Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Mountains of Madness Project Update

Things are moving along with the Mountains of Madness project. First up, the start of the technical drawing for the expedition's modified Wals. This is just a quick export I did from the Illustrator file, so the line weight is a bit dodgy. The finished version will be a three-point view of the plane properly rendered with white lining on a blue background.

The primary reference for this is Dr. M. Michiel van der Mey's excellent book "Dornier Wal: A Light Coming Over the Sea". I'll try and do a proper review of the book in the near future, but it's the definitive resource for everything about the Do-J. It includes an exhaustive amount of detail on the plane's history and variants, including a a full registry of the aircraft produced. There's enough information there to eventually figure out the serial numbers for the Miskatonic planes.



Here's the start of something I'm really excited about. Jason McKittrick is doing the artwork for a conjectural poster for the expedition's departure from Boston harbor. The rough titles in the thumbnails below will be replaced with the specifics for the departure ceremony on September 2nd, 1930.

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12 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2012 at 3:50 AM

    Can't wait to see the finished poster!
    - Andy

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  2. JEEFebruary 1, 2012 at 6:50 AM

    Can't wait for this. Will be watching closely.
    Like the rough sketches too.

    -Jason

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  3. Mr. PrimateFebruary 1, 2012 at 7:16 AM

    Looking good!

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  4. MSAINTFebruary 1, 2012 at 8:18 AM

    Nice CAD work... It really looks promising!
    again, I can't wait to see the final result and the new props that will come along.

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  5. PhilOFebruary 1, 2012 at 11:17 AM

    Looks great!

    Something I came across on researching other expeditions at the RGS Archives is receipts for expeditions supplies (usually from Fortnam & Mason since these were London based). Perhaps some additional ephemera might be included along these lines?

    Just a thought.

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  6. Alex KaedaFebruary 1, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    Oooh, an expedition poster! Brilliant Idea. And blueprints for a Doriner..... another great idea

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  7. RavenFebruary 1, 2012 at 3:36 PM

    You'll want to add the tag: "The Mountains of Madness Project"

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  8. PropnomiconFebruary 1, 2012 at 5:04 PM

    @ Andy

    I'm really jazzed for the poster. I've always wanted a Deco-style one for ATMOM, but my own skills were sadly lacking. Mr. McKittrick looks to be creating just what I'd always imagined.

    @ JEE

    One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the poster is the quality of the rough sketches. The composition is perfect.

    @ Mr. Primate

    Thank you for the very kind words.

    @ MSAINT

    The schematic should be pretty cool. I've loved prop blueprints every since getting my hands on one of the old starship Enterprise sets when I was a kid.

    @ PhilO

    Great minds, etc. Heh.

    Once the artwork for the major items in the prop set are done I'm going to start working on some of the smaller bits. Those should translate well into PDFs for home printing.

    @ Alex Kaeda

    Hopefully the final results will more than exceed the expectations of the initial work.

    @ Raven

    Fixed! And my thanks for pointing it out.

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  9. Mike J.February 2, 2012 at 4:09 PM

    Digging around online for a detailed ( lat. / long. )map of Antarctica is like pulling teeth. Finally found a zoomable map here:



    Slow server on their end, I think, but it does have detailed parallels and meridians. To those of you more dedicated than me - Godspeed!


    -Mike J.

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  10. PropnomiconFebruary 2, 2012 at 5:33 PM

    @ Mike J.

    It looks like the conspiracy to keep the Elder Thing city hidden is alive and well.

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  11. AnonymousFebruary 3, 2012 at 4:08 AM

    Not sure how I messed that up.

    http://www.add.scar.org:8080/add/WMSmap.jsp

    MJ

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  12. DsFebruary 7, 2012 at 10:44 AM

    Really great work. Have you considered making actual cyanotype blueprints? The cyanotype process is very easy and if you are only going for two colors it is even easier.

    This was my first attempt at a blue print.

    http://natureofthechemicalblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/iron-hexacyanoferrate-blueprint-for-fun.html

    I think it would add a nice level of detail.

    ReplyDelete