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Mike IN THE BEGINNING
Mike Trim’s long career began with a newspaper advert. The brief was straight forward: ‘film  company requires model makers.” With no idea of what would be involved, or who the film company was, a young Mike called up nonetheless, and was promptly invited along for an interview.
Everything was simple and straightforward.
“I took some drawings down of a car I’d designed, and had an interview with Reg Hill, the producer, received a letter, got the contract, and I was there.”
For the first few weeks, Mike’s skills put him in Derek Meddings’ office rather than the model shop, initially drawing up blueprints from Derek’s designs. These were sent to an outside company who would build the main models, as was the way it was back then.
“(Later) I went over to the model shop, and the first thing I think I worked on was the Hood’s temple. I may have done some work on the Tracy Island house.” Mike remembers.
After a while, Mike took things into his own hands in designing the actual vehicles.
“The first one I ever did was one that no one asked me to design, I just did it anyway. Showed it to Derek, and Derek liked it, which was the recovery vehicle in (Thunderbirds episode) Pit of Peril…I did a bit of artwork, showed it to Derek, and he said ‘I like that, we’ll make it.’ And that was it.”
A short time later, Derek’s workload meant that someone else would have to design one of the vehicles. Derek went to Mike.
“I said ‘Yes please’, and from then on, it was more and more and more. So I was across my threshold, as it were.”
Mike stayed with Century 21 until the company put up the closed sign around the end of 1969. After five years designing for Gerry Anderson shows, it was time to find new work.
THE 1970’s
“I joined a small publishing company in Windsor, they used to do single publications on aircraft, on ships, on armoured vehicles, on trains, on cars. I sent them a sample of my work, they invited me in. I was looking for freelance work, and they asked if I wanted to join the studio, and I said yes I would.”
“I was there for about two years, eventually running the studio, and then unfortunately that company went bust.”
Mike spent many years following these jobs as a freelance illustrator, with one of the most memorable tasks being to design the Martian War Machines for Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of The Worlds, as well as painting the iconic album cover.
“I was moving house at the time, not really a good time to take on a major piece of work. But Jeff Wayne’s father and step-mother came down to interview me, told me what they were looking for, I produced some roughs (designs), which I sent up to the art director, they were Okayed. “
Mike first designed the Martian creatures themselves, not only for his own reference, but there were a number of other artists involved, and a style guide was needed to ensure a level of continuity between styles. On the wraparound album cover, things were a bit more complex.
“The brief that I got was a lot different than what they were actually looking for…and they came back to me wanting more and more black smoke. So eventually the nice sky that I’d done with black smoke ended up as just black smoke. More colour in the sea and various other things.”
The other final change related to the eye of the creature, the original was a triangular shape, a compound eye, and they wanted to go with a bug-eyed look.
“I was never overly happy with (the eyes), but I not only had to change my artwork but everybody else’s!”
A NEW DIRECTION
Throughout the 1980’s, mike continued his freelance illustration work, until 1984 when he answered another advert, this time for a local college seeking part-time tutors.
“I was becoming a little withdrawn sitting at a desk for years on end, and I answered it (the advert) thinking maybe that would give me a bit of a change.”
Mike’s teaching career had begun, though what started as a few hours teaching grew bigger than originally envisioned.
“That began to impinge on the freelance work, slowly the two things swapped over, the freelance got less and less, the teaching got more and more, and eventually I went full time teaching.”
ENTER SEAN ROBINSON
It started with a chance meeting at a Fanderson convention in the early 1990’s.
“I met up with some people I hadn’t seen since the (Century 21) studio had closed down, one of them was Alan Perry.”
It was a while later that Alan Perry became involved with Sean Robinson on some of his early projects. Sean had been working with Derek Meddings, and following Derek’s passing, someone was needed to take his place.
Alan asked Sean who would be qualified, and Sean said there was only one other person, Mike Trim. The problem was that due to his new teaching profession, Mike had ‘disappeared off the radar’, and no-one knew where he was. After their chance meeting at Fanderson, Alan knew exactly where he was, and he had Mike’s phone number in his pocket.
“He (Alan) rang me up, I spoke with Sean, I did a design for  him, he liked it. We met, and it sort of rolled on from there.”
Mike continued to teach as well as work with Sean, until in 1999 Mike quit teaching for good, citing the stress of the workload that had been inflicted upon him. Mike worked with Sean on a number of projects: Aquanauts, Wolfgang, Cobra, Guardians and Cabs.
On Agent Crush, Mike can be seen beavering away detailing, repairing and weathering any of the vast number of models that decorate his office at Dunsfold.
MIKE TRIM – CONCEPT DESIGNER
“I have two jobs (on Agent Crush) one is conceptual designer: most of the vehicles and craft are designed by me. I also storyboarded the picture. Once the models are built, most are taken to a fairly basic state, they come here (Mike’s studio) and I detail them, paint them, and then weather them. Or they come over ready painted, and it’s a case of putting in all the panel lines, that hopefully turn the basic model into something that looks real on screen.”
YOU BLEW IT UP…
Spending literally weeks designing, occasionally constructing, detailing, then painting and finishing elaborate models to a high standard, only to see them promptly blown to pieces in a few seconds, is something Mike has become accustomed to.
“I kind of got used to it on Thunderbirds, Scarlet, Joe, UFO. The number of things I designed or worked on (that) got blown up is nobody’s business.”
When a model is involved in a scene that requires its destruction, it isn’t always the end of that model’s life, or the fragmented pieces of them.
“Sean brings them back in here and puts them back (in their place) as if they’ve come home, but I don’t know what he expects me to do with them.”
It’s perhaps worth pointing out that some of the models, that were once lovingly created, are literally a shadow of their former selves, often burnt and in pieces. Some are pulled apart and partially recycled; the luckier ones – having survived against the odds, or being repairable - get revamped with a new coat of paint to die another day.
DESIGN IDEAS
Mike cites a long term interest in aircraft and the mechanical as his motivation and inspiration behind what he does. The philosophy towards vehicle design on Agent Crush remains the same as it was in the 1960’s working alongside Derek Meddings. Back then they would look at what was current, and evolve it slightly.
“That’s what Derek and I always did, we took the today, and pushed it slightly round the corner. It was a tomorrow, but never a far future. Neither he nor I were comfortable with that particular (far future) type of design.”
For Agent Crush, the ideas and vehicles remain not too distant, not so alien that we cannot imagine them in our World in a few years. With them Mike continues a design philosophy that began for him over 40 years ago.
And long may it continue.
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