I (Ben) make no secret of the fact that I'm a massive fan of Gerry Anderson shows. I grew up with shows like "Thunderbirds", "Stingray", and "Captain Scarlett", and like many people who make models, I reckon I can attribute my enthusiasm for making things to spending hours watching intricate miniature spaceships and aircraft gratuitously exploding. I've managed to pass on that same enthusiasm to Elder Child, who, getting into the spirit of the fact that today is officially Gerry Anderson Day, is presently sat watching "Captain Scarlet" in the other room.
People are showing their love and enthusiasm for the old shows, so I thought I'd do a blog post with some of my projects that have featured builds inspired by the various series. This is the sort of thing I'd normally do for the Model Making Blog, but being as most of these are one-off shots from older projects, generally produced as props for photography shoots, it seemed worth putting the post up here instead.
Yes, the above model is a flying aircraft carrier, a deliberate homage to the Cloudbase from "Captain Scarlet", built for a never-completed graphic novel project (as I changed jobs and became too busy to finish it off).
I can't even remember the name of this project, it was a collaborative thing with a graphic novel writer about 14 years ago I think. I did some work to pitch for the art job. It's inspired very much by the aesthetic of the Anderson shows, and the brilliant design work by the likes of Derek Meddings and Mike Trim. These Chinook-esque machines were also Anderson-esque in that they're cheap, simple kit-bashes from very cheap toy helicopters.
I love how those miniatures designers approached their work; it's how you make something realistic. Don't think its going to be all interactive holograms and flying cars, you take what exists these days and make it a little more advanced and different.
Mechanical Spider sculpture for a show at Rydal Hall in the Lakes; directly inspired by the Sidewinder from "Thunderbirds". I wonder if this piece is still there? About 6 years ago I think it was still nailed to a tree somewhere in the woods as part of the trail.
A few years ago I applied for a concept-artist job with Citadel Miniatures, and ever so slightly shot myself in the foot with it. They were leaning heavily into the Gothic aesthetic, I went more down the Anderson route once again, all extrapolations from existing machinery. Still, a fun project to do.
Probably my most Anderson-inspired project in recent years, the "Observe to Preserve"/"Artist Health and Safety" project. All science-fiction exploration vehicles and weird tower blocks.
Unlike some of the other work above, this body of work has been rather more successful, having been exhibited a few times and even featured in a model railway mag.
Hell, even when I design more conventional (relatively speaking) models for the garden railway, I manage to go a bit into the whole Anderson aesthetic- seeing all those weathered, realistic-looking vehicles, everything looking just that bit battered, with visible panel lines, running-dirt and so on just makes things look that bit more present. Honestly, those 60's shows set a benchmark for model-makers- those chaps were doing things in the 1960's that became the norm, the whole 'used future' aesthetic of the later "Star Wars" and "Blade Runner".
One final one, another early project, a background for some photomanip work I did. This is the only surviving image from the project, but with kitchen bits repurposed for a sci-fi building, the colander in the ceiling is very much a nod to the famous lemon-squeezer on the wall of Thunderbird 1's hangar.
There should be a directly Anderson-inspired project coming soon; sadly I didn't get chance to finish it in time as a couple of more pressing deadlines surfaced, but I managed to acquire a trio of the old Airfix Angel Interceptor kits from a local model shop just before the most recent lockdown. Better get on and rebuild that flying aircraft carrier from the top of the page...
Happy Gerry Anderson Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment