The Invaders saucer, 1/72

[frank2056]

The TV Show:
"The Invaders" was a short lived (two seasons) SF show from the late 1960s.

It was about an architect who sees a UFO land in a deserted field and his hunt for the stiff-fingered, bloodless, no heartbeat Invaders who what to take over the world.

The Intro was pretty good.

The first season is on Internet Archive. The original show aired pretty late at night, so I only got to see a handful of episodes.

I recently got the DVD set from Amazon.  It dates from 2008 and has all the episodes, an extended pilot and there's an option to watch Roy Thinnes, the lead actor, introduce each episode.

The series featured many famous (or soon to be famous) actors. Some of the actors appeared in more than one episode, often as completely different and unrelated characters.The series had a tense, paranoid atmosphere and pretty good plotting and acting for a 1960s TV show, Los Angeles and the areas nearby were stand-ins for distant locations like Washington, New England, etc. I could identify some of the locations, including UCLA.

The Saucer model

The only kit produced  from the series was the iconic saucer. Aurora made a 1/72 version in 1968. Surprisingly, the interior details were somewhat close to what was seen during the series.

The kit has been re-released several times, most recently by Atlantis. I've built it three times, once as a kid, once about 20 years ago (I sent the unfinished kit to a friend at BTS, who gave it a new life)
This is my third build.

The fit of the underside to the saucer top leaves an unsightly gap. I filled it in, and also blocked off the landing leg holes. Other than sanding off ejector pin marks and divots, it was a quick build. Pretty soon it was ready for painting, which I hoped would be quick:



The model is often shown in a metallic finish, but due to (I assume) the matting process used when filming the miniature, it always appeared blue-ish (except for one episode with a crashed and cracked up saucer). For this build, I used the saucer shown in the second episode of season 2, "The Saucer":

The aliens really liked Vasquez Rocks:


"Have you seen Captain Kirk or the Gorn anywhere around here?"


Beauty/Reference shot:


I painted the landing legs in aluminum and got a fairly good representation of the saucer color... which took 20 tries to get right. Yes, I sprayed the saucer, found a flaw (dust/finger print/pain run/cat hair) and removed the paint 20 times. Several of those times the saucer almost went flying off the roof.

This is the 21st and good enough for government work paint job. It still needs some detailing, but it's 80% there. It looks a bit washed out in the sunlight, but the purplish shade is there:



I wasn't going to light the kit, so I did a best effort to get a greenish color to the globes and the reddish central bit (which still needs work):



Interior:

It's missing the main seat and the three urinals/regeneration pods.







I added the hatch in the right supply room, since that's what's seen in the episode:





The control room:



Hopefully I'll be able to finish the saucer this week.

[zenrat]

Similar to the Adamski saucer.

Looking good.   

[Dizzyfugu]

The colour is cool. 

[NARSES2]

I've vague memories of that series on UK T.V.

Model is looking very good 

[Old Wombat]

I don't recall ever having seen "The Invaders" series but I'm sure I've seen that saucer in something else.

[frank2056]

I cobbled together a David Vincent from a couple of figures from the Hasegawa 1/72 US Pilot / Ground Crew Set. A pilot donated the head (I removed the cap) and a ground crew guy the body. I modified the right arm as well. The gun is two short pieces of sprue.
The figure looks awful zoomed in at 10x, but OK at normal viewing distances.
Most people don't know that a snub nosed revolver was required every day carry for an architect in the 1960s:



Here he is, recreating the scene from "The Saucer" (or a reasonable facsimile):



Thanks for looking! Hopefully my next build won't have as many repaints.

[NARSES2]

Neat figure 

[frank2056]

Thanks! It was easy to modify the 1/72 figure (compared to a 1/35 one). I just wish the details were a bit better.

[scooter]

Most people don't know that a snub nosed revolver was required every day carry for an architect in the 1960s:

Well, it was California in the 60s.  Plus you gotta watch out for those coyotes

[Wardukw]

Frank it may be 72nd but man that dude looks pretty sweet when ya consider how small he is   

[martinbayer]

Hello Frank, my congrats for an extremely impressive build up - this architect certainly seems determined ! I remember watching some Invaders episodes as a kid in (then West) Germany in the late sixties, but I have to admit I vastly preferred UFO, where Earth had the Oomph and determination (as well as the associated supersecret organization and ubercool hardware) to actually go after those pesky intruders ...

[frank2056]

I loved UFO - and it was on at an hour I could watch it - I have the DVD collection as well. UFO was all about paranoia and The Other (usually Commies) that looked just like US.

@scooter - the greatest risk in California in the 60s was the smog - riots, etc. were bad, but not an every day threat.