Current and Finished Projects > Scifi and Fantasy

The Invaders saucer, 1/72

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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 :o

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 :smiley: 

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  :smiley:

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