The Invaders saucer, 1/72

[Frank3k]

The TV Show:
"The Invaders" was a short lived (two seasons) SF show from the late 1960s. It was about an architect who sees a UFO land and his hunt for the stiff-fingered, bloodless, no heartbeat Invaders who what to take over the world.

The Intro was pretty good.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEUdsXmCE7g



The first season is on Internet Archive. The original show aired pretty late at night, so I only got to see a handful of episodes.

I recently got the DVD set from Amazon.  It dates from 2008 and has all the episodes, an extended pilot and there's an option to watch Roy Thinnes, the lead actor, introduce each episode.

The series featured many famous (or soon to be famous) actors. Some of the actors appeared in more than one episode, often as completely different and unrelated characters.

The Saucer model

The only kit produced  from the series was the iconic saucer. Aurora made a 1/72 version in 1968. Surprisingly, the interior details were somewhat close to what was seen during the series.

The kit has been re-released several times, most recently by Atlantis. I've built it three times, once as a kid, once about 20 years ago (I sent the unfinished kit to Story, who gave it a new life) This is my third build.

The fit of the underside to the saucer top leaves an unsightly gap. I filled it in, and also blocked off the landing leg holes. Pretty soon, it was ready for painting, which I hoped would be quick:



The model is often shown in a metallic finish, but due to (I assume) the matting process used in the film miniature, it always appeared blue-ish (except for one episode with a crashed and cracked up saucer). For this build, I used the saucer shown in the second episode of season 2, "The Saucer":

The aliens really liked Vasquez Rocks:


"Have you seen Captain Kirk or the Gorn anywhere around here?"


Beauty/Reference shot:


I painted the landing legs in aluminum and got a fairly good representation of the saucer color... which took 20 tries to get right. Yes, I sprayed the saucer, found a flaw (dust/finger print/pain run/cat hair) and removed the paint 20 times. Several of those times the saucer almost went flying off the roof.

This is the 21st and good enough for government work paint job. It still needs some detailing, but it's 80% there. It looks a bit washed out in the sunlight, but the purplish shade is there:



I wasn't going to light the kit, so I did a best effort to get a greenish color to the globes and the reddish central bit (which still needs work):



Interior:

It's missing the main seat and the three urinals/regeneration pods.







I added the hatch in the right supply room, since that's what's seen in the episode:





The control room:



Hopefully, I'll finish this in a day or two.

[Buzzbomb]

Classic kit from a classic TV Genre.
Very basic kit, but your finish is tricking it out, with a full on A++ for perseverence in repainting 20 times

It is of course well known that the snub .38 revolver is the best ever weapon against any sort of extra terrestrial invader.

[Frank3k]

The Invaders had a fatal design flaw and would quickly self immolate at the slightest provocation. Mr. Vincent didn't really need a gun - some harsh words were often enough.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Great work on that old UFO kit Frank.  You make it look so easy  

I had a pair of those kits for a while then sent what was left of the kits to someone else to take up space in their stash.  No regrets! 

If you had launched the UFO off your balcony I suppose you could have salvaged it by converting it into an armored observation post on the future Maginot Line 

[finsrin]

Neat of you to take on Invaders saucer build.   Relating because strove to see every episode while at the time working at drug store where we accepted film for processing.   A regular customer was a 'David Vincent' aware of the show who I often asked if saucer pictures were on film roll.  He was good sport, we had fun with that.
Saucer is looking fine.  Colors and finish are right on 

[Frank3k]

Thanks guys - I'm glad I was able to watch all the episodes in high quality. It's not a bad show and it's too bad it wasn't renewed. Roy Thinnes played the part well.

I cobbled together a David Vincent from a couple of figures from the Hasegawa 1/72 US Pilot / Ground Crew Set. A pilot donated the head (I removed the cap) and a ground crew guy the body. I modified the right arm as well. The gun is two short pieces of sprue.
The figure looks awful zoomed in at 10x, but OK at normal viewing distances.
Most people don't know that a snub nosed revolver was required every day carry for an architect in the 1960s:



Here he is, recreating the scene from "The Saucer" (or a reasonable facsimile):



The regeneration stations/urinals are reversed from the instructions. In the show, the few times they're shown they face away from whatever wall is nearby.

Thanks for looking! Hopefully my next build won't have as many repaints.

[Dr. YoKai]

Classic kit from a classic TV Genre.
Very basic kit, but your finish is tricking it out, with a full on A++ for perseverence in repainting 20 times

It is of course well known that the snub .38 revolver is the best ever weapon against any sort of extra terrestrial invader.

Not to be confused with a glass of water, which works quite well against extra dimensionals.

Beautiful work, Frank-even zoomed, the figure doesn't look too bad, and it is an inspired addition. Thanks for noting the location of the first season episodes. I had the pilot on VHS many years ago, but that was all I've seen since it was broadcast.

[Frank3k]

Thanks Craig. The DVD set is fairly priced, considering all the content and the video quality is excellent. I really enjoyed the series, despite its period flaws.

Since it was a TV production and under a limited budget, most of the locations were in LA County - including distant locations like Washington DC and New England. They even had an episode that took place at UCLA (although it's changed quite a bit since the mid 60s).

[Camthalion]

Nice work

[finsrin]

Invaders TV show insights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGmLNIfFxkM

[Story]

Your base label *must* include the attribution!


Maybe with a little Quinn Martin as an alien.

[Frank3k]

Invaders TV show insights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGmLNIfFxkM

That's on the DVD set. The Roy Thinnes interviews and intros are great. He's a good raconteur.

@Story - Good idea - I'll have to add that as a placard to the kit. Quinn Martin died a while ago; so no way of telling if he had a pulse or a deformed pinkie