TV Century 21

It would appear that at least two of these models were made, probably of wood. One was destroyed at the climax of 'Winged Assassin' and the other was reused as an airport background aircraft in a number of Captain Scarlet episodes.

Note the model's landing gear. As aircraft models like this often had to be operated on the rolling runway or dragged along airfield taxiway sets, the wheels had to rotate. Typically, strong wire was used for the landing gear struts and the wheels came from plastic model aircraft kits or from Matchbox toys. The landing gear was often merely pushed into small holes in the fuselage of the model aircraft so that they could be removed to simulate gear retraction.

The DT19 appears to have been a one-of-a-kind model which was made from wood. Lettering was made from Lettraset dry transfers and automobile striping tape was used for the various trim lines.

Trivia note: this Captain Scarlet model was used in a famous TV21 photo of the Tracy Island Thunderbird 2 runway set.

Colonel White's Helijet

This helijet model appears to have been based upon some kind of helicopter toy or kit. It looks a lot like a Boeing-Vertol helicopter but the overall shape is not quite right. It is possible that the helijet's fuselage was made entirely by hand and it only resembles a Boeing-Vertol twin rotor helicopter by chance! No matter how the basic fuselage was made, the model was detailed with a variety of kit parts. For example, the forward fins were made from Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit parts and the rear fins were made from F-104 'Starfighter' parts.

Commandeered Helicopter

This miniature was made from parts from a number of different plastic model kits. The main body came from a Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit. The tail is the forward fuselage of an F-4 'Phantom' kit which has been turned upside down combined with F-4 stabilizer fins. The pontoons are bombs from a B-58 'Hustler' kit.

This same model, or an identical duplicate, was used for the medevac helicopter seen in 'Place of the Angels' and a few other episodes of Captain Scarlet. The Hawk 'Husky' helicopter was a popular kit with the Supermarionation model makers. One of it's most attractive features was that it came with a battery operated rotor motorization kit.

Two of these models were made for use in the Thunderbirds Are Go cinema film. They were later used in Captain Scarlet. The models appear to have been made from wood with kit part details. For example, plastic B-58 'Hustler' engine pod parts can be seen on the landing skids. The large transparent cockpit canopies were made from thermoformed plastic. Don't ask me how the rotors were motorized as the rotor housing seems too small to hide an electric motor and the wings seem too thin to hide a network of shafts and gears!

Medevac Helicopter

This miniature was made from parts from a number of different plastic model kits. The main body came from a Hawk 'Husky' helicopter kit. The tail is the forward fuselage of an F-4 'Phantom' kit which has been turned upside down combined with F-4 stabilizer fins. The pontoons are bombs from a B-58 'Hustler' kit.

Seneca Helicopter

This is yet another hand-made wooden model which features motorized rotors. Small horizontal wire rods were positioned over the rotors for the model's four-point wire suspension system.

J-17 Interceptor Jet

This is a true Captain Scarlet rarity, a miniature aircraft made entirely from plastic model kit parts. What we have here is somebody's 'Mirage 3' plastic model kit which has been altered with additional kit fuel tanks on the nose, wingtips, and tail fin plus a few other kit parts.

Flight 104 Airliner

This is yet another one-of-a-kind model which appears to have been made out of wood for the most part. There are no significant features to this model. It is a very simple wooden shape with trim stripe tape markings and pull-out landing gear.

Judith Chapman's Airliner

This one-of-a-kind model appears to have been made from wood. Actually, the fuselage appears to have been made from a pair of wooden dowels. The model is decorated with trim lines made from automobile striping tape.

Trivia note: this model in its original RTL-2 form was shot with Stingray for a famous series of photographs used in TV21 comic.

World Air Force Bomber

For use in 'Place of the Angels', the model lost its tail assembly and was redecorated. The old horizontal stabilizer was split into two parts and one half was positioned on each wingtip. The jet engines were also moved closer to the wingtips. Note the large exposed bombs placed under the fuselage.

Tribune Newspaper Jet

The Tribune jet appears to have been made from wood. The Tribune lettering was made using Lettraset dry transfer lettering.

The Magnacopter

This appears to be another wooden model. Note that the landing skids appear to have been made from wooden dowels and the cockpit appears to have been taken from some kind of plastic helicopter kit.

Gabriel Carney's Model Airplane

This appears to be a modified Monogram Piper Tri-Pacer plastic model kit. It started off as the Hood's aircraft in the Thunderbirds episode 'Martian Invasion' and may have even been used as far back as the first episode of Supercar.

XQR Jet

This model was made for the most part from wood. Trim lines were made from automotive striping tape. The clear cockpit canopy was made from acetate plastic.

XK-107 Nuclear Bomber

This one-of-a-kind model appears to have been made from wood and has a clear canopy robbed from a plastic model aircraft kit. Trim lines were made with automobile striping tape and the numerals on the wings were made using Lettraset dry transfer lettering.

Mysteronized Angel Jet

This is nothing more than a standard fiberglass Angel Jet model, one of at least three that were built new and painted gray for use in 'Seek and Destroy'. Why the gray coloring? Well, the Mysterons destroyed three new Angel Jets which had been crated up for delivery just prior to flight testing and final painting in Spectrum markings. Thus, when the Mysterons recreated the destroyed jets, they were recreated in the slightly incomplete, primer painted form that they were in before they had been destroyed!