Although I had seen Eagle One many times over the years I had not realised how much the model had deteriorated and although it was virtually complete the parts weren't exactly in good condition or securely fixed together. In fact on first examination I thought the model was going to fall apart in my hands which was due to most of the connections in the main (spine) frame being broken or missing. The engine section felt like it was hanging off, the nosecone wasn't properly secured and the panels on the four shoulder pods were detaching. Over the years this model has been damaged and repaired on numerous occasions with most of these repairs being quick fix's using a variety of glues. However it had now reached a point where such measures were next to useless and more extreme action was necessary such as a complete strip down and rebuild.

At first I didn't want to do this as it can be seen to be damaging the authenticity of the model but as the model had been painted many times and wasn't in 'studio filmed condition' then what was I really loosing and also I hate to see old sad looking models.

The Nosecone (Beak) comes in two halves and is held together by small screws that slot into the two wooden blocks between the pilot figures. This first Eagle features a vacformed Perspex Beak detailed with a layer of similar plastic panels.

Sometime in the past the nosecone had been damaged quite badly and then repaired. An impact to the tip had split the front section almost in half and a large lump of glue had been stuck inside to hold it all together.

The rear half had also been split on the left hand side and this had also broken the collar pipe work that connects it to the mainframe. Whoever had carried out the previous repair had fixed the collar before attaching it to the back of the Beak but a correct fit was prevented by the small angled locating pins, as a result filler had been applied to the areas to hide the problem. I needed to strip down the parts and break the collar apart so that it could be reassembled in the correct position.

Note the two vertical pipes have flat areas at the centre to allow a closer fit to the rear bulkhead.

The top Spine is disconnected from the two central framework sections by removing 16 small bolts. The metal frame sections actually comprise of two separate pieces that are just held together by the bolts and the internal plastic parts.The two detailed trays are just glued to the top of the shoulder pod supports and these front ones came out easily,

Inside the near 30 year remains of moondust from John Koenigs many crash landings. The central core is 3mm Perspex with one half having an internal lip so the two halves slot together,

In order to get the walkways out I had to carefully remove the plastic kit dressing from the top and bottom panels. This detail was changed between the two seasons of Space: 1999 when the model was given a complete overhaul.

Note the connecting passageway to the back of the nosecone isn't to scale with the figures in the cockpit or the passenger pod door.

The parts were very fragile and a number fell apart and had to be glued back together. All the parts were attached to cardboard with double-sided tape and labelled so that they could be reattached in the right places. The parts had been covered in several layers of paint over the years trapping dust and creating an old look that I decided to keep, so I didn't clean them, just resprayed the main box section and left the side trays alone.

The brass framework was cleaned up with wet & dry paper to remove all dirt and loose paint, then checked for any broken joints. This front section was in very good condition and there was only two breaks on it.

The Spine was not so lucky, with well over a dozen breaks and half a dozen missing parts. All the wider connecting pipes across the bottom were hanging off or gone but the good news was that the spine was straight and wasn't bent at all. The paint on this piece had to be mostly removed to allow for resoldering. When it was cleaned up I noticed that a large number of the connecting pipes across the top had been drilled through and had steel-strengthening pins inserted to help hold them in place. This is because the models were often held up on wires during filming, that were secured to the top pipes, and the weight of the model would pull then out. A publicity photograph from 'The Metamorph' shows the Eagles in the volcano and Eagle 1 has two missing pipes at the rear end of the spine which is possibly the reason why they switched to using the second 44" model during the episode.

The rear section was a mess and to make matters worse it didn't want to come apart like the front section. Part of the problem was more plastic kit part detailing, a number of which connect from the two side trays to the central core. The second problem was that the engine section, which was removable in Season One, had been fixed to the cage during improvement work for Season Two. Also two pipes that supplied gas to the engines run and bend their way through the pipework to end at a point in the spine.

All of this made it hard work to dismantle.

As can be seen here the interior parts were covered in dirt and dust. A number of the parts are from the EMA Model Supplies catalogue whilst the most recognizable kit parts are from the Airfix B-29.

When the two vertical boosters were removed the cross pipes along the bottom fell out, although as can be seen on the left one small pipe fell out between series and was never replaced. After this two of the small fuel tanks fell away and the right hand engine was only being held on by the copper loop. At some point in the past the model had sustained a very heavy blow to the rear end braking a lot of the joints and twisting the structure - even after I finished all my repairs its still a bit crooked. The orange line indicates one of the internal pipe supports. The small connecting blocks on the rear collar do not actually connect to the big combustion tanks but are soldered to pipes that run through to the aluminium engine bells. The tanks, plastic EMA hemispheres and wooden circular blocks, hang loosely on the pipe whilst the bells fix to the pipe ends with small Allen screws.

With the framework loosing its shape and coming apart there was no time to waste, only small areas around each joint were cleaned then resoldering began before it all collapsed. The burnt mess could be cleaned off later.

The small missing pipe was not replaced as I considered it to be a minor unique feature on this particular model.

With all the parts now secure I could clean it up and prepare it for painting. One of the engine bells could not be removed during this time as its small gas supply tube wasn't broken. The copper ring supplies the gas and small bent tubes branch out and go into holes drilled in the sides of the engine bells. Yes I have tried attaching airbrush gas bottles to the inlets but nothing happens - alot more pressure is required to get the four engines to work!