| The ZEAF -
Zelda Earth Atmosphere Fighter |
In
the early episodes of 'Terrahawks' the villian
Zelda attacked Mars, and then the Earth, using a fleet of
large space cruisers that could interlock with a central
hub to form her base of operations. These ships moved
through space at a fairly slow speed, in a similar manner
to the effects shots in the earlier series 'Space:
1999' that had been modelled on the more realistic
look of the film '2001'. However further stories
called for smaller, more nimble, craft - and so the ZEAF
was created.
Designed and built by John Lee, it was constructed around a hollow tube
that slotted over a rotating rod on stage. This, in
conjunction with the camera tracking quickly towards, or
away from it, gave the impression of great speed. This
model gave Special Effects director Steven
Begg the
opportunity to inject more energy into his SFX work and
get a more 'Star Wars' feel to the show. |
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| This
agile fighter quickly became Zelda's primary attack and
defence craft, and began to feature heavily as the series
started creating some very ambitious space battle
sequences, such as in the episodes 'A Christmas Miracle',
'The Ultimate Menace', and 'First Strike'. |
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| John
built two versions, the primary model featured here, and
a tiny one measuring about 2” long. Kit-bashing is
used for detail - the disc on the rear tail plane (see
below) coming from an Airfix 1/24th scale Harrier and
having a diameter of 26mm means that this model is around
13 & 1/2 inches long. |
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| Below:
Courtesy of Garry Warren we finally have photographs of
the bottom of the ZEAF model, something that we haven't
been able to see for nearly 40 years!! This model (and
others) have recently turned up and will apparently be
offered for sale shortly (info as at Aug 2020). |
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| Below:
Two ZEAF craft in the model shop - one 'a little bit
worse for wear'. Originally an unmanned craft later
episodes would call for it to carry various characters to
Earth, so a cockpit was added. |
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