When Gerry Anderson returned to making puppet shows with his 1980's series Terrahawks I have to admit that I was not very impressed by the opening two-part story or the overall production quality, but this was hardly suprising after the heights of Space 1999. The third episode showed only slight improvement but when the fourth hit the screens I became an instant fan.

The reason for this was the appearance of the mammoth multi-wheeled model called the Overlander, the Terrahawks primary supply vehicle. This striking design, by the new SFX director Steven Begg, brought back the feelings I had when watching Thunderbirds during my childhood and became an instant favourite.
After its outing in this episode (Close Call) it was to reappear in two more full episodes (Thunderpath & Zero's Finest Hour) and also the usual Anderson compilation story, where he liked to save money by repeating some exciting bits from previous episodes.

This three-bodied five foot long model is carved from wood and detailed with numerous model kit parts, the front section was built by John Lee whilst the two trailers were built by Steven Woodcock. The nine very heavy brass axles were constructed by Pete Bohanna and then outfitted with 36, old style, rubber ballon tyres from the'Tamiya Sand Scorcher' radio-controlled toy.

After many years of trying to build replica models that looked like the studio versions it was very nice to actually own an original - unfortunately the only reason I got hold of it was because the model was in a pretty poor state - if not completely knackered!

The first problem was that a good number of parts were missing, major parts including the lower hull areas around the axles, the radar, most of the drivers cabin and all the hubcaps.

The second major problem was that all the hundreds of original drawn on panel lines had now been cut into the surface of the model, exposing the wood beneath and causing parts of the surface to break up and fall away. Several areas also had long deep splits in the wood.

The third problem was that the model had been resprayed rather badly whilst still in a filthy condition, which not only obliterated all the surface details but trapped in all the muck and grease/oil (?) as a result some areas of paint had never set and were dissolving the kit parts!
The only option was to completely dismantle the model, clean off all the rotten paint and dirt, restore the wood surface and then replace all the missing parts as I rebuilt it. Easy!
As most of the kit parts were attached to perspex boxs, that were inserted into holes in the top of the model, these could be removed and worked on separately.

One problem with the wheels was sorted out quite quickly. At first several of the wheels kept falling off their axles which themselves were badly aligned. It turned out that six wheel hubs were different from the rest and all the axles (which are numbered) had been reattached in the wrong positions. This was simply fixed by working out which wheel went with which axle and in which position.

Photo on right - Front body has a metal rod extending out of the bottom for the attachment of the guide/control wire.
A mass of thin electrical wires for the lights which had been fitted for a later nightime episode had to be removed during the restoration process.

The wooden bodies were stripped of their kit part detailing and sanded lightly with wet & dry paper, to clean off the top layers of paint and reveal the original surface detailing which could then be photographed for later use.

To do this every removable item had to be prised off and more photos taken to ensure that I could put it all back together in the right place. Luckily with the clear resin coating I could glue the kit parts back exactly but with the panel lines I wasn't so sure as the model would have fresh paint covering them. As it happens the very bottom of the model is covered by the axle surrounds so is unpainted, while there is an opening in the top of each hull which meant that I could leave marks in both these places to redrawn all the vertical line perfectly - so only about 50% had to be done from photo reference.

The new resin coating was sanded smooth with wet & dry paper mounted on a block to ensure a flat surface finish. After painting with cellulose car spray paints (Ford Olympic Blue & Silver Fox) I could begin the long task of redrawing the hundreds of panel lines in black biro.

Here some of the cleaned and repaired kit-bashed panels are reattached

As the rear panel and one side of the drivers cabin was still attached to the model I was able to easily recreate the missing parts, although here I went further and added a detailed cabin matched to the first episode and even added one of Zelda's cubes.(not visible)

Most of the effort was now spent on carefully trying to clean the perspex kit-bashed boxes. This one from the rear body was the worst with most of the kit parts either having dissolved or being so brittle that they fell apart when touched.
The first priority then was to visit my local model shops and go through all their Tamiya tank kits to identify the parts and get replacements where needed.

Here the section has been cleaned and outfitted with new kit parts and cleaned originals. The model also featured a number of EMA parts that had withstood the chemical attack. However many of these had either been broken or they had taken the easy option of falling off over the preceding years. Replacements were ordered from the EMA Catalogue.

Before........

......and after

One area that had to be rebuilt almost completely was the lower hull around the axles. These parts had been vac-formed in thin plastic and had all fallen off except for the front one which was still held on by the electrical wiring. As this moulding was very flimsy I decided to make the replacements out of something stronger. So I just used this part as a mould, waxing the inside and applying a mixture of P38 and resin to produce a set of parts for all three bodies.

Unfortunately I didn't have an example of one of the hubcaps, but as a simple design it wasn't too much trouble to heat-form a set out of 0.75mm Plasticard.

Before......

......and after

My biggest worry on this project were the tyres as to my knowledge they were no longer available. Luckily all 36 were on the hubs but their condition was not good. When I first got them they had been spattered with chemicals and paints and the side walls were badly cracking. After gently cleaning them they were soaked in a rubber protectant solution, then each pair were turned around so that the bad sides are facing and supporting each other - and no longer visible.

When the front section is pulled along by the tow cable the rear two bodies tend to go off in different directions. So during filming extra connecting wires were run between the hulls to try and hold them in line. There is also a wire connection point on the very rear possibly to create a drag and stop the rear body from bouncing around too much.

The centre of the helijet landing pad is the only example of the original paint detail

The wheels on the rear body feature black plastic hubs while the others are metal. * The model is now owned by Phil Rae