I'm building a twenty four inch Liberator at the moment and I have the drive unit lighting up.....There are a lot of good kits out there.....Happy building everyone........⚒
I bought that model and recently assembled it. You have to find some nice inch-long segments of strong metal rod, drill out holes, and pin the nacelle thingies on at the six join points using epoxy glue. If you just use glue without pinning (as I did on my first try), no matter how strong your glue, the considerable weight of the resin pieces will just cause the whole ship to fall apart.
I've met Mat Irvine, who built the original liberator, which he still owns, last time i spoke to him he had the liberator with him and was in the process of doing some restoration work on her. he also told me she was hell to film because of the awkward centre of gravity due to the triple nacelle layout, which made it really hard to stop it wobbling!
Hopefully he'll let the world know his results sometime! That would be great to hear how it's doing all these decades later. Wobbly, maybe -but a great design!
ModelManTom i took a couple of photos at the time i'll try to dig them out, he also had with him the original teleport panel and a couple of teleport bracelets.
I met Matt some years ago at a show near Newport Pagnell (UK) and he was showing what’s left of Liberator (rescued after being blown up!) Orac was there too plus some other props like the teleport console and some hand guns. Brilliant to see stuff from my childhood preserved and got some wonderful photos of it all.
I thought I'd share a few things with you. I had the old Halcyon kit and in doing research I found that there wasn't a single ship. The engine was lit with a large lamp which regularly melted the ass end. There was no standard surface details either. My kit had p/e for the antennae but you can imagine how that worked out !!! In case you didn't know, the series is available here on UA-cam so pick and choose what you want. I'm curious about what you will do about the green striping on the engine. My kit had crappy decals that we're thick and yellowed. Surface details were drawn on with magic marker or pieces of masking tape. The ship itself was stock Plastruct parts except for the engine which was a plastic lamp globe. I sold mine but I've seen one built and it was a great kit except the builder didn't use the decals but tried to hand paint the lines which ruined the whole thing and was why I sold mine. Hope this gives you a little help. Like you I loved the show. Good luck ... !
I didn't know the series was here on YT. I've got crappy VHS rips myself. I'd heard something about the engine lights melting the original model, but never found any good sources for actual history. I won't be building this soon, but the engine details will be a sticking point.
I had no idea Halcyon made a model of Blake's 7 Liberator, thought they did a few Aliens kits and then closed down. Maybe it's time Mobius Models offered up one...maybe.
+Max Brandt Halcyon made a number of kits other than the ones from Aliens. I've got one of the Dr. Who Dalack kits. They made two of them. One from the movies and one from the TV series. They made several from the Stargate movie and series and a bunch of Alien kits. Overall they were decent kits but there was big differences in how hard to build. Their APC kit from Aliens is a butch to build. Looks great built but hard to get built. The Scout Ship from Alien is very nice and fits well. I've never done any of their figures. So I can't say about them. if I remember right, the Blake's 7 ship was one of their first releases.
The Halcyon kit had a good background on the models used in the show. It also was my source for how they made the originals. Their kits were made with BBC cooperation. I did get some info from other sources, but it supported the other info.
That's some impressive mastering and casting. I do not share your confidence in those bits of brass embedded in the nacelles. Their hearts are in the right place but I would have preferred some square stock that actually protruded from either end. I do like your lighting enthusiasms-- so while you've got the rubber out-- copy up the nacelles with brass in place?
I'm building a twenty four inch Liberator at the moment and I have the drive unit lighting up.....There are a lot of good kits out there.....Happy building everyone........⚒
I bought that model and recently assembled it. You have to find some nice inch-long segments of strong metal rod, drill out holes, and pin the nacelle thingies on at the six join points using epoxy glue. If you just use glue without pinning (as I did on my first try), no matter how strong your glue, the considerable weight of the resin pieces will just cause the whole ship to fall apart.
I've met Mat Irvine, who built the original liberator, which he still owns, last time i spoke to him he had the liberator with him and was in the process of doing some restoration work on her. he also told me she was hell to film because of the awkward centre of gravity due to the triple nacelle layout, which made it really hard to stop it wobbling!
Hopefully he'll let the world know his results sometime! That would be great to hear how it's doing all these decades later. Wobbly, maybe -but a great design!
ModelManTom i took a couple of photos at the time i'll try to dig them out, he also had with him the original teleport panel and a couple of teleport bracelets.
I met Matt some years ago at a show near Newport Pagnell (UK) and he was showing what’s left of Liberator (rescued after being blown up!) Orac was there too plus some other props like the teleport console and some hand guns. Brilliant to see stuff from my childhood preserved and got some wonderful photos of it all.
I thought I'd share a few things with you. I had the old Halcyon kit and in doing research I found that there wasn't a single ship. The engine was lit with a large lamp which regularly melted the ass end. There was no standard surface details either. My kit had p/e for the antennae but you can imagine how that worked out !!!
In case you didn't know, the series is available here on UA-cam so pick and choose what you want. I'm curious about what you will do about the green striping on the engine. My kit had crappy decals that we're thick and yellowed. Surface details were drawn on with magic marker or pieces of masking tape. The ship itself was stock Plastruct parts except for the engine which was a plastic lamp globe. I sold mine but I've seen one built and it was a great kit except the builder didn't use the decals but tried to hand paint the lines which ruined the whole thing and was why I sold mine. Hope this gives you a little help. Like you I loved the show. Good luck ... !
I didn't know the series was here on YT. I've got crappy VHS rips myself. I'd heard something about the engine lights melting the original model, but never found any good sources for actual history. I won't be building this soon, but the engine details will be a sticking point.
I had no idea Halcyon made a model of Blake's 7 Liberator, thought they did a few Aliens kits and then closed down. Maybe it's time Mobius Models offered up one...maybe.
+Max Brandt Halcyon made a number of kits other than the ones from Aliens. I've got one of the Dr. Who Dalack kits. They made two of them. One from the movies and one from the TV series. They made several from the Stargate movie and series and a bunch of Alien kits. Overall they were decent kits but there was big differences in how hard to build. Their APC kit from Aliens is a butch to build. Looks great built but hard to get built. The Scout Ship from Alien is very nice and fits well. I've never done any of their figures. So I can't say about them. if I remember right, the Blake's 7 ship was one of their first releases.
Hi, I just got this model kit. What would you recommend as the best glue to use?
Good review, kit looks to be nice but with a few areas of concern. I'd just airbrush bright fluorescent green for the engine and call it good.
Nice idea!
The Halcyon kit had a good background on the models used in the show. It also was my source for how they made the originals. Their kits were made with BBC cooperation. I did get some info from other sources, but it supported the other info.
do they have a website?, would like to order one for my collection.
I don't know if they do. Contact them thru ebay and they'd let you know.
found them : masterpiecemodels.com/product/blakes-7-liberator/
thanks for the heads up.
Libertator[sic], Blakes Space "Chip"
That's some impressive mastering and casting. I do not share your confidence in those bits of brass embedded in the nacelles. Their hearts are in the right place but I would have preferred some square stock that actually protruded from either end.
I do like your lighting enthusiasms-- so while you've got the rubber out-- copy up the nacelles with brass in place?
hi, grew up with this TV show, always loved the Liberator, shame the engine can't be lit, have fun building her tom, respect, tim the primered thumb👍😜
Nice find! Too bad it would be hard to light up.