Tuesday 22 December 2015

The art of Star Wars The Force Awakens book

Picked up the Art Of book for The Force Awakens yesterday and i highly recommend it - beautifully produced, large format and with some stunning artwork.
Unlike the Prequels and Lord Of The Rings art of books, there's barely any case of "awww, that early version is MUCH better than the one they finally used", but there's plenty of insperational designs and themes to latch on to.
Go buy it!


Sunday 20 December 2015

Star Wars The Force Awakens

Spoiler free this, so don't worry - its just i saw The Force Awakens yesterday and the reason i mention it here is, though the effects are excellent i was a bit miffed that JJ Abrahms chose to do what he did in the two Star Trek's with the ships and craft - shoot them at unusual angles.
That's fine when you're shooting the Enterprise, everyone knows what that looks like, but here the model maker in me is screaming inside "let me see, pull back, let me see the whole of the bloody ship!".
Tad annoying i have to go online to see them in their entirety.



Friday 18 December 2015

The USS Austin - done

Started in 1977, finished in 2015, the USS Austin is DONE!

Monday 14 December 2015

A potential War Of The Worlds project

I've been having another look at the Alvim Correa illustrations he did for the 1906 French edition he did for "War Of The Worlds", in particular this one of a ruined Handling Machine.
I really like the angle of how its fallen, the debris and Red Weed its amongst and the circling birds.
Then it struck me that its not too difficult a design to build a version of - just find a container that has a suitable top to diamteter ratio, the "articulated claws" should be easy enough to sculpt, and i don't have to worry about the symmetry of its legs if its broken.
So, a potential upcoming project methinks.

Friday 4 December 2015

Sneak peek at a future project

Though i'm busy finishing things up on some projects, i'm always looking to the next.
I'd stumbled on a little piece on one of the background ships in Battlestar Galactica, which apparently was based on a craft in a comic strip by the brilliant Moebius.
I really like the quirkiness of the design so thought i'd have a go at my own riff on the design too.
At first i'd considered using some of my spare Saturn V parts for the lower section but changed my mind as (A) it'd be far too big, (B) the tubular part isn't really a tube, more a squashed one.
So i had a look around the house and realised that a conditioner bottle, if i cut it down, is pretty close.
So, getting a large piece of paper i drew 'round the bottle then roughly sketched out the rest of it.
That gave me a size for the cockpit ball, so off i went to the shops - Christmas time is great for picking up plastic balls and the like - and found this one which had the advantage of being able to open (its to put a photo into), so i can easily put the cockpit into it.
That's what i'll be turning to soon - just waiting for the conditioner to be all used up!




Tuesday 1 December 2015

The return of the Plump ship.

Was having a sort out in the attic and came across my Plump Ship, a craft that i started a few years back initially as my original design Pod Racer, which then mutated into a 70's SF paperback cover ship, with its odd shape and garish colour scheme.
I realised i'd never put up a finished shot, so here's one now, along with a shot of it in mid build, showing its donor origins:


Salad container for the main shape,
some nozzles from who knows where for the engine bells,
they're joined to a Bionicles lid, which is attached to the main shape,
into the top hole of that i've stuck a tupperware pot, which fitted just right,
and on to that, a clear hempisphere.
Over it all is a bunch of kit bits, Plasticard, Go-Fasta stripes and sticky jewels. The silver sticky jewels at the very front i was going to remove after painting, figuring the now bare clear plastic could be cockpit windows. But, with a coat of primer on i quite liked it as is - a sort of studded detail.
So that's what i did, going with a green with yellow detailing as a nod to Thunderbird 2, as the small wings facing forward reminded me a lot of that ship.