J-2 Story

Welcome,

This page has been created to showcase a labor of love. Bob Rencoret's Lunar Models 16 Jupiter 2.

This fully illuminated micro detailed scale model was envisioned by Bob as he sat in front of the family TV watching Lost in Space as a child.

The episode in which Dr. Smith is banished from his fellow castaways and finds a cave
which contains an alien thought transfer device. In order to redeem himself he boasts
that he will bring forth a complete Jupiter 2. Well his wish comes true. Behold a new
Spaceship appears, an exact duplicate but hardly the full scale original , the joke was on him. When Will Robinson Peers inside the tiny viewport.... What did he see ?. Miniature lights flashing on the Flight console, the Astrogator with an even tinier J-2 ? ?I was so envious, I wanted one of my own. I could imagine Will stuffing his toy under his bunk only to take it out to show his galactic friends.

The next day I went to the local hobby store in search of my J-2. No one had ever heard of such a model but they did have the Aurora Cyclops and the Robot kits. Disappointed, it was the beginning of a 20 year search for my own Jupiter 2.

I was so obsessed with my quest that as a kid I used mom's aluminum pie tins held together with duct tape to realize my dream. Time passed and I built other models honing my skills at lighting and airbrushing. In 1986 while looking through an issue of Starlog magazine, I saw an ad for Shane Johnsons J-2 blueprints. I received a completely detailed set of his drawings and realized there were actually two designs a Gemini and Jupiter series. As many of you die hard fans know there was not a second floor designed into the scale J-2 prop originally used in the series. By the third season the interior sets of the ship seemed to keep growing. As a kid I could never understand how they crammed all that equipment into such a tiny living space. (Ahh.... The flexibility of the SiFi world !).

In 1988 I finely found my J-2. Mike Evans must have had the same problem as myself. Frustrated at the unavailability of Lost in Space model kits he did the next best thing he started his own company, Lunar Models. For me, this was like Dr. Smith finding the catalog to Zumdishes Celestial Department Store. Not only was there a 16" Dia. J-2 , But also the upper floor interior . The kit was vacuformed and had parts cast in resin. Overall it seemed like a good start and defiantly a challenge to my model making abilities.

I wanted the best of both worlds, the design of the J-2 blueprints, but the look of the familiar spaceship. I would also need all available space in what was supposed to be the lower living quarters. This meant no lower flight deck window. This area would be needed for access hatches to batteries, lights, switches, ect.