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I particularly like how he chose Jim Key's blueprints as the "background" for this work. 
It lends the illusion of reality.

Hi there,
 
I wrote you a couple of weeks ago after stumbling across your site, and since then I decided to build a 3D version of my Icarus impressions.  I'm finishing up the main Command Module and am about to begin work on Brent's second stage with the landing gear.  I've tried my best to maintain the look and feel of the actual craft in the original movie, even creating the dirt streaks from sampling a lot of the great source material you have linked to your site.
 
I love the concept of this being the peak of a large staged rocket, so I've built it as if it were (loved the Arrow IV concept).  I'd love to share this with you and the handful of fans out there if your site is still active. 
 
I'm enclosing a small sample.  Let me know if you're interest and I'll feed you the full (higher resolution) set.
 
Best,
 
Vin

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To which I replied:

Brother,

That is awesome! Yes, the site is still active but there is a finite amount of information on this ship so the site doesn't see very much updating though it gets far more traffic than I ever anticipated. When I started the site almost ten years ago, I did it because I loved the ship that I remembered from my youth and I felt (at that time) that perhaps only a handful of people might even care (or visit) a site about this ship.

Boy! Was I WRONG! Currently, there exists only two sites about this ship; mine and Phil Broad's site (found at http://www.cloudster.com). His site is somewhat speculative but specializes more in the actual facts of the ship as a prop including behind the scenes shots of the ship in the movie, etc. My site is more of displaying the ship and speculating its many variants as well as its missions. The two sites compliment each other without competing, I think and that's nice.

Most of the updates to my site come from fans like you who visit the site and are moved to add their own speculations, art or models to the site. I would be honored to give you some space on the site and would love to see more of your work. Send me any / all information that you can and I'll get you in on the next update (which I hope is this weekend). I have another model to display and some pictures that most people haven't seen before.

Is this model of yours scratch built or modified from one of the available kits. It looks a little like the Monsters in Motion offering and if it is not, I hope that you take that as a compliment to your talent that what you have produced looks of sellable quality.

I'm interested, let's see some more and don't be shy with the facts or bragging about what you have done. Nothing worse than to have a bunch of pictures of some fan made Icarus and then have the artist give me something like "I made this years ago." and that's it! Fans and myself in particular would like to know your thoughts, what made you want to make this kit, how you felt, what drove you and what your impressions were. You don't have to go Oprah on us but give us an insight into how long it took you to build this, what kits or materials you used and ... you know, talk yourself and your project up. Don't be shy. I've got plenty of room and the stage is yours.

-Christopher
 

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Hi Chris!

So glad to get a reply from you! Your site is loads of fun and I keep discovering new corners. I mean, you have gone so far as to include acceleration / deceleration tables... what more can I say :-)

Every year for some unknown reason, I get POTA Fever. Usually it is cured by simply pulling out the VHS tapes (and later the DVDs) and watching for a few hours until all the POTA pathogens go into remission. This year the fever has proven to be a bit more stubborn.

This is the first year I decided to search out the internet for other fans, specifically of the ANSA astronauts and their ship. I always loved that opening scene.. right down to the cheesy "going, going, going, gone" from Landon. I couldn't believe it when I found your site, and then later Phil Broads. What a great collection of source material and information. So of course, I decided to build my own version.

You have paid me the highest compliment by asking what kit I built this from. The truth is, this is not a physical model at all. I built the model in 3D. The picture I showed you is a CGI rendering that I created using 3D Studio Max. I hand painted the textures in Photoshop, sampling some of Larry Evan's photographs and screen captures from the movie to accurately recreate the dirt and reentry scarring. The escape hatch is removable, as is the left side access panel. I also modeled the atmospheric periscope to move up and down. And then there is the aft section and engines......I'll give you all the fun details when I send you the rest of my material (hopefully later this week). I've attached a wireframe view of my model (in classic 1970's monochrome green of course)....

Talk to you soon!

Best,

Vin

wireframe of Vin's Icarus

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And now ... more of Vin's work in his own words.

I've always had a sort of what-you-see-is-what-you-get feeling about the ship, so I never felt there was much more below the surface of the water beyond that rear hatch. The weight of the engines and fuel would be enough, I always thought, to be a sufficient counter weight to the front of the craft, allowing it to float in the way that it did in the film. I never gave it a huge amount of thought until I discovered this web site. After looking through everyone else's concepts (all amazing) I decided to give building my own model a shot. I did this in the only way I really know how: I built it in 3D. For these images I use 3D Studio Max 8 and created all the textures using Photoshop CS2.

I decided to create the model as if it were a reentry vehicle that sat atop a larger staged rocket (much like the Arrow IV featured on this site). This also jived with technology of the era, so it just felt right. I always felt the craft had it's own power, so from the start I planned on engines. It never made a lot of sense to me that engines would be mounted on a firewall 6 inches from Landon's feet, so I decided on a bit of a buffer zone to allow room for fuel cells and all the gizmos and gadgets needed to drive a pair of small rockets.

I did my best to recreate the craft as closely as possible to the original full sized model in the movie itself, right down the weathering and reentry scarring. Using this web site, and Phil Broad's web site (especially Larry Evan's set photographs) was invaluable. Using Photoshop, I was able to sample a number of the real-life dirt patterns and recreate them on my own model.

The main engines are a hybrid between the Atlas ICBM engines (thanks Phil Broad for that tidbit) we see in "Beneath", and the engines of the Saturn V rocket. If you look closely at the hatch, many of the markings are sampled directly from photographs of the main hatch on the Apollo capsule. The smaller orbital rockets I kept a bit simpler, as they are recessed into the "wings".

I took a bit of creative license recreating the inside of the access panel that was blown off when Dodge blew the escape hatch....

This was one of my first renderings before I textured the aircraft. As you can see I used Jim Key's drawings for reference.

And finally, the image I originally sent to ANSANAUT. I really wanted to create an image that payed tribute to Jim Key and his drawings which were so helpful. Thanks Jim!

For those interested in 3D, the model, despite its simplicity, is fairly heavy at roughly 169,000 polygons. This is a result, primarily, of the detail in the engines. I also beveled every edge so that the model catches the light nicely from different angles. To texture the model, I hand painted 69 individual bitmaps in photoshop. Every surface contains at least a diffuse bitmap, but most also include a specular color map, a specular mask, a reflection mask and a bump map. The scenes are rendered using Mental Ray.

What's next? I would really like to build and animate the extension and landing apparatus that we see in "Beneath" (in its new form of course). I've already built a couple of simple prototypes and have come up with some interesting concepts. I also want to create a texture set that depicts the aircraft prior to reentry (i.e. clean and new). I may even build the interior if I can ever find the time.

If anyone has any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me.
--
 

Best, Vin Scimone

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