USS PANTHER II - from the 1967 TV Series ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’ created by Gerry Anderson
‘Captain Scarlet’ featured a lot of futuristic hardware, which was typically targeted by the Mysterons for destruction and reconstruction to wreak havoc on the Earth. With only the might of Spectrum and Captain Scarlet standing in their way.
The USS Panther II is featured in the episode ‘White as Snow’ when Colonel White exiles himself away from the rest of Spectrum in order to nullify a Mysteron threat directed at him. The submarine dos not have the futuristic flourish of some of the other vehicles seen in the series. In fact it is quite routine in appearance. The miniature used in the filming is actually a repurposed submarine model from ‘Thunderbirds’ - the Reaper (seen in ‘Atlantic Inferno’.
There is a scene where we see Colonel White board with the submarine and it is absolutely enormous. About 560 feet in length. About the same size as Russian Typhoon class submarine (e.g. the ‘Red October’). A 1/600th scale kit would be about 11 inches in length. Black plastic.
Although the underwater submarine shots in Captain Scarlet, and all of the Anderson TV shows, were done with a vfx technique called dry-for-wet, The miniature and the surrounding seabed set were filmed on a dry stage, with a large glass water tank between the camera and the models. The tank was rigged with bubbles and particles and sometimes small fish. With appropriate lighting of the models this technique could give the impression of being underwater. But in this painting I really want to sell the idea and that this si underwater. There is a lot of caustic, or dappled lighting from the waves overhead. This sort of lighting was very apparent in the shots of the Seaview submarine in the 1960s TV series ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’. which were actually filmed underwater.
Designer is most likely Mike Trim
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