Building a Nice Model in a Trice.

A "What if" Space: 1999 Custom Laser Tank Studio Model

Many years ago I had asked my friend and mentor at the time Chris Trice, whom I worked with along side Bill Pearson on the film “Battlefield Earth”, what he would imagine a fourth “Laser Tank” had been produced for the series of “Space: 1999” might have looked like. As many of you Space 1999 fans may already know, three styles of Laser Tanks had been quickly built by Martin Bower for the episode “The Infernal Machine”. The original three used in the filming of the episode were constructed on the chassis of a 1/25th scale Tamiya brand British Chieftain motorized tank plastic model kit produced in the early 1970s. I have since built several replicas of those original models based on that chassis.. as seen here…

…but I had a vintage Tamiya Jagdpanther German tank kit chassis (it was already assembled) given to me by an acquaintance. I thought it would be fun to build a model of a tank that might have been seen on Moonbase Alpha if the series scripts had called for one. As I am reasonably good at model building but really lousy at designing a totally new thing, I asked Chris (who loves to design!) to show me his idea of what a new tank might look like which I would use as a basis for my own interpretation.

This is the Tamiya kit that the chassis came from:

Here is the chassis I was given:

Chris Trice provided the following sketch:

I began by interpreting the sketch into a rough blueprint to get proportions nailed down and make sure it would fit the Jagdpanther kit chassis. I made a number of changes to suit my own sense of design. After all, I may not be good when it comes to total originality, but I do like to tweak a design to my liking, and in this case since I was building strictly for myself I figured that anything goes even though the overall appearance would still mimic Trice’s original platform which I really liked.

Below: The late, great “Rocky” cat poses with my 1:1 layout of my design interpretation that I would use to build the basic shape of the model. The design would change even more as I built the model.

Here is a sequence of build-up photos that show how the model evolved:

Once the basic shape was done, it was time to add “wiggets” or “greeblies” (depending on which side of the pond you’re on) otherwise known as “kitbashing” whereby you rob a bunch of detailing from off-the-shelf plastic model kit parts to add interesting mechanical detailing that add texture and scale.

Since the other three Space: 1999 laser tanks seen in the show had… oh yeah… “LASERS” as weaponry, I thought it might be a good idea to put some sort of futuristic rocket launchers on mine. Kitbashed, of course. For fun, the rocket launchers are fully articulated.

A cockpit had to be made since this thing had obvious windows. I used the same 1/24th scale Revell Gemini astronauts employed in the 1/24th scale 44” Space: 1999 Eagle studio models seen throughout the show. It seemed the only logical thing to do. Kitbashing again used to make the interior.

Once I was satisfied with the level of detailing, I sprayed the entire model with gray primer to detect flaws and see if it looked good overall.

The finished model sprayed a cream white, lightly weathered with chalk dust and Alpha Moonbase decals added. I also installed red LED marker lights to the rear and gave it a front headlight for fun operated by a battery pack inside. The model remains suitable for radio control as it has functional differential motors. Some day I might just do that with it.

It took me about a week to build the model, give or take. I’m not a fast builder but I try to do a really good job. This is the kind of work I love best. Give me a basic design to work from, let me have free reign to interpret it and I’ll have one hell of a lot of fun. Freedom of creativity is very rewarding.

Would you like a model like this (or any kind) built for you? Please send your request or idea to “jim@smallartworks.ca” and I will do my best to accommodate.