This UFO paper model is the SHADO UFO Interceptor, based on the UFP TV series, the papercraft was designed by Gary Pilsworth. UFO is a 1970 British television science fiction series about an alien invasion of Earth, created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill, and produced by the Andersons and Lew Grade’s Century 21 Productions for Grade’s ITC Entertainment company.

To defend against the aliens, a secret organisation called SHADO is established. Operating behind the cover of the Harlington-Straker Studios movie studio in England, SHADO is headed by Commander Edward Straker, a former United States Air Force Colonel and astronaut who poses as the studio’s chief executive.

In reality, this was a clever cost-saving move by the producers – the studio was the actual studio where the series was being filmed, originally the MGM-British Studios, later Pinewood Studios, although the Harlington-Straker studio office block seen throughout the series was actually Neptune House – a building at the former British National Studios, in Borehamwood, that were owned by ATV. Pinewood’s studio buildings and streetscapes were used extensively in later episodes, particularly “Timelash” and “Mindbender,” the latter featuring scenes that actually showed the behind-the-scenes workings of the UFO sets when Straker briefly finds himself hallucinating that he is an actor on a TV series and all his SHADO colleagues are likewise actors.

Typical of Anderson productions, the studio-as-cover idea was both practical and cost-effective for the production and provided a ready-made vehicle for the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. It removed the need to build an expensive exterior set for the SHADO base and combined the all-important “secret” cover with the trademark ring of at least nominal plausibility. A studio was a business where unusual events and routines would not be remarkable or even noticed. Comings and goings at odd times, the movement of vehicles, equipment, people and material would not excite undue interest and could easily be explained away as “sets,” “props,” or “extras.”

Another Anderson leitmotif was the concept of the mechanical conveyor, e.g. the automatic boarding tubes of the Stingray and the Thunderbird craft. In UFO, this appeared in the guise of Straker’s “secret” office, which doubled as a lift that takes him down to the SHADO control centre located beneath the studio. The pilots of the space interceptors and the submersible “Sky One” jet interceptor slide down boarding chutes into their craft. The interceptors then rise from their hangar via elevating platforms to a launch pad disguised as a lunar crater. This was a carry-over from the earlier marionette series where it was used due to the difficulty in getting puppets to walk and get them into cockpits.

You can download this space papercraft model here: Space Papercraft – SHADO UFO Interceptor Free Paper Model Download