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Librarian-bot — Thunderbird 1 - Specs
Published: 2010-07-25 10:45:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 22669; Favourites: 130; Downloads: 2979
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Description
For no real reason other than to show it off some more and give you a sense of scale with a photoshoped Scott Tracy.She looks long but she's actually about the same size as the original. I decided to make her look more like a missile in 'rocket' mode and to fiddle with the landing gear so that it didn't come out of the wings. Never thought that was particularly sensible...
Everything else was just streamlining. I would have made some of the rear thrusters rotatable 'VTOL' engines, like the movie version, but I didn't think of it in time and I rather like the way it looks anyway.
Just to make things absolutely clear, I do not own Thunderbirds, International Rescue, their logo, designs, names etc - ITV do. This is entirely done for fun, with no profit to me or anyone else. I say this in more detail than usual mainly because I've borrowed the IR logo from Google to make this look more 'official'.
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Comments: 32
In the front elevation you can see a similarity to the x-15! Very good design!.
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Thunderbird 1 does look fantastic! Well done on this!!!
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I love seeing alternate designs for the Thunderbirds! You did a really beautiful job streamlining this. It looks kind of like an airliner, only faster and sleeker. I have been trying my hand at some Thunderbirds homage vehicles, so these are quite inspirational!
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Thanks! (And sorry for the delay in replying)
It was a fun model to build and one I may have to revisit at some point. I was aiming for a definite missile outline in launch mode, so it ended up almost too sleek - there is probably not as much space inside as the original!
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Well, it now looks much more likely to reach such high speeds than it did before. I applaud you for that! Even if it does not have as much space as the original, it makes up for it in speed and length.
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Some exceptional work there, but sadly (my apologies) I'm a purist and grew up with the original. Actually that said I had family who worked for the late Gerry Anderson in the sixties and seventies.
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Thanks - and no need to apologise, I understand completely. I dearly love the originals myself: this was just my attempt to play around with them a bit and see what I came up with.
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No problem at all. I recently heard that they are planning on re-making the late Gerry Anderson's THUNDERBIRDS and immediately my heart sank because you just know that they will be hiring somebody to re-design virtually every aspect of the original, including the hardware and that in doing so it will look terrible! I'll readily admit that some of the stuff in the classic THUNDERBIRDS looks dated, but The Mole, Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 3 look okay today in my book, although TB4 could do with a makeover as could The Firefly.
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I'm reserving judgement. I hope that they'll do a good job with it and that it'll be true to Anderson's (not inconsiderable) legacy. I'm a bit of a fan of the Captain Scarlet remake, and have high hopes that they could surpass that easily with a new Thunderbirds.
As ever, it's a case of waiting and seeing.
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I rather like this vision TB1, but this is one case where the movieverse version has stolen my heart as the best variant of this iconic craft, if only because it allowed me to vicariously live my childhood dream of joyriding that beauty!
The VTOLs and the rolling-landing-gear were a nice touch as well - you could imagine TB1 doing a conventional landing in a crisis situation where Scott had lost all engines and was piloting a big silver glider.
That said, yours is incredibly elegant, like a big silver dart, with an icredibly meaty set of muscles mounted to her stern - she looks like she could two TB2 into orbit with that rig (if I recall right, there was an issue in the old Thunderbirds comic where TB1 showed itself to be capable of reaching Thunderbird 5).
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You know, I think you're right...can't remember which comic that was. I do have a copy of the comic where TB2 proves it can reach orbit on its own, but only by exhausting its fuel reserves.
The VTOL engines on the movie TB1 are an extremely nice touch. I did consider incorporating them into this design but couldn't quite make the lines flow. Somehow though, the conventional landing gear never did it for me, and the clear cockpit just didn't look right.
Ah well. Each to his own, as they say! Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
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You're quite welcome.
Regarding the comic, I think it was the issue where a plane or satelite managed to snap a photograph of Tracy Island with TB2 on the runway.
(checks Wikipedia)
Aha!
During his appearances in the comics, the Hood's plans became even more daring. On one particularly memorable occasion he attempted to expose International Rescue's location by bombing Thunderbird 2's hanger, forcing Virgil to move the craft onto the runway where he subsequently took photographs of the vessel. During the subsequent cover-up attempt – claiming that Tracy Island was simply a theme park based on International Rescue, Thunderbirds 1 and 2 were sent into space with Thunderbird 5 while Lady Penelope and Parker staged a rescue, the intention being for the Thunderbirds to arrive at the scene and thus confirm that they hadn't come from Tracy Island.
Well thought out plans on the part of both parties.
Which I suppose means both TB1 and TB2 have completely space-worthy hulls and are capable of atmospheric re-entry.
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Indeed! Given what they go through on a regular basis, that probably makes a lot of sense...
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Hmm...I wonder if I could model that in scale without killing my computer...one way to find out!
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And again, nice design. Very elegant, and much better than the movie.
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I AN IN LOVE!
Thunderbird 1 was always made my favourite and I love how you've done a modern version while sticking very closely with the original colour scheme and design.....one question though.....
Will there be a thunderbird 5 eswell? Remeber John needs sum luvin too!
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Glad you like her!
Yeah, TB5 is in the works...but I'm not sure where to go with the detail, so it may be a while. Trust me though, John is not forgotten!
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Yeah!
Good luck I know Thunderbirs 5 is a lot harder then the rest but it's the most used and most importnant!
Can't wait to see it!
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It sure is 
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Your right......*gasp!*GERRY ANDERSON should sue for Copyright infringement!
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out of interst are you sill do ing dr who stuff
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Oh, don't worry. I'll get back to that eventually. Just need to get this out of my system first.
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You've got my vote to make a GOOD Thunberbirds movie!
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Eh, I'd never know where to start. That said, I'm sure I could have fun with that many contrived coincidences ending in disaster...
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I much prefer this to the movie version. I imagine if thunderbirds was made in the 21st century TB1 would look a lot like that
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Well, I think that was what I was going for..hope I can get the others to work too...
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I'm sure you will
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