DESTINY in 3D

Captain Scarlet - Destiny

Captain Scarlet - Destiny

Over the years we have heard of all sorts of uses people have made of art prints and posters etc bought from us at Artists UK. Some have used them as a basis for having tattoos done or to spray-design their bikes.  One of our customers has gone a step better and made a model based on the print he bought from us, as you can see above. To find out how this modeller went about it just read on dudes and dudesses …

THE MAKING OF DESTINY

by Peter Miller

I design, build and fly radio controlled models. I have done this for years. Occasionally I develop a sadomasochistic streak and design a model that will stretch my skills and patience a little. More importantly,
it will make those who build from my published plans shudder at the thought of all the extra work and complication.

Over the years I have designed a series of these more complex designs, all named after the Angels from Captain Scarlet and have I just started on the last one, Destiny.  For this model I wanted a very special pilot and when I saw the picture of Destiny on the Artists UK website I knew that I had found it. I spent quite a lot of time working out how to create the bust. My artistic skills do not extend to sculpting it from scratch.

I performed a lobotomy on one commercial pilot figure which provided the basic bonedome. This had the areas cut away for the transparent panels. I then ground away to create a rebate for the panels. Now that was masochistic I can tell you, the head is only just over 1” tall when finished and the rebate is tiny but in the end I got the panels installed.

The other pilot’s head also suffered a lobotomy and then some plastic surgery to make it more like a female face than the original rather expressionless character who looked like an overtired budget airline pilot.  The hair presented more of a problem but we modellers are an ingenious lot so one Wednesday morning saw me touring the toy shops in my local town with a pair of vernier calipers measuring dolls heads. I am used to getting strange looks.

Eventually I found what I wanted in the local pound shop. That was a relief! You wouldn’t believe the prices that they want for some of the dolls of the size I needed?  The young lady in question suffered the indignity of being scalped but the hair worked after a bit of trimming and setting with clear varnish. The the parts were assembled and the assembly was duly painted up including the tiny badge etc.

The final touch was to make a pair of sunglasses out of soldered up 30 amp fuse wire and adding the lenses.
I must admit that after looking at the completed figure I realised that the sunglasses need to have the lenses tinted. Those eyes do not look calm or happy. Maybe someone has told her about my flying.