My other car’s a jet fighter, the aircraft in my neighborhood, part 1

By popular demand, here are some images of the jets parked around town that I go and take pictures of often.  Living in the high desert and in close proximity to both Edwards AFB, Plant 42, Lockheed and a variety of other aviation corporations, the rich history of aviation is spread thick throughout town!!!  I so love where I live and have such admiration and respect for all the incredible  achievements that have been made here.  So with that, Happy Friday to all and thanks again for coming by to visit and especially for all the notes & prayers to Carlene.

Be sure to get your “Right Stuff” soundtrack out and play it as  you look at these pictures!

 

from the Edward's archives comes this shot of the X-1 pit

 

now it's a parking lot and a few years ago it was to be filled in for more parking but a bunch of folks on the base made it a historical monument so it was saved from destruction and will be around forever!

 

the last of the NF-104's with the rocket pack attached to the tail, this is the one Yeager flew and is recreated in the "Right Stuff"

Nakatomi Plaza

Here’s a pic of the Fox Plaza, AKA the Nakatomi Plaza from “Die Hard”.  Just had to go shoot some stills for work of the buildings to the north of this one and snagged a shot as I’m driving away…. Enjoy Desert D

“KARR” the art of Knight rider

Too busy here at work to scan all the art for the Valdore, so today’s post is comprised of images already in the computer.  Last year the old “Knight Rider” TV show from the 80’s was re-invented and had a short one season run as a new series, and sadly it died away right when it was getting it’s bearings and the cast was getting into their roles.  During that time I got a call from Richard Toyon, the production designer on the show to come over and work on the Karr designs with him!!  It was great fun to work on an old favorite show, and it was a treat to work with Richard.  He is a comic book artist on the side and he worked on “From the earth to the Moon”.  Anyway, Richard was sketching out some pretty awesome ideas for KARR, but his work load keeps him away from his desk more than he is there.  Taking his roughs, we started to come up with a plan and not be a rip off from Transformers…I hadn’t seen the Transformers movie so I hadn’t been jaded yet!  The first drawing asked for was of the robotic KARR’s silhouette behind a curtain; it was a backwards way to start, but it was the first set to be built and had to be done first.  So the shadow that came to be on paper had to be turned into what KARR’s shape and mechanics were going to be later.  Working closely with Richard and the in-house CG unit, we worked out all the details and came up with a very fun robotic car (KARR), so below are the renderings that established each mechanical piece and hinge-point so the animators and modelers could run free and add their own creativity to the project.  These guys were a lot of fun to work with, and their end results were awesome.  This episode was a big, fast and crammed story, and the KARR segments were short and left you wanting more!!  Below is also a link to some of the trailers and the official site.

Enjoy

http://knightrideronline.com/knight_rider_2008/season_one/knight_to_kings_pawn/#

 

the first drawing establishing KARR's look

soundtrack update, The complete “Right stuff” by conti, and ST 2 “Wrath of Khan” by Horner

I have been waiting for both of these complete scores for over 25 years and they are  finally out and already almost sold out,,, Just got the CD’s in the mail yesterday and all those tracks I loved from the films have been brilliantly remastered and presented here for the first time!!! Thanks to Robert Townson and all the folks over at Varese Sarabande for putting out this beautiful score for the “Right Stuff”, and Lukas Kendall and the gang over at SAE for the brilliant work on the complete Kahn CD!!!

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm?cdID=431

http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=VCL%2D0609%2D1095

 

comicon 2009

Every year a little bigger, every year a little different, and every year more CROWDED.  My friend, Nelson, and I started going to the con in the late 80’s, and back then it was in a little convention center in old Town San Diego.  It only took a couple of hours to see everything, and everything then was comics, books and some really cool toy and collector booths.  In recent years it has turned into a giant mega platform for the TV and movie industry and all the latest gaming companies, and the emphasis on comics is almost only by name in the title of the con.  The shear size of the con, and especially the incredibly huge unmaneuverable crowds has really taken a lot of the fun out of the show, and you find yourself more exhausted trying to get around to see things than ever before!  Don’t get me wrong.  I love this show, but the crowds are ridiculous! Anyway, now that I have recovered from the show, here is a cornucopia of images of some of the coolest things available on the planet.  The standards of execution of the collectibles has leaped by 1000 % in just the last few years and so have the prices$$$$$  So I acquire all of my collecting foder now with my camera…well that is in most cases!!  HAAA!  So sit back and enjoy the slide show of all the kits, crowds and costumes that made up Wednesday and Thursday at the Mighty Comicon!

the crowd builds on approach to the convention center

Carlene!

Well, we owe a lot of thanks to all of you who have been keeping Carlene in your prayers because yesterday we got the test results back, and she is in remission and everything looks great!!!  God certainly heard all of our prayers and blessed her with a clean bill of health!!!  I really can’t express into words properly how much all your notes, thoughts and prayers have meant to us all at the Eaves home.  It takes a lot to send these encouraging words, especially to someone you don’t know, and I just can’t believe how much love and generosity we recieved from so many friends here on the blog!!!!  Our home is always open for a BBQ, so if you’re in our area, please drop a note and come on by.  Thanks again from all of us!!!

The Eaves family

Carlene is the current Leona Valley Gymkhana queen and all of this hit her about two months after winning the crown. Here she is just two weeks ago, running the American flag for the opening of the Leona Valley Gymkhana wearing her wiglet and hat and hoping it all doesn't blow off during the run!!!!

pin up update with Penny Von Luck

Here is today’s image of Miss Penny Von Luck from Sunday’s shoot, and again we are shooting by the deadly F-104 Starfighter.  From some of the comments yesterday, it was a battle over people wanting to see more of the jet VS seeing more of Penny!!!  HAAAA!  Also, we are getting a lot of requests for a calender (thanks Bluesman) and some posters, so talking with Penny about it yesterday, I believe we are going to try and put together some of these things, and hopefully some illustrated nose art as well. So with that I hope you enjoy today’s post, and Penny gets on here occasionally so be sure and let her know what you think of her work.  Thanks.

Wow she's awesome!

a color close up

and a B&W close up

 

f-104,,,,,,,, for deg

Miss Penny Von Luck

It was a huge and very busy weekend!!  Comicon in San Diego took up all of Thursday and Friday, and there will be lots of photos from the Con coming up later.  Yesterday, however, was an awesome day because the long awaited pin up photo shoot with Miss Penny Von Luck finally came to be.  Tony Moore, one of the infamous X-hunters joined us at Century Circle out At Edwards AFB, along with my two daughters, Olivia and Alicia, who worked as camera assistants.  Penny was joined by her sister Jessica, Who was her Wardrobe manager/hair n make up styalist, and we all met at the park early before the heat set in.  Penny arrived in one of her own custom costume creations and looked awesome all decked out with a great vintage doo to boot.  We shot some great images for the next hour or so, and all of them turned out REALLY, REALLY NICE.  Penny made my job so easy, and her style and look came effortlessly.  She’s a pro and has a great gift for capturing the essence of what great pin up photography is and adds her own flare to each pose and gesture she strikes!  I’m looking forward to turning some of these into drawings for nose art, but for now here is one picture from yesterday and a group shot of all of us.  Thanks Penny and look forward to doing more shoots with you soon.  So with that, enjoy the first of many pictures to come.

Penny and the F-104 StarFighter.

Tony, Jessica, Penny, Alicia, and Olivia

Arby’s, sparrows and Xindi, Oh My!!!! Arby’s and Sparrows, and Xindi, oh my!!!

Now that would feed one of me or 150 sparrows!!

Yes, it is very silly that space ship inspiration can come from anywhere, and with me it usually starts with food!!!  Working at Paramount is like living on an Island!  A high walled fortress surrounded by gangs, ghettos and a huge cemetery that has family movie night on Saturdays.  IMAGINE THAT!!!!  Just hope they don’t play Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Zombies!!  HAAA!  It is really the last survivor of what once was a very nice and posh area; now it stands alone, situated in an extremely nasty area.  There are two outside restaurants to walk to if you dare, or they have a shuttle that takes you far from the studio where it is safe to get some lunch!  A couple of miles away; however, is one of the original Arby’s that often would call to me like a siren around 11:00 everyday…I would try, but couldn’t always cut out the sweet songs trying to pull me away from the safety of the lot and out into the rocks for a delicious, giant, mouth watering, Roast Beef Sandwich, Potato Cake and a soda!!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMM-MMMMMMM!!!  Anyway, it was a big day.  There were some new Xindi ships to draw up, and I was running out of new spaceship shapes to draw with.  So to refresh my mind I went to Arby’s,  got my tray of goods and was lunching outside…before I had even opened my sandwich, a parade of Sparrows landed with in inches of my lunch waiting for a hand out!!!  Looking at these little fellas as they ate my fries gave me a quick new idea.  I raced back to the office and threw a few sketches together, and by the end of the day had a new ship to check off the list.  Here are those nutty sketches and also the second Xindi ship drawn up for Episode 74, “The Council”.  This was a big show and will have to be a two part post to get everything up for you to see.  Included in today’s is the hidden mountain base for where the Xindi Council Chamber was hidden.  I am off to Comicon this afternoon so I’ll be off the blog till Monday, so tell jokes and stories amongst yourselves, and I’ll try to chime in once in a while if I can!!  OK have a great weekend everybody!!  And thanks for stopping by.

scimitar…the last day

I have 5 minutes to get a post in so here it is….  This is day 4 of the design images for the Scimitar from Star Trek Nemesis.  What you have here is the massive scorpion shuttle bay located on the top/forward section of the main hull.  The bay itself is a massive open hanger that houses approx.. 1500 Scorpion fighters. the exterior view undamaged will show the indent for the bay doors, the next image will be the interior of the bay from the back looking towards the bay doors.  The next image is an exterior showing the damage from the head-on with the Enterprise E exposing portions of the launch bay shown in the interior view.  Also called for were Reman service vehicles that would work in the same respect as an aviation ground crew.  OK sorry for the weekday holes in the blog posts  this and last week, and hope you have enjoyed the nuts and bolts of the monster known as the Scimitar.

first pass was rejected for having to high of a ceiling.

exterior bay door view