TED: Flash Gordon rocket cycle - my small contribution to the movie

cking

Sr Member
Hi everyone,

I just got back from seeing TED. Now that the movie has been released, it's ok for me to spill the beans on the small contribution that I had in the creation of the rocket cycle prop that Flash and Mark Wahlberg's character are seen riding on!

It all started about a year ago when I posted some work in progress pics of the Sketch-up 3D model that Stevestarkiller was creating for me to enable me to get a physical model of the rocket cycle made for my collection (scaled to the 7 inch tall Flash figure produced by Bif Bang Pow a few years ago).

After he saw the progress pics in my thread, I was contacted by the production designer for TED who told me that he needed to make a full size version of the prop but there just wasn't enough reference material available to enable him to get it built accurately. He knew that the resarch and work carried out in the creation of my scale model would enable him to do justice to the prop and create a more accurate version of it compared to if he had to start from scratch. I'd already spent a LONG time going through screen grabs and working through all the details with Stevestarkiller, so I was able to provide the production designer with some drawings which I'd adjusted to include all of the measurements required for the construction of the full size version.

The prop builders did a great job on the rocket cycle and according to the production designer, the prop guy who was in charge of the construction said it was the most fun he'd had on making a prop for the movies!

Here's a photo of Sam Jones and Mark Wahlberg on the full size prop.
Sam-Jones-and-Mark-Wahlberg-on-Rocket-Cycle.jpg


Here's a photo of the scale model that PeteSSS made for me:

Flash-Gordon-Rocket-Cycle-Model-1-1.jpg


Here's some photo comparisons that I did showing SteveStarkiller's sketch-up renderings so we could see how close we were getting with the details:

Final-Comparison-01.jpg


It was a real pleasure to be involved in something like this and I got to experience the "thrill" of seeing the project on the big screen! My thanks to SteveStarkiller and PeteSSS for turning my dream of owning the rocket cycle model into a reality.

Chris
 
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