The Orion's basic shape cut out of Jelutong wood on a bandsaw. Note the central Perspex (Plexiglass) vane that runs right through the centre of the model. This was traced through from my drawing and gave me the exact side profile of the model and also the cetral spine that devides the engine exhausts.

This photo shows the inside of the engine cowling with the fine strips added. These butt up to the central vane to form a right angle, not a curve as is depicted on both the "Aurora" and "Airfix" kits. In the later reprints of Piers Bizony's book there is a photo reprinted in colour showing the Orion in its classic pose as it rises from the Earth. In these colour photos the strips can clearly be seen whereas on the B/W shots they are not visible. This photo also shows the window sections made up in white Plastikard on clear Perspex (Plexiglass) & painted black on the inside. For the kit-spotters amoung you the little round exhaust ports at the back of the windows are the engine exhausts from the "Airfix" Superfortress kit!

The model has now been sprayed in multiple layers of "High-Build" primer, rubbed down with Wet & Dry paper between each coat and then sprayed with fine grey & white finishing primer. I'm now adding detail to the model using a minimum of kit parts, like the original. I used dichloromethane clear liquid cement to attach the plastic parts to the paint finished model as it melts the plastic which then welds to the paint. I used many thicknesses of plastic sheet and masking tape to lift certain sections of the model and add the fine ribbed sections where the "PAN AM" logo will go.

The model again in finished white but this time from a rear 3/4 view. All the intakes are visible here including the "Airfix Superfortress" bomb halves I used for the small underside rear-facing jets. The larger cowlings on the side of the main exhausts were made specially out of wood then moulded and cast in resin. I used a very creamy white for the final colour as this, I am told, is what was originaly used. I later masked up the rear exhaust ports & sprayed them a satin black.
 

I carved the fuselarge shape using photos from the film archive I have. I had some of my photos blown up to as near the size I wanted my model as was possible -at just over 3ft long. It was interesting to note that I found that there were still a number of inacuracies in the drawings in "The Making of 2001" book by Piers Bizony and re-drawn by Simon Atkinson. I am in no way trying to sound like a "know-all" but I am lucky enough to have a number of photos of ORION that I have never seen published, particularly the front on shot seen in the background of photo 6 showing the wings being made. The windows in this photo are different from those seen on other photos of the original. Why, I don't know.

I made the wings from 2 layers of 2mm Perspex, sandwiching one piece of 3.5mm Perspex between the upper & lower halves of the wing. This allowed me a slot along the leading edge of the wing into which I had to fit 9 tiny female moulds of the intakes each of which is a different size becoming smaller the nearer the wingtip the intakes get. The wing "fences" (These are the proper names for the vertical vanes that cut across the trailing edge of the wing) are yet to be added. I cut slots for these and made them from 20 thou Plastikard

Here the model is virtually finished. The wing "fences" mentioned earlier can now be seen on the traling edges of the wing. Also I have now added the two "probes" to the rear of the model. I had earlier set in two brass tubes 1/8th inch internal diameter so that I could just slide the finely turned brass probes into the holes. These are tapered and need to be strongly fitted as they can get easily knocked; now it's easy to impale yourself on them!

The ORION in its final white finish. Initially it was sprayed a gloss cream like white, but once the weathering was done the whole model was given a coat of matt lacquer to match the original.
In this elongated wide angle photo the cockpit can clearly be seen raised up. In fact on all models I have seen of ORION nobody seems to notice that in fact the fuselage is raised up at this point. I made the cockpit by inlaying a lump of bark blue Perspex into the wooden carving. At its final coat of paint I masked the cockpit up to match the photos used in the film. It'd also interesting to note that in the front view photo seen in the background of my photo number 6, the cockpit has been cut out differently. Clearly they experimented with the cockpit shape.