Further to my posting today about the Traveller Scout I contacted the designer Bill Keith, who has kindly sent this response:
"Hello, Mr; Woods,
Good to hear from you. I'm afraid I've never seen the toy you mention (Scout 3), and so cannot claim it as inspitation for my art. I'm sure a number of designs and concepts went into the original art; I first drew the Traveller Scout shortly after I started submitting artwork to GDW, probably around 1981 or so. I first submitted artwork to GDW in 1980, I believe it was.
The one spaceship concept I remember that might have contributed something to the design was a model kit coming out of the early 1960s, when I was a space-fanatic teen. I don't remember the manufacturer [Monogram?] or even the name . . . but the model was of a manned orbiting laboratory idea floating around at the same time as the Dyna Soar project--probably around 1962.
The lab was essentialy a converted Atlas rocket as a top stage; attached to the outside were two ferry rockets or escape re-entry gliders with the familiar triangular shape and painted bright yellow. I always liked the utilitarian simplicity of those designs, and they turned up a lot in my personal art doodles in school notebooks and such. Eventually, something like them evolved into the Traveller Scout. If that is the case, then the Scout does indeed draw somewhat on the X-plane and Dyna Soar project designs, which I believe influenced the look of that model kit.
The lab was essentialy a converted Atlas rocket as a top stage; attached to the outside were two ferry rockets or escape re-entry gliders with the familiar triangular shape and painted bright yellow. I always liked the utilitarian simplicity of those designs, and they turned up a lot in my personal art doodles in school notebooks and such. Eventually, something like them evolved into the Traveller Scout. If that is the case, then the Scout does indeed draw somewhat on the X-plane and Dyna Soar project designs, which I believe influenced the look of that model kit.
I'm fine with you posting my artwork, but I don't know what the current copyright status is for Traveller art. I don't think I own it, so the current Traveller copyright holders would be the ones to ask for permission, not me.
I hope this helps!
Cordially,
Bill Keith
Italics: I've inserted these to make for easier reading. Woodsy
WOTAN BUTTS IN - this sounds like the model that Bill refers to:
Convair Atlas Space Station/MOL (1958) courtesy of Fantastic Plastic.
WOTAN BUTTS IN - this sounds like the model that Bill refers to:
Convair Atlas Space Station/MOL (1958) courtesy of Fantastic Plastic.
The fact that you had contact with one of the original designers for Traveller is applause worthy in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHe's a wonderful guy. Great artist, and writer.
DeleteThanks James. It was fun contacting Bill all those years ago.
DeleteYeah that guy and his brother wrote the bulk of the background for Traveller's Imperium under many pseudonyms. They wrote for nearly all of the Classic Traveller Licensees and all of the Classic Traveller Publications.
ReplyDelete