Eagle Transporter

1
August 31, 2023
Starting at the front with the cockpit parts. All cut off the sprue and cleaned up ready for some assembly and priming.
2
September 2, 2023
Cockpit parts primed with Mig One-Shot White & Grey on the inside of the cockpit.
3
September 2, 2023
Cockpit back wall painted. Not my neatest work but it won't be seen very well so good enough 😉
4
September 2, 2023
Made a start on cleanup of the back spine parts. If you don't already have a seam remover then get one before you attempt this kit - you'll need it 😄
5
September 2, 2023
Back spine assembled. Very fiddly to add the parts & glue without them dropping back out again but I got there.
6
September 2, 2023
More fiddly assembly with the cages around the pods.
7
September 3, 2023
Pilots (badly!) painted. Again, not too fussed as they'll hardly be seen once they're in the cockpit.
8
September 3, 2023
More fiddly pipework assembling the front & rear pods. Needed to be careful on orientation but the instructions are reasonably clear.
9
September 3, 2023
All the parts assembled so far. Getting close to closing up the cockpit, just have to prepare the windows and then I can look at sticking that together and cleaning up the seam.
10
September 9, 2023
More assembly, this time the side pods. Labelled them so I remember which one goes on which corner 😉
11
September 9, 2023
And the feet to go with them.
12
September 9, 2023
Fiddly, fiddly pipes again! That was horribly fiddly but the engine "block" is all done.
13
September 9, 2023
Got the windows ready. Primed the inside of the bottom windows with one-shot black and masked the front of all the windows ready to glue into the cockpit halves.
14
September 9, 2023
Windows glued in using Micro Kristal Klear.
15
September 9, 2023
Decals added to the pilots and they can be glued in place on the back wall.
16
September 9, 2023
Last part for the cockpit assembly is the four thrusters. Primed with one-shot black ready for a metallic coat.
17
September 10, 2023
Cockpit halves glued together and the seam sanded back. It's not too bad needed a small few bits re-glued with extra thin but it's mostly gone.
18
September 10, 2023
Another coat of primer across the sanded parts.
19
September 10, 2023
Back wall with pilots glued into the back of the cockpit.
20
September 10, 2023
Cockpit fully assembled 😎
21
September 10, 2023
All the parts constructed (sorry, forgot to take photos of the cargo pod going together) primed with one-shot white. You can see how big the thing is going to be!!
22
September 23, 2023
Parts primed with one-shot black
23
September 23, 2023
Engines primed with gloss black
24
September 23, 2023
"Struts" painted with metallic Chrome.
25
September 23, 2023
New technique alert 😉
Trying out C1 metalliser on the struts.
26
September 23, 2023
Yep, that works 🙂
27
September 23, 2023
Engine bells painted with metal color aluminum
28
September 23, 2023
Metalliser is great on the engine bells too 😎
29
September 24, 2023
Metalliser used on all the metallic parts. They all look suitably shiny 😎
30
September 30, 2023
Feet painted with Panzer Dark Grey & Drybrushed with Metallic Steel.
31
September 30, 2023
Cockpit & Engine Tanks painted White-Grey and glossed with Pledge.
32
October 1, 2023
Decals applied to the cockpit and the Engine tank section. I shelled out on the weathering decal set and they are really delicate, fiddly and difficult to apply as they will only come off the backing using hot water and then all they want to do is curl up or wrinkle. Really fiddly but I persevered and only failed with two. Sealed in with another gloss coat.
Here's the top view.
33
October 1, 2023
Side view of the decaling.
34
October 1, 2023
And the bottom view. The middle bottle was one of the decals that folded over so much it was unsalvageable so trashed it and used the kit supplied decal. My "head canon" is that the bottle had been swapped off another Eagle and that's why it's marked different. I'll put that one at the bottom so you won't see it anyway.
35
October 5, 2023
Light pinwash with Blue-Grey, cleaned up with Lacquer Thinners then two coats of Matt varnish to dull everything down. That's the cockpit pretty much done. Just need to add the four metallic 'sensors'
36
October 5, 2023
Cockpit view from the side.
37
October 5, 2023
Cockpit view from below.
38
October 5, 2023
Sensors added and window masking removed. Cockpit is done 🙂
39
October 8, 2023
Engine bottles get a Blue-Grey wash and a couple of coats of Matt Varnish. These are done now as well.
40
October 8, 2023
Matt coated the feet and gloss coated the struts which made them really dark - the metalliser doesn't like anything on top of it but I wanted to protect the struts from scrapes so will have to live with it. They're still metallic, just darker than before.
41
October 8, 2023
Rescue pod gets a coat of white-grey and a light gloss coat to protect it.
42
October 8, 2023
Port side masking, ready for stripes.
43
October 8, 2023
Port side painted with Red to give the stripes.
44
October 9, 2023
The starboard side gets it's stripes and the black "vents" are fitted to the top parts. All sealed in with a coat of gloss ready for decals.
45
October 12, 2023
Decals applied on the pod and sealed in with another coat of gloss.
46
October 12, 2023
Blue-Grey wash and a couple of Matt coats.
47
October 12, 2023
The windows for the Rescue Pod have had their "back" painted black with One Shot primer leaving the part you'll see still shiny but blacked out.
48
October 12, 2023
Used PVA to glue the windows in. Need to leave that 24hrs to dry fully.
49
October 13, 2023
Smoke oil paint weathering on all the Engine Bells. Did that early as that needs a while to dry fully ahead of adding the smaller bells to the bottom of the Rescue Pod
50
October 13, 2023
The main body of the Rescue pod gets the same Blue-Grey wash & a couple of coats of Matt gloss.
51
October 13, 2023
Streaky engine bells and the drybrushed feet are glued into place.
52
October 13, 2023
The roof sections are glued into place.
53
October 13, 2023
Loosely fitted the top but that looks too clean so needs a bit of wash as well.
54
October 17, 2023
Front and back "passageways" and the "spine" painted white-grey, glossed, washed with blue-grey and matt coated.
55
October 17, 2023
Engine bells fitted to the passageways.
56
October 17, 2023
Rear engine bells fitted to the tank assembly and the baffles fitted.
57
October 17, 2023
Rear passageway glued to the spine.
58
October 17, 2023
Engine assembly glued next.
59
October 17, 2023
Added the rescue pod and screwed that to the spine
60
October 17, 2023
Then the front passageway was glued to the spine
61
October 17, 2023
And finally added the cockpit assembly, now it looks like an Eagle 😎
62
October 22, 2023
Side pods have been painted white-grey, glossed and the kit decals have been applied. Weathering decals next.
63
October 29, 2023
Half the weathering decals applied, just the other two side pods to go.
64
November 3, 2023
Weathering decals completed and the side pods were literally "hung out to dry" 😄 after a gloss coat.
65
November 5, 2023
Cages for the sides have been glossed, washed with blue-grey, cleaned up then matt coated.
66
November 5, 2023
I cut the lugs off the side cages as they won't fit as I'd already assembled the front and back sections but....
67
November 5, 2023
Without the lugs they just clip in without glue easily enough.
68
November 5, 2023
Side pods washed with the blue-grey, cleaned up and matt coated.
69
November 5, 2023
Glued the foot to the side pod making sure the "hinge" on the gear faced towards the back on all four.
70
November 5, 2023
Glued the thruster bells to the side pod.
71
November 5, 2023
Repeated four times and they're all compete.
72
November 5, 2023
Turned the Eagle upside down to glue the side pods on.
73
November 5, 2023
Eagle complete 😄
74
November 5, 2023
75
November 5, 2023
76
November 5, 2023
77
November 5, 2023
78
November 5, 2023
79
November 5, 2023
80
November 5, 2023
81
November 5, 2023
82
November 5, 2023
83
November 5, 2023
84
November 5, 2023

Comments

52 31 August 2023, 15:50

Villiers de Vos
Booking my seat for this iconic subject.

3 September 2023, 05:02

Torsten
Nice, follow 👀

3 September 2023, 15:21

Dominik Weitzer
good to see one building the eagle. watchin g with interest :-D

4 September 2023, 06:17

Rui S
I'm in 😎

9 September 2023, 20:36

David Taylor
Watching Gareth.

23 September 2023, 18:18

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work so far.

23 September 2023, 20:27

Thomas Espe
Following!

24 September 2023, 11:28

Villiers de Vos
Very nice work on the landing gear.

30 September 2023, 12:07

Ben M
Love this so far!

13 October 2023, 13:28

CaptGPF
very nice! The nice thing with the Eagle is even if you screw it up, you can just throw the kit against the wall and put it in a crashed diorama! 😱

15 October 2023, 06:21

Villiers de Vos
The paint work on the rescue pod came out very good.

15 October 2023, 11:42

Villiers de Vos
The engine bells came out very nice. I understand that assembling the rear engine with its tubing can be tricky?

17 October 2023, 14:44

David Taylor
wish I had the space.

17 October 2023, 16:49

Gareth Lloyd
Thanks all for the comments. It's coming along nicely even though I'm being distracted on the weekends with the Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately my Team (Wales) have now been knocked out so more time for modelling 😄. @Villiers de Vos, Yes the engine tank assembly is very fiddly, there's 8 rods, 4 of them perpendicular to the base and another 4 at an angle and you need to sandwich them between the "top" and "bottom" parts lining them all up at the same time. Taking your time and using Tamiya Extra Thin allows a bit of "wiggle time" to be able to do that bit. All the pipework parts were fiddly but the engine is probably the trickiest. Thankfully past that stage now and into adding paint and dirt then assembling 😎

17 October 2023, 17:51

David Taylor
Brill.

5 November 2023, 18:10

Villiers de Vos
The result is fantastic.

5 November 2023, 19:19

Ben M
The newsfeed says 84 photos but when I go into the album there's only 64 and I can't see the completed photos. The cover image looks great though!

5 November 2023, 19:50

Gareth Lloyd
Thanks for the kind comments. This was a long build but I suppose that's to be expected for such a big kit, just need to find somewhere to put it now 😄
@Ben, sounds like you're missing all the photos uploaded yesterday (5th Nov), maybe your browser has cached the gallery so trying a F5/Command+F/Refresh might bring the rest of the photos?

6 November 2023, 07:32

Ben M
Hi Gareth, I can see them now. I was having lots of trouble with scalemates. Dumping the cache and reloading didn't help. Your eagle looks fantastic!

6 November 2023, 14:00

Dominik Weitzer
love it 🙂

6 November 2023, 15:48

Gareth Lloyd
Good news Ben, thanks Dominik 🙂

6 November 2023, 18:17

Rui S
Beautifully done big Model 👍

6 November 2023, 20:47

P Carey
This is amazing, bravo! 👍

6 November 2023, 21:04

Gareth Lloyd
Thanks both, glad you liked it 👍

7 November 2023, 10:34

Michael .
Love it. I still have the toy from when I was a kid. I may have to add this kit to my stash soon.

7 November 2023, 12:44

Dominik Weitzer
btw, forgot to mention. memories from the childhood while watching the series came up 😉

7 November 2023, 15:38

Dale
Great build! Thanks for sharing all the step-by-step details; really enjoyed the overview!

1 June, 02:07

Gareth Lloyd
Thanks Dale, glad you liked the build diary 😊

1 June, 17:42

David Taylor
Sooo jealous.

1 June, 19:30

Mr James
Second best spaceship in the world ever 🙂 Great work on this beauty. I didnt realise how big it is.

1 June, 20:07

Album info

Next on the bench is the MPC Eagle Transporter from Space 1999. Planning to follow how ModelMakingGuru made his one using the playlist at Youtube Video .
I don't have the special edition version that he built in then videos so not so many decals and I'm planning to do the Rescue Version with the Red Stripes on the pod in the middle.

Eagle Transporter

84 images

1:48

Completed

1:48 Weathering Panel Decals (MPC MKA051/12)

Eagle Transporter

Moonbase Alpha

The Moon

All albums

View all albums »