WOOOOO!! Can’t wait for this one!!!! My Friend, Steve Messing, worked on this and on Star Trek; he could tell us nothing about it!!!!! So here is the new trailer, if you get a chance to see them all, there are about 5 other versions out there, and all of them are a little different. Speaking of Steve, if you want to be blown away by some incredible artistic talent, go check out his site by following the link below!!!! He’s awesome!!!!
As promised here are more pics from the show!!! be sure to check out pin up model Valerie at the end of the post and stay tuned for part three of the con coverage coming tomorrow!
iron man
the full size T800
the big suit from iron man
one cool iron man model
chromed!!!
captain America
the original alien
full size predator bust
hey, there's a hidden mickey in Jessica's dress!!
one very cool Star wars display
this one blew me away
from Sucker punch
the pan am stewardess's
what ever this is it's cool
coolness
I bought an art book in the 80's called sexy robot by Japanese artist Soriama and it featured pin up girls rendered in gold and chrome and this is the first relly good sculpt I've seen of his work, INCREDIBLE!!!
lots of great costumes started hitting the floor come Thursday
creepy
a lot of the sculpts are grown now, it's an interesting mix to see grown pieces and hand sculpts!!
this is a very cool
arrrrrrrrrr!!!!
awesome home made steam punk costumes everywhere!! this was a fav
way cool retro rockets!!! i wanted these bad
and one more pic of the bewitching Valerie to end todays comicon special, stay tuned for part 3 coming tomorrow!!
Howdy all, sorry for the lack of, and poor post subjects,,, We are moving to Wyoming and all has been crazy at the Eaves house since March!!! Regardless I’ll try n keep the posts coming and get more art and Trek stuff up soon… But today is a special day and as many of you know that it is the 25th Anniversary of James Cameron’s Aliens. July the 18th, 1986 was the day and next to ‘the Empire Strikes Back” This was my favorite part two to any sequel ever made. Aliens is as good if not better in many ways to the fabulous original directed by Ridley Scott in 1979. Cameron wrote the story for Aliens and what he did was magic, not settling for an ordinary sequel he went in a whole new direction with the emphasis on high octane action, thrills and and creating the strongest female characters to ever grace the silver screen. It’s a perfect film in it’s style, pacing, music, directing, creature design by the late master Stan Winston, the cast, and the brilliant production design. Ron Cobb was back at it again after his incredible work on Alien his strengths were unmatched with his fabulous designs for the drop ship, the armored transport and the entire terraforming complex. As always Ron’s work shines more to me than the actors. Joining the design crew for this installment is another favorite of mine, Syd Mead, Syd’s work has been a staple of science fiction in films since his trademark design style was first seen in Bladerunner. A master and high tec designs made him the perfect artist to design the military transport ship Sulaco. The team of Cobb and Mead for Aliens is in my opinion one of the best designed films to date. As Alfred Hitchcock & Bernard Herrman were a team so are James Cameron and James Honer. Honer’s score for Aliens is nothing less than brilliant. An expanded CD of the complete score came out a few years ago and it is one to have. Aliens is one great ride and leaves you wasted by the time the end credits role. Happy Anniversary Aliens and thank Jim for the awesome adventure.
poster
the queen
the incredible Sigourney Weaver
Lance Henriksen
Mead's Sulaco
in color
Mead's hibernation chamber
Cobb's original design for the armored transport
cobb's drop ship
top of the drop
Good morning and happy Wednesday. GOOD NEWS for you collectors out there, or if you’re like me a window shopper, the new Profiles in History auction catalog #44 is now out, and what an awesome auction they are having. Below is a link to the downloadable version, and I have already spent hours looking at this one and am so glad that my wife can hold me back from these incredible auctions, haaaa….. Tons of great movie items, art, and just a cornucopia of things that we all wish we could have. Here are a few pages from my wish list and by far the best thing in this catalog for me is the Spaceship from Zombies of the Stratosphere…also used as Commando Cody’s ship in Radar Men from the Moon) A real treasure!!! OK then off to the drawing board so enjoy the download and have a great day!!!
http://profilesinhistory.com/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-44/hollywood-memorabilia-auction-44
cover
the coolest model ever
Wow It's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
What a great car
COOOOOOL,,,, stuff from the Rocketeer
the not so Jupiter 2, jupiter 2
very nifty Trek stuff
and holly cow the simple blaster from "Forbidden Planet"
Here is the wrap up post to the final details and set up of the newly restored Nostromo miniature from 1979’s “Alien” it has been a while since the last posts were put regarding the massive restoration project, and here are a few of the last shots taken of the ship in it’s newly completed state and in her new home at the LA branch of the “Prop Store of London” http://www.propstore.com This was one of those golden opportunities to be a part of and thanks go without measure to Monty and all the gang at Grant McCune Design and Brandon at PSOL for letting me be a part of the team…Enjoy the last few images and soon I’ll put together a scrapbook of all the pictures we took…. OK have fun and Happy Thursday everybody
the nose n cockpit
high view,, note the Apache helicopter canopy serves as the main viewing window
high view, looking to the rear
high rear view
rear view looking forward of one of the dorsal engines
looking forward
high n pulled back view of the nose
low nose view
the nozzles were created out of yogurt cups and miniature farmers pails
underside of bridge section
the detail builds
primered and ready for molding, next comes the base
a section of the Lunar module makes for the base
detailed and sized on sentra, this piece molded will line the back of the belly module
sentra {an air injected lightweight styrene} 3/8 inch thick make for the building material of the module...the surface is then scribed and paneled
micro detail patches are placed in areas to match the same as seen in the photos of the original.
levels of depth and cavities are created and piping fills the insets
yes there is a nod to The Empire Strikes Back here!!! the ATAT head now has been transformed into the main antenna array mount
Spaceballs pieces added to the deep detail hidden in the dark recesses here.
attaching the elements make for one heavy piece!!
micro detailing of the cones comes next using more tie fighter pieces along with WWII German RR cannon pieces
the piping was molded off of the original
all assembled and primer grayed
seen here without the belly module, the ship indeed looks too light in mass in comparison to the rest of the ship
the side view shows the belly module adding a good amount of visual weight to the bridge area!
inserted and matching the paint
setting up at PSOL and finally getting the cockpit piece put on
the detail across this ship is so mesmerizing!
this thing has so many cool angles to get lost in!!!
the bridge needs some detailing then she'll be all done
Hi all and so glad to have read all the great comments about the Nostromo!!! Seems that we all love Ron Cobb and those UK modelers’ massive space tug and are all equally glad that it lives again!!!!!! Today’s entry shows more of the detail construction and some of the set up at the LA Branch of the “Prop Store of London”. You’ll see all kinds of cool stuff in the background, so there will be more to drag your attention around while looking at the Nostromo. Todays photos start with the construction of the bridge’s belly module… this piece by looks of the paint and detail where it once was, indicates that it was added on much later in the model’s construction. Somebody on stage probably said, “Hey, the nose section is a bit thin!!! Beef it up a bit !!!” And I am sure that is what caused this piece to be built and screwed in on top of tons of lovely surface detail. Anyway, this whole piece was missing, so it had to be built from scratch using the photos at hand!!! It is basically a fat box with loads of details in the recesses and three nozzles attached to it’s rear. It also houses the massive three foot antenna array which was a bear to mount and keep straight…so with no delays, enjoy today’s Nostromo pics!!! There are also 8 hidden Mickey’s on the ship now!!! but not in today’s pics!! R2 will be the last pic in the last entry for this one.
nostromo as seen in 1978 UK
Howdy there and welcome to Nostromo II, the restoration. Following the post from a few days ago, here is more on the beloved model from Alien and it’s TLC rebuild. Many months ago I did a special on Martin Bower, and it showcased a lot of his model work on the Nostromo way back in 1978…little did I know, a few shorts months from then I would be seeing this massive model in person and also getting a chance to be a part of the remodeling crew!! I thought the model was either destroyed or lost in the UK somewhere, and it was quite a surprise to walk in the model shop at Grant McCune Design and see this behemoth from across the room. I remember stopping in mid conversation with Monty Shook and saying, “WOOO-AH THE NOSTROMO!!!!” Monty said they were restoring it for a private party, and I couldn’t wait to get over and have a closer look. I was there working on another project that only lasted a day or so and never really got a chance but to see it from a far.
Well, a few weeks later Monty called and asked if I wanted to come over and work on the ship for him…the rest of the crew were busy with other projects, and the model had to be completed so I was there the next day going over all that Monty, Jack, Olivia and Jason had done to get her to the stable and almost finished state that I first saw her in. The mini details were what were left, and we went through the photos to decide what needed to be done…the more we looked the more missing things there were.
So, to start the project off, all the antenna arrays had to be rebuilt. None of the original pieces had made it back with the model, so all of them had to be created new from use of the photos provided. There were 10 arrays total, with the shortest being roughly six inches to the longest being 36 inches long. Grant’s model kits and brass rod collection had been depleted, and there was almost nothing to work with so a huge search throughout the shop’s drawers and boxes produced some parts from the old 70’s kits. New sets of brass had to be ordered and trying to find any of the kits used for the original were literally impossible or beyond expensive to acquire. On top of it all, the photos provided little help on what parts were used because the multiple laying of parts on parts on parts made the pieces indiscernible. With that said, the job of recreating the rods as close as possible to the originals came to be by matching the mass and diameters as seen from the photos and then translated out of the new material. The detail piece that the rods were attached to did survive, and Jack molded the master piece so a definite scale could be used for lengths and measures. The piece itself is a spaced out little chassis from the bottom of a 1/24th scale truck cab. From there, multiple sizes of brass tubing were cut and assembled to create the under structure of the antenna’s the rods and were then mounted to the chassis base piece, and then the kit bashing and detailing began.
In these pictures you’ll see some of the finished miniature in England as it sets in the model shop, then there will be a couple of what the model looked like when Monty picked it up from KNB, followed by a shot of what it looked like before the micro detailing began. The final pictures will show the construction of the antennas and how they looked after being placed back on the model. OK, enjoy and look forward to the next installment in the restoration of the great Nostromo!
Hi all, and Happy New Year!! It’s 2010 and all those shows and cartoons I watched as kid in the 60’s & later in the 80’s showed a future 2010, with flying cars, massive gloomy cities, there’s a place called Moon Base Alpha, a computer defense system called Cyberdyne has almost annihilated most of civilization, and expansive and elegant spacecraft go to Jupiter and beyond…if you think about it, “BladeRunner” is only 7 years from now!!!! I guess a lot is going to happen before 2017, HAAAA!!!!
Even if these things didn’t happen for real, they do on the big screen. The movies and sci fi of 2010 are birthed from the cyberworld in almost every element of traditional movie making: models, creatures, sets, animals, environments and just about everything else is constructed in the computer. But once not to long ago motion picture spacecraft were made by hand from wood, plastic, glue, and bashed model kits!!! Soon after their glory time of being on stage under hot studio lights and being moved around on motion control rigs, their worn and beaten forms were disregarded as trash or stripped down to be something else. The Nostromo from “Alien” was one of these fabulous models that spent the last decade or so deteriorating away to age and the elements.
Designed by Ron Cobb and built by an incredibly talented model crew in England, the Nostromo is one of the most iconic movie space craft to ever grace the silver screen. Fox had all the models and relics from Alien stored away, and somewhere in the 1980’s, bestowed the lot memorabilia to the world famous Bob Burns. Truck load after truck load came to Bob’s house where he lovingly displayed as much of the movies treasures as he could. If you don’t know of Bob Burns he is one of the biggest sci fi collectors of all time. He and his wife, Kathy, have turned their home into a museum, and there are toys and relics from so many incredible shows from the early days of cinema to some of today’s modern classics. Anyway, the Nostromo is as big as a car, and Bob had nowhere to display, restore or house the beast, so the guys over at KNB took on the model to one day fix it up. KNB is one of Hollywood’s busiest make up and creature shops, and the Nostrome never had a chance to see more than the storage unit due to their consistently overwhelming schedules!!
Fast track to sometime in 2009, where the folks over at The Prop Shop of London were able to acquire the model and, looking at what was left of the Nostromo, they knew they had to call some of the best to try and restore the badly damaged model. Monty Shook of Grant McCune Design was called, and TPHOL hired the crew on to do the repairs. Below is the GMD and TPHOL links so you can see the early and first days of what the Nostromo was like and then watch the progression of how the ship slowly and meticulously has been restored. Stay tuned for more updates as the model finishes it’s rebuild and gets displayed in it’s new resting place in the lobby of the Prop Store of London.
Enjoy!
;
nostromo
I just got word of Dan O’bannon’s passing, and I am quite taken back by this horribly sad news!!! Dan has been mentioned here on the blog many times, and I was unaware that he was battling Crohn’s disease for over 30 years…. Sadly, it looks like he lost the fight on December 17, 2009. He will be deeply missed!!! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. O’Bannon, here is a little write-up for you to get to know him a little bit.
Dan O’Bannon’s passion was for movies & writing, and he was quite gifted with an amazing talent to do just that! He went to USC in the late 60’s/early 70’s and teamed up with fellow wannabe film maker John Carpenter. Together they were creating a 45 minute short Sci-Fi movie called “Electric Dutchman,” later to be renamed “Dark Star”! The two men created a hilarious film that was later lengthened and released theatrically. Both Dan and John wore many hats during the production. Dan took on the role as Co-writer, Production Designer, Film Dditor, Visual Effects Supervisor and even acting…playing the mistreated and belittled character of Pinback (who’s real name is Bill Froog, but had to become Pinback because that was the name on the uniform). Dan and John’s film was released on January 16, 1975 ( Carpenter’s 27th Birthday) and died virtually unnoticed!! Today it has become a cult classic. The film brought together some vast movie talents such as Greg Jein, Ron Cobb and Bill Taylor, as well as launching both John and Dan’s careers as major movie makers. Sadly, the partnership did not survive after Dark Star, and both went out in different directions!
Dan went on to his next project of trying to get “Dune” off the ground!! This attempt fell apart, and Dan went on to do some of the computer graphics for Star Wars. Unhappy with the thought of becoming a computer graphics designer, Dan went back to his first love of writing and wrote what would be one of the greatest Science fiction films ever made!!! “Alien” was it’s name, and the mega hit came out in May of 1979. Along with Star Wars, the look of space movies coming out of Hollywood changed forever. From there O’Bannon went on to write many other landmark films and stories. He wrote two of my favorite segments entitled “Soft landing” and the awesomely horrifying “B-17” from the “Heavy Metal” movie released in 1981. Next he wrote “Blue Thunder,” which he was terribly displeased with; the story had been heavily rewritten and had lost it’s political edge by the time it made it to the big screen. The same happened with his screenplay for Lifeforce (1985). In 1986 he wrote a wicked little screenplay for the remake of “Invaders from Mars,” and I was happy to be a part of this one. I had just started working at Apogee VFX house in Van Nuys, making Invaders and Top Gun the first two movies I got to work on. I was extremely happy to be working on a Dan O’Bannon and Tobe Hooper film!! Dan switched to the director’s chair with another cult classic, “Return of the Living Dead,” and then moved on to write another SCI-FI favorite, “Total Recall”. “Bleeders”, “Screamers” and “The Resurrected” would come in future years.
Dan was a huge fan of Science Fiction and H.P. Lovecraft, as you could tell by his work, but he was a man of incredible talent in so many other fields; he was hysterically funny, very gracious, very kind and he had a deep appreciation for others and their talents. He had a strong sense of self confidence and rebellion towards authority which made him able to withstand just about anything and not fall apart when criticism was thrown his way. He never gave up and always followed his passions with great pride and imagination. Mr. O’Bannon is one whom I have great admiration for. He was the best at what he did, and his work and talent have definitely inspired me in so many ways!!! He will be missed dearly. Thank You, Dan, and may God bless and be with your family, friends and especially your wife, Diane, and son Adam.
this link will take you to a great site that has a lot of Dan’s graphics work and a cool interview as well!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0639321
Click below to see several great photos of Dan and his amazing work…(if you see the pictures, you’re already there!).
When I was a kid there were very few things that would drag me into the house when there was so much exploring and playing to do outside. My dad was an Arizona Highway Patrolman and we lived in little HP homes and trailers all across the state. A little place called Black Canyon City was my favorite of all the towns we lived in. This was my home from age 5 to 8 and an awful lot of incredible things happened there, and mostly my love for space and sci-fi. The first moon landing by Apollo 11 took place while there and I didn’t leave the TV for two weeks!!!! when we weren’t landing on the moon we would race home after school to watch a local show called Wallace and Ladmo, then Star Trek, and one of my big favorites “Stingray” I was so enthralled with the models in that show that i tried to make a stingray sub out of a block of wood and some old soda bottles,,,,, well with how it turned out I would have never gotten a job anywhere as a modeler.!!! A few years went by and a new show called Space 1999 was on. It aired every Saturday at 6:00 in the afternoon,,, the worst time to stop what you were doing outside to come in for an hour but I would without fail for the life of the show!!! Again the model and VFX stuff was my focus of the show,, A few years later,,, Alien hit the screen and finally there were names in the credits to who built these incredible models,,, Martin Bower was the one I saw and as time went on more of the subject matter got printed into books and Mags. Before “Star Wars” came out the only Sci Fi source available to me was Starlog magazine, and after “SW” the sci-fi info floodgates were open!!! I found out more about through these mags and especially the books on Alien. I found out that Martin was responsible for all the models I was a fan of from those early years of kid-dom!!!! It was incredible to discovery the awesome career this man has had and it is clear by what you see on the screen that every model is a masterpiece of incredible skill and talent. His work covers so many genres and styles, from TV and puppet shows to the hard core heavy movie miniatures!! Simply incredible, how fun to get paid to do what you so love to do. As we all know by the mid 90’s CG was killing off the practical model shops and this incredible art form was passing on into obscurity. Models are still used to this day in films but not as regularly as it once was. Many of the miniature giants have gone on to open shops to create models for collectors. Martin Bower has carried his passion and incredible talents to doing just this. Some of my favorite creations that Mr. Bower has created are the stingray, the modified Brian Johnson Eagles, the Hawk, and all the alien craft from Space 1999, the good ship Ajax from Flash Gordon,,,( What Flash Gordon Alivvveeee-ah, Dispatch the good ship Alex to bring back his Boowdeee!!! ), the Nostromo from Alien, the shuttle from Outland, and his awesome models from his take on War of the Worlds. I owe a lot to Martin and to Greg Jein. If it wasn’t for these guys I probably would still be a produce clerk in a grocery store in Arizona, HAAA!!! Thanks guys and to everyone visiting the blog today there are a lot of photo’s and a link to Martins page, If you get the bug to see more head on over to his page and get ready to spend a good part of the day!!! Like the on going Cobb and Goldsmith posts I’ll keep putting up Martins work as I find it. Tomorrow is the day of Kitbasher girl, get ready to meet a very cool young modeler!!
wow my two hero's Greg Jein and Martin Bower!!!
http://www.martinbowersmodelworld.com/
here he is Martin and the yellow version of the Nostromo.
this thing is so huge!!! I had no idea how much so until you see these pics.
incredible,, wish they would have kept this color,, Love it!
awesome!
it's not a miniature it's practically full size, HAAA!
What an awesome image Thanks Ron Cobb, Martin Bower and the model crew and to Simon Deering for this one
this is brilliant,
Martins work on display at Wonderfest two weeks ago
well it's called a miniature, but it's a huge one!!!
so cool!!!
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
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