UFO Technical Manual

Hello,

My husband (Griff) asked me to let you all know that we received the UFO Technical Manual today (Mon 3rd August).

I am afraid I don't know anything about UFO, so I really can't really comment on it. It's a big book filled with murky looking space craft.. Sorry, Sci-Fi isn't really my thing...

Griff is working away in the USA.

Take care,

Tracey

> I am afraid I don't know anything about UFO, so I really can't really
> comment on it. It's a big book filled with murky looking space craft..
> Sorry, Sci-Fi isn't really my thing...

Thanks Tracey! Our first review! "Murky looking space craft" doesn't
sound good... :-)

Marc

--- In [hidden email], "Griff Wason" <griff@...> wrote:

Girls.

Hello. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude at all about the book. To me all sci-fi seems dark and murky. I am sure all you UFO'ists out there will loveit.

Griff never talks UFO/sci-fi to me, as it all leaves me cold. But, then I never talk 'murder/mystery" to him either. I guess this is all TMI

Take care,

Tracey

--- In [hidden email], "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:

Murder/mystery is much less dark and murky then SF, for sure : )
Best,
Branko

To: [hidden email]
From: [hidden email]
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 22:08:39 +0000
Subject: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual















 




   
Hello. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude at all about the book. To me all sci-fi seems dark and murky. I am sure all you UFO'ists out there will love it.



Griff never talks UFO/sci-fi to me, as it all leaves me cold. But, then I never talk 'murder/mystery" to him either. I guess this is all TMI



Take care,



Tracey



--- In [hidden email], "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:

>

> > I am afraid I don't know anything about UFO, so I really can't really

> > comment on it. It's a big book filled with murky looking space craft..

> > Sorry, Sci-Fi isn't really my thing...

>

> Thanks Tracey! Our first review! "Murky looking space craft" doesn't

> sound good... :-)

>

> Marc

>





 

     

   
   
       
       
       
       


       


       
       
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Here is my quick and brief review.

The book is large format (36cm x 28cm) and illustrated throughout in colour.

At first glance I was very impressed with what I saw. Having taken the time
to sit down and look through it properly I am a little less impressed.

I should say at this point that I am a professional computer graphic artist,
so I know what I'm talking about, but perhaps I might also be a little
biased. You have been warned. :)

The CG models featured throughout the book are heavily textured and
weathered, I suppose to give them a sense of scale and reality.
Unfortunately, this does make them look grimy and gives the book a subdued,
almost drab, look. The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the
mobiles, but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
in an atmosphere. On Skydiver the weathering features seem too large; making
the vessel seem smaller than it should (thereby defeating the object).

My big complaint is that the models look a little primitive. Curved surfaces
are constructed of too few facets for print resolution use. This makes the
skids on the interceptor noticeably diamond shaped. Are these old pictures I
wonder? CG constantly improves and maybe these were ready in time for the
original publication date.

My major concern is that Sky1 and the interceptor are quite inaccurate. They
are difficult to model, I know. (Here's my own incomplete effort from a
couple of years ago)
http://goofyghouls.com/UFO/interceptor.htm
There are other small niggles too, like edges not matching up properly (see
Sky1's cockpit windows) and textures warping.

I am probably being too critical. There is a huge amount of work in here.
Other's are better positioned to comment on the accuracy of the models. It
is certainly an attractive book although a brighter cover might have
benefited sales. I was determined to buy it to support the people who have
put so much work into its development.

I shall be interested to hear what other members think when they have seen a
copy.



Kevin Bulmer
Synthetic Dimensions      
www.syndime.com

On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0100
"Kevin Bulmer" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the mobiles,
> but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
> in an atmosphere.

Not sure about this - granted they won't get beaten up by Lunar winds,
but it's reasonable to suppose that they'd get abraded by Moon dust,
or inherit a second hand look from SHADO aerospace engineers climbing
over them. Maybe a film of moisture from pressurised silos freezing
off in the vacuum of space repeatedly could degrade the paintwork.

James

Micrometeoroids



From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
James Gibbon
Sent: 04 August 2009 23:26
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual





On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0100
"Kevin Bulmer" <[hidden email] <mailto:kevin%40syndime.com> > wrote:

> The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the mobiles,
> but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
> in an atmosphere.

Not sure about this - granted they won't get beaten up by Lunar winds,
but it's reasonable to suppose that they'd get abraded by Moon dust,
or inherit a second hand look from SHADO aerospace engineers climbing
over them. Maybe a film of moisture from pressurised silos freezing
off in the vacuum of space repeatedly could degrade the paintwork.

James





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Yes, and seagulls, rain and greasy hands.

Kevin Bulmer
Synthetic Dimensions

All emails are scanned for viruses before being sent.

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
David Richards
Sent: 04 August 2009 21:42
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual

Micrometeoroids



From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
James Gibbon
Sent: 04 August 2009 23:26
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual





On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0100
"Kevin Bulmer" <[hidden email] <mailto:kevin%40syndime.com> > wrote:

> The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the mobiles,
> but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
> in an atmosphere.

Not sure about this - granted they won't get beaten up by Lunar winds,
but it's reasonable to suppose that they'd get abraded by Moon dust,
or inherit a second hand look from SHADO aerospace engineers climbing
over them. Maybe a film of moisture from pressurised silos freezing
off in the vacuum of space repeatedly could degrade the paintwork.

James

Fuel leakage when refueling would cause some degradation near the fueling
port.



From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Kevin Bulmer
Sent: 05 August 2009 07:41
To: [hidden email]
Subject: RE: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual





Yes, and seagulls, rain and greasy hands.

Kevin Bulmer
Synthetic Dimensions

All emails are scanned for viruses before being sent.

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:[hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf
Of
David Richards
Sent: 04 August 2009 21:42
To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual

Micrometeoroids

From: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:[hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf
Of
James Gibbon
Sent: 04 August 2009 23:26
To: [hidden email] <mailto:SHADO%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual

On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0100
"Kevin Bulmer" <[hidden email] <mailto:kevin%40syndime.com>
<mailto:kevin%40syndime.com> > wrote:

> The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the mobiles,
> but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
> in an atmosphere.

Not sure about this - granted they won't get beaten up by Lunar winds,
but it's reasonable to suppose that they'd get abraded by Moon dust,
or inherit a second hand look from SHADO aerospace engineers climbing
over them. Maybe a film of moisture from pressurised silos freezing
off in the vacuum of space repeatedly could degrade the paintwork.

James





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

CONTENTS DELETED

--- In [hidden email], James Gibbon <jg@...> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:32:21 +0100
> "Kevin Bulmer" <kevin@...> wrote:
>
> > The weathering is my first problem. It looks good on the mobiles,
> > but it is surely out of place on the interceptors which never fly
> > in an atmosphere.

What do their nose-mounted nuclear missiles use for thrust? Could be solid-rocket-fuel-exhaust abrasion as well.

Frank

if you look close when they launch the interceptors you can see a dust cloud appear that also may contribute to some form of weathering
scott.....


--- In [hidden email], "Frank S" <frank@...> wrote:

> if you look close when they launch the interceptors you can see a dust
> cloud appear that also may contribute to some form of weathering

Still, the amount of weathering in the UFO Technical Manual should
be consistent with the amount of weathering we see in the series.
I haven't seen the book yet, but I do know that we've had some
"over-weathered" SHADO Mobiles released by Product Enterprise
a few years ago.

Marc

Hmmm.

I thought in highlighting the filthy appearance of the interceptors I was
simply making an observation. It wasn't even my main point, which was how
woefully inaccurate and primitive the models featured are. My main
weathering criticism was of Skydiver, which looks to be very small based on
the scale of the dirt marks.

The series models show blast markings around the vertical thruster (which
is, incidentally, completely missing from the interceptor model in the
book). Blast marks from the launch of the missile are also worthy of
consideration. Spilt oil and generally dirty hands during maintenance are
all likely candidates. Moon dust kicked up and on the skids is also worth
considering.

I had hoped to be offering some brief but worthwhile observations that
somebody considering an impulse purchase of the book might take into
account. I notice that there have been several scathing reviews of the book
on websites in the last couple of days.

I shall be interested to see what other people on this list have to say when
their copies arrive.

> I notice that there have been several scathing reviews of the
> book on websites in the last couple of days.

I see some negative reviews on eagletransporter.com and also
amazon.co.uk -- are there other sites you've seen?

http://www.eagletransporter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3121&page=3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1905287356/

Marc

Speaking of Product Enterprise, I'm surprised you don't have photos of their UFO releases on your website.
 
Jeff

--- On Thu, 8/6/09, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: Marc Martin <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual
To: [hidden email]
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 12:30 PM


 



> if you look close when they launch the interceptors you can see a dust
> cloud appear that also may contribute to some form of weathering

Still, the amount of weathering in the UFO Technical Manual should
be consistent with the amount of weathering we see in the series.
I haven't seen the book yet, but I do know that we've had some
"over-weathered" SHADO Mobiles released by Product Enterprise
a few years ago.

Marc















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> Speaking of Product Enterprise, I'm surprised you don't have photos of
> their UFO releases on your website.

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff I have not done in recent years, sorry about
that. I can assure you that there are many things on my "to-do" list
for the site... whether or not I'll ever get to them is another issue... :-(

Also, with Sea Launch (the program I've worked on for the past 15 years)
recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, I'm not sure if my
free-time situation is about to get better or worse... (extra free time
from being out of work, or less free time due to having to quickly retrain
myself to do something else)

Marc

No need to apologize, Marc.  Yours is still the best (by far) UFO websitearound.
 
Sorry to hear of your job difficulties.  I can somewhat relate, if it makes you feel any better.  The Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealership I've worked at for the last 7 years shut its doors in June.  It kinda sucks to be us right now.  *sigh*
 
Jeff

--- On Thu, 8/6/09, Marc Martin <[hidden email]> wrote:


From: Marc Martin <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Re: UFO Technical Manual
To: [hidden email]
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 10:57 PM


 



> Speaking of Product Enterprise, I'm surprised you don't have photos of
> their UFO releases on your website.

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff I have not done in recent years, sorry about
that. I can assure you that there are many things on my "to-do" list
for the site... whether or not I'll ever get to them is another issue... :-(

Also, with Sea Launch (the program I've worked on for the past 15 years)
recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, I'm not sure if my
free-time situation is about to get better or worse... (extra free time
from being out of work, or less free time due to having to quickly retrain
myself to do something else)

Marc















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Marc Martin wrote:

> Also, with Sea Launch (the program I've worked on for the past 15 years)
> recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, I'm not sure if my
> free-time situation is about to get better or worse... (extra free time
> from being out of work, or less free time due to having to quickly retrain
> myself to do something else)


Marc, couldn't you just transfer over to 'Brain Surgeon' status? After
all, you've got the 'Rocket Scientist' part already done...

Seriously though, that sucks. I'm getting the boot myself tomorrow from
my job.

Seriously though part two, it's kinda cool that Marc's an actual rocket
scientist, considering our group.

Paul