This B/W shot shows the finished final set of Dr Zarkof's greenhouse from which the rocket is launched. The set was built on stage 2 at Shepperton and measured approx 60 feet x 40 ft. We used real miniature conifers planted in pots sunk into holes cut into the ground set to get really realistic trees. I well remember being sent off to a garden centre with £100 cash and coming back with a car load of these trees. The one thing about having live trees (as opposed to artificial model ones) is that they have to be kept alive by watering. So it fell to one of us, usually Bill Pearson or myself to water the trees. One side effect of this was that under the hot studio lights this acted ratgher like a giant green house and overnight grass would sprout all over the set. This had to be trimmed down to scale in with the set with a pair of scissors. Also mushrooms would appear over night!

The planet "Mongo" set built for the crash-landing of Zarkoff's rocket This version of the set was never seen in the film in this form; with lots of crashed spacecraft littering the ground. We built loads of these and were very disappointed (and perplexed) when they were removed, since the idea within the storyline was that the evil emperor Ming would draw all these unsuspecting craft to his planet to employ their crews as slaves.

My colleague and fellow co-supervising model-maker Bill Pearson, adds detail to the greenhouse. The model was not built by the SFX crew due to a union dispute (the film was plagued by these!) but by the carpenters shop. It was built in balsa wood with "toffee" glass windows made from melted down "Foxes Glacier Mints"! This was because usually "toffee" glass (the sort you see people getting hit over the head with in films) is usually green in colour. We however, needed it to be clear glass.

The greenhouse set described above showing detail like electricity pylons and fencing, all carefully made to 1/18th scale.

A foot beside the Greenhouse model gives away the model's size. Zarkoff's jetbike (one of many inventions we made to decorate the set) can just be seen.

The Emperor Ming's city was once again built by the carpenters while we model makers sat around waiting for the union to sort out if we were allowed to work or not! Eventually this was resolved in time for us to stick loads of brass-etch all over the model to decorate the mainly red wooden model, which at approx 8 feet high and 10 feet wide was quite an undertaking. We actually put "N" gauge trains running around the model (suitably converted) but they were never seen in the final film either.

Zarkoff's rocket separates from its first stage. This was shot against blue-screen and , in my opinion, like most of the rest of the blue-screen shots in the film, looked pretty naff!

A B/W shot of Zarkoff's ship separating. The gas is Freon (air brush propellant back in 1979) Some people have commented that both the colouring and the detailing of Zarkoff's ship looks a bit like "The Mole" in Thunderbirds". This is entirely intentional!

I hold the smallest model I've ever made for a film. This is Princess Aura's shuttle. It's jet lights were powered by a tiny camera battery! It is seen in shots of the craft going through clouds which were created by pumping coloured paints and inks into a huge water tank and then superimposing this via the blue screen method already mentioned, as the sky. This method of making cloud formations was used in many shots in the film, and copied in many subsequent films.

The 3 foot model of "Aura's Shuttle" stands on its filming rig outside the studios. The model was carved in wood and reproduced in fibreglass. It was mainly seen as the craft came in to land in the forest on the planet Arboria.

Emperor Ming's shuttle. I carved this in wood and vac-formed it in perspex (plexiglass) and finished it in only 3 days, as the model supplied by an outside company was not good enough to be used in the film!