I'd always loved the design of the Spindrift from the Irwin Allen series "Land of the Giants" and couldn't wait to get a model of it. I remember seeing the episode where a giant child found the Spindrift in the woods and carried it off. I was sure that this was what the plastic model was going to be like. Imagine the disappointment when I finally got the model and assembled it!. There in my hand was a rather small replica of the Spindrift, not at all what I was expecting. Fast forward more years than I care to count....

 

When Polar Lights announced they were going to be releasing the Spindrift, I couldn't wait. But I really wanted a bigger replica of the ship. I still wanted to be that giant child, carrying off our hero's home. The only thing left was to scartchbuild my own. I located some blueprints and started construction. After I had the hull finished I located some better reference drawings and realized that the hull shape was off slightly. Oh, well, I'll know next time.

 

Construction was really quite simple. I carved the basic hull shape out of green florist foam and laid fibre glass over that. Bondo, sand, primer, sand, repeat till satisifed, or worn out. The final color coat and clear coat are Krylon spray paints. I had a stencil madr for the side emblems and airbrushed them on.

 

The interior was made from sheet plastic and foam. The push buttons in the cockpit are cut from sheet plastic, as well. The carpet is just a couple of sheets of blue felt.

 

I was really happy with the way that it came out. In one of the pictures you can see an old Aurora Spindrift, just to give an idea of the size. I painted the hull stripes on and did the interior colors up to my tastes. I didn't try and make an exact copy of the studio set as I just likes the blues better.

 

There it is. I hope that you'll try your hand at a project like this. I learned some new tricks, had a great time, and got a really cool display piece out of it, to boot!

 

Bill Early 2007