For our first post since the site’s relaunch, we offer this little video we did toward the end of 2009 of our model makers working on the first round of Serenity replicas. John Eblan is the guy doing the interviews and also heads up our shop (for more on John, check out his IMDB profile).

All Quantum Mechanix (QMx) Artisan replicas are made by hand in the U.S.A. by real Hollywood model effects artists, propmakers and armorers. We feel this is key to delivering the most accurate and thrilling replicas. This is our way of insuring you’re never disappointed by a QMx collectible.

We also feel good that QMx is doing it’s part to bring skilled craftsmanship back to the U.S. and preserve a skillset that is all but lost in this country.

Without further ado, here’s that video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/development/making-the-awesome-the-serenity-artisan-replica/feed/ 0 http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/about-ffsw/cortex-update/firefly-still-flying-%e2%80%93-the-tech-notes/ http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/about-ffsw/cortex-update/firefly-still-flying-%e2%80%93-the-tech-notes/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:30:24 +0000 admin http://www.fireflyshipworks.com/?p=1160 A friend of mine once said the best job is the one you’d do for free, but don’t have to. If that’s the case, then I have the best job imaginable, because I get to make awesome stuff for even more awesome people. And I get to work with shows and movies I love and a creative community I admire and respect – enormously.

I can’t really say enough about how awed and humbled we all are here at QMx by the fact that we’re even allowed to play in these brilliant peoples’ sandboxes. So you’ll understand that when Jane Espenson, executive producer of Caprica, co-executive producer of Battlestar Galactica and scribe of one of the most memorable episodes of Firefly, asked me to be her technical editor on her first new Firefly story in over eight years, I was struck dumb.

Well, perhaps not completely dumb: I squeed. I squeed long and I squeed loud. And I, dear reader, am not someone who squees for anything.

On the eve of Titan Books official announcement of Firefly: Still Flying, where Jane’s new Firefly story What Holds Us Down will debut, I’ve been given permission to publish the tech notes for that story. The notes have been thoroughly scrubbed of spoilers, although based on what the tech notes cover you might be able extrapolate some elements of the plot – such as the fact that story involves a ship that hitherto has not been part of an actual Firefly story (although it was covered in our own Serenity Blueprints Reference Pack). Consider yourself spoiler-alerted.

Anyway, we thought you might like reading the background technical material Jane used for story. It offers a deeper look at an important precursor to Serenity and into the science that makes space travel a daily reality in The Verse.

Oh, and the book – Firefly: Still Flying – is made of awesome. If you’re a Browncoat you will totally want this.

Tech Notes for What Holds Us Down, by Jane Espenson

Let’s start with the Series 1 Firefly:

The Series 1 was, of course, the first Firefly and was about two-thirds the size of the Series 3. It was created by the Allied Spacecraft Corporation (ASC) on Osiris and outfitted by The Firefly Ship Works on Hera – same outfitter that did the build out on Serenity. ASC started making the Series 1 to support settlers moving to the Border and Rim. It was designed to be reliable and inexpensive to operate.

A side-by-side comparison of the Series 1 & 3 Firefly, taken from The Atlas of The Verse.

The first Series 1 Fireflys start rolling off the assembly line in 2435 and continued to be made through 2458. A total of 8,000 were built over the lifetime of the model. This compares to the Series 3, which started manufacture in 2459 and had lifetime sales of over 28,000.

On to the grav dampeners:

Grav dampeners are essentially smaller versions of the components of the big grav rotor that goes around the outside of a Firefly’s rear section. Dampeners are usually mounted underneath the lowest deck in each part of the ship and generate a gravity “envelope”, both above and below that deck. The shape of the envelope is like a figure eight, with the intersection of the figure eight at the center of the dampener’s gravity rotor.

An example of the “figure eight” gravity envelope generated by the grav dampeners.

Typically, the envelop is much larger above the deck than below, and it’s size and shape can be altered using the dampener’s control assembly. Under normal operation, the figure eight has a huge top loop and a tiny lower loop. This has the effect of reversing gravity when you enter the crawlspace where the dampeners operate. So, the underside of the deck above is your “floor” when you’re in the crawlspace. And “up” is actually out the bottom of the ship.

The juxatposition of the two gravity envelopes – and how they effect people above and below deck.

So, what does a gravity dampener look like? Imagine a big front-loading washing machine laying on it’s back. The dampener is rectangular, with the rotor at the top and the control assembly at the bottom. Dampeners are laid out in series, like cars on a train. They’re approximately 4′ wide x 7′ long x 3′ high.

That big grav rotor that generates the gravity envelop around the outside of the ship is also constructed of a train of dampeners that form a ring instead of a line (the “teeth” in the grav rotor). The difference in their function is more a matter of software than hardware – the grav rotor is programmed to generate a gravity envelop around the ship that renders it both buoyant and inertial-less, so that’s what it does. The mini-rotors under the deck are programmed to keep the crew from floating away, so that’s what they do.

A grav dampener “train”, seen from overhead.

If you lift open the metal shielding at the bottom of the dampener – the end with the control assembly – there is short, fat rod with copper rings around it inserted in the middle of a big metal clamp. This is the heart of the grav dampener. It’s the Theory of Everything, Grand Unification magic cylinder that makes the negation or generation of gravity a reality. It’s called The Honnecourt Capacitor in honor of Villard de Honnecourt, who first described the idea of a machine that could produce more energy than it consumes. (Note: It was Jane’s idea to call the Honnecourt Capacitors “Honeys” for short.)

The Honnecourt Capacitor does this trick by using Weak Force physics to compress tiny bits of space, which in turn generates electromagnetic radiation. Because Weak Force compression requires only tiny amounts of energy to operate, most of the energy surplus can be transferred to the gravity rotor, which in turn spools that energy. This cycle repeats until sufficient energy has been spooled to generate a controlled gravity envelope.

Once a grav rotor is spun up, it can generate gravity almost indefinitely, without the application of any additional external power (this is why in Out of Gas Mal wasn’t floating around the ship). However, if you were to pull the Honnecourt Capacitor, the gravity envelop would quickly collapse.

In most ships, the Honeys used for generating internal gravity are different than the ones used in the drive system. But because Fireflys use standardized parts where ever possible, the Honeys under the deck and in the grav rotor are physically identical (although it would take a savvy mechanic to transplant them and make them work, as the programming is very different).

Other helpful notes on the Series 1:

The reactor core of the ship is in the dead center and rear, heavily shielded and all-but-inaccessible. However, there is maintenance access under the deck plates pretty much throughout the entire ship.

Remember, the grav rotor negates all of a ship’s gravity, including internal gravity, in order to make it “inertial-less”. The grav dampener array under the deck plating is required to compensate for this effect and establish roughly 1G of gravity inside the ship. Operating internal gravity does not in any way effect the external gravity-negating envelope, as that outer envelope completely encompasses the internal ones.

It was torture because I was out of town on business and had to wait a few days before I could break into that shipping crate. When I finally got home, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning as I meticulously opened the outer box, removed the lid of the “apple crate” and carefully removed layer after layer of padding waiting for that “OMG” moment.

My biggest concern once I received my shipping verification was the handling habits of UPS.  But my fears were quickly put to rest when I saw how securely protected Serenity was, and that she survived the trip to STL perfectly and without damage.  As I worked my way through those layers of foam, there were several surprises along the way.  The original order form from from the QMx website, a checklist from my Concierge phone call with what looked like approval initials from Andy Gore,  the ID plaque with Nathan Fillion’s autograph, Shuttle #2 carefully protected within it’s own pocket in the packing foam, the very cool light effect remote control and then the reactor vents and their assembly instructions.

A couple more layers of foam and protective wrapping, and there it was: My OMG moment. Serenity herself. For the first time in solid form, insanely detailed, and huge.

The size of the replica took me by surprise. We’ve all seen pictures on line and even Nathan holding her in his hands and gracing her with a kiss. But until she was right there in front of me, I just didn’t realize how how big she was. OK, hold your breath, CAREFUL….. reach in and bring her up. Not only is she big, but heavy. This thing has some real beef to her.  All in all, it took almost an hour to get her unpacked, mounted on the stand and assembled.

Now, after three years of waiting, there she is, right in front of me. To examine and explore every small detail. To find things that cannot be seen on screen like the underside of the engines, or the complexity of the reactor section, and the amount of detail in the shuttle. And I don’t know how QMx did it, but the paint makes Serenity look like metal, with individual panels painted slightly different shades and colors. And the different layers of the metallic blue on the cargo section that catches the light differently as you view from her from one side or the other.

As much a part of the ship herself, the light effects really bring her to life. The wireless remote allows you to control the different effects. A master power button activates the interior lights, running and spot lights.  There are then separate buttons to activate the engine and grav rotor, reactor and hard burn, and finally the strobe lights. Each of these effects can be turned on or off as you like and your selection is saved for the next time you turn on the main power. After 15 minutes, all lights turn off so you don’t walk off and leave them on for hours.

OK, it took me a few days to examine my Serenity – The Big Damn Replica and get my thoughts written down. The next thing for you to do is wait for your BDR to arrive and let everyone know what you think. My final thoughts are that this is the first purchase of a high end collectable and I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. After finally seeing Serenity in person, I feel that the price is completely justified.

In closing, I’d like to thank QMx for all of their hard work pulling together such a talented team to bring us this outstanding collectible. The talented Wolvster for his incredible sculpts that brought Serenity to life. And finally Andy Gore and Jessica Marschall for putting up with my many emails, posts and questions about delivery dates.

Thanks for reading and if you’d like, post your comments to me on http://twitter.com/JiminSTLouis.

– Jim In St. Louis

For our second Firefly/Serenity vehicle, we wanted to deliver to you the expert craftsmanship you’ve come to expect from our studio-scale works. And who better to make your Mule exactly the way you want it than you? That’s right, our Flying Mule replica will be the first authorized, pre-painted replica kit from The Verse. Every part is hand-painted resin and keyed so it can only fit in one place. All you need is a little glue and about a half hour and you can build your very own Flying Mule.

The Mule replica was designed by the same team that created our Serenity, and you’ll notice in the gallery below the same attention to detail and screen-accuracy. The major difference is this time you get to supply the muscle putting the roughly 30 pieces that comprise the kit together. Everything from the controls to action-figure-scaled seating is there. We even include a sculpted diorama base with simulated sand.

Heck, we’ve even designed her so she can be displayed in two modes – the special effects mode where the Mule hovers over the sand on two clear acrylic risers and the propmaster mode where you can place her on a prop dolly, just the way she’s currently stored on Universal Studios’ backlot.

There are a couple reasons we decided to make the Mule our first prepainted kit: First, it’s fun build, not too challenging for novices but with enough complexity to entertain even experienced model makers. Second, the paint master for the Mule looks picture-perfect when assembled. There really is no qualitative difference between you building her and us, so why should we have all the fun?

The third – and perhaps most important – reason is we really wanted to support the hobbyist. There are tons of talented Browncoats out there we just know are going to want to add their own touches to their Mule replicas. Lights, photoetched details, grenades…

So, what do you think? Like our latest replica? Like that you’ll have a chance to build her yourself? We’d love to hear what you think.

Edit: Sorry, didn’t put the dimensions or pricing in the article. Posted a note below, but here it is in the story in case you missed it:

The mule itself is 13″x6″x4″ (not including the side fins) and the base is 15″x11″. The development work is done so all we gotta do is make ‘em. I’m going to guess and say we’ll be shipping by this summer.

As for the price, nothing’s final yet. But it will be *much* less expensive than the BDR (of course). Keep in mind it’s heavy resin, not lightweight styrine like most prepainted kits, so it costs a bit more from a raw materials standpoint. But having said that I think you can expect it to price out in the range of other high-end, licensed prepainted kits you may have seen from folks like Kotobukiya.