Aoshima Thunderbird 1
1/144 Scale Plastic Kit
Aoshima have now created a beautiful kit of Thunderbird 1 as you will see from this review. It's a quality kit
- not only does it say so on the box - but it really is. This is a very
impressive model kit that is about 10" long when completed.
(I have seen some retailers advertising this kit as being "over 12 inches long", but trust me, it isn't.)
No gimmicks. Lots of accurate detail. Sharply moulded parts that fit
together well. Lots of optional authentic parts - cannon, skid type landing
gear and wheeled landing gear. gear hatches.
The kit is attractively packaged with Japanese and English text on the box.
Water slide decals are provided.
Whilst the instructions are in Japanese, the exploded views make the assembly
guide easy to follow. Just keep in mind not to glue the wings in place - they
are poseable.
We've got some photos here of the kit we've built up as well as
photos of the box and the kit parts.
At first sight it looks like the kit would need interior reinforcement but this
is not the case. The cross shaped engine assembly is very sound once cemented
together. Impressed by the design of the kit we continued to build the kit
'out of the box' with no modifications. It's light but sturdy and the landing
gear should have no difficulty in supporting the model. It's been a while
since we've come across such a well designed kit. Take your time with this kit
and you won't hit any major snags. Be careful with getting a good fit once you
start applying the glue because there's lots of recessed panel detail that
might get lost if you have to apply filler in any quantity.
We used a brush on liquid polystyrene cement for most of the construction. Parts are light and fit together well with locating pins in all the right places. We used superglue to fix the conical cap onto the blue cylindrical section since there's not much of an area for adhesion.
Thunderbird 1 lends itself to a modular approach to construction.
First - the wings. Each wing is in two halves, the lower halves having
cutouts for the landing gear.
If you are opting not to attach the landing gear, it is probably best to glue
the gear doors in place before the two halves go together. If you don't, it'll
be tricky to get the doors in place afterwards due to the tapering wing
thickness.
We then went on to the engine assembly. Unlike most Thunderbird 1 kits, this
unit has the correct arrangement of air intakes. The exhausts are moulded with
conical indented interiors.
The basic construction is a front and back 'cross' shape and two halves of the
main structure. Four mysterious plastic blocks are provided to glue to the inside surface of the upper cross. These parts seem to have been supplied as an after thought. They may be to add a bit of extra weight to balance the 'gear down' model.
Since there's little surface to glue on the two engine halves
we glued the top and bottom cross pieces to one engine half and then brushed glue on the edges and slotted the assembly into position in the remaining engine half. As with the rest of the kit, the parts fit very well.
The four 'winglets' plug into place so there's no worrying over correct
position. There's even an extra winglet with a hole for the aft landing skid
leg.
We left the winglets off until final assembly to make painting and decal
placement easier, though they 'test fit' very nicely without glue. We glued
the engine assembly to the rest of the model once painting and decal
application was completed. It only fits one way up - so take care that you put
the decals on correctly if you apply them before final assembly.
The 'blue' cylinder section came next. Although the kit is 'moulded in
colour' this just means it's grey plastic. I guess if it wasn't moulded in
colour it'd be transparent plastic...
There are two sides to this section, a top and bottom plate and a rectangular
screen piece to go between which stops the ship looking hollow when you look
through the wing slots. We glued the top and bottom plates to this screen and
then cemented the two cylinder halves in place. The top is nicely detailed
with the 'vents' being well defined in a conical cap that fits on top of the cylinder.
Fuselage next. Due to the wing slots there's not much seam to glue - just
from the 'shoulders' up. Again, there's a rectangular screen to go inside. A
couple of chunky bracing pieces go inside each fuselage half to hold the wings
in place. The wings peg nicely into these bracing pieces and mesh with each
other via cogs incorporated in each wing. A very simple and effective
mechanism to make the wings open and close in unison. Make sure the landing gear doors are on the underside - there is a circle marked on the ventral fuselage half for the landing rocket nozzle. The optional cannon also locates on this fuselage half, just aft of the nose.
The most tricky part of this stage is cementing the centre screen piece in place. There are tiny grooves well up inside the fuselage that are a fiddle to get the plate into on both sides unless you have very slim fingers. Be sure it's positioned low enough down in the fuselage to obscure the wing slots - but not so far down it impedes the blue cylinder assembly. There is a cut out at the bottom of the plate for the cylinder ridge to fit into. If you glue it to the ventral fuselage half first you can line it up with a small bump near the lower edge to make sure it's aligned correctly. Once you have the fuselage glued you should find the wings fold with a very positive action - make sure you remove any rough bits of plastic from the wing slots that might
hamper their movement.
We attached the blue cylinder to the fuselage next - making sure the wings
fitted into their slots ok. The blue cylinder will only fit 'right way' up.
The nose cone is nicely shaped - unlike on most previous plastic kits. It incorporates the ribbed lower section and the unit fits snugly onto the top of the fuselage, seemingly not requiring glue.
Although a decal is supplied for the blue stripe on the engine section we felt it was too dark and so we hand painted it instead.
Our model is shown here almost fully assembled but for the landing gear.
The landing gear is very well detailed. You can choose between the normal
'skids' or a wheeled version. Take care in detaching the rear leg from the
sprue - there's a tiny pin where it connects that you don't want to
accidentally cut off.
We brush painted the model using acrylics, mostly Citadel and Humbrol.
We darkened the many panel lines and added other weathering effects to
the model before applying the decals. All the lettering seems ok and there are also a couple of black bands for the fuselage.
We then sprayed the completed model with satin varnish.
Here are some photographs of our finished 'flight' model. We attached the optional nose cannon - handy if Scott finds someone is taking pictures...
We completed a second kit, this time with landing gear fitted. We opted for the 'skids' but wheels are also provided - as seen in the first episode 'Trapped In The Sky'.
Here are the photographs. The FAB 1 Rolls Royce is the first issue Konami model.
This Aoshima 1/144 scale kit should please any Thunderbirds enthusiast. I hope Aoshima will produce many more Gerry Anderson related models of this quality.
A note about scale.
All of a sudden, Thunderbirds kits and toys have started being alotted specific
scales. This kit is stated as being 1/144 scale, which would mean TB1 is 120
feet long. I'd guess this kit is more like 1/87 (HO) scale.
Scales in Thunderbirds are very subjective, however I think Thunderbird 1 would
be around 72 feet long. In the first episode, 'Trapped In The Sky; Thunderbird
1 is seen to be about four car lengths long.
I think HO scale accessories would go nicely with this model - and the Konami
FAB 1 looks good next to the 'landed' version of this model. I suspect a
major confusion over scale occurs when Thunderbird 1 is seen next to
Thunderbird 2. Due to all the stuff TB2 is supposed to carry it must be huge
- and yet TB1 doesn't seem a great deal smaller. So I think it's best not to
worry overmuch about scales with Thunderbirds - just see what looks 'right' to
your eyes. That's what the production team must have done.
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