Happy Easter to all of our friends and family from around the world that visit my blog. It has been a busy time, and I haven’t been here in a long time but I so wanted to spend a moment and wish everyone a very Happy Easter and to also thank The Lord for this glorious day. He has blessed my family so abundantly through the thick and the thin and I am so thankful for all he has done and always answering our prayers. Happy Easter also to our homeland’s brave men and women that are here and abroad preserving our country and the world’s freedom. Your service never goes without great thanks.
Yes. As it has been pointed out previously, it IS indeed Mr. Eaves’ birthday today! Here is a little tiny birthday gift to my buddy, John. I hope to have more new headers, but for today…well, here’s a new one I promised you MONTHS ago. 😀
With love and thanks from me and all your blog friends…HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! Hope you’re enjoying your day!
Howdy all, sorry for the delays in posting, lots going on and not a lot of free time to write.
So in the gap of posts enjoy a video from the fabulous Siouxsie and the Banshees,. For those that thrive on behind the scenes Trek Trivia, There is always a Shuttle named Siouxsie in all of the shuttle bay drawings and one even made it into the SOTL calender for December of this year!
WOW!!!!! I just had a moment to hang out on the computer and browse a bit and I came across a website and a blog by RYAN DENING!!!! Ryan was my boss on the Star Trek online game when Perpetual was putting the game together. We met in 06 and I started working remotely with a visit up to the bay about once a month to meet and go over all the new lists of things to be rendered. Ryan was hired to be the design boss for the game and what an awesome talent he is. When I first walked in the office, which was very tiny and very dark you could see his art work being modeled or manipulated on every screen as you walked through the halls of computers. Ryan has an incredible sense of design and his passion for Star Trek was without limits. I was a huge fan from the first day and I loved his style of color & tight perspective on how he would choose to set up a rendering. AWESOME talent and one incredibly nice guy!!! I am so glad to have come across his pages today and so glad to be sharing some of his work with you.. I attached both his links in my blog role so be sure to go check out some incredible stuff!!! So for know hold on to your chair and feast your eyes on some of Ryan’s fantastic illustrations.
Hey everybody, yesterday was the second anniversary of Eavesdropping and I forgot to do a post and thank everyone who stops by here and has made this such a fun place to meet up and share stories and pictures of our favorite things. So many great friends I have met here and I can’t thank you all enough for sharing in the topics of the day and especially for all the support that has been given to my family through all the rough times!!! This year is leveling out so hopefully the blog can get back on track and more regularly too. In honor of the anniversary today’s topic will be phaser’s and red dresses! 10 years ago last month the early days of “Enterprise” were in the works and the show was just starting to be designed. Sets props, ships costumes, everything and the art department was assembled with the same group of notorious faces from DS9 and some new ones as well. Jim Martin had rejoined the show as the key prop designer and that man put out one intensive pile of drawings and designs!!! Always a pleasure to work with Jim and I’ve always been a fan. Next month there will be a special on the art of Martin and can’t wait to get it all put together. As the went our boss Herman Zimmerman would throw so many things out at once that in many occasions we would all cross the line from one aspect of the show to the other. one day we would be doing sets then we would both be doing props and on and on. The producers of the show loved variety an so Herman always tried to show as much art as possible during the meetings. Jim had drawn up some really wicked looking weapons and Before the meeting Herman had me draw up a few as well. What you see today are three of those rough ideas which were used as fodder to push forward Jim’s very polished illustrations that Herman and the prop department really liked. Lots of fun and always interesting to see how Herman would try to work and bend the crowd towards what he was thinking. The feel for the weapons is a bit heavier and gritter that what has been seen before and loving the assault Phaser from Trek V and VI, I kind of followed that idea in more of a militaristic fashion.
So enough about Phasers, Here is a newest member of the Red Dress series, Miss Kay Jay from Phoenix Arizona. I was back in my home state through most of the month of February and while I was there I got to do a couple of shoots with some old friends, but I was ever so privileged to work with Kay Jay for the very first time.We did a long shoot at a couple of locations and we covered vintage military pin up with both an Air Force, and an Army theme (for her Fiance who is in the Army) out at Falcon Field in Mesa AZ, and wrapped out the day with a more elegant pin up theme and ended with the Red Dress series. Kay has a magic to be sure and she so artistically paints a beautiful canvas using herself as the medium!! She has a great talent and I love what she brought to the Star Trek theme. A mixture of action, grace, and sultry fashion, really elevated what we have seen here so far!!! So with all that said enjoy the art, pics and also visit Kay’s modeling page from the link below. So stay tuned for more entries this week and More of Miss Kay Jay in the near future!!
March the 15th, 1956, MGM released one of the first big budget Science Fiction films ever, and was a huge block buster and now is considered one of the most beloved classics that the studio has ever produced. Sci-fi was not a theme that a major studio wanted to back financially in the early days, but seeing the reactions of audiences that would attend small budget space movies inspired MGM to take the gamble of making a major motion picture based on a fantastic Science Fiction story set in Deep space. Obviously the gamble payed off, and the movie inspired a look and culture that we still see copied in features today. The film was ground breaking on many levels with state of the art special effects, miniature & stage work, and a very realistic mixture of hand animation intermixed with live action shots. MGM was one of the main studios that pioneered animation and live action, not only with Forbidden Planet, but 11 years earlier in 1945’s “Anchors Aweigh” where Gene Kelly dances with Jerry mouse from the famous Tom and Jerry shorts. “Forbidden Planet” was based on a story by Irving Block, & Allen Adler, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume, and masterfully directed by Fred McLeod. Starring Leslie Nielsen (who passed away last year on Nov. the 28th 2010), and Anne Francis, (who passed away a month and a half later on Jan. the 2nd, 2011) the supporting cast was a wonderful ensemble of actors that went on to have equally amazing careers. The film introduced a new character who without a doubt is probably one of the best known figures of all time and he isn’t even human. Robby the Robot, created by Robert Kinoshita stands as one of the most popular movie robots of all time. Mr. Kinoshita also designed the B9 robot from “Lost in Space” and between the two it’s hard to say which one is the top fan favorite. On so many levels this film is not only a classic and a milestone of cinematic achievement, it’s overall an awesome movie to watch. Every time I get a chance to watch this one I see something new and like it more than the last time. My 9 year old daughter Alyna loves this picture and because of the classics she’s going to be a Sci Fi maniac by the time she’s 18. She’s a lover of space drama and it is a such a treat as a parent to watch these old films with her as everything is new and amazing from her point of view. Lots of screen grabs to see and enjoy, and I hear the new blue Ray version is the way to see “Forbidden Planet” weather your a fan or someone who wants to see it for the first time.
opening titles
George Wallace is the actor on the left, He played Commando Cody in the Republic serial "Radar Men to the Moon" in the early 50's followed by Leslie Nielsen, and Warren Stevens on the right
George Wallace as Cody
note the shadow of the 57-D saucer is created with a different color of ground
the introduction of Robby the Robot
the home of Morbius
Walter Pidgeon as Morbius
Anne Francis
the hate to love relationship begins
the big kiss
the Krell Laboratories
Help me Obi Won Kanobie,, I mean it's Anne Francis in 3D
the invisible horror approaches.
a casting of what left the prints in the sand
fighting a hidden enemy
Monsters of the ID as seen in the force field barrier
more of the ID
Morbius is made to realize that the Monsters are coming from his own imagination
morbius relaizes that to kill the monsters of his mind he has the them kill him
Morbius's last request is to hit the self destruct sequence to end the horror of the Krell, the destruct trigger is copied heavily in the self destruct mechanism aboard the Nostromo from "Alien"
reaching escape distance before the blast
Robby is now a part of the crew, and note his cardboard legs,, The actual legs could not bend this way so a quick solution was to paint them on board and hope nobody would notice.
the destruction of Altar 4 as seen from space, another scence closly copied in Alien
Today, February the 17th in 1956 the yf-104 made it’s first flight from Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert. Herman “Fish” Salmon piloted this silver tailed beauty into the heavens for her maiden flight 55 years ago today. Nicknamed the “Apple Knocker”, her flying career was a short one ending on the 25th of April, 1957, when a failed landing took her out of the sky forever. Most folks have a favorite airplane or car that they secretly long to own, and for me The f-104 is my favorite of all of man’s creations. She is one beautiful piece of aerial art whether sitting on the ground or tearing a hole in the atmosphere. When looking for inspiration while drawing a new space craft for Star trek the F-104 was the one that would always guide the way. There is a little piece of the 104 in just about everything that I have done and, living in the high desert myself, there are many of these beautiful birds on display around town to go and get inspired from. Happy 55th to this milestone aircraft and enjoy a fabulous write up on the history of the YF series by Joe Baugher below.
her final flight
BY Joe Baugher
In July of 1954, the USAF decided to purchase 17 service test aircraft under the designation YF-104A. This was done under a “fly-before-you-buy” philosophy, under which these aircraft would participate in development tests before any commitment to large-scale production was made. If large-scale production was actually undertaken, these YF-104As could later be brought up to full production standard and delivered to operational units.
Fearing that the General Electric J79 turbojet might not be ready in time, the first service test Starfighters were to be powered by the afterburning J65 turbojet. However, the J79 engine was flight tested by the Navy in a borrowed Navy XF4D in December of 1955, and it was concluded that early versions of the General Electric J79 engine should be available by the time that the YF-104A was ready, and the service test aircraft were built with the General Electric engine in mind.
The seventeen YF-104A service test aircraft (serials 55-2955/2971) were powered by early experimental versions of the General Electric J79 engine instead of the J65 engine which powered the XF-104s. The YF-104A aircraft were initially fitted with the General Electric XJ79-JE-3 turbojet, rated at 9300 lb.s.t. dry and 14,800 lb.s.t. with afterburning. The YF-104A differed from the XF-104 in having a 5 feet 6 inch extension in the length of the fuselage to accommodate the new J79 engine. The vertical fin was slightly taller, raising the overall height from 12.7 feet to 13.49 feet. A forward-retracting nose-wheel replaced the rearward-retracting unit of the XF-104, in order to provide improved ejection seat clearance out of the bottom of the aircraft. A narrow dorsal spine was added to the upper fuselage. Two additional fuel cells were installed in the fuselage. The air intakes were modified in shape and were fitted with half-cone center bodies which had been omitted from the two XF-104s. The fixed-geometry central intake shock cone had an internal bleed slot which exhausted some intake air through the fuselage for afterburner cooling and helped to reduce the aircraft’s base drag. An AN/ASG-14T1 fire control system was fitted, plus AN/ARN-56 TACAN. There were provisions for four under-wing and one under-fuselage stores pylon.
With an empty weight increased only slightly to 12,561 pounds, the YF-104A maximum takeoff weight (clean) rose to 15,700 pounds for the XF-104 to 18,881 pounds. With provision for four under-wing and one fuselage stores pylon, the maximum takeoff weight was 24,584 pounds.
The first YF-104A (55-2955) was completed in February of 1956, and was trucked out in high secrecy to Edwards AFB. It made its first flight there on February 17, 1956, with Lockheed test pilot Herman “Fish” Salmon at the controls.
On February 16, 1956, the second YF-104A (55-2956) was used for a media-covered official rollout ceremony at Lockheed’s Burbank factory. This was the first display of the Starfighter to the public. Before that, there had been only rumors in the aviation press about the existence of a truly revolutionary new fighter aircraft, plus a few speculative drawings. The engine air intakes were covered with temporary fairings, since the Air Force didn’t want people to see the half-cones in the air intakes.
The first Starfighter photographs were released in the spring of 1956. These were limited to air-to-air shots of the prototype and ground photos of YF-104A 55-2956 with the intake fairings still fitted. It was not until mid-1956 that the J79-engined F-104 lateral intakes were finally revealed to the public.
The J79 engine provided a spectacular improvement in performance. 55-2955 reached Mach 2 on February 28, 1956, becoming the first fighter aircraft capable of double-sonic speed in level flight.
An initial order for production F-104As was issued on October 14, 1956.
Together with the first 35 production F-104As, all seventeen YF-104As were used for flight-test and to evaluate early versions of the J79 (the -3, -3A, and -3B) engine, the Vulcan cannon, the AIM-9 (formerly GAR-8) Sidewinder air-to-air missile and the wingtip-mounted fuel tanks. Airframe strengthening and local redesign were progressively introduced. Various forms of flap blowing were tested, and a ventral fin was introduced to improve directional stability at supersonic speed. Some YF-104As were also used to test wingtip racks for either 170 US-gallon drop tanks or Sidewinder infrared-homing air-to-air missiles.
On May 7, 1958, Major Howard C. Johnson reached an altitude of 91,249 feet in a zoom climb at Edwards AFB in California, setting a new altitude record. On May 16, 1958, Captain Walter W. Irwin flying a YF-104A set a new world’s air speed record of 1404.19 mph flying over a 15/25 kilometer course at Edwards AFB. For the first time in history, the same aircraft type held both the world speed and altitude records at the same time.
A large percentage of the seventeen YF-104As were lost in crashes during the test program. At the end of this program, the surviving YF-104As were brought up to F-104A production status and were turned over to USAF squadrons for duty. Following the withdrawal of the F-104A from active service in 1960, at least four of the ex-YF-104As (55-2956, 2957, 2969, 2971) were converted into unmanned QF-104A target drones. They were all most likely shot down during tests. Of the seventeen YF-104As built, only two are known to survive today. The first survivor is the seventh YF-104A (55-2961). This aircraft was transferred to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in August of 1956. It was initially numbered 018, which was later changed to a civilian registration of N818NA. In 1958, NACA was reorganized as NASA, and the YF-104A remained with NASA until November of 1975. This aircraft is now hanging in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. I saw it there in October of 1993. The other survivor is the thirteenth YF-104A (55-2967). It is now on display at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I remember seeing it sitting outside the Chapel when I visited the Air Force Academy in 1971.
Happy new year Everyone, it’s finally 2011, and I’m so looking forward to the start of a new year and sharing more stuff from the world of Hollywood and Star Trek with you all. This March will mark the second anniversary of the blog and there will be a whole lot of new Starship dedications to many of the readers here, as well as interviews with some of the cast & crew and a whole lot of art and photos from the Trek world. So without any further delays, here we go….
For the first official post of the new year I want to introduce you to Alexandra Gunn. Alex is fairly new to the modeling world with about 6 months of work to her credit, and without hesitation I would say she has all it takes to go very, very, far. She is very passionate about the art, and she can really capture a fantastic array of styles and eras both elegantly and also in the true spirit of the vintage past. Alex and I met for the first time a few weeks back at Mark Thompson’s aviation yard, and the ground was still covered in snow. Despite the weather, Alex had her heart set on doing a good part of the shoot in a leopard print dress and ignored the elements to capture a series of very beautiful images. Both her parents were there to lend a hand & be a part of the shoot, and they are a great inspiration for her.
Alex loves to sing and has just won an acting and modeling contract and is about to head off to Texas to follow her dream. Inspired by the sirens of the silver screen, Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe, Alex tries to follow in their style from a bygone era making everything she does a homage but also making her style very much her own. Alex is 19 , lives in Palmdale CA, and at 5’3 she thought modeling might not be something she could do successfully with the commonly accepted thought that you have to be extremely tall to make it big. Alex proves that theory wrong and has created some of my most favorite pictures. For our last shoot, Alex took on the Star Trek Red Dress theme and so wonderfully conquered the look and feel of the 60’s adding her own style and mark with this fun running series.
Be sure to stay tuned for more of Alex as she is about to go Brunette, and hopefully before she makes it to the big time we can catch her for another shoot . OK then, enjoy the work of Alex and be sure to check out her Model Mayhem page by following the link below.
So Sorry for this very late post, but we lost our internet for the last three weeks and only just got it back up and working. With that said, the last post of the year was to be about Grant McCune and all the modelers at his shop, but sadly, before it was finished news of Grant’s untimely passing changed the story from one of great fun to one of horrible sadness.
2010 has been a hard year full of many sorrows and tragedies. We have lost a lot of Hollywood legends and dear friends, and as the year comes to a close there is one more final goodbye to a dear, dear friend. If you’re a regular reader here, the name Grant McCune is not a new one to you, and with great sadness, Grant passed away on Monday December the 27th of Pancreatic Cancer which he was only diagnosed with 4 weeks prior to his passing. For those of you who don’t know of Grant from a friend’s point of view, he was the chief model maker on a little film that came out in 1977 called “Star Wars” and his masterful craft won him an Oscar. Grant was always a little embarrassed about that because it was really his first film in many ways, and being the humble man that he was, always felt funny about it.
Grant started in the business working with his good friend Bill Shourt on the Mechanical Shark from Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”. Bill and Grant went from working under water to outer space when George Lucas was putting together a team of specialists to create the undiscovered country of major motion control VFX for his space epic “Star Wars”. The Original Industrial Light and Magic VFX studio was a rented warehouse in Van Nuys, California, right next to the Van Nuys Airport. Star Wars was a landmark film and opened the door to a new world of VFX laden films incorporating Motion Control camera systems and technologies designed and created for Star Wars. Lucas was signed on to do a sequel and he wanted to move his operation up to the Bay area which was George’s stomping grounds. A call was made to see who wanted to follow to a new ILM to be situated in Marin County just north of San Francisco, and who was going to stay in Los Angelas. John Dykstra and six others of the main group decided to stay in southern CA while the others moved on. John Dykstra, Bill Shourt, Grant McCune, Richard Alexander, Roger Dorney, Doug Smith and Bob Sheperd got their money together and formed a new company called “Apogee”. Apogee retained the original building plus one directly next door to house all the new cameras, machine shop, creature shop, optical and animation department, model shop, and lots of stage and office space. Their first project was the television pilot and series called “Battlestar Galactica”. Grant would head up the model shop, and crews of modelers would come and go as the projects came in. Following Galactica came Star Trek (The Motion Picture), Caddyshack, Firefox and a host of other films and commercials.
I knew of Grant from the credits in Star Wars and from all the publications about the films VFX sequences. After years of research I found an add for Apogee in a trade magazine for film and gave him a call. We met in early 1984 and for the next year and a half I would frequently make the drive from Arizona to visit. One hot summer Wednesday in July I stopped by again to say hi. I was staying at my uncle’s house in Fullerton and doing some side work for him while I was on vacation from my job at the grocery store in Phoenix. I told Grant in a joking way that I lived here now, and he said; you live in CALIFORNIA!!! Why yes I do,,,,, he then said, how do you like working outside….. in the heat??? I had just come from 120 degree Arizona heat to California which was barely 100 degrees so hot outside was NOT California, HAAA! I said I love to work outside why? What came next was the big phrase that I thought I would never hear….. Good! would you like start working here tomorrow, your job will be brushing latex into a giant Dinosaur mold and he pointed outside to two half molds of a full sized T-Rex ! WOOOOOOOOOOO Oh yes I would love to, and he said; OK then see ya tomorrow at 7:00, and how does $7.00 an hour sound… That sounds Awesome Grant, Thanks and I will see you tomorrow I said and off I went to get ready for the big day!!!! What an unbelievable time! So on Thursday August 1st 1985 Grant McCune brought me into the world of VFX and one young boy’s dreams came true. I called my boss at Bayless markets and gave my two week notice over then phone and the sound of cheers rang out from everyone standing by the phone on the Arizona side of the line.
Grant was a great boss, and you couldn’t really call him that because he was more a friend than a boss. Always quick with a joke and a laugh, he loved his job and he so gracefully shared all of what he knew with you. Everybody loved Grant and also working at Apogee; it was a place that felt more like a house full of your favorite relatives than a job. There was really no division between the high end and the low end of the crew, and everyone there was incredibly talented and a joy to be around. Grant was a music lover and was ever so fond of the Gypsy Kings, Linda Rondstant, Leon Redbone, Patsy Cline, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Every morning when he would get in, we would all be blessed by a shout from the door, DOES EVERYONE LOVE THEIR JOB, followed by one of his tunes. Frech fries and breakfest burritos were next in a day of usual favorites. “Invaders from Mars”, “Top Gun”, and “Spaceballs” were my first movies working with Grant and and through him I met some of my very best friends, Cory and Allen Faucher, Pete Gerrard, Glen Campbell, Bill and John Shourt, Robert Beilmere, James Spencer, Pat Denver, David Dryer, Lisa Wise, Debbie Nicoles, Carolyn Diltz, Mike Yost, Greg Jein, Monty Shook, and way too many others to mention here. As Hollywood goes, there would be times where the modelshop crew would float from Apogee to Boss Films, DreamQuest Images, Fantasy II, LA Effects group, and up north to ILM for other jobs, but we would all gladly come back to Grant and Apogee.
The CGI world started to become the way of the future in the early 90’s and by about 1994 (it was provide it or die), which made up the new Hollywood attitude and about this time all the major model shops where coming to an end. Apogee’s final days were in 1995, and as the major VFX company closed it’s doors (literally over night), Grant retained his side of the company and formed his own VFX house under the new name of Grant McCune designs. Fifteen years later his company still stands and does various jobs for films and also in the capacity for specialty props and collectables. Grant was a master photographer as well and he had a darkroom set up at work which he was turning into his daughter Lilly’s new darkroom over the last month or so. Grant also had a full shop at his house and he would commute back and forth between the two with goods and parts created for whatever the current project was. There was nothing that he couldn’t do with his hands and imagination, and he so loved what he did!!! Grant’s wife Kathy was the subject of many of his photo themes and she was always quick with a tip on nutrition. Their children, son Cole and daughter Lilly were always around, and it was always a pleasure to see the McCune family in the shop. Grant was an extremely generous, kind, and grateful man and was always there to talk to and lend some advice no matter what the subject was. He was like a second father to me; he was my friend, my buddy, and a man I loved dearly. He will be missed deeply and his passing came way to quickly and the reality of this is not setting in easily with all of us who knew him. Life is oh so fragile so be sure to tell those around you that you love them often. Kathy McCune and all the gang at GMD want to carry on with what Grant had started and happily his shop will be staying open. It will always be a landmark of where the true magic of working in the movies began for all of those that worked and visited there.
God bless you dear friend Grant, and love to Kathy, Cole, and Lilly.
Here are some pictures of Grant at work and, as soon as I can find all of mine, I’ll be sure to do an update.
Grant came to Scottsdale Arizona to do a talk on VFX and this was the cover story from our local paper. This still hangs in my office today.
on the set of Firefox, second in from left to right, Clint Eastwood, at the other end of the camera boom is John Dykstra and next to the firefox model is Grant
Grant dropping the blockade runner's escape pod thru the launch tube, from Star Wars
from Star Wars Grant works on the Imperial Star Destroyer
Star Wars, Grant assembling the blockade runner
Grant goofing around with an X-wing
this is from the 10th anniversary of Star Wars and a big reunion of all the VFX folks showed up at Apogee to celebrate, Grant's in the middle bottom row
This year has been a busy one for sure and all of us in the Eaves home wishe everyone here and abroad a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for another awesome year of blogging and thanks for all the fun, comments, shared stories, and friendships. Be safe, and we wish our best and our prayers to all of our service men and woman both here and around the world who protect us day and night and keep us all free. In celebration of our Savior’s birth, here are some very favorite Christmas songs sung by some of the most beautiful voices in the world!
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
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