ROAD LAYER from ‘Thunderbirds’ (1965) created by Gerry Anderson

Thunderbirds delivered nea and incredible futiristic machines ever week. The Gray and Houseman construction company are building a road throigh the mountain range. ‘End of the Road’ is a terrific epsiode, one of Gerry Anderson’s favourites. It features great characters, and an engaging with an imaginative rescue and fantastic machines! The ‘Road Layer’ is a classic Thunderbirds machine, when people think of the show they often think of massive futuristic machines perfomaing everyday tasks with incredible automation and on a giant scale and this checks all the boxes. The shots of the machine driving along and laying a hot tarmac road surface, complete with white lines never fails to put a smail on my face! Pure genius! This thing is massive in ‘real life’ and a model kit in 1/144 scale would probably be around 16” in length. It would come with a Helijet and the Explosives Tractor. The front would open and there would ne a detailed parking area inside.

This was a challenging piece of artwork as I wanted to show the vehicle form a pleasing enagle and show the road laying functionality. Showing it from the rear seemed wrong. I wanted to show the Exposives Tractor, but there was nowehere to put it. having the front open would have ghidden soem of the road layer istelf. The VFX model was over about 4 feet long - the caterpillar tracks are from the massive Tiger Joe Tank toy, which was popular with the Meddings’ model-makers.

Designed by Derek Meddings

Check out the video ‘ What If .. Fantasy Model Kit Box Art #16’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVEoUS5xnaY&t=974s