 One of Meddings ' first tasks was to shoot stock footage of the Thunderbird machines and the series ' main locations , Tracy Island and Creighton @-@ Ward Mansion . The finished island model was a composite of more than a dozen smaller sets that could be detached from the whole and filmed separately . The architecture of the mansion was based on that of <unk> House , located on the <unk> Estate in Wiltshire . In the absence of head designer Reg Hill , who was serving as associate producer , Meddings was further tasked with designing the Thunderbird fleet and FAB 1 . Scale models for the six main vehicles were built by a contractor , Master Models of Middlesex . Models and puppet sets combined , more than 200 versions of the Thunderbird machines were created for the series . 
