LEGO Spectrum Vehicles (Captain Scarlet)

If you’ve been waiting for more Captain Scarlet LEGO® builds from me then today is your lucky day because I’ve got ten, yes TEN, microscale Spectrum vehicles to share!

Previously I’ve posted images of my W.I.P. Cloudbase MOC, and an SPV roughly in-scale with the Dinky and Vivid Imaginations diecast toys. Thrilled with my microscale UFO fleet, I decided that it would be enormous fun to produce a range of craft from Captain Scarlet in a diminutive style – with the added bonus that the craft would sit nicely alongside my Cloudbase build (a project I still hope to complete one day!).

Angel Interceptor

Although I already had a microscale Angel Interceptor sitting atop my Cloudbase model, I decided it was time for an upgrade. The original build was a chunky little afterthought made using bits and pieces I had available at the time. This new design had the benefit of LEGO®’s full inventory of parts available via BrickLink. Yet the challenges of creating a sleek, less-blocky looking aircraft were great indeed. One essential task was more accurately capturing the sleek, streamlined nose of the Angel Interceptor. Remembering the official LEGO® Hogwarts Castle set and its many, many, many spires, I found exactly what I was looking for to create the all-important spearhead look.

At all costs, I wanted to resist making the main fuselage two studs wide, but also couldn’t find a viable option for connecting the wings with only one row of studs. Microscale requires some creative part useage to overcome structural issues, and I finally found my solution in amongst the catalog of pieces pertaining to… plants. A leaf piece in white was thin and studded enough to sit under the fuselage and hold the wings in place without looking unsightly. It formed the skeleton of the whole build and without that one leaf piece, the design of the whole aircraft would have been compromised.

Spectrum Helicopter

I’ve been in love with the under-used Spectrum Helicopter since Vivid Imaginations released its plastic toy version in the early 2000s. One of my ongoing projects has been to design a larger, LEGO® minifigure scale version but boy is that ripe with challenges thanks to some of the craft’s odd curves. At microscale, however, the challenges became much more straightforward to tackle. LEGO® produces a number of turbine pieces in different shapes and sizes and I quickly found one to fit the scale to serve as the main rotor blades. Mike Trim’s design for the Spectrum Helicopter’s tail rotor is rather more unique and required some creativity. The tail rotor was eventually realised with a steering wheel piece.

One drawback of designing LEGO® MOCs digitally is that sometimes the software contains some inaccuracies as to what certain pieces can and can’t physically do. I went back and forth for a while about using the blue telephone parts to attach the landing skids in an effort to make the connection to the main body as sleek as possible. The software, Studio 2.0, seemed unable to confirm whether or not the telephones had enough clearance for a clip to fit in the middle, and allow for the black inverted 1 x 3 tiles to attach at either end. I decided to bite the bullet and order them anyway, and sure enough found that I couldn’t attach it all together without adding extra studs between the telephones and the black tiles. In the world of microscale, every layer of plates can add considerable height to the build and throw off all the proportions. Fortunately, I think I got away with it this time!

Spectrum Passenger Jet (SPJ)

The SPJ is such a cool aircraft, and its another one I’ve had on my LEGO® hit list for a while. Deciding on a size for this one was tricky because it actually needed to be quite a bit larger than the Angel Interceptor in order to convince anyone that it was actually capable of carrying passengers, but not so large that it couldn’t fit on the main runway of my Cloudbase MOC. The result is a microscale build which isn’t actually all that small since, for the sake of reference, it ended up a little bit larger than the diecast Vivid Imaginations SPJ toy from 1993.

One other challenge with this one was getting the mix of blue, red, and white aircraft livery to look as accurate as possible to the original design. On an official LEGO® set this could be achieved with stickers and specially printed pieces. I’m not so keen on using stickers in MOCs – for one thing I’m terrible at applying them, and for another it opens up a can of worms in terms of how far I have to go to get my MOCs looking screen accurate. Instead, my policy is just to go without stickers, use existing printed pieces from LEGO® only when they’re affordable and perfect for the task, and mostly to use standard pieces creatively when adding splashes of colour to my builds. The result, in the case of this SPJ MOC, is a look which might not 100% accurately reflect the original model from the Century 21 studios, but is still very recognisable and 100% LEGO®.

Magnacopter

Boy was this a tough one! Seen in only one episode (The Trap), the Magnacopter is Spectrum’s vehicle of choice for getting a large number of people from place to place without the need for a runway. Its appearance in the television series may have been limited but it’s a popular vehicle with fans and is heavily documented in the Haynes Spectrum Agents’ Manual and similar literature. So, in a quest for a complete fleet of Spectrum vehicles, I had to include the Magnacopter.

One problem – it’s massive. This thing is supposed to be able to carry 20 passengers in total comfort, and one MSV in its belly. Actually, two problems – it’s massive and the design is absurd. Instead of conventional landing skids or wheels directly underneath the fuselage like a normal helicopter, the Magnacopter sits upon long, spindly skids mounted on the end of some wafer-thin wings. The entire weight of the main body rests on two struts which aren’t even offset to spread the load. So, I had to design the wings, struts, and skids in a way which looked as sleek and angular as Mike Trim’s model, but also make them tough enough to take the strain of the chunky fuselage.

So, when it came to working on my LEGO® version, I had to carefully play around with the proportions of the design so that the MOC’s centre of mass would sit in exactly the right place to avoid the whole thing tipping over or collapsing on itself. Plus, the build still needed to be relatively affordable and fit in with the scale of the other vehicles.

I’d be lying if I said I was totally happy with the end result, but considering the challenges involved, I think I did a pretty good job. It’s sturdier than it looks, it can just about squeeze on top of my Cloudbase MOC, and it helps to complete the fleet. There’s room for improvement, but it does the job, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (SPV)

I’ve previously built myself an SPV which I documented in full on the blog so I won’t go into too much detail on the process behind this one. Like last time, I settled on Medium Blue for the colour since it offered up the widest selection of bricks while closely matching the original studio models. This MOC required me to study my previous, larger build and simplify it down considerably. Some details therefore had to be lost such as a few rows of wheels, the rear caterpillar tracks, and the antennae.

I’m happy with this cute little thing. The SPV is one of the most important vehicles in Captain Scarlet and I think I’ve captured its essence in LEGO® with just a few basic pieces. It’s tremendously satisfying when a model comes together without a lot of complexity or compromise. It just sorta works!

Spectrum Patrol/Saloon Car (SPC/SSC)

Whether you call it a Spectrum Patrol Car or a Spectrum Saloon Car, you’ll hopefully recognise this speedy little vehicle. I’ve been trying for years to come up with a minifigure scale (or larger) LEGO® version of this machine but it’s one heck of a complicated shape. The way the car and its windscreen taper to a point at the front requires a lot of clever curves and angles which are difficult to experiment with digitally, and would really require physical pieces to test out and truly develop into the stunning shape designed by Mike Trim.

Fortunately, microscale can be quite forgiving, and I was mostly able to build upon a standard two-stud-wide car design, keep the front windscreen at a relatively normal angle, and just use sloped curves for the tapered nose. The squished up proportions of this MOC make it an adorable addition to the fleet, while still remaining recognisable as an SPC… or SSC… or whatever the heck you wanna call it.

Maximum Security Vehicle (MSV)

The under-used Maximum Security Vehicle may not have featured much in the show itself but, thanks mostly to Dinky inexplicably producing a toy of it, the MSV has become quite a recognisable Captain Scarlet machine. The remarkable thing is that despite being heavily armoured, the MSV only carries two people and isn’t actually that big when shown alongside the red patrol cars.

The MSV’s long wheelbase called for modified plates with some technic pin holes placed at the very end, rather than in the middle as is standard on microscale LEGO® car MOCs. You’ll notice that I’ve used a variety of techniques to suggest wheels on all my Spectrum ground vehicles featured in this article. In the case of the MSV, and on the SPC, I used round black 1 x 1 tiles attached to technic pins, meaning the wheels can actually turn freely. On the SPV, and the two other road vehicles below, I used 1 x 1 round plates with holes in the middle which could then be placed on the ends of hinge pieces. The techniques were chosen for each MOC based on the requirements for the vehicle’s ground clearance, and how easily the wheels could be integrated without compromising on the design. The MSV’s chasis is very low to the ground, so it made sense to attach the wheels to the side of the MOC’s main body, rather than underneath.

Spectrum Radar Van

For such a colourful organisation, Spectrum’s vehicles tend to stick with blues and reds and greys for their liveries. I wanted to introduce something a little bit different to my fleet of LEGO® Captain Scarlet vehicles so I decided to include the lovely green radar/detector vans seen in the episodes Manhunt and Treble Cross. Hardly a star vehicle, or a particularly distinctive design, but this little workhorse still sits nicely with the other builds because of the splash of colour it adds.

Those of you who have studied my UFO SHADO Mobiles MOCs will recognise the technique used to achieve the radar dish on top – a bucket handle attached to a clip. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Many of you may wonder why I’ve put any time or effort at all into making a LEGO® version of a vehicle which barely features in the series. Well, I’ve always been a champion for the underdogs. I like the obscure oddities and niche appeal hidden away in various corners of the Anderson universe. Sometimes I just do these things because nobody else will. This MOC, and the last few on this list, are proof that I’m a completionist with too much time on my hands.

Yellow Fox Tanker

Another unremarkable vehicle which adds a different colour to the Spectrum (get it?)! This ordinary tanker was really an undercover V.I.P. transporter used by Spectrum for those times when an MSV with a giant Spectrum emblem plastered over the door was a bit too much of a sitting duck.

The covert nature of the Yellow Fox Tanker has actually made it quite a popular vehicle with Anderson fans, even though it appears only in the episodes Winged Assassin and Dangerous Rendezvous. This LEGO® version is rather more yellow than the model that appeared on screen, but I decided to take a bit of a creative liberty and really made Yellow Fox live up to its codename. The challenge of this build was trying to capture the sleek, modern design of the original model (which was actually modified from the Superon tanker seen in Thunderbirds), and avoiding it looking like an ordinary LEGO® microscale truck. The unique shape of the cab was a challenge to create at just two-studs-wide, but I think I’ve suggested it well enough. Yellow Fox was a really fun build, and I’m glad to have it in my collection!

Spectrum Hovercraft

Last, but definitely not least, a vehicle which is only seen in one episode (Traitor) but was another hit with the fans! I had previously seen a Spectrum Hovercraft LEGO® MOC on display at Andercon 2014 and it opened my eyes to just how many great vehicles there are in the Gerry Anderson universes which left a big impression despite making only brief appearances on screen.

Unlike the other ground vehicles in this collection, I didn’t have wheels or road widths to help me figure out a suitable size for the MOC. In fact, only the windscreen and Chris Thompson’s fabulous Anderson vehicle size chart served as guidance for creating this microscale marvel. S.N.O.T. (studs not on top) construction techniques were used to created the black skirt of the hovercraft and then the body was built on top of that. One distinctive feature of the hovercraft was, of course, the enormous turbine in the centre, which I achieved using a printed round tile by LEGO®.

The original studio model was incredibly detailed, so required a lot of simplification and boiling down to key shapes for this MOC. Working in microscale is all about finding that balance between design, structural integrity, budget, and function. Intakes and tubes and fins and antennae that were present on screen have to be represented by tiny 1 x 1 slopes and 1 x 2 tiles to merely suggest those details are there, while other elements have had to be axed altogether. But when I look at this finished build in the palm of my hand, I don’t see the compromises or restrictions – I see a sturdy little Spectrum Hovercraft that sits beautifully alongside the rest of the micro Captain Scarlet vehicles in my collection.

And that’s all ten Spectrum vehicles from the original series of Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons now rendered in LEGO® form! As mentioned in the breakdown, there are definitely some craft which I will be revisiting at a much larger scale in the future so if you’re a Scarlet fan, stay tuned to this blog for updates.

As for other Gerry Anderson productions, I still have many other MOCs planned for the future. You can visit my LEGO page to see everything I’ve built so far from Thunderbirds to UFO to Dick Spanner to The Investigator! But what do you think I should tackle next? Leave a comment below with your suggestions and, y’know, those little plastic bricks don’t come cheap so consider throwing a few coppers my way on Ko-fi. Thank you, and S.I.G.