it’s a messerschmit me 262

 

#1

#2

color sketch

 

details

 

 

 

 

Enterprise episode #34 “The Communicator” offered the art depart a real fun story to work with. It called for an alien race that had flying technologies that were fairly primitive compared to Starfleet but pretty advanced from a general aviation point of view. The director was a fan of German jets from WWII and we all new which little jet had to provide the inspiration. The ME 262 was one Germany’s most feared invention,, while the rest of the world were flying prop jobs, Hitlers engineers upped their efforts and started to make rockets and jets. Despite the advancements it always depended on the pilot and not the aircraft when it came to who would win in a dog `

Pierre's cg model

fight and many of these technologically advanced  beauties were shot done by your average old Propeller driven airplane. In designing this new type of alien aircraft The Me 262 was combined with an even earlier style of plane,,,the biplane ,   all this was thrown in the mixing bowl with a sprinkle of  sci fi and after it baked a while, this new little vehicle was ready to go. All together there were 4 or 5 concepts pitched for this plane and this one is the final approved piece. here are some of the drawings and a frame of the CG model created by Pierre  from Eden FX.

history in the making

 

historical image

 

 

Here is a shot from Star Trek history!!! Three of the original series model makers stand by the 11 foot Enterprise on Providencia Ave. in Burbank california. What a great shot, especially having the hands that built the model standing by their beautiful craftsmanship.

Orion slave ships

 

 

66

 

66 color

key frame with tattoos.

69 pencil/pen

 

rough color

final approved version

 

 

 

 

Enterprise Episode #93 (Bound) To finish off the Gorn/Orion architectural arc, Here are the ship concepts for the massive Orion slave vessel. The ship is heavily armed and is decorated with a teeth and alien tattoos. The following sketches lead up to the final approved art and color schemes. This was almost the end of Enterprise and having Manny as the driving force behind the fourth season brought new life to the series and made the final season a real treat to be a part of. besides the Zindi, these were among my favorites of new alien ships.

starship of the day

 

Rick's beauty

3/4 and schematics

 

 

Todays starship comes once again from the Perpetual files and todays addition is a small Cardassian fighter loosely based off of Rick Sternbach’s Gallor class ship. I so loved that design of Rick’s and it was fun to create a smaller ship that paid homage to his DS9 creation

the orion battle ships of Boarderline

 

version #46

Version #65

 

final concept

 

 

 

Last week’s post featured some concepts for a Gorn attack ship,  turned Orion via a script change. Todays post will show one more concept, and then the final approved design. Wondering in a black-hole of ideas that weren’t making the vision that Manny Cotto had envisioned is the first sketch today. Manny had a very distinct idea about what this ship was going to look like and the earlier concepts were just not falling where he wanted them. I took this piece over to his office and he didn’t care for what he was seeing, so he did some research and handed me a copy of what looked like a standard on a pole from either a fictional movie or from something that really existed from somewhere in the world. It was a cool shape with a kind of crescent, mirrored blade look to it. So from their I translated the shape into a ship keeping the basis of the picture as the cornerstone.Manny was very happy with this one and he really liked the teeth,,, he thru in another thought of hitting the nose and wing tips in a bloody red color to accent the the nature of the vessel. With that here is the pen/penciled concept and the finished color key frame.

Starship of the day

 

close up

 

 

 

views and 3/4

 

 

 

From the lost files of Perpetual comes this little asymmetrical deep space science vessel. Bristling with probes and sensors , this little ship maps space, galaxy’s and all it’s celestial  wonders. There is only a B&W of this one.

The 45th anniversary of limpet

Don Knotts is Henry Limpet

Henry close up

The Mighty Thrum!!!

OH MY,,, It's Lady Fish

Some great models

This is where Ghostbusters got the idea from

and Mount Fish-more

Tomorrow,  Saturday March 28th marks the 45th Anniversary of the Theatrical release of Warner brothers “The Incredible Henry Limpet” As a little kid I used to wait for this one to show on late night TV. KPHO the local Arizona Television station would show this one every so often on Saturday nights and it was always a treat to see. Once I even set my tape recorder by the TV speaker so I could record the whole movie,, A cheap kids way of getting a movies soundtrack back in the day. Anyways this was a childhood favorite full of everything a young boy could want, Battle ships, a shot of the YB-49 flying wing, Submarines, some cool animation and Characters, and the very funny antics of Don Knotts,,,,and I still love it today!  Before the films release back in 1964 Warner Brothers had a brilliant idea to have a gala premier for the film in Weeki Wachee State Park in Florida. Back in the day the park was owned and operated by ABC and housed an underground theater that had a wall of glass windows looking into a very large aquarium. This was home of the mermaid show where young girls dressed as mermaids would perform a beautifully choreographed underwater show. For the films premier the cast, press, film critics, an many locals came together to watch the film projected on a screen hanging in the tank where the film would be projected and viewed from the underwater windows. I saw pictures of the poor divers trying hang the canvas underwater and no matter how hard they tried to make a flat, tightly stretched screen, it looked like a giant corrugated curtain moving in an under water breeze. Those poor devils probably all got fired the next day! So with that said here are a collection of some images from the film.  Enjoy

Denobulan Vessel

 

3/4 concept view,,,,

 

B&W line drawing

key frame

 

 

 

 

This new ship was created for the Dinoblians and classified as a medical vessel. It made it’s debut in Cold station, Episode # 81. here is the sketch of the ship, the B&W of the asteroid field hiding the entrance to the hidden base, and the colored key frame version.

Work!!! Work!!! Work!!!

Hey everybody, Yesterday and today are overly swamped days with deadlines so I will get on at lunch today and try and respond to all the questions and requests!!! WOW a blog is a busy thing to try and keep up on!!! Thanks for coming by and sharing all the links, stories, and love for Star Trek. It’s great to share all this stuff and really enjoy meeting fellow fans like me.

 

John

the Orion Fighters of Enterprise

 

 

model kit of the P-40

art by Roy Williams

big Roy

 

combo page

version 1

version 2

 

 

 

 

These are some variations of Orion Fighters from “Enterpise” Episode #80 entitled “Boarderline” Early on the rough of this story was that these ships were to be Gorn ships and that was quite a thrilling thought. The architecture seen her still reflects that idea even though they are now Orion fighters. As a favorite enemy I wanted to put the Gorn as a solo pilot of a very aggressive gun ship. Based on the stylization of the Curtis P-40 these two ships were drawn to reflect that WWII in space look. in this pack of art and images there is the flying tiger logo. This is a great little side story during WWII, Disney cartoonist were constantly being asked to design nose art for our boys planes. It got to be such a huge amount of work That Disney appointed a group that specifically handled all the  designs for nose art. The P-40 in particular had these awesome shark teeth drawn on the engine cowling  and on the side of the plane was characterization of a fling Tiger. Well if you remember big Roy (Roy Williams) from the mickey Mouse club,,, he was one of the adult Mouseketeers who always was smiling,,,, he was the one who penciled this beauty. I have a book at home of wartime nose art and there was a little article crediting him with this early 1940’s art