The Art and Graphics of Nick Stevens. Available for hire.I specialise in unbuilt space projects, and the spacecraft of the Soviet Union.
After some work on the base, (thanks to better references), cutting details into the lower hull, and adding a reflection gradient on the paint, I think this one may be done… The Mercury Redstone definitely fills a gap in my historic rockets line up.
It feels like I am on a bit of a roll with the rockets recently!
Now I just need to make some final renders to wrap things up.
Redstone Rocket
Here’s a selection of photos from the “Cosmonauts” exhibition at the London Science Museum.
This shows the arrangement used for for the ‘space dog’ Laika. Laika (meaning “little woofer”), was a stray found on the streets of Moscow. The scientists later said that what they learned was not worth the life of a dog.
On the left is the suit proposed for exploring Mars, and on the right the “Orlan” EVA space suit. Continue reading “Cosmonauts exhibition at the London Science Museum”
Apart from the LK Lander, it was also hugely impressive to see an actual Lunokhod. For those who are not familiar, Lunokhods were the first robot probes to explore another world, the Moon.
They were also intended to provide support for the Soviet manned lunar program. A lunokhod would survey the landing area to ensure it was safe, and also act as a beacon top guide the manned lander to the correct location.
A spare lander would be in the immediate area, and there were plans for a Lunokhod version with a footplate, so it could transport the cosmonaut there in the event of an emergency.
The London Science Museum “Cosmonauts” exhibition had some truly amazing original space hardware from the dawn of the space age. For me the clear highlight was the LK Lander, their equivalent of the Apollo LEM.
The lighting was coloured which made getting the colour right a bit tricky!
This was a one man craft, and the cosmonaut (probably Alexei Leonov), would have had to stay in his pace suit the whole time.
This view is from directly in front, and you can see the window the cosmonaut would use to see where his craft was headed as it came in to land. On the right is the round antenna, (with a star on), used to communicate.
Here you see the right side of the lander. Note the blue hatch, and the ladder underneath it. Continue reading “Soviet LK Moon lander”
And here’s another render of the Mercury capsule, over a NASA photograph of Earth.
As usual, all done in Lightwave 3d
I’m currently sorting out surfaces for this Mercury capsule. But even so I thought it was good enough for a first shot at a finished render…
For those who don’t know, (is there anyone?) the Mercury program was the USA’s first manned spaceflight project, with a capsule capable of holding a single astronaut. The first few launches were sub-orbital. Astronaut control was limited, leading to Chuck Yaeger’s famous remark that the pilots were more like “spam in a can”.
It was a difficult time, as the US struggled to catch up with the early lead set by the Soviet Union.
And here are some more basic renders too.
I’ve been working on surfacing the Ariane 1 rocket, and I think it’s nearly there. I found a few problems where the textures were rotated with reference to the geometry,
Some of the rings on the payload fairing are not quite right, but I am finding it hard to work out how to correct them.
Above is an orthographic set. (Perspective free) Continue reading “Ariane 1, texturing continues.”
Just checking how things are coming along, from all angles. Textures still need some work I think!
My new work in progress.
This is the Ariane 1 rocket. I’m using a bought mesh for the geometry. It was converted from 3D studio, and is VERY heavy on the polygon count. But the good news is that the detail is superb, even the internal structure of the stringers is modeled.
Surfaces did not come in very clean, so I’m working through them to get them a bit more realistic. Still a long way to go with that.
