Scratchbuilding The Dove part 3

DOCUMENTATION

Before I could start construction, of course, I had to gather the documentation and to derive from it either a set of orthographic drawings (sized to the selected scale of the  model) or to secure these drawings from another source. I was fortunate in this respect in having on hand a beautiful set of five-view orthographic drawings that had been prepared by Phil Rae.

The Working Drawings  

Over twenty years ago Phil and I had been contributor's to a rather well done  British fan magazine, SIG. Over the years the magazine grew in scope and quality. Though long out of print, this excellent resource still stands as one of the most authoritative sources of  information on the work  of Gerry and Silvia Anderson (know them as the production team responsible for such classics as, Thunderbirds, Supercar, Fireball XL-5, and many other TV and movie productions)

Phil had penned many of the 'plan' drawings that appeared in almost every issue of SIG. When I first saw his DOVE drawings I promised myself to one day take advantage of Phil's careful research and plan preparation, and to build a model of the DOVE. It's that time.

Phil had done a wonderful job - after careful evaluation of lines and detail fittings observed on the studio full scale and model vehicles (a frame-by-frame study) seen on a DVD of the movie, I was not able to discern any discrepancies in form against Phil's. I must tell you what a remarkable thing that is!

This should explain my wonderment:

When doing some work for Greg Jein a couple of years ago, I  commented to him on the problem I was having reading the Art Director's orthographic drawings. Drawings in support of a twenty-some inch long Klingon Embassy ship warp engine master I had been assigned to build.

As pick-up work over the years I have worked for Greg and other miniature fabrication shops, Ellie and I participate as a third-party contractor. On this one occasion we were facing a very tight deadline (Paramount gave  Greg very little lead time for the miniature work they demanded of him during the STNG run), an expected thing with episodic television shows. However I needed resolution of the problem that day, time was running out. Greg gave me some very valuable advice over the phone (I work out of my home here in Virginia). It went something like this: "Hey, Dave! No time, use the 'God Factor', I need that thing yesterday! Correct the drawings yourself and get me that part!". A perspective drawing is usually a quarter-view sketch presenting three faces of the subject, but has been drawn to account for our binocular vision and is most difficult  to pull measurements from. However, a proper isometric drawing permits you to pull from it length, width, depth and other measurements.

Fortunately, presented with the Art Director's three-view orthographic rendering was one rather well done perspective drawing of the desired warp engine. From that illustration I made corrections to the sectional and profile views and got to work.

You can't perform quality orthographic representations without the proper drafting tools. Here you see me preparing working  drawings for the three-foot FIREBALL XL-5 model I built nearly twenty years ago. Photographic interpretation is both an acquired and book-learned skill. Study, practice, and employ the ability to 'draw' - you will be a better model builder/kit assembler for it.

And that pretty much clued me in on how things go over there in Burbank - Most of the time you have good drawings from which to work. But, when  presented with errors, if a quick phone call can't resolve the problem, go back to the storyboard or other documents you know to be representative of the Art Director's wants and 'wing it'!

Not the way I want to  build models! But, a situation that is indicative, partially at least, for why there are so many disparities of outline, detail, and even paint work and markings seen on multiple miniatures representing the same prototype. Often many miniatures of the same craft are built, each to a different scale (each miniature created for a specific set of scenes - one size does not meet all filming needs).

A working drawing is a graphic representation of the desired object whose lines equate (either directly or through conversion) to the size of the model parts to be fabricated. These are either orthographic or isometric projections.

With the advent of copy machines with an infinite range of enlargement/reduction ratios it is an easy matter to take working drawings and to reproduce/enlarge them to the scale of the model. When I was a youngster one was compelled to use proportional dividers and other drafting tools to redraw a plan to the desired scale - lotsa work!

Another example of photo interpretation and orthographic plan preparation. This example is some of the drafting work I did in support of the C-57D drawings I did before beginning construction of a model of this classic SF craft (one of the few SF spacecraft of impractical design that holds strong appeal to me).

The ability to draw, by eye, and by the projection methods are skills worth learning if you wish to become an accomplished model builder. The ability to work from oblique photos of the prototype, to determine foreshortening ratios and the like will serve you well as you prepare working drawings of poorly documented subject. I offer for example this photo of just some of the research and analysis performed to produce an accurate set of drawings of the United Planets Cruiser, C-57D. That work assisting, to a small degree, Shane Johnson who made a set of like drawings for the market a  number of years ago (I wonder if any of this work contributed to the creation of the recently introduced Polar Lights model of this beautiful SF spacecraft? I'll take the bow, if earned). Photographic interpretation and plan preparation are skills shared by many accomplished Model Builders. Lacking this basic skill puts you in the same position as a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest.

If you don't have the skill to draw, get it! You'll find plenty of how-to books at Barn's & Noble and other such outlets. You have a community college down the road - sign on for some drafting courses.

Study your craft! Or leave the shop.

The ability to sketch out discrete components of a 'practical' subassembly, such as this access hatch of the FLYING-SUBMARINE, seen in these detail photos of an effects miniature (several were built for the TV series, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea). Sketches and orthographic plans permit the model builder to  visualize each element and to make a faithful copy, in model form later. You'll note around the sketch are arrayed some of the mater I made. These were later used to make rubber tools from which I produced cast metal model parts

How photographic documentation is turned into a more useful procedural sketch is illustrated by examining how I took many photos of the FLYING-SUBMARINE's access hatch detail and reduced them to detailed perspective drawings. Doing this permitted me to later make masters of each item, to such a high degree of fidelity that it became possible to make not  only a good looking hatch mechanism, but a practical one as well.

The same careful planning went into the DOVE project.

Incidentally, this work was in support of the manufacture of a 'fittings kit ' for Rick Teskey's twenty-four inch wide FLYING-SUBMARINE r/c model.

The only refinement to the Phil Rae orthographic drawings was the addition of sections. Here we see the frame stations positioned along the length of a plan and profile outline of the DOVE.

This orthographic drawing shows the many frame stations (sections) plotted along the length of the DOVE. Note that  to the right of centerline are the forward/front stations, the left of centerline are the after/back stations. Lofting directly off each station and onto plastic sheet created the frames needed to build the upper and lower armature - the core of the hull master structure.

One thing omitted in Phil's five-view orthographic drawing of the DOVE was a set of hull 'sections'. Sectional views are graphic representations of  the cross section geometry of the subject. From the sectional drawings I would loft that shape onto a plastic sheet and cut out each frame. Actually, breaking each frame into quadrants - upper-right, upper-left, lower-right, and lower-left for the type armatures I planned to employ for the DOVE hull build-up. This division of each section into four parts permitted me later to produce an upper and lower keel-and-frame structure. Each armature would guide me as I cut to shape the rather curvy lines of the DOVE's hull.

Developing the evenly spaced sections that bisect the hull perpendicular to the longitudinal axis is done by careful study of the photographs. The given width and height of each station is driven by the plan and profile elements of the five-view drawing - within that 'rectangle' I had to draw the radius and other curves that would blend in with the adjacent sections. I knew the radius at the after outboard end of the hull, and that was constant through most of the length of the stern, so that guided that portion of those sections. And, I knew the exact shape of the middle section, as that was clearly defined from the front and back views of Phil's drawing. Viewing of the DVD movie gave a very good indication of the shape at the point where the nose mounted clam-shell  doors met with the rest of the hull, so sections in that area of the hull were easily defined. The rest of the sections were gentle transitions between these 'known' landmark sections. So, with careful use of the French curve and other tools I was able to establish the geometry of the many stations I needed to define along the length of the DOVE's hull.

Fine model building is the craft of making a model of an existing prototype, as faithfully as possible. Fine model building IS NOT slapping together a bunch of random parts, blasting the mess with a spray-can, trolling on some weathering and then announcing to the world that you have created a  'model'.

In the absence of actual studio miniatures from which to loft off (or better yet, actual working plans of the miniature - plans that were worked faithfully by the original miniature makers!), this was the best I could do to capture the complicated compound curves so unique to the DOVE vehicle.

With all that work behind me then, and only then, did I gather up my documentation, march into the workshop, and started construction of the masters.

In part 4 we are BEGINNING WORK ON THE HULL MASTER