I hope NCIS didn't kill my favorite prop!

I don't know, is it weird to think about the destruction of a favorite television show prop?

I kind of had thoughts about that today after seeing the NCIS season finale last night. If you didn't see it, things ended with a blast (literally). I'm not referring to Abby's CAFE POW cups, or the retina scanner for MTAC, I am referring to a simple framed artwork that stood in between a couple of the windows on the main office floor of NCIS. It is a lithograph of a painting done by aviation artist Mark Waki of a space shuttle lifting off called "T plus 30"

T-Plus 30

Now many of you know I like shuttles, so seeing this artwork on the set in the distance for the past several seasons was kind of comforting. Last season, the artwork got moved to a different wall, but got moved back to its original location after they redressed the set after DiNozzo's flashback episode. I'm honestly not entirely sure why NCIS would have it unless it was something in Mark Harmon's collection from when he was a cast member in "From the Earth to the Moon". Yes, Naval officers have been a part of the space program, but it was one of those props where you had to wonder what the story was behind it. It seemed like an odd artwork to have in an office building in DC.

I liked that artwork so much I obtained a copy of it from ATK (my first "replica" prop you could say, but I need to find the proper frame for it so I can hang it from my wall). It would be a shame if the original got "destroyed" on screen.

I would theorise that a long-running well-resourced show like this would have multiples of any obvious pieces of set dressing. Perhaps even a few quick copies were made for separate takes of the explosion/s?

Thanks for the link! Mark's 1/32 FW-190 is a stunner, too!

Agreed about that Fw-190. I've never met Mark Waki in person (although I understand he has been a member of IPMS USA in the past), but I have seen some of his work up close. In addition to his paint work, he also does model replicas for ATK of some of their rocket projects. I was at a trade show once and the ATK booth had a nice model of the Ares 1 in 1/72. The first stage was obviously kitbashed from a Monogram 1/72 Space Shuttle kit, but everything above it was scratchbuilt and it looked great!

That is a great looking piece of art....thanks for showing, as I hadn't seen this painting before.

Oh, that's iconic. What a strong emotional piece.