From superblogger WOTAN: One of the most elusive and distinctive models of the SWORD range is the Nuclear Ferry. Presumed to have been never made and lost in the mists of time, a photo of a battered model of the Ferry was spotted on Yahoo Auctions in Japan late last year in the dying hours of the auction and as the listing was a domestic one, the chances of securing this most unique of toys slipped away into the rays of the rising sun. Presumably snapped up by a discerning collector even though it was listed as a 'space rocket' in damaged condition, it did feature a box and control line battery pack. At the time it was found, i was mid way through a pet project of my own - to build my own ferry based on the available information and illustrations that were then known. A few years earlier I had been lucky to find the only extant model of a carded Spacex ferry - and as it had always been my favourite of all SWORD spaceships, I set out to build a large model. Mattel/Matchbox had produced a successful line of rescue toys in 2002 which had an interchangeable action feature and among these was a (roughly) 00/HO scale (about same size as a golden astrounaut) X-33 Lifting Body/Shuttle. This, i felt was ideally suited to form the hardest part of my model, the sleek shuttle at the front. I decided not to make anything too model-like and stick to the clean toy lines. The fuselage of the booster was made from a tennis ball tube and the collar was a gasket from a gas pipe! The only difference i made was adding a long distance comms antenna at the back to balance the rear end (and to give a nod to Discovery in 2001). A few sprays of paint and a little photoshoppery later, i present the Nuclear Ferrys Thor and Ymir arriving in Mars orbit before debarking to land the X 33 crew shuttle at Thetis Base. I also made a less successful spacex scale model which i might show at some point in the future.
Awesome Wotan!
First of a few puzzlers over the Festive Season. Have a go at this one if you can drag yourself away from the egg nog and cheese-boards!
Looking through some old family photo's to send with Xmas cards I stumbled across these prints I took of Project Sword craft about 15 years ago. The quality is terrible! Pre-digital bog standard kodak! I feel that the second one down with the wavey green look isn't that bad. I can't beleive I had a hair on the lens in the bottom photo of the Scout boat! I'm sure that blog readers can do much much better than this! 
