Distopus: March 2015

So this week I received two emails and saw one blog post on Odie's enlightening ( Heavy Static Blog ) about the same thing.. The release of a bunch of behind the scenes photos of the production of blade runner.. Odie has already done a sterling job of highlighting that - so I wont repeat it..

what i wanted to say instead is this subject is close to my heart - i often research film production artists as a way to try and see the 40k hobby from a fresh perspective - wargaming shares many age old techniques like kit bashing -with production scale modelling - something that the most excellent hobbyists weirding way has demonstrated recently with his classic sci fi - Syd mead , Chris Foss, Ron Cobb styled baroque 40k dropship

a tenuous link but Henry South the talented (VFX artist) over at the altruistic four go to war blog is currently raising money in aid of alzheimers in memoriam of Terry Pratchett @

https://www.justgiving.com/modelsForTerry/

http://4gotowar.blogspot.co.uk/

such a good idea..

Currently some wonderful prizes are in the raffle including a PDH model from our last summer game and a John Blanche painting !

I thought it was time to dive back into the world of film props...

I wanted to share some links i have gathered up over the past few months that tie in with this subject .

Derek Meddings

If Derek Meddings was the grandfather of scale production modelling in the UK .. then the heir apparent would be Bill Pearson . Based in Shepperton studios his model shop has contributed so much to the film, industry & modelling sci fi community - I highly recommend watching his DVD lecture at Glasgow University on the subject.. and looking at the brilliant production stills of the film Moon

Bill Pearson

available here : on the most excellent TheRPF forums

http://www.therpf.com/f10/modelmaker-bill-pearsons-portfolio-35mm-digital-photos-updated-17-12-14-a-228889/?highlight=bill+pearson

The The revered Mr Phill Rae dropped these stunning pics of the production of alien at shepperton studios a few years back.on another excellent modelling forum .

http://www.eagletransporter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6146

more great alien stuff is available here from Martin Bowers

http://www.martinbowersmodelworld.co.uk/alien_models3.html

and some insightful films regarding the whole production of Alien here - i especially like the Giger interviews

http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/Alien.html

speaking of Moon - The unbelievably talented modeller Steve Howarth ( of gerty fame ) has a website here ( interesting to note that Mr Howarth also sells miniature replicas of some of his models via the Etsy shop

http://www.modelminiatures.co.uk/

and it would be remiss of me to mention all this alternative sci fi modelling without mentioning something of about 3d modelling

keeping with the moon theme - VFX Supervisor Gavin Rothery is the man who designed Gerty the rovers and the harvesters before handing them over to Bill Pearson @ shepperton studios to realise in miniature.. he has a great blog showcasing some of his 3d film work here.

http://www.gavinrothery.com/garty-robotic-assist/

now on to something related but different..

My very first blog post on opus maius mentioned a series of books called the terran trade authority books - well whilst still on the subject of classic sci fi styling.. I happened across a brilliant book called the usborne book of the future available to read here

https://archive.org/details/Usborne_Book_of_the_Future_1979_pointlessmuseum

I actually think i read this as a kid in the 80s - well worth a flick through and quite prescient in many ways - there are other books in the series that look worth the read if you can get hold of them..