Angel Interceptor - Rhapsody Angel

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

After paying over the odds for an Airfix kit of the Angel Interceptor aircraft I just have to build it, and it really is a simple kit, not many parts:


the oddest thing is that the figure seems to be an 'off the shelf' pilot, a male figure so this evenings work will be to slightly re-model him into Rhapsody. Why Rhapsody? Purly artistic reasons, she is the other pilots with long hair had blond hair while Rhapsody had ginger hair which will stand out against her white uniform.



i am not sure how to deal with the transparent helmet in q/72 scale; any ideas?




Peter

 

[Jim R]

Very interesting Peter. I had to Google Captain Scarlet to check who you were modelling.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Should be fun. Haven’t seen one of these built since i was about ten…..
As to the helmet, I’ve seen this done, but never tried it. As I understood it at the time, you paint the hair but desaturate it slightly, adding any colourshift created by the helmet, and then put on the reflection highlight. When it’s dry, varnish the area to generate the shine of the Perspex. I think the black edged white areas of the helmet and the spectrum badge will be the difficult bit.

 

[Mark1]

Think i would have a go at heating up some clear plastic and moulding over something about the right shape

 

[Neil Merryweather]

I would use uv glue after painting.
Good luck

 

[rtfoe]

Should be fun. Haven’t seen one of these built since i was about ten…..
As to the helmet, I’ve seen this done, but never tried it. As I understood it at the time, you paint the hair but desaturate it slightly, adding any colourshift created by the helmet, and then put on the reflection highlight. When it’s dry, varnish the area to generate the shine of the Perspex. I think the black edged white areas of the helmet and the spectrum badge will be the difficult bit.

At 1/72 scale everything will be a challenge if the pilot comes with an oxygen mask.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Mickc1440]

Looking forward to this, one of my all time favourite programmes as a kid, along with Thunderbirds, Stingray and Fireball XL5

 

[Ian M]

"This is the voice of the mysterons"
And I think I just figured out why I have a thing for red heads. lol.

Build one one these many, many years ago.

 

[boatman]

"This is the voice of the mysterons"
And I think I just figured out why I have a thing for red heads. lol.

Build one one these many, many years ago.

Same here Ian yes i built one also in the kit an thought it was the weidest plane id ever built but it got hung up to the ceiling like the rest of them an Peter i know this may be difficult to do but you may be able to do like i did with my sensor dishes on my tiger an thats get a bit of thin wood sheet about two mm thick an drill a hole in it the size of her noggin an then get a sheet of clear acetate an tape it a bit of it about 2 inches sqaure to the sheet of wood centually over the hole an then find some thing thats big enough to hold an with a round end on it an the usein your SWMBO's hairdryer hold the hairdryer under the hole on a low heat settin an gently warm up the acetate an when its fairly warm the push the round headed rod or such gently through the hole an the acetate will stretch an when the right shape still holdin the rod in place remove the hairdryer an let acetate cool an volay you will have her bonedome helmet how thats ? as it worked makin a big canopy for my big fireball XL5 an for my tiger sensor dishises
chrisb ps Peter could you give a link to where you got this angels info as id love to have a read up on this an looking forward to the build great stuff

 

[boatman]

Looking forward to this, one of my all time favourite programmes as a kid, along with Thunderbirds, Stingray and Fireball XL5

HI Mick before Fireball XL5 can you remember SPACE PATROL with captain larry dart ?
chrisb

 

[PaulTRose]

always been a fan of any thing jerry anderson so look forward to this

once did one of this as a what-if Red Arrows of the future flown by Captain Paul 'Scarlet' Metcalfe

 

[papa 695]

Just pulled up my chair Peter.

 

[scottie3158]

Peter,
I'm next to Ian.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi guys

thanks for the support and ideas for the transpareng helmet. i think I am going to try and carve a little of the helmet away, paint the hair and then add a blob of glue. fortunately the figure does not have an oxygen mask.

I have a vague memory of Fireball XL5, but it may be more from some comics rather than the TV series. i've heard of Space Patrol but never seen it. i must admit that I preferred Thunderbirds out of all Gerry Anderson's series - I even had a Thunderbirds dressing up costume one Christmas.

it is amazing what you can find on the Web, this is particularly interesting site: https://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/rhapsody.html which contains full biographies of all the characters, who knew that Rhapsody was:

"Born April 27th 2043 in London, Chelsea, Dianne Simms was educated at an unnamed girls’ public school, and then moved onto London University, England, taking degree levels courses in law and sociology. During her studies, she entered into the swinging party life of a debutante from a wealthy family, but it wasn’t long before the endless parties and the hangers-on began to bore her, and Dianne longed for some adventure and excitement in her life. During one particularly dreary party, she was introduced to Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, Britain’s top secret-agent, and head of the Federal Agents Bureau, the world’s largest independent detective agency. Lady Penelope recognised the younger woman’s longing for a life of action and adventure, and offered Dianne a position in the FAB, which she accepted, and in early 2063 she commenced her special training". And the web page goes on into yet more detail.

Apparently, the model of Rhapsody was based on thr 1960's model Jean Shrimpton.

Peter

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi all

here a couple of photos of Rhapsody. Taken on the Ipad so sorry for the poor quality.

I have cut away the part of the helmet which would be transparent and painted it her hair colour, next I will add a drop of glue in place to represent the perspex helmet. After carving away most of the flight suit details I gave her a bust and new flight suit using magic sculpt.


Peter

 

[boatman]

WOW Peter thats great carving i cant even paint my figures an u r carvin yours you trully are a master Peter at modelling figures very well done
ATB TO YOU SIR
Chrisb

 

[Peter Gillson]

My research on the WWW turned up this short video on Youtube - a chap who built a radio controlled Interceptor. It flys in the last few seconds of the video and looks really unstable, but at least it flew.

Peter

 

[boatman]

HI Peter well i never thought it would fly T B H as its such an angainly lookin craft but pity not more flyin in the vid unless he was just lucky to get it into the air in the the first place but i take my hat off to him for tryin well done that man
chrisb

 

[Peter Gillson]

Chris - I agree, he did well getting it into the air. i am only guessing but I guess that the reason why there is no more vid of it flying is that it flies like a stone and had a hard landing!

but full credit to him for giving it a go.

Peter

 

[Peter Gillson]

Finished.

A short but fun project.

It is an old kit and it shows, quite a bit of filling was needed. The other aspect I don't like about the kit is that it has raised panel lines. i admit to not being anything approaching an expert regarding aircraft but I cannot recall seeing aircraft with raised panel lines. I guess that it was easier to make moulds with raise rather then recessed lines.

Together, these resulted in my sanding off all of the panel lines and attempting to re-scribe them, well some of them. I'm not an aircraft modeller so I don't have any guides to help so I only scribed a few, to give an general impression.

the kit ocmes with numerous decals, but strangely the black along the top of the nose has to be hand painted, a decal would have been a lot easier.

Peter