page_title: Thunderbirds (TV series)
section_title: Special effects
hierarchical_section_title: Thunderbirds (TV series) / Production / Design and effects / Special effects
caption_attribution_description: Stourhead House
context_page_description: Thunderbirds is a British science-fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was produced between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry combined with scale-model special effects sequences. Two series were filmed, comprising a total of thirty-two 50-minute episodes; production ceased following the completion of the second series' sixth episode when Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer, failed in his efforts to sell the programme to American network television.
  Set in the 2060s, Thunderbirds is a follow-up to the earlier Supermarionation productions Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5 and Stingray. It follows the exploits of International Rescue, a life-saving organisation equipped with technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space rescue craft; these are headed by a fleet of five vehicles named the Thunderbirds and launched from IR's secret base in the Pacific Ocean. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, the founder of IR, and his five adult sons, who pilot the Thunderbird machines.
context_section_description: The effects for all the APF series from Supercar to UFO were directed by Derek Meddings, who later worked on the James Bond and Superman films. Knowing that Thunderbirds would be the "biggest project [APF] had worked on", Meddings found himself struggling to manage his workload with the single filming unit that had produced all the effects for Stingray. He therefore established a second unit under technician Brian Johncock, and a third exclusively for filming airborne sequences. This expansion increased the number of APF crews and stages to five each. A typical episode contained around 100 effects shots; Meddings' team completed up to 18 per day.
  An addition to the effects department was Mike Trim, who served as Meddings' assistant in designing vehicles and buildings. Meddings and Trim jointly pioneered an "organic" design technique in which the exteriors of models and sets were customised with parts from model kits and children's toys. Models and sets were also "dirtied down" with powder paint or pencil lead to create a used look. Toy cars and vans were used in long shot, while scale vehicles were equipped with basic steering and suspension for added realism. Miniature fans and Jetex pellets, which are capable of issuing air jets or chemical exhaust, were attached to the undersides to simulate dust trails. Another of Meddings' inventions was a closed, cyclical effects stage nicknamed the "rolling road": consisting of two or more loops of canvas running at different speeds, this device allowed shots of moving vehicles to be filmed on a static set to make more efficient use of the limited studio space. Airborne aircraft sequences were mounted against a "rolling sky", with smoke fanned across to simulate passing clouds.
  One of Meddings' first tasks was to shoot stock footage of the Thunderbird machines and the series' main locations, Tracy Island and Creighton-Ward Mansion. The finished island model was a composite of more than a dozen smaller sets that could be detached from the whole and filmed separately. The architecture of the mansion was based on that of Stourhead House, located on the Stourhead Estate in Wiltshire. In the absence of head designer Reg Hill, who was serving as associate producer, Meddings was further tasked with designing the Thunderbird fleet and FAB 1. Scale models for the six main vehicles were built by a contractor, Master Models of Middlesex. Models and puppet sets combined, more than 200 versions of the Thunderbird machines were created for the series.
  During the designing and filming process, Meddings' first priorities were realism and credibility. With the exception of Thunderbird 5, each vehicle was built in three or four scales. Meddings' swing-wing concept for Thunderbird 1 was inspired by his wish to create something "more dynamic" than a fixed-wing aircraft. He remained unsatisfied with the prototype of Thunderbird 2 until he inverted the wings, later commenting, "... at the time, all aircraft had swept-back wings. I only did it to be different." This decision was made out of personal preference and was not informed by any expert knowledge on Meddings' part. He described the Thunderbird 2 launch as "probably the most memorable" sequence that his team devised for an APF production.
  The largest model of Thunderbird 3, whose design was loosely based on the Soviet Soyuz rocket, was six feet (1.8 m) tall. Thunderbird 4 was particularly difficult to film: as the scale of the model did not correspond to the water inside the shooting tank, creative camera angles and rapid editing were used to produce a sense of realistic perspective. Thunderbird 5, the most difficult vehicle for Meddings to visualise, was based on the Tracy Island Round House. Since most of the space station's appearances were provided by stock footage, the model was rarely filmed. Pod Vehicles were designed on an episode-by-episode basis and built from balsa wood, Jelutong wood or fibreglass. To save time and costs, other minor vehicles were built in-house from radio-controlled model kits.
  As the puppets of Lady Penelope and Par
caption: Stourhead House, an 18th-century Palladian building, inspired the look of Creighton-Ward Mansion.[141]
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