An exploration ship like the Leif Ericson will need some auxiliary exploration vehicles. Cozmo makes a nice 10 centimeter (4 inch) resin model of the Leif Ericson. He also makes a nice 10 cm resin model of the Landmaster from the movie Damnation Alley. Craig York suggested that the Leif Ericson would carry a Landmaster or two.

Which is simply brilliant, since the Landmaster is one of the most iconic ground vehicles ever.

Another thought occurs to me. A couple of years before Damnation Alley there was a terribly dull and moralistic children's TV show called "Ark II". The biblically named crew (Jonah, Ruth, Samuel, and Adam the chimp) traveled through a Mad Max future America in a their eponymously named vehicle. Due to their similar apperance, it is a popular misconception that the same designer built both the Ark II and the Landmaster.

The Ark II was in part a roving scientific laboratory on wheels, with equipment for ecological analysis. In the tentative future history being developed on the Starship Modeler forum, the Leif Ericson is a lighthearted exploration ship, until the SSC is attacked by the dreaded Zork empire. So pre-Zork explorational starships will carry lab vehicles like the Ark II to survey new planets, and post-Zork they will be packing armed Landmasters.

As a further interesting item, there is a popular role playing game called The Morrow Project from Timeline Ltd. It features a massive vehicle called Mars-1. Looking at it, one gets the impression that it is a cross between a Landmaster and Ark II.

And as you saw, Cozmo makes resin models of all three of these vehicles (click for larger images).

Phil Shanton pointed out that the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle from the comedy movie Stripes would not be out of place on a military Leif Ericson.

So in my experimentation with creating CGI images of the Leif Ericson, I tried making a few with the Landmaster.