This is my Polar Lights model #5032. The cyclops and chariot from the fourth episode of Lost In Space entitled “There Were Giants In The Earth”. I made this model a couple of years ago using instructions right from the box. I just snapped, glued and threw some paint on it. The end result was o.k. but it was kind of boring. Everyone in silver spacesuits and cheesy decals for the chariot. I shelved it, and forgot about it. I ran across it a few weeks ago, and decided I could make it a lot better.
First I worked on Cy. When you looked straight at the model, you couldn’t see his face, because the boulder and his hands covered it. I sawed off both arms and raised them higher over his head and filled in the gaps with putty. Then I repainted him. A vast improvement!
Second, I decided to put the Robinsons and Major West in their first year uniforms. They were after all, already on the planet. Why would they still be wearing their spacesuits? I had to build up the collar on Mrs. Robinson, and give some definition to the bottom of her and Penny’s shirts. Since the show was in black and white the first year, I had to do a little search for color pictures from that year. I found plenty of pictures at Uncle Odie’s website
Third, I hated the way the chariot looked with the decals. I decided to cut the decaled windows out and replace them with .010 clear plastic. Then I put trim around it to hide any faults and also to give it some definition. I built an interior as well. I used seats from a Hotwheels minivan and scratch built a dashboard and scope to put on the floor I had to make. I had some leftover decals form a model of the Jupiter 2 that I made, and used those to make computer consoles on the dashboard. The curtains are tissue paper spray painted silver.
In the rear cargo space inside, I made some rolled sleeping bags and a first aid kit. The clear dome on top of the chariot is made from the tip of a baby bottle nipple. The ladders that came with the kit were flush so I scraped them. I made new ladders out of thick staples. They had to be filed down to fit properly. The same for the front and rear bumpers. After filing the “bumpers” down, I just bent them a bit with some pliers.
Next I added some definition to the ground. I put some spackling on it to rough it up a bit and repainted it. Then I added some mini rocks and reddish brown turf that I got at my local hobby shop.
I thought at this point that I was finished. However, I thought something was still missing. Then I remembered, I had a mini robot and Dr. Smith from my Jupiter 2 toy that I hadn’t seen in 4 or 5 years. These figures are the same scale, so I thought they would go great with the model.
First, the robot was just horrible. I decided to improve him and repaint him. Originally, his arms went straight out to the sides and hardly anything on his chest plate resembled what he should have looked like. I cut his arms off, filled in the holes and redrilled it so they would fit straight in. I had to widen the top of his legs with putty and then shaped them. I also had to cut a bigger space for his voice box light. After that, I repainted him and it was a lot closer to what he should look like. Dr Smith’s suit was originally blue and he had big gaps in his arms and legs for movement (remember this was a toy).
I filled in all of the gaps, sanded him down, and repainted him in the grey suit he should have been wearing. I repainted his face and hair as well, to make him more realistic.
Now, I’m much happier with the end result. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks,
Ken Meekins
