Thunderbird 4

by Hankster

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This is the submarine rescue vehicle from the 1960's television series "The Thunderbirds" created by Gerry Anderson.

This show was basically a showcase for model building as the vehicles and sets were all miniatures and the main characters were simply puppets. Watching the miniatures in action was very inspirational for anybody that built models for a hobby. In addition to the Thunderbirds, Gerry Anderson and Derek Meddings (the special effects director) also created a number of other TV series that utilized minatures and these include: Fireball XL5, Supercar, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO, & Space 1999.

Building this model with software turned out to be very problematic. I had only started to learn about ray tracing and my need to build a super detailed cockpit, along with the numerous bugs and quirks in the 3d software I used (3d Studio Max) slowed me down greatly.

I also decided to do two versions of the model, one with a clean showroom finish and the other with a dirty, grimy finish like it appeared on the show. This led to the creation of two separate scenes, one with a proper base to mount and display the sub and the other, a sort of virtual diorama with the sub floating in front of Tracy Island (the secret headquarters of International Rescue and home of the Thunderbird vehicles).

I did start on a underwater scene as well but I got tired of working this and have now moved on to another project.

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