Mini-people - playthings in a world of giant tormentors!

[The Tomohawk Kid]

This is my first complete lockdown build, in and amongst it has taken just shy of four weeks which is incredibly fast for me.

 

Land of the Giants is an hour-long American science fiction television programme, it lasted two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968, and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen, the US version of Gerry Anderson, Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was aired on ABC and released by 20th Century Fox Television. The ITV network took up the UK option and Anglia was first to air the series in December 1968, which was surprisingly quickly, it took Star Trek three years to make its UK television debut and when at the time when it first broadcast in the UK it had already been cancelled and was out of production. However, Land of the Giants followed hot on the heels of Allen's long running and successful Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space. Land of the Giants comic strip featured in the then new "Joe 90: Secret Agent" comic when that debuted in early 1969, which must have confused some readers as not all regions has started to air the programme, but even stranger was it featured Star Trek strip and that was nearly six months away from its 1st broadcast!

 

Land of the Giants like many tv programmes of the time suffered from the regional autonomy of the ITV regional stations having different premiere dates and broadcast slots and quickly became staple of the weekday tea time and Saturday morning slots in the early '70s. Of note not one region showed all 51 episodes and none were keen to renew the broadcast rights when they expired in late 1973. Channel 4 acquired the rights in the late '80s, but were selective in the episodes they aired, strangely it was not until 2016 that entire run of the show was shown in the UK, when Horror Channel undertook took up the cudgel.

 

To presage the new series a scantily clad Deanna Lund, one of the prominent cast members undertook a photo shoot in the late summer 1968 with the large scale filming miniature of the Spindrift. This is brings  me to the model. I have attempted to recreate the aforementioned photo shoot

 

I can't recall for the life of me where I obtained the Deanna Lund resin figure from, I have had it for an eternity, the Spindrift is the small (its says 1/128) Moebius, kit which includes the TSDS card die cut interior - more of that later. I also added the added the Paragrafix etched grille set.

 

The Spindrift is a simple kit , but the parts breakdown is not conducive to getting a 'complete' paint job and however one approaches it one is left with a seam, its a case of choosing where one want that seam. I drilled out the kits grilles to replace with the Paragrafix set, the styrene is soft so its not a great chore. However, get the right look I had to pare it really thin so as not to see any hint of the styrene through the photo etch - the Paragrafix instruction don't really stress this point, when the kit was partially painted I inserted red lighting gel behind the grilles, fixed with Micro Kristal Kleer, this was a tricky job but well worth the effort to get a nice red glow effect and to ensure one can't see through a hollow model. I made up the TSDS interior and instantly chose not to the use the passenger cabin and only used the flight deck part, which was a waste of time as it cannot be seen at all. But, given the filming miniature would have been hollow save some wires and lights I was not overly bothered. The spindrift was primed with matt white and the finish coat was Halfords Rover Blaze. Like my previous model the B9 Robot from LiS, I did copious research  on the colour of the Spindrift, but in every single photo it appeared to vary from a darkish red to a light orange. The Rover Blaze was a good match for the promo pic I was trying to recreate, so I went with it. The decals were a right royal pain and took copious amounts of Micro Sol and Set over several days to settle, but I got there in the end with them.

 

The dome comes as a clear piece of styrene, I got the red tint by mixing red food colouring with Kleer floor polish and that worked really well and I was very pleased with the outcome. The model as a whole is OK, sometimes I look at and go yuk! I don't like it, other times I go yeah its OK. If I was to make it again I'm not sure about the Paragrafix grillage (albeit the one under the dome looks great) I'm sure I could have done something with the kits styrene parts every bit the the equal.

 

The Deanna Lund figure was a painting exercise, whilst I'm adequate with small amounts of flesh: face, hands et al.  Large areas of flesh tones is a challenge to my limited ability with painting flesh over such a large area, it is very easy to get an orange Trump like colour or go too pale/subtle, I like to believe I avoided the orange pitfall  but may have gone too subtle, not helped by the strong sunlight washing a lot of the shading out. On occasions, I think its OKish and other time I go yuk! The good thing is it painted in acrylic, so if my skills ever improve in this area, I can have another go at repainting a later date. 

 

The overall effect I'm semi happy with, not best model but far from my worst.

 

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Here is what I was trying to recreate:

 

 

 

This is my attempt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommo.

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by The Tomohawk Kid

[The Tomohawk Kid]

One comment I forgot to add, the Deanna Lund figure lacked a lot of definition which made getting the finish I wanted a challenge.

 

Tommo.

[The Tomohawk Kid]

I wasn't really happy with the photos I took yesterday, here are some more with improved/conducive lighting and hopefully shows the model off  in better a better light - pun intended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommo.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by The Tomohawk Kid

[Tzulscha]

Not bad.

I think she needs a bit of eye shadow though.

[The Tomohawk Kid]

On 26/05/2020 at 23:42, Tzulscha said:

Not bad.

I think she needs a bit of eye shadow though.

 

Actually I did add a touch of eye shadow, but in an effort to be subtle it is hardly discernable. In hindsight I have been over subtle, is that an oxymoron?

 

Tommo.