Quote from: MrSpaceJockey on Jul 22, 2015, 10:03:56 PM
You're the fellow behind the Nostromo blueprint in the Alien Vault book, yes?
Amazing work.
Hi
Mr.Space Jockey;
Yes, that is correct and thank you.
Quote from: Quarax on Jul 23, 2015, 05:54:48 AM
Did you make those blueprints that are going to come with HCG's Power Loader too?
Hi Quarax,
Yes, that too is correct. I wasn't intending to draw up the Power Loader, but was asked to by HCG specifically for their model / statue.
When I completed the APC blueprint, HCG was made aware of it by a friend who then introduced them to me. A small version of the APC blueprint was included with their APC statue and that led onto the request for a Power Loader diagram.
Quote from: Johnny Paintbrushes on Jul 23, 2015, 09:00:59 AM
The Tardis like quality of the APC wasn't actually too much of a problem. The scale difference is slight enough to work around. The biggest problem I faced was where to put the engine as pretty much every bit of available interior space is taken up by the APC interior set we see in the film. It was Graham's idea to present the solution as in-wheel drive technology, aka the Transaxle.
Yes, the whole engine and axle location thing is something that people have been wondering for a while. The inspiration for the in-wheel drive technology came from stumbling upon a website by Protean Electric, a UK fim that is developing / has developed an in-wheel electric drive system.
So I thought it was really interesting and an ideal solution for the APC especially with the large wheels it has. That left it needing a powersource, and inspiration from that came from reading an article on the Jaguar C-X75 and its micro gas turbine engine. Small enough to locate at the front passenger-side of the vehicle.
The axle component, rather than running it from the wheel into and through the APC, I chose to connect at the back of each wheel, then run it vertically toward the top of the hull where there would be another, smaller drive system acting as a 'pivot' allowing the wheels to turn independently. The way it connects at the back then vertically, I guess a similar thing to visualize it may be a front bicycle wheel (minus one of the two forks) or the Daihotai 'Jordan' Tractor, which seems to use a similar concept.
In addition what we came up with had to complement the Aliens Tech Manual and the information provided in that, because we're aware that it can be frustrating to see one book say one thing, another book say something else entirely, so we were mindful of that too.
Quote from: Johnny Paintbrushes on Jul 23, 2015, 09:00:59 AM
As Corporal Hicks rightly suspects, research time is very consuming - just over 100 hours were spent drawing, inking, colouring and then photoshopping. It's harder to quantify time spent researching the interior content - I allocated 20 hours to the time spent exchanging countless long emails with Graham and the rest of the Brain Trust. But I suspect this figure is actually quite conservative and was probably a load more.
That's right; the thing about these movies is that one is reliant on three sources, 1.) being able to get a hold of studio blueprints; 2.) Set photographs; and 3.) the movie itself.
With 1.) we had access thanks to the brain trust of an interior APC blueprint, the trouble was it was based on an early design of the APC which was nothing like the final set (the gunner seat for instance was at the back). So that left 2.) and 3.), both of which were a case of really analysing the movie and photos on bluray and dvd releases, plus any reference photos the brain trust we able to provide. By working on the blueprints simultaneously we we able to work on one area in different views and scales to ensure it all worked and matched what was seen on screen.