- Leif Ericson box and parts pictures
- Short Story
- Sounds of Space record
- U.F.O. Mystery Ship
- Determining the kit's scale
- Related Links
The
AMT
Leif
Ericson Galactic Cruiser
(a.k.a. Leif Erikson and UFO Mystery
Ship)
first appeared in 1967 or 1968. It
can be seen advertised on the
side of AMT's Star Trek line of models, but it was never part of that
TV
show. The
UFO version will be re-issued in 2009.
Jaime Hood, the Art Director of Round 2 LLC has more info and pictures at the Round 2 blog, Collector Model.
Mike Okuda, who's great work has been seen on several Star Trek series, has filled in some background info on the Leif Ericson design:
The Leif Ericson was designed by Matt Jefferies, designer of the original Star Trek Enterprise and many of the ships that appeared in that series. While the Leif Ericson never appeared in the original series, Mike mentioned that it did show up in a couple of places on Filmation's storyboards for the animated Star Trek series in the early 1970s, although the ship did not appear in any of the finished episodes of the animated series.
Mike was also kind enough to retouch the scanned boxtop image of the Leif Ericson; my box had some nasty creases and was too big for my scanner, so I had to patch together two scans to make a single image. Thanks Mike!
The short story included with the Leif Ericson mentions that this kit was the first of several kits in AMT's "Strategic Space Command" series. This may have been an attempt by AMT to start their own line of non-Star Trek spaceship models; in any case, only the Leif Ericson (and its alter ego, the UFO Mystery Ship) were produced.
The Leif Ericson kit also comes with a small scout, a lighting kit, a record of the "Sounds of Outer Space" and a two page short story that covers the history and adventures of the ship. I've converted the included short story to text.
I digitized the "Sounds of Outer Space" record in 2004. I want to thank my friend David White for doing the conversion for me. The sound quality isn't great, but better than I had expected from a 36 year old paper record. I also want to thank Jack Urso for cleaning up the audio. The version below sounds much better than the original version that I had here.
You can listen to the resulting mp3 file - if you dare.
In the mid 1970s, AMT re-released the kit in glow in the dark plastic and minus the chrome and clear parts, the record and the lights and called it the AMT U.F.O. Mystery Ship.
Both the Leif Ericson and the U.F.O Mystery Ship are long out of production, but at the 2008 iHobbyExpo, Round 2 (who now owns the Polar Lights, AMT and MPC brands, among others) announced that they would be re-releasing the U.F.O. Mystery Ship (as a glow in the dark model) in 2009. Maybe the Leif Ericson version won't be far behind.
Any Glow In The Dark UFO version can be brought up to almost LE standards with the Federation Models resin parts.
Most people probably remember the Leif Ericson as the inspiration for then INSS McArthur from The Mote in God's Eye. which was written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. My copy of the paperback even had an LE inspired design on the cover! Jerry Pournelle has a page with pictures of a built up LE model
Paul Lloyd has been kind enough to send me these oustanding renders of his INSS MacArthur. Click on the images below to see an enlarged version:
If you're interested in the series of novels and short stories which includes The Mote in God's Eye, the CoDominium Headquarters is the place to start.
Leif Ericson kit box images. Click on the images below to see the box top, sides, ends and a late 60's vintage AMT ad for the kit and details of the line drawings of the ship and scout. Some of these images are big, so you'll have to scroll to see them completely:
Leif Ericson kit parts images. Click on the images below to see the details of the kit's plastic parts, instruction sheet pages, details of the "Sounds of Space" record, and the kit decals. Some of these images are big, so you'll have to scroll to see them completely:
Email me if you want the original scans of the above images. Note that they're very large files.
Jaime Hood, the Art Director of Round 2 LLC has more info and pictures at the Round 2 blog, Collector Model.
Mike Okuda, who's great work has been seen on several Star Trek series, has filled in some background info on the Leif Ericson design:
The Leif Ericson was designed by Matt Jefferies, designer of the original Star Trek Enterprise and many of the ships that appeared in that series. While the Leif Ericson never appeared in the original series, Mike mentioned that it did show up in a couple of places on Filmation's storyboards for the animated Star Trek series in the early 1970s, although the ship did not appear in any of the finished episodes of the animated series.
Mike was also kind enough to retouch the scanned boxtop image of the Leif Ericson; my box had some nasty creases and was too big for my scanner, so I had to patch together two scans to make a single image. Thanks Mike!
The short story included with the Leif Ericson mentions that this kit was the first of several kits in AMT's "Strategic Space Command" series. This may have been an attempt by AMT to start their own line of non-Star Trek spaceship models; in any case, only the Leif Ericson (and its alter ego, the UFO Mystery Ship) were produced.
The Leif Ericson kit also comes with a small scout, a lighting kit, a record of the "Sounds of Outer Space" and a two page short story that covers the history and adventures of the ship. I've converted the included short story to text.
I digitized the "Sounds of Outer Space" record in 2004. I want to thank my friend David White for doing the conversion for me. The sound quality isn't great, but better than I had expected from a 36 year old paper record. I also want to thank Jack Urso for cleaning up the audio. The version below sounds much better than the original version that I had here.
You can listen to the resulting mp3 file - if you dare.
In the mid 1970s, AMT re-released the kit in glow in the dark plastic and minus the chrome and clear parts, the record and the lights and called it the AMT U.F.O. Mystery Ship.
Both the Leif Ericson and the U.F.O Mystery Ship are long out of production, but at the 2008 iHobbyExpo, Round 2 (who now owns the Polar Lights, AMT and MPC brands, among others) announced that they would be re-releasing the U.F.O. Mystery Ship (as a glow in the dark model) in 2009. Maybe the Leif Ericson version won't be far behind.
Any Glow In The Dark UFO version can be brought up to almost LE standards with the Federation Models resin parts.
Most people probably remember the Leif Ericson as the inspiration for then INSS McArthur from The Mote in God's Eye. which was written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. My copy of the paperback even had an LE inspired design on the cover! Jerry Pournelle has a page with pictures of a built up LE model
Paul Lloyd has been kind enough to send me these oustanding renders of his INSS MacArthur. Click on the images below to see an enlarged version:
If you're interested in the series of novels and short stories which includes The Mote in God's Eye, the CoDominium Headquarters is the place to start.
Leif Ericson kit box images. Click on the images below to see the box top, sides, ends and a late 60's vintage AMT ad for the kit and details of the line drawings of the ship and scout. Some of these images are big, so you'll have to scroll to see them completely:
Leif Ericson kit parts images. Click on the images below to see the details of the kit's plastic parts, instruction sheet pages, details of the "Sounds of Space" record, and the kit decals. Some of these images are big, so you'll have to scroll to see them completely:
Email me if you want the original scans of the above images. Note that they're very large files.
The
AMT U.F.O. Mystery Ship was released in the
early to mid 1970s. The Mystery Ship was the Leif Ericson molded in
"glow in the dark" plastic, but it lacked the chrome plated and clear
parts, the record, decals, short story and lighting kit.
The missing chrome parts include the scout ship's landing gear, the "phaser projector", the "sensor ray dome" and the "engine inter-adapters". The missing red clear parts include the engine ends and inter-coolers.
As a result of all the missing parts, the UFO (also known as the "GID LE" - Glow In the Dark Leif Ericson) has an unfinished look to it.
The model pictured below shows a built-up UFO Mystery Ship that I bought on the Internet. It had a thick coat of paint and some parts were broken off. Still, it was in good shape. I've since stripped and disassembled the model, which will eventually be converted to a Leif Ericson.
There are two versions of the U.F.O Mystery Ship - the original and a "short box" version, with the neck of the ship as a separate piece. This was done by modifying the molds.
The instruction sheets for the UFO kit are below. Some of these images are big, so you may have to scroll to see them completely.
Forbidden Plastic has a better picture of the UFO's boxtop.
Click on the images below to see an enlarged version.
The missing chrome parts include the scout ship's landing gear, the "phaser projector", the "sensor ray dome" and the "engine inter-adapters". The missing red clear parts include the engine ends and inter-coolers.
As a result of all the missing parts, the UFO (also known as the "GID LE" - Glow In the Dark Leif Ericson) has an unfinished look to it.
The model pictured below shows a built-up UFO Mystery Ship that I bought on the Internet. It had a thick coat of paint and some parts were broken off. Still, it was in good shape. I've since stripped and disassembled the model, which will eventually be converted to a Leif Ericson.
There are two versions of the U.F.O Mystery Ship - the original and a "short box" version, with the neck of the ship as a separate piece. This was done by modifying the molds.
The instruction sheets for the UFO kit are below. Some of these images are big, so you may have to scroll to see them completely.
Forbidden Plastic has a better picture of the UFO's boxtop.
Click on the images below to see an enlarged version.
The
Leif Ericson kit never had a stated scale.
Most people just assumed that the kit's scale was 1/650, the same scale
as AMT's Star Trek spaceship kits (The U.S.S. Enterprise, The Klingon
Battle Cruiser and the Romulan Bird of Prey).
The Leif Ericson has several "human sized" airlocks along the neck. Since I have some 1/600-1/700 scale photoetched naval figures, I decided to see what they looked like next to the airlocks:
It's clear that the 1/600 - 1/700 figures are too small. Not only is the airlock door huge in comparison to the figures, the deck spacing is wrong. The windows on the same level are above the heads of the 1/700 figures! Clearly, the Leif Ericson is not in the 1/600 to 1/700 scale range.
I also have some Plastruct 1/400 scale architectural figures. The Plastruct figures have long "pegs" under their feet, which are used to jab the figures into foam to hold them in place. I taped the figure so that its feet would be at about the same level as the bottom of the "porch" on the airlock:
The 1/400 figure seems too tall for the airlock, and the windows next to the airlock would only come up to the figure's shoulder and chest. The Leif Ericson is not in 1/400 scale.
Recently, I bought some Preiser 1/350 figures (Preiser 89350) and 1/500 figures (Preiser 89350) from Reynauld's Euro-Imports. Obviously, the 1/350 figures are going to be too big, but the 1/500 figures seem just right. When placed next to the airlock, it's clear that they would fit comfortably in the door :
1/500 figures are just right!
Also note that the windows next to the airlock are just at the right height for the 1/500 figures - if they were standing behind one of the windows, their heads would be near the middle of the window.
The figures also seem to be in scale with the scout ship:
Compare the figures with the boxtop drawing of the scout.
Click anywhere to close this window
The Leif Ericson "Command Tower" has some windows that are conveniently placed to determine the deck spacing. The first scan shows the command tower and our friends, the Preiser 1/500 figures:
The next is a scan with a metric ruler, for scale:
The last scan is a bottom view:
Using these scans, I get the following measurements for the command tower:
Length: 50mm (25m, 81.25ft)
Width (max): 13mm (6.5m, 21.13ft)
(min): 4mm (2m, 6.5ft)
Height (max): 16mm (8m, 26ft)
(min): 3mm (1.5m, 4.88ft)
Deck spacing: 7mm (3.5m, 11.4ft)
The deck spacing is just about right for 1/500 scale. Therefore, the Leif Ericson (and U.F.O. Mystery Ship) are in (about) 1/500 scale.
The model has some floor spacings that may be too tight at 1/500 and some doors (especially in the Scout bay) that seem to be too large for 1/500. You could argue that the kit scale is more towards 1/400-ish. Regardless, it isn't 1/650 or 1/350.
The Leif Ericson has several "human sized" airlocks along the neck. Since I have some 1/600-1/700 scale photoetched naval figures, I decided to see what they looked like next to the airlocks:
It's clear that the 1/600 - 1/700 figures are too small. Not only is the airlock door huge in comparison to the figures, the deck spacing is wrong. The windows on the same level are above the heads of the 1/700 figures! Clearly, the Leif Ericson is not in the 1/600 to 1/700 scale range.
I also have some Plastruct 1/400 scale architectural figures. The Plastruct figures have long "pegs" under their feet, which are used to jab the figures into foam to hold them in place. I taped the figure so that its feet would be at about the same level as the bottom of the "porch" on the airlock:
The 1/400 figure seems too tall for the airlock, and the windows next to the airlock would only come up to the figure's shoulder and chest. The Leif Ericson is not in 1/400 scale.
Recently, I bought some Preiser 1/350 figures (Preiser 89350) and 1/500 figures (Preiser 89350) from Reynauld's Euro-Imports. Obviously, the 1/350 figures are going to be too big, but the 1/500 figures seem just right. When placed next to the airlock, it's clear that they would fit comfortably in the door :
1/500 figures are just right!
Also note that the windows next to the airlock are just at the right height for the 1/500 figures - if they were standing behind one of the windows, their heads would be near the middle of the window.
The figures also seem to be in scale with the scout ship:
Compare the figures with the boxtop drawing of the scout.
Click anywhere to close this window
The Leif Ericson "Command Tower" has some windows that are conveniently placed to determine the deck spacing. The first scan shows the command tower and our friends, the Preiser 1/500 figures:
The next is a scan with a metric ruler, for scale:
The last scan is a bottom view:
Using these scans, I get the following measurements for the command tower:
Length: 50mm (25m, 81.25ft)
Width (max): 13mm (6.5m, 21.13ft)
(min): 4mm (2m, 6.5ft)
Height (max): 16mm (8m, 26ft)
(min): 3mm (1.5m, 4.88ft)
Deck spacing: 7mm (3.5m, 11.4ft)
The deck spacing is just about right for 1/500 scale. Therefore, the Leif Ericson (and U.F.O. Mystery Ship) are in (about) 1/500 scale.
The model has some floor spacings that may be too tight at 1/500 and some doors (especially in the Scout bay) that seem to be too large for 1/500. You could argue that the kit scale is more towards 1/400-ish. Regardless, it isn't 1/650 or 1/350.
Robert
Lee Merrill of Hungry Lizard Studios has made accurate and
detailed line drawings of the Leif Ericson, derived directly from the
plastic
model. They're fantastic. He's
also produced SSC merchandise, including a cap, t-shirt and a mug.
Winchell Chung has greatly surpassed my efforts in documenting and expanding the SSC universe. Check out his Leif Ericson page, and also explore the rest of his excellent site.
Cozmo (M.D Curtiss) has made and sells a small scale resin ship that looks remarkably like the Leif Ericson.
If you're looking for engines for the U.F.O Mystery ship, or a replacement scout for your LE, Federation Models has resin copies. Unfortunately the engines are not cast in clear resin, but they're inexpensive.
Fantastic Plastic has an excellent built-up Leif Ericson.
John Gosling has a great page at War of the Worlds, including info on a TV version of War of the Worlds proposed in 1975 by George Pal, with help from Matt Jefferies. The artwork for the Pegasus "hyperspace carrier"looks like it's based on the Leif Ericson.
Jaime Hood, the Art Director of Round 2 LLC writes a blog at Collector Model.
Winchell Chung has greatly surpassed my efforts in documenting and expanding the SSC universe. Check out his Leif Ericson page, and also explore the rest of his excellent site.
Cozmo (M.D Curtiss) has made and sells a small scale resin ship that looks remarkably like the Leif Ericson.
If you're looking for engines for the U.F.O Mystery ship, or a replacement scout for your LE, Federation Models has resin copies. Unfortunately the engines are not cast in clear resin, but they're inexpensive.
Fantastic Plastic has an excellent built-up Leif Ericson.
John Gosling has a great page at War of the Worlds, including info on a TV version of War of the Worlds proposed in 1975 by George Pal, with help from Matt Jefferies. The artwork for the Pegasus "hyperspace carrier"looks like it's based on the Leif Ericson.
Jaime Hood, the Art Director of Round 2 LLC writes a blog at Collector Model.