Late in the game for Haynes cutaways, Phillip Cox stepped in to do some of the pieces. Here we see one of his on the 1987 Corvette Coupe.

Tom West

Ditto on that, but don't give up. I finally got my Fiesta S2000 SWRC piece used by M-Sport and is now on the side of a 40ft truck and trailer. Got 1 commission last year so thank goodness for my full time job, a Jade Open Sports Car.

Next off to NEC on Saturday with a folder full of leaflets and business cards as companies do not seem to like responding to emails as they probably go to a junk folder.

keep smiling, we have to keep this rare trade alive and kicking.

One of my fellow college course friends (technical illustration course) went to Haynes on leaving college in '86, do not think he got to do a cover illustration though as being a newbie.

Hi Tony,

To be honest it's been so long ago that I did it I can't fully remember but I think it was because I wanted to stain the surface with the sepia colour wash and CS2 tended to loose it's smoothness if it got too wet. I may have been concerned about scanning the final thing and thought it should be flexible too. I mounted it on a large chunk of 1" thick wooden board (side of a cupboard I think!) with the intention of cutting it off when done. However, as I used gouache underpainting in a few places I worried about the stuff cracking when the paper shrunk back so I've left it on the board!

I had it shot onto a 5x4" transparency which is ok but there is a bit of a light cast in some areas off the paint surface which is annoying. The images you've posted look very clean, were they scanned or photographed?



Apparently Frisk (the last makers of CS10/CS2) have gone out of business but I believe Strathmore are doing Illustration board again, though I have no experience of the quality..



Gum strip is still available, it is a game to remove indeed - I have gouges all over the boards from trying to scalpel the stuff off! A good soaking helps sometimes (the tape, not me).



I gather you didn't use airbrush much - I'd love to know how you got those lovely smooth colours/fades with brushes and watercolour on CS2.



I've not read all 187 pages but I read a fair bit and got worried! It seems that what little TI is out there is done on computer which I have resisted to a certain extent. I have trouble visualising foreshortening and ellipse perspective when it's on a screen for some reason. I usually construct the old fashioned way and scan that in to colour it on screen when I have to supply digital but I'm going to have to bite the bullet and learn! Most of my work has been black and white line product drawings with the odd exploded view, usually on draughting film, and architectural impressions which I also enjoy doing but is now going the same, digital, way unfortunately. I did do a nice job for Bentley a couple of years ago though. Not a cutaway mind.

Thank you for the encouragement, I will keep at it

Cheers

Robbie

Thanks Roy, and congratulations on the M-Sport Job.

Interesting site - I assume your auto stuff is done on computer, is your day job work done on computer too?



Good point about the junk folder - I now need to revise my marketing plan!

Good luck at the NEC, is that for the Autosport show?

Cheers

Robbie

yes Autopsort show, hoping that standing in front of ppl might get a better answer than ignored email even if just to show that guys like us still producing these illustrations. Current car work (hobby) and everyday work is done on pc, but not always, trained at college and first couple of jobs were all drawing board, 3 point grids pencil and rotring isographs and airbrush, those were the days, but you can't knock the ctrl z on pc if shadow is too dark compared to airbrush. lol.

M-sport piece was a good result even if done for free as I wanted portfolio piece on a more recognised race car outside of small oval racing and let them use it as can't beat free advertising on that scale, will try to post pics of it soon as possible.

now ready for a lot of walking and talking tomorrow.

cheers

Roy

Bump. Is there any way we can keep the Index on the front/current page of the thread?

If anyone has access to Motor magazine, on page 96 there is a Lofthouse cutaway of the Rochdale Olympic. I only have part of it from a scan of an adjacent article.
Roger lund

missed this post earlier, my first year at Portsmouth TI course was Don Spetch's last year as head of the TI course. this was 1982, such a small world

My mistake, I thought it was a recent work.



Photographed. I used to have a bunch of 5"x4"s and 10"x8"s done, and sometimes a roll of 35mm, as my American clients had the right idea about cutaways and artwork in general - if you've paid for it, use it! Marlboro (I think) used to send trannies to all the local publications to a circuit with an up-coming CART race, and these were generally taken up with enthusiasm. I've no doubt other clients did the same. This was before e-mailing digital files was as wide-spread as it is now. The 10"x8"s were only really needed if large posters were on the agenda, but I always included at least one, as they look pretty cool, and as I retained the artwork I felt it was important that the clients got something that looked as if it might be worth what they'd paid! Psychology...

The only stuff that was scanned was the last commission I undertook, the Ferrari F2000 car, engine and gearbox, and that had to be done twice, the second time in a frantic rush when it was found that the scans were out of focus on the diagonal. As I had spent a long time in Photoshop, cleaning all the cut sections, highlights and doing cut-outs rather than paying the studio £70/hour to do it, I was not best pleased. I completely understand how the digital revolution has made life so much easier for so many people, but some of the now-outdated processes were as good, if not better, than what we have now. In B&W work, for instance, you can't beat a litho neg and zink plate for sharpness and clarity of line, even on the paper they used in Motoring News!

Tony, I'm always impressed by your wit and mastering the art of drawing I can only be jealous of. I've made this great drawing into my PC desktop and my colleagues also appreciate it very much as I'm the cigar smoker in our office. Outside in the cold that is nowadays

Now my questions:
- did you produce it in the few hours available for posting the reply?
- are any royalties due by me for using it as a desktop?

Cough, Jan.

I had the notion to do it as soon as I read Joe Kane's post. It took half an hour of searching before I realised that I was not going to find my pad of coloured papers, so I would have to use a small sheet of brown that was too light, so this was darkened digitally, it took a further half hour to find my box of pencils, which, inevitably, were where I'd first looked, and it took about 15 minutes to draw.

You owe me so much money that it is impractical to collect, so we'll call it quits.

I used to enjoy a Castella or three with my pints... I can't believe what I subjected my lungs to for decades. Sorry, lungs. "That's OK, Tone, we're doin' fine."

I have a few of the cover illustrations that are signed by Phillip Cox. Too bad they stopped doing this ... I was just over the hill from the Haynes office when I lived out in Thousand Oaks ... they were in Newbury Park. I did three before the agent for David Kimble called them to give them crap that someone else was doing work that was supposed to have been his. After that got resolved, they went to the crappy photos ... which always looked so great. Looked like pics taken in the parking lot, which is what most of them actually were.
And, I thought that the Cox illustrations were about as good as they were doing at the time.
Tom West

I have found it amazing how all of the transition started taking place to digital scans probably 12 years ago. I had been using a place in Westlake Village (west of the San Fernando Valley), but I ended up being the only one who used their stat neg facilities. The last time I was in there they were using it to store bikes and crap out of their home garages ... you almost could not get to the thing. At least, when I had negs done, I knew the processing fluids were completely fresh. They did the sporadic work that I brought in just because they liked the cutaways that they got to do .. had copies of them all over the place.
After that, I found a group that had one large stat neg setup for about a dozen satellite offices .. until they shut that down. I could not find an alternative, so we did a couple of pieces digitally, but it was horrible. Because I do these things on mylar, they build a little smudging on occasion, which can be pretty much cleaned out quickly in gray scale scans. The digital scans were pure b&w, so the smudges would be approximated with black pixels. I still have two of them that I have not completed.
After moving to Orange County in 2008, I located a place that still does a fair business in large stat negs for Boeing, of all places. I am not getting things done there when I need a neg.
The comment about a litho neg being the way to go is great ... I can just do a high resolution scan from that in grey scale and it cleans out very quickly and you get a pretty decent rendition of the drawing ... almost too good so it comes off a bit artificial at times.
Better than when I started and had never known of the stat negs ... got them done in half-tone, which were really tough to work with. At least you have a "final" after you get the things cleaned up in digital, so you don't have to go back to those original negs again.
Just hoping I don't have Boeing (actually the MacDonald Douglas group here in LA) switch it up and move away from this format.
Nobody is aware of anything else using that litho neg technology in the area.
Tom West

Hi Tom,

I work as a CAD monkey at a Boeing design supplier and we're still using 50-yr old Boeing Mylar drawings for reference. Copies of the mylars are frequently needed for various reasons. I think it'll be a few years left before you see the end of it. They are treated with great respect by everyone who uses/handles them.

It's amazing to see a beautifully-drawn Mylar drawing (full scale, by the way), still utilized alongside the mega-$ CATIA V5 system.

With an ulterior motive and at the risk of looking a dope, can someone explain how this works?. Does the horizontal spring contain a damper? Do the 2 blue levers act on short torsion bars? Is there a separate damper mechanism? I appreciate the concept of separating spring and damper functions
Roger Lund

No one less like a dope than you, Roger. It looks like a 'classic' layout - pushrod-operated torsion bars, anti-roll bar operated by links (blue) and a third spring (damperless) for ride-hight control, in other words it does not affect roll. By the way, I appreciated your kind comments in Another Thread.

I have seen a couple of those Boeing drawings down there on occasion, and they are really nicely done. We used to do everything with mylar layouts for the plant layout stuff when I was doing Methods Engineering with General Motors at the Van Nuys assembly plant. It was amusing when I was working in an office with one of the guys there .. probably the cheapest person I have ever met on the job. Used to do these 8-foot mylar layouts, but would use maybe a 1/4-inch piece of drafting tape in each corner. Every morning, you would come in with one of those big mylars rolled up on the floor, with all the tape and small pieces all over the place because they were launched as the drawing rolled up and dropped on the floor. He would spend an hour every day getting it back ready to restart where he left it, but could not be convinced to use a little more tape. Mine .. .they were practically spot welded to the board there was so much tape involved at times ...
He was still a little shakey from being a P-38 pilot during World War II ... so I gave him some slack. They had to park him after 24 missions for mental problems, I gather ...
Tom West

...1952 300sl

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And now a little French number.


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Many thanks, Tony. As I thought, more or less....
RL

I can't believe that the bottom of the rear spring-damper unit actually connects part-way along that lower suspension link - does it?

Looks like a it is about a tyre width away from the load point. Well spotted Tim it is amazing some of the things that have been designed???

I airbrushed engines and gearboxes after trying to brush paint them and failing miserably to achieve the texture and 'finish' that I wanted. Learning to use an airbrush on my first big colour commission was nerve-wracking, to say the least, as I had only used one for adding tints to home-imrovement illustrations, and general messing about uptil then. Actually, your query has had me scratching my head, but essentially it was a case of making sure that any bodywork that needed a graduated tone was as clean as possible - i.e. not over-painting cut edges with pesky mechanical details, particularly if the bodywork was going to be light, especially yellow! Black, like JPS Lotus' was not a problem. Then a wash or two with clean water, making sure that the board was not saturated, but wet enough. How do you know when this point is reached? Payment by PayPal to ... It's down to experience and practice - it depends on the area, the thickness of the paint you are to apply, the temperature and humidity of your workspace, and how fast you can work. It occasionally ended it hot, bitter tears.

Having just finished the RH sidepod top, including radiator outlet, on a March 83C in a fetching red, I sat back and yawned, whereupon a tiny sparkling jewel of saliva shot out from under my tongue, made a perfact arc and landed in the middle of the almost-dry paint. Many attempts to hide the tiny circle failed, whatever I did the mark was visible when all was dry, so I had to re-paint the whole area, and painting over paint is not fun.

This was with gouache, I'm not sure if, by 'watercolour' you meant watercolour or other water-based media, how you work almost entirely in transparent watercolour I'm not sure, although I used gouache as a thin colour wash at times.

"...1952 300sl"

Mercedes 300 SL 1952 by Siegfried Werner - see page 170 - post 6761 (cutaway only - higher resolution)

"I can't believe that the bottom of the rear spring-damper unit actually connects part-way along that lower suspension link - does it?"

Matra Bonnet Sport DJet by Robert Roux - page 141 - posts 52695, 5269 and 5633 - (cutaway higher resolution, chassis and chassis photo)
And the rear suspension is correct, see photo chassis page 141 post 5269.

Absolutely, without revealing too much of a Luddite tendency, I do feel that a lot of new technology has been designed for speed and accessibility rather than quality. I'm not familiar with zinc plate but I do remember the PMT machines (?) which were great for line quality.



I've done a lot of line work on draughting film for one client and they have a particular, ancient, scanner just for my drawings as the newer scanners left so much noise on the image it would take hours to clean them up!

Robbie

Wow - I didn't actually expect you to tell but thank you - very interesting. I didn't realise you used gouache for the bodywork and it has never occurred to me to pre-wet as one would do for Watercolour the transparent kind, probably because no one taught me how to paint!



That's prompted me to wonder if you have ever taught? I tried to explain to someone how to do interior architectural perspective once and failed miserably



Fresh paint seems a magnet to saliva.. I've also had unplanned splatter effects from my airbrush after not keeping an eye on paint build-up around the nozzle, Frisk film pulling the paint off previously finished areas etc. Never can completely hide it.

Robbie

...er, I have quite a lot of his stuff.... checkout this...

Zinc plate was a rather confusing term, what I meant was a litho plate - which were in the main zink - prepared from a litho negative, so no pixelation and 'stepping' of diagonal lines. WYSIWYG. It looks positively archaic now, but it produced fantastic results for, er, centuries? Decades, anyway. Every line and every dot is raised above the etched surface, and can be inked with a roller or pad, and transfered to paper.





No, but I'm always pleased to explain a point if it helps anyone keen enough to ask. Many years ago, when I first made contact with Tom Johnson, he expressed surprise that I was prepared to explain how I worked, as A N Other would not divulge anything. My response was that a) I was not necessarily giving everything away, and b) knowing is one thing, putting into practice is another. Apart from anything else, my methods might be deeply unattractive to you if you were to try them, I certainly didn't want to start working on the reverse of a line film positive, even though I find the technique very interesting.

Another c r a f t moment. There is in fact a detailed 2 page incl excellent diagrams in Motorsport's January 2011 issue which explains this clearly, with major input from Lola Cars.
RL

I am just putting out something a little different for everyone, since this has broadened to be a general cutaway board, not just automotive cutaways.
I had mentioned Mr. Hall's partner previously. Mike Badrocke has probably done as many cutaways as anyone out there, and a repeat shows up now and then. This is one in the latest edition of Aeroplane magazine ... January issue, in their DataFile series. The deHavilland Sea Venom was originally published years ago in a couple of magazines and books, but this is a handy one-piece version. Thought I would see how it looks when scanned.
Tom West

Pontiac Fiero SD4 by Steve Amos.



He did a lot of illustrations for Clymer.

Brilliant! Thanks Tom.

I may have given you the wrong title Karabas? I have re-raided my Dads book collection, and Classic Aircraft Fighters, published by Optimum, contains some quite rare Batchelor works. ISBN 0 600 349 950. I hope that is a bit more helpful.

A version of Dick Ellis's Shadow DN1 cutaway appears in this months (Febuarys) edition of Motorsport. As does a piece on the front right mechanism of the Tyrrell P34.


Rolls-Royce RB41 Nene Series 1 turbojet. By James Clark.


Nene series 1.

Ford Sierra. Artist unknown. Collins?

Ford Fiesta. Artist unknown. Collins?

Cosworth developed 12-valve 4-litre Ford Explorer 4x4 engine. By Terry Collins.


Ford Galaxy MPV. Terry Collins.

1899 Fiat 3.5 HP. Artist unknown.

Ferrari, F2003-GA rear end. By Piola.

OHLINS Double-adjust damper with remote cylinder. Artist unknown.


Honda 50 2 RC 114, 1965. By Paolo Riccioni and Guido Canestrari.

Suzuki 50, Three-cylinder, Two-stroke. By Paolo Riccioni.

Ah of course yes, now I know what you mean

Cheers

Robbie

Don't think this one has been posted before - can't see it in the index list. Apologies if it has..



James Allington (and maybe Tony Matthews?), from the Lotus Elan Plus 2 workshop manual

Robbie

Mitsubishi Galant VR4 WRC by E.T.A.I. Studio



TNF Cutaway Index - updated - page 180 - post 7164 => part A - post 7165 => part B

Ibsen,
I never realized that Steve Amos did work for Clymer, as I saw him doing some interesting things for Hot Rod and the Petersen group. This Fiero piece was the focus of a special publication that Pontiac put out on the SD4 project, sort of a promotional piece and catalog for the parts program for this project.
May have to dig back to see about those Clymer publications to see what else was available in this artwork.
Tom West

There you are! Or rather, there I am, not doing a cutaway, but parts list illustration by the size of the board. I cannot think what the saloon body is in the background, not Cortina, but I'm fairly sure this photo was taken at Hethel. I was obviously a snappy dresser, complete with tie. That jacket features in several photographs, including Cooper and FAV. I probably only had the one... Somewhere there is a shot of me sketching a Ford D-Series truck, in which I am wearing a suit, possibly a three-piece, quite why I am not sure.

had similar problem, finished artwork and dropped small pot of process white which hit fllor under darwing board but one tiny drop managed to find its way up and smack onto middle of largest area of illustration nightmare to remove and cover with deadline imminenet.

Tony/Others - I am in the throes of a stripdown of a quad-cam Jag V12. So far it looks as if it hasn't been disturbed since it left the Coventry test bed in December of 1969.

PM me if you are interested in capturing any details while they are bare and exposed!

Possibly drawing this!:



I have a Plus 2, so the drawings in the manuals have proven extremely useful thanks! I love those period factory shots, very insightful, the car appears unpainted yet partially fitted up - maybe a prototype or would it have been put together for the drawings?

The car in the background - like you I first thought MkII Cortina but now I'm not so sure

Lovely jacket!

Robbie

It's quite streamlined and short so I think it's just another hardtop Elan