[starseeker2]

Ah, ha! - you're the person! I've been trying to remember who - and obviously I mis-remembered there being a measurement. I just said in response to you on another thread: your site is just the best. Great stuff there that I've never seen anywhere else. Thank you thank you thank you.

 

[Steve Mavronis]

And the biggest "model" of them all!

(from http://www.uncleodiescollectibles.com/html_lib/lis-j2/index.html)

 

[starseeker2]

Got a couple screen captures today of a 4' Jupiter 2. They're the best edge-on views that I could find, if anyone is interested in comparing them to various blueprints. One comparison with my "reconstruction" is over on:
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/attachment.php?attachmentid=61398&d=1213828914

 

[X15-A2]

In that last shot above of the mock-up you are looking at the east face of the huge "mill" on the "olympic" side of the Fox lot. Not only was it the biggest set construction facility that I've ever seen, it was also where the miniature storage area was, located over the offices on the North side. What a great toy shop!!

Remember that horrible TV show "Project UFO" about the Air Force "Bluebook" investigations into the UFO phenom? It was based on the actual case reports sent to the Air Force and in one episode, they uncovered a "con operation" where people were being bilked out of their cash to fund the development of a new type of flying machine, which happened to be a saucer in shape. At the end of the story they explained that the saucer that was being used as bait for the suckers had been "bought from a movie studio"!

But which saucer was it? There have not been that many built over the years for films and we know that the LIS ship was destroyed by the studio. I always wondered about this. We do know that the J57 survived a long time at MGM and what became of the ship from "Day the Earth Stood Still"? Other possibilities? Unfortunately we don't know when the real event occurred so fitting it into a specific time frame is not possible (unless someone has a copy of the actual case file).

Which of our saucers has this "checkered past"?

Phil

 

[starseeker2]

That is very cool, both the setting of the picture and the UFO story. I wonder how many Jupiter 2s there were? Somewhere I once saw a photo from City Beneath the Sea (I think) that had circled at least 6, maybe 8 Jupiter 2s, all with the windows cut all around. Wonder what happened to all of them, and the Gemini 12, if the fake UFO might have been one? What happened to the 16"? What happened to the 3' Enterprise?
World's best toyshop, indeed.

 

[toyroy]

...I wonder how many Jupiter 2s there were? Somewhere I once saw a photo from City Beneath the Sea (I think) that had circled at least 6, maybe 8 Jupiter 2s, all with the windows cut all around. Wonder what happened to all of them, and the Gemini 12, if the fake UFO might have been one? What happened to the 16"?...

The "Jupiter 2 Files" page @ Jup2.com has some of your info:

http://jupiter2.freeyellow.com/root/j2filesi.htm

 

[starseeker2]

That site is a wonderful find! Thanks!

The mention that he has this huge blueprint, and shows shot of part of one which looks like the original of what is reproduced in the LIS Technical Manual, and which I redrew and incorporated into "Jupiter2s", above, made me wonder just how accurate that profile in the drawing/plan might be (D'oh! - why didn't I use the "10' Hero" drawing??).
I wouldn't have believed this in a million years, but the profile on that blueprint seems an almost perfect match over the screen capture of the 4' J2 I made yesterday. The main viewport seems a bit different (but that could be a slight shift in my overlay - I'm a total amateur at this sort of thing), but the shape of the hull and flashing light unit seem absolutely spot on. Or close enough within a very small margin of error, given that the models were never made perfectly symmetrically (or so I've heard). That profile above, the blueprint repro'd in Technical Manual, does in fact seem to be a what the 4' hero (and 10' hero) was based on.
The plan does exist???!!

 

[X15-A2]

The fellow who made that web site has quite the "fevered imagination". He spends quite a bit of time trying to determine what a 4-foot J-2 would look like next to the rock tower seen in the pilot crash scene without stopping to consider that the 10-foot model he is trying to claim was used for the shot would be a full five times the size of the two-foot disc being used in Jim Key video. He further takes the "new miniature" note on the plans to somehow mean "second" miniature. Please, "new" means "new", as in "never had before".

I will make one thing clear right now, that 10-foot model was never used for "flying" scenes. Why? Because it must have weighed 300 pound or more. Sure, it is possible to wire-fly a model that heavy but the FX guys aren't stupid and they don't have unlimited budgets either. When something is intended to be wire-flown, they make it light. Light means that it is easier to handle and easier (read "cheaper") to suspend for shooting. The big model was built for one thing, showing the ship on the ground with the Chariot driving out (they were the same scale) and perhaps for showing the Pod being launched (there was a Pod that scale too). Now, before anyone jumps up and says that the "Pod launch" would be a "flying" scene too, stop to consider that the big J-2 would be placed upside down on a stand and the Pod pulled up and out of the open bay, the camera being mounted upside down too. Don't go making things more complicated than they need to be because you can be certain that the FX didn't.

 

[starseeker]

Now that there is another model of the J2 coming out and a lot of interest in the J2 being generated, I thought I'd re-post the drawings I had posted here ages ago. This time around I've stitched them together into one piece each. These are smaller size images of ones that I've sent to Ductape for his Jupiter 2 Detail and Color project. All the images below are 12" wide at 90 dpi. The one's I sent to Ductape are 17" and 150, 500 to 1000 k each.

 

[starseeker]

These are the same drawings I posted before with a few revisions based on all the blueprints and photos that I've collected from the Net in the last decade: a couple added dimensions, some added labels to the control panels, and thanks to a question from either Ron Gross or Gary Kerr, I realized that I had the interior hatch in the wrong place, and corrected it. Well, there are actually two slightly different locations for the inner hatch, according to contradictory blueprints I found on-line. The second location is a little more outboard. I'm sticking with the blueprint that shows it a little more inboard as that gives just a bit more headroom.

 

[starseeker]

This is for all those of us who really hate the 3d season version of the Jupiter 2 and want to convert it to a 1st season version.

 

[starseeker]

I remember someone in a thread somewhere here saying how big the upper deck was, how much wasted space there was. Actually, the upper deck is quite small and effeciently designed. The distance between the edge of the lowered astrogator and the foot of the wall beams is less than 7', not much wider than the reach of John Robinson's outstretched arms.

 

[starseeker]

And, as always, if anyone finds any mistakes or omissions, please post.

 

[starseeker]

I'll leave these up here as long as I can, before I run out of attachment space.

 

[starseeker]

The profiles showing a curved outer hull represent my 1/24 model, not any blueprint shape.
Hope these are of some use!

 

[Maritain]

Those are Excellent!!!

 

[JAT]

In that last shot above of the mock-up you are looking at the east face of the huge "mill" on the "olympic" side of the Fox lot. Not only was it the biggest set construction facility that I've ever seen, it was also where the miniature storage area was, located over the offices on the North side. What a great toy shop!!

Remember that horrible TV show "Project UFO" about the Air Force "Bluebook" investigations into the UFO phenom? It was based on the actual case reports sent to the Air Force and in one episode, they uncovered a "con operation" where people were being bilked out of their cash to fund the development of a new type of flying machine, which happened to be a saucer in shape. At the end of the story they explained that the saucer that was being used as bait for the suckers had been "bought from a movie studio"!

But which saucer was it? There have not been that many built over the years for films and we know that the LIS ship was destroyed by the studio. I always wondered about this. We do know that the J57 survived a long time at MGM and what became of the ship from "Day the Earth Stood Still"? Other possibilities? Unfortunately we don't know when the real event occurred so fitting it into a specific time frame is not possible (unless someone has a copy of the actual case file).

Which of our saucers has this "checkered past"?

Phil

I thought I remembered a scene from one of those UFO episodes showing a semi-buried saucer that had crashed. If I am correct, it was a large Jupiter Or maybe a four footer and some depth of field t v trickery.

 

[Punchcard76]

I thought I remembered a scene from one of those UFO episodes showing a semi-buried saucer that had crashed. If I am correct, it was a large Jupiter Or maybe a four footer and some depth of field t v trickery.

The shot you are thinking of was the J2 was from an episode of "In Search Of"....

 

[JAT]

The shot you are thinking of was the J2 was from an episode of "In Search Of"....

Thanks. Now, do you know if that was the 10 footer?

 

[Punchcard76]

Thanks. Now, do you know if that was the 10 footer?

I don't think it was the 10 footer. The way they filmed it, it looked like the back of it was setting in a pile of dirt, half way covered up.
It was one of the Gemini 12's. They filmed it using forced aspect, to make it look bigger.
I could be wrong, but I think it was season 1, episode 21 about UFO'S.