the two men had been exposed to the K-14 disease organism. This may be the same helicopter model flown by Destiny and Symphony in
Model Spy with a different paint scheme or it may be an exact duplicate.
This miniature was made from parts from a number of different plastic model kits. The main body came from a Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit. The tail is the forward fuselage of an F-4 'Phantom' kit which has been turned upside down combined with F-4 stabilizer fins. The pontoons are bombs from a B-58 'Hustler' kit.
This helicopter is spraying a powerful disinfectant over an area thought to be contaminated by a synthetic disease organism in Place of the Angels.
Two of these models were made for use in the
Thunderbirds Are Go
cinema film. They were later used in
Captain Scarlet. The models appear to have been made from wood with kit part details. For example, plastic B-58 'Hustler' engine pod parts can be seen on the landing skids. The large transparent cockpit canopies were made from thermoformed plastic. Don't ask me how the rotors were motorized as the rotor housing seems too small to hide an electric motor and the wings seem too thin to hide a network of shafts and gears!
The Seneca Company used a fleet of remote controlled helicopters to carry construction materials and supplies around the Expo 2068 work site in
.
One of these helicopters was hijacked by
Captain Black
and used to ferry a critical nuclear reactor to the Expo 2068 site.
This is yet another hand-made wooden model which features motorized rotors. Small horizontal wire rods were positioned over the rotors for the model's four-point wire suspension system.
This J-17 interceptor jet was stolen from Base Concord by Space Major Reeves in
.
This is a true Captain Scarlet rarity, a miniature aircraft made entirely from plastic model kit parts. What we have here is somebody's 'Mirage 3' plastic model kit which has been altered with additional kit fuel tanks on the nose, wingtips, and tail fin plus a few other kit parts.
Captains Scarlet and Blue, and Dr. Conrad are on their way to a Spectrum conference in Geneva, Switzerland on board Flight 104 in
.
Somehow, the airliner is taken over by the Mysterons, putting our heroes in great peril!
This is yet another one-of-a-kind model which appears to have been made out of wood for the most part. There are no significant features to this model. It is a very simple wooden shape with trim stripe tape markings and pull-out landing gear.
This commercial airliner was used by Mysteron agent Judith Chapman to evade Spectrum in
Place of the Angels. This classic and long-used model started off in
Thunderbirds
as the RTL-2 rocket transporter seen in
.
This one-of-a-kind model appears to have been made from wood. Actually, the fuselage appears to have been made from a pair of wooden dowels. The model is decorated with trim lines made from automobile striping tape.
Trivia note: this model in its original RTL-2 form was shot with
Stingray
for a famous series of photographs used in the
TV21
comic.
This World Air Force bomber was used by Captains Blue and
Ochre
to bomb the World Navy's Atlantica Base. This is of course the same model used as the
Thunderbirds RTL-2 jet in
The Cham-Cham and as Judith Chapman's airliner in
Place of the Angels.
For use in Place of the Angels, the model lost its tail assembly and was redecorated. The old horizontal stabilizer was split into two parts and one half was positioned on each wingtip. The jet engines were also moved closer to the wingtips. Note the large exposed bombs placed under the fuselage.
The jet under Angel escort is being flown by a Mysteron agent named Brand who was formerly a reporter for the Tribune newspaper.
The Tribune jet appears to have been made from wood. The Tribune lettering was made using Letraset dry transfer lettering.
The World Air Force 'Magnacopter' was used to take a group of senior military officers from Cloudbase to a conference held in a Scottish castle in
.
This appears to be another wooden model. Note that the landing skids appear to have been made from wooden dowels and the cockpit appears to have been taken from some kind of plastic helicopter kit.
Mysteron electronics expert Gabriel Carney used this radio controlled model airplane in an effort to fool the Spectrum radar systems protecting the Triumvirate of Europe in
.
This appears to be a modified Monogram Piper Tri-Pacer plastic model kit. It started off as
the Hood's
aircraft in the
Thunderbirds episode
and may have even been used as far back as the first episode of
Supercar.
This World Air Force staff aircraft was featured in The Trap. It was also seen very briefly in Model Spy.
This model was made for the most part from wood. Trim lines were made from automotive striping tape. The clear cockpit canopy was made from acetate plastic.
The XK-107 is a nuclear armed bomber prototype which is being tested by the World Air Force at Slaton Airbase in
.
This one-of-a-kind model appears to have been made from wood and has a clear canopy robbed from a plastic model aircraft kit. Trim lines were made with automobile striping tape and the numerals on the wings were made using Letraset dry transfer lettering.
This scene here from
shows an
Angel Jet
with a difference. The difference being that it is in the hands of the Mysterons!
This is nothing more than a standard fiberglass Angel Jet model, one of at least three that were built new and painted gray for use in Seek and Destroy. Why the gray coloring? Well, the Mysterons destroyed three new Angel Jets which had been crated up for delivery just prior to flight testing and final painting in Spectrum markings. Thus, when the Mysterons recreated the destroyed jets, they were recreated in the slightly incomplete, primer painted form that they were in before they had been destroyed!
This page published originally at
the Supermarionation sfx WebSite
text ©1996
Marc J. Frattasio;
not for reproduction for profit without his express permission
