AUW Patrol Interceptor Page

The Quest for the Dark Planet A.U.W. Border Patrol Interceptor Page.

The "Alliance of United Worlds" is a peacekeeping Organization similar to the United Nations of Earth. The A.U.W. deploys ships to patrol the border and neighboring planets from Alien attacks. Within 10 years there has been 2 major wars that have led to a fleet of Alliance ships on permanent duty in the Xyrene Border region of space.

Commander Jack Halex who is Mary Lou's Partner and love interest, was in command of a Unit that Patrolled the border during the first Alien War. He was assigned one of these ships for 3 years. The Border Interceptor was initially designed more as short range Bomber but was modified as a Deep Space Insurgence Interceptor. Originally designed to hold 4 crew members (Bomber configuration), they were later retrofitted as a single Pilot fighter with extra electronics for jamming and stealth, long range communications systems and countermeasures for extended durations in space. These ships were very well made and have lasted well beyond their designed mission lifespan.

* A little model trivia and history: This ship was originally built in late 1991 for a local Austin indie production called "Celeste". The film creator Paul Pence (from the local Star Trek Austin Regulars- STAR) had approached me on making a model for his show idea. His specifications were very simple: the ship was going to be a space freighter of sorts and had to be longer than it was wide, and wider than it was tall. That was it! Now being that he couldn't afford a budget for me to make a Miniature for him, we agreed that I would keep the model and be able to use for future ideas. Well, I was already planning on a future use for it as I was building it.

So I went to work going through my scrap parts and junk models. The Hull is made from a Soviet Stealth fighter plane and the rear section of a Klingon D-7 cruiser with sheet styrene plastic bridging the two sections. The main Detail comprised of parts from an X-Wing fighter, Robotech Boosters, exhaust flanges from a F-15 Eagle and small detail parts to fill out the engine section. The later upgrade (side wing-lets) consisted of TIE interceptor and Darth Vader TIE model wings cut and fused together. This was actually my first original scratchbuilt and kitbashed model as I started getting back into this hobby again in 1989.

Paul really like the ship, but he said it was way more elaborate than he was ever expecting. I told him if I was going to use it again, that I had to be happy with the result otherwise I would have just made a simpler model for him. Well the Celeste was never filmed, that show never got made so I had the opportunity to re purpose the ship for my own film. This is the original Dark Planet spaceship from the initial story invention from 1992. Now it will finally get it's day in the sun and get filmed for a show. That is what I call a very happy ending :) JPF

john@cozmicfunk.com