Frank R. Paul was a prolific science fiction illustrator. He had a distinctive style with imaginative space ships, aliens and Skiffy situations, all painted in bright primary colors. He was probably the first person to illustrate what we would now call a "flying saucer".
The designs are clearly dated - compared to modern SF illustrations - but they're fun to look at. I'm sure that 85 years from now, people and AI will be laughing at quaintness of the Enterprises and Millenium Falcons that pass for fantasy space ships today.
I've been trying to convert old pulp magazine covers to 3D models. It's harder than it seems, since these artists were not working with modern CAD software and were probably on a tight schedule, so perspectives tend to be "good enough". Paul's work is good in this respect, since most of his artwork does seem to have the proper perspective.
This is the second of my attempts to render Frank R. Paul's work into 3D. Both are currently being printed at Shapeways, but this one is my favorite. Here's his cover, for the Fall 1931 issue of Wonder Stories Quarterly, illustrating the story "The Asteroid of Death" by Neil R. Jones. The distinctive looking spaceship is clearly out of warranty:
The whole magazine can be found at:
http://www.pulpmags.org/wonder_quarterly_page.html here's the PDF:
http://www.pulpmags.org/collections/pdf/wsq19311000.pdfNeil R. Jones also wrote
"The Jameson Satellite" which is pretty good.
I rendered the ship in 1/350 scale. Unfortunately, this was not one of Mr. Paul's most accurate drawings - there's no way of getting the ship to have the same orientation as the cover, with the rear of the engines and the nose of the ship both easily visible. Here's my best attempt:
The ship is lacking the holes in the hull; the lower sphere is removable and I'll think about making a damaged version if the current print looks good. I had to make many guesses and approximations, but I think it looks close to the cover design. Don't count and match the engine tubes; I didn't! I have roughly the same number.
The ship is 108mm (4.25"), long, 56.6mm (2.23") wide and 54.75mm(2.15") tall.
I should get the results in a week or two. I have a feeling that masking this for painting will not be fun.