Early Science Fiction
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Enter tag 'science fiction' and / or 'space' in the search bar at the top of the screen image.
The software I am using for this site doesn't always function properly for links to other sites, so I am starting a list at the bottom of this page.
I have also started some 'threads' on the American forum Papermodelers.com - look for Early SF. Their page 'Alternate Designss' is fast becoming a useful source of information.
TOEVALLIGE RAKETTEN
Ook het leven van bouwplaat-fanaten hangt van toevalligheden aan elkaar. In de jaren '70 had ik een kleine verzameling blikken speelgoed - waaronder natuurlijk ook wat robotten en raketten. Op Google Plaatjes liep ik tegen de eerste papieren fantasieraketten aan, die veel weg hadden van dat soort blikken dingen. Nadat ik een en ander gebouwd had ging ik dit kleine gebied verder onderzoeken. Er blijken wereldwijd slechts een handvol liefhebbers / ontwerpers te zijn; ik probeer ze te stimuleren meer te doen. En wat bouwen betreft: het meeste van wat hieronder is afgebeeld heb ik zelf gebouwd - en er ligt nog van alles op de plank.
Belangrijk detail: ik beperk me tot materiaal van vóór het Startrek tijdperk - 2001, A Space Odyssey is zo ongeveer mijn grens.
Early Science Fiction Rockets.
In my student's years I used to collect cheap tin toys - fantasy rockets among them. Recently, I came across some paper models on the internet which had a lot in common with those toys. Fun to make, even more fun to search for more. I found rockets and spaceships based on comics, films and paperback cover illustrations. Jules Verne, Die Frau im Mond, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare, sketches by Wernher von Braun, the Thunderbirds, and lots more. It's a very small niche: world wide, there are only a handful of enthusiast designers. I hope to be able to stimulate them in producing more of these lovely models.
Important detail: I draw the line at Startrek and similar spacecraft - Stanley Kubrick's '2001, A Space Odyssey' is just about my limit.
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Early SF tin toys
Looking for Early SF in tin toy books, one finds an enormous number of mainly Chinese and Japanese robots and various spacecraft. All very colourful, and great fun to see, collect and play with. Most of them show great imagination and very little scientific sense. For hundreds of such toys, go to http://www.danefield.com/data/index.php
Just a few examples from my own collection:
Tin toy spaceship automaton 'Holdraketa', produced by Elzett Müvek, Hungary. Early 60ties?
In horizontal position, the friction engine will move the rocket forward untill the long nose hits something. Then a clockwork mechanism will release a long lever, moving the whole thing to a vertical position. Then the door opens, the ladder is extended, and we see a rather gracious space suited figure ready to descend. I bought it ca. 1970, and it is still available in shops who have a selection of tin toys.
Tin toy space racer (made in China, 32 cms) and mini space ships
The space racer is quite common - there are many different versions. This variety had a rubber, not plastic, driver's head. The mini space ships have nice artwork, but plastic fins.
Top: Zootian Intergalactic Biz Booster,
22cms. Nice colouring, good instructions, no formers.
Bottom: another tin toy space racer,
late 60ties. One hopes that more card model designers would allow themselves to be inspired by the imaginative colouring of these toys...
Early SF paper models
Op het internet vond ik al snel diverse sites met (meestal gratis) downloads van fantasie raketten. Delta7 leverde een CD met een ruime oogst aan modellen, helaas in de meeste gevallen nogal haastig ontworpen - geen schotten, saaie kleuren.
Ze zijn meestal gebaseerd op stripverhalen en films, of op de omslagillustraties van goedkope paperbacks uit de jaren '50. Een studie op zich. Jules Verne, Die Frau im Mond, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare, schetsen van Wernher von Braun, Thunderbirds, en veel meer.
Er is ook een stortvloed van modellen uit recentere tv-series en films zoals Startrek
en Starwars. De mooie gestroomlijnde vormen die je in oudere films ziet, bijna allemaal afgeleid van de V2 van Wernher von Braun, spreken me echter meer aan dan al die vliegende staketsels of ruimte-straaljagers. Voorlopig beperk ik me dus, maar uitzonderingen blijven mogelijk!
Searching the internet I soon the Delta7 CDRom. Most are very simple designs, no formers, rather unimaginative colouring. Room for improvement there. Elsewhere I found several models inspired by old movies, novels, book covers, comic books and TV series.
There is also an enormous amount of models based on TV series and movies like Startrek and Starwars. However, the sleek designs of spacecraft in older movies (most of them based on Wernher von Braun's V2) appeal to me more than then all those curious structures and space jet planes, so I decided to limit myself - though exceptions are always possible, of course.
Models like these are obviously inspired by the tin toys and comic strips of the past. I have not been able to trace their origins. Of course they may be pure imagination.
1865, Jules Verne, 'De la Terre à la Lune' / 'From the Earth to the Moon'
Jules Verne, 1865, Delta 7, 14 cms.
Jules Verne, Ladislav Badalec
Jules Verne, Moontrain
Allereerst de kanonskogel uit 'Reis naar de Maan' van Jules Verne. Veel van diens voorspellingen zijn redelijk uitgekomen, maar in een kogel naar de maan geschoten worden en gewoon weer terug komen... Let op het Perzische tapijt met patrijspoort, waardoor de maanreizigers de aarde kleiner zagen worden. Bagage op de bovenverdieping, een pluche bank, een wasbakje, en een geweer 'just in case'. De 19e eeuwer was gewend in luxe te reizen (maar van een wc wordt niet gerept. Erg taboe...).
Jules Verne's moon bullet. Many of his predictions have more or less come true, but being shot at the moon from a giant gun, and returning... Note the Persian rug on the floor, with a circular port hole through which one can see the Earth receding. Luggage on the top floor, a comfortable couch, a basin to wash your hands, a gun 'just in case'. The Victorians liked to travelling comfort (a toilet is never mentioned - very much a taboo subject).
1901, H.G. Wells, 'The First Men in the Moon'
Cavorite sphere, design Mike Hungerford
English novelist, historian and biologist H.G. Wells was literally the first writer of what he called 'scientific fiction'. Books like The War of the Worlds, The War in the Air, The Time Machine and many more show his extensive scientific knowledge and great imagination. In a very short story, a man (the word terrorist had not yet been invented...) steals a dangerous bacillus and threatens to poison the water reservoir of London...
In 'The First Men in the Moon' (1901) scientist Cavor invents a gravity neutralising material. This enables him to travel through space in a specially constructed sphere. The railway buffers were supposed to cushion a less than perfect landing...
1929, Buck Rogers
According to Wikipedia Buck Rogers was the very first American newspaper science fiction comic strip. It became hugely popular and ran for nearly forty years, with films, television series etc. The impressive model below catches the athmosphere of the old strips and comic books to perfection.
Buck Rogers' Space Battle Cruiser, designed by Jason Sutton, 59 cms.
Many of the Early SF designs are fairly simple, not to say amateuristic, with often only very basic artwork. Not so those of Jason Sutton - they are the absolute top, the best I have ever built.
1935, Flash Gordon
Launched as a competitor to the successfull Buck Rogers strip, this ran on well into the new Millenium. 20 minute films were shown in the movie theatres every week.
I found a lot of material on Youtube. The curious sounds this spaceship makes remind me of the phut-phut of a small steam engine. The physics behind the way the thing lands and lifts off are unusual, to say the least.
Flash Gordon, 1930ties. Delta 7, 30 cms.
Shot from the movie
Zarkov's ruimteschip, uit de films en stripverhalen van Flash Gordon. Ze dateren van de dertiger jaren, dus de ideeën van Wernher von Braun kwamen hier nog niet aan te pas. In Nederland verscheen de strip in de jaren '50 in het AD onder de naam Flits Gordon.
Helaas was het model nogal basic: ik moest zelf een groot aantal versterkingsschotten tekenen.
Prof. Zarkov designed and flew the spaceship in the Flash Gordon newspaper comics of the early '30ties. Wernher von Braun had not yet been heard of...
Sorry to say, the model itself is rather basic. A shape and size like this really needs formers for every segment - which I had to design myself.
1943, Wernher von Braun's V2 (originally designated A4)
Wernher von Braun's V2, 1943. Ralph Currell, 1:32, 43 cms.
Daarnaast: de A4b, en een A4 op Meillerwagen
De A4 (later algemeen aangeduid als V2) was helaas bepaald geen science fiction, maar het werd de basis voor alle moderne raketontwerpen, en diende als inspiratie voor een hele generatie tekenaars en filmmakers. In het laatste oorlogsjaar werd nog hard gewerkt aan verbeterde versies zoals de A4b, met grote vleugels. Om de V2's te bescermen tegen gealliëerde aanvallen werden ze her en der opgeslagen, en dan met een rijdende lanceerinstallatie vervoerd - de zgn. Meillerwagen. WMV heeft een uitstekend model.
The A4 (later commonly known as the V2) was definitely not just science fiction, alas, but it did become the basis for all modern spacecraft, and and an inspiration for a whole generation of sci-fi illustrators. To protect the V2's from allied attack they were stored away from launching places, then transorted there on mobile launchers - the Meillerwagen.
In 1945, the Americans not only captured and enrolled Von Braun, but also took a large number of V2's home with them. The Russians did the same, but missed Von Braun... To both nations, the V2 became the starting point for the development of ballistic missiles and space rockets.
Ralph Currell's (freely downloadable) models are of superior quality. WMV have a nice model of the A4, complete with transporter / launching vehicle, the Meillerwagen. The black / white pattern was only used on the very first, experimental models (1942-1943). The A4b was tested in 1944 and discontinued.
1950: Dan Dare, Great Britain
In 1950, the British comic 'Eagle' launched the very British space hero Dan Dare. A dramatised version was also broadcast daily by Radio Luxemburg. Only one year later, Wallis Rigby started publishing a series of very basic paper models, now collectors' items, with quite a few Dan Dare items. Google and Wikipedia provide lots of information and pictures.
The Wallis Rigby book.
Was the original author / illustrator of Dan Dare perhaps the inventor of the 'swing wing' concept?
Dan Dare's Anastasia by Wallis Rigby
Anastasia, designed by Gary Pilsworth
Gary Pilsworth is a highly productive designer, who publishes his work on the forum www.papermodellers.com. At my request he designed a paper model of the Anastasia, free download on the same forum.
At my request, Scott Killenbeck designed the Dan Dare Cryptosian spaceship, now available via Ecardmodels.com. Please note the joke the original illustrator allowed himself: doesn't the body of the rocket remind you of a fountain pen?
Ca. 1950, Tom Corbett, Space Cadett: Polaris
Uit de Amerikaanse TV serie Tom Corbett, Space Cadett (ca. 1950). De toegangsdeur in de staartvin en de kleine patrijspoort in de neus geven een idee van de omvang van deze fantasie.
Eenvoudig model - maar je moet wel eerst zelf een stuk of tien schotten ontwerpen / maken.
The Polaris featured in the ca. 1950 TV series Tom Corbett, Space Cadett. The entrance door in the lower half of the fins, and the tiny port hole in the nose give us an idea of the size of this phantasy. Google pictures gives access to a large number of illustrations. Nice model, and easy to make - after you have figured out how to design about ten missing formers.
1951: 'When Worlds Collide': the Space Ark
Countless writers and moviemakers have been inspired by the ultimate catastrophy. This is the earliest movie of this type I have come across so far, based on a book written 1931. To save mankind from extinction, a number of 'Arks' are prepared and launched just before the title incident is about to occur. The launching method seems to be inspired by the way the V1 was launched: detachable undercarriage and a long ramp. The horizontal stabilizer is a nice touch.
The Ark is 33 cms. A Delta7 model, so be prepared to design your own bulkheads.
Film image of the giant starting ramp
Plastic model of a V1 on its launchimg ramp
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1952: 'Commando Cody, Radar Men from
the Moon'
Movie poster / dvd cover, model, still from the movie
1952: in de twaalf afleveringen van deze Amerikaanse televisieserie verscheen een raket die duidelijk al wat meer gebaseerd was op de oervorm van Wernher von Braun. De film is nog op DVD te krijgen; leuk om een buiklanding en dito -start op de maan te zien... Hij is natuurlijk in zwart wit, maar het rood van de reclame poster is aardiger. Cor van Haasteren ontwierp deze eerste versie, ca. 17 cm lang.
'Commando Cody, Radar Men from the Moon' (American television, 1952) featured this moon rocket (clearly based on the iconic V2) happily making a belly landing (and a belly start as well!) on the moon's sandy soil... Cor van Haasteren designed this prototype in the colours seen on the movie poster. DVD and Youtube make it possible to view the whole series - fun!
