Catacombs Model GalleryJarak Ship
Catacombs Model GalleryJarak's ship from Alpha Child was the first model made by Martin Bower. There were two scales: 145cm x 95cm and 71cm x 47cm. In some shots over Alpha, the two different scales are shown together.
Martin Bower in Sci-Fi and Fantasy Models Number 12: The first models I ever made for Space: 1999 were the small 30" Alpha Child ship and its double sized twin, some 5 feet long! My initial relation at actually landing a job on a real film was suddenly bought down to reality with a very large crash as I contemplated on my long drive home just how I was going to construct these "turtle" shaped ships I'd so innocently contrived without a thought of how they would actually be built!
In the end I built both the models in hardboard. This was steamed and bent over a pre-formed wooden framework and the two-way curves done by filling the areas with P38 Isopon car filler and filing it into shape with a large wood rasp. Once this was done the whole thing was sprayed in cellulose primer filler and rubbed down. I repeated this process several times until I achieved a really smooth surface over the entire shape, blending the areas of P38 into the hardboard until no join lines were visible. I then added all the detail in PlastiCard and a minimum of kit bits. (At that time I had no collection of plastic kit parts and no money up front to buy them with). Therefore the rear engines were made from wedding cake plastic stands and other detailing included buttons, garden wire and plastic sprue for piping. The one part I do remember using though was the rear body section of the 1/24th scale Revell Gemini Capsule kit. It became the gun-like section between the two 'lobes" on the front of the model: Luckily a 1/48th scale version of this kit was also available for the half size model.
Bower's design sketches for the ship.
Below is the smaller version of the model.
Copyright Martin Willey