Why The Atom Furnace???

Why The Atom Furnace?

So, my brother (littlebro) has named this blog The Atom Furnace.  For those familiar with the Flash Gordon serials of the 1930's you may recognize the line "To the Wall Men" which was our hero, Flash directing the slaves feeding the Atom Furnace to a protective half wall as he tossed his "wired" shovel into the furnace!  The catastrophic result was the destruction of the Rays holding up the suspended city of the Hawkmen! 

 Of course, Dr. Zarkov immediately discovers a technically inexpiable "New Ray" that saves the city!

Okay Flash Fans here are few more "Flashback" photos...

"This is  Emperor Ming calling bomber B1.  Destroy Zarkov's rocket ship!"

"Flash, is that a rocket ship I hear?"

"Captain Torch I thought I told you to destroy the Rocket ship!"

But Sire, I have captured all of the Earth people and brought them to you for your pleasure!

"Excellent!"

Of course our Hero, faces many threats to overcome, such as the deadly Octosac...

..and many Ming devices of death, but my favorite villain turned ally is the ever jolly King 
Vultan of the Hawkmen.

Our Hero's naturally escaped the evil clutches of Ming time and time again.

Leaving Mongo in the hands of the rightful ruler, Prince Baron....

....Our heros leave Mongo for the return to earth.

Keep saving us Flash and let us all never run out of Radium!!

Just so you don't think this post has nothing about modeling what follows is a Resin kit you can obtain from Fantastic Plastics.

For fans of the 1930s serials it is obvious that this model is not from the initial 1936 "Flash Gordon (Space Soldiers) as Dr. Zarkov's rocket ship (of his own design) did not have a nose cannon.  This "improvement" came later and it's a good thing too since Flash has to fight off the Bombers of Emperor Ming.  In the 1938 serials sequal Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars,  the gang returns to earth in a Ming Bomber only to have to head out to Mars to fight Queen Azura and Ming (who miraculously survided the end of the first serial) in that same bomber.  A goof in the first epiosode shows the bomber in it's flight to Mars being being shot down with a Ray cannon of Mars, but just prior when Zarkov asks Flassh to "add more rockers" we see a brief cut of the original Zarkov ship before the scene shifts back to the Ming bomber - an obvious editing budget move!  The nose cannon finally shows up in the third serial "Flash Gorden Conquors the Universe".

Here are most of the kit components.  Not a lot so assembly can go quickly.  Of course that is if there is no customization!!

One of my tasks was to add pins to the doors so that they could open and close.

I also acquired figures that I could convert into Flash, Dale and Zarkoz.  Due to the figures constraints, I had to work with my costumes to assume the personas from both the first two serials.

 Here is the crew at the control console on the Rocket "Bridge".

Now the bridge deck with the crew is installed in the nose.  The view screen has been added to the console and you will notice the wire to the right.....

.....which is for the LEDs that were obtained from Evan's Designs.

The LEDs are also for the power generator and the technically unexplanable Greeblies added (from sprue of other model kits).

Now I could put the whole thing together.  I had to drill holes to allow the wiring to exit the ship and be glued to  the bottom fin.  Now it was time to mask and spray on Testors Metalizer!!

Metalizer is perfect for the Rocket Ship because you buff it with a soft cloth in accordance with product description to get that Stainless Steel finish.  So let's light it up!

Perhaps we have landed on the Arboreal Mongo?