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HOW THEY BUILT THE MODEL

Some of the construction of Derek Meddings design are still subject to guess work.Where uncertainty exists,I will highlight this fact by stating clearly the likely methods and materials employed.I will glady welcome confirmation or otherwise from anyone "in the know" who cares to contact me.Highlighted below are all the essential shapes that went towards
realising the basic design of the UFO.Just to be clear these particular sketches are not to scale.

1.The centre of the model to which all other parts are attached.Essentially a truncated cone,probably turned on a lathe using wood or solid perspex. Then deeply hollowed out so as to accept a rubber wheel attached to a spindle.A motor was housed in the very top,which turned the spindle and the wheel,which was held solidly against the hollowed out cylindrical wall.The very top was held still by the presence of the motor and the upper dome 8.It was split from the remainder of the revolving cone,connected only by the freely turning spindle.The dome was held by 4 wires,and firmly attached to the cap 6.The power wires that worked the motor ran through the cap and upper dome.

The upper part of the cone was coloured metalic green,while the lower portion was covered with chrome tape in the form of a series of strips.The all important paddles were made from styrene or plastic card of a suitable thickness.This would have been easy to cut,and the edges smoothed to a suitable finish.They were then covered with chrome tape.Particular attention would have been given to the edges,to make them free of creases or wrinkles.The discs 3 would have also been made from plastic card,and covered with chrome tape.Firstly the edges would have been smoothed then
a complete rim of tape would be applied to the disc,slightly wider that the discs edges .This
rim would have been feather cut on each side,and then these feathered bits would have been pressed down onto and around the flatten sides of the disc.This would have been the only effective way to form the edges.The rest of the disc,front and back was covered with chrome tape and then the excess trimmed off to conform with the discs shape.If you look carefully on the screen grab below you can clearly see how the feather cut, pressed down edges of the discs show up under the chrome tape placed on top of it.

The bottom plates 4 and 5 were again likely to have been turned on a lathe,made of wood or solid perspex.Both would have been hollowed out to a certain extent to allow an extension 7 to protrude out of the bottom.This extension did not spin like the plates and held the canopies 9 and 10 which were were fixed to it.A further non moving spindle attached to the wheel inside the cone kept the extension and the lower domes still,while the middle and lower parts of the cone,along with the plates and paddles were free to spin.
The larger model also had no visible extension ,likely being made of clear plastic or perspex.The plates were painted white and on the underneath 16 regularly spaced black bars were painted.The edge of the plate was also tipped with chrome tape.This chrome tipping would sometimes be difficult to see.

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