Top Secret: Boom Operator Final...

Big thanks to Bill, and all my new friends out at the:

Pennsylvania Air National Guard's 171st Air Refueling Wing!

they put up with me slugging paint around, whining, and taking in all that fantastic pictures and memorabilia on display... all the while, recreating their Unit Patch on the walls of their offices...

here is where we last left the unit patch: 

about half way through the work, they decided that they wanted their Squadron numbers to be painted onto the ruddervators:

no problem:

we also decided to paint an outline around the whole patch. the white just wasn't working against the color of the wall. so we used a template, sketched out the shape, and taped it off:

here I am putting some finishing touches on the letters:

and here it is, pretty much finished. just need to do some really light touch-up work in and around the gray boom area. no biggie at all:

and here is your "artist" standing "triumphantly"

 (insert your own words for "artist" and "triumphantly")

again, MUCH thanks to the 171st Boom Operators for letting me take on this project! as always, thank you for your service!!!

-RyCo

Houndogg Designs

Top Secret: Day 6

thanks to my lovely assistant Bill, here is the progress:



won't be long now...

however, thinking of making some on the go modifications, and adding more yellow/gold than originally planned!

Top Secret: Day 5/Trip 3

secret is OUT Pittsburgh, here is where i've been hiding:

see my truck?

made another trip out, and put these stencils to work:

whew! everything seems centered...

end of Day 5:

1.5 hours of work

Top Secret: Day 4

preparing for some sharp letters!

end of Day 4:

2 hours of work

Top Secret: Day 3/Trip 2

the second trip out to these projects is always a fun one. pretty much everything is sketched out on the wall by the end, and it just gets you that much more excited.

about ready to lay on some paint:

end of Day 3/Trip 2:

1.5 hours of work

Top Secret: Day 2/Homework

i'm just as proud to work on this project as the people are that will see the project. so i want the letters to be as sharp as possible!

making stencils at home:

Day 2. 1 hour of work

Top Secret: Day 1/Trip 1

with my latest project comes security clearance!

i'm at an undisclosed location, doing an undisclosed project, for undisclosed people... but... if you're familiar Pittsburgh, you know exactly where i am. also, it's not top secret at all... just sounds cool to me!

i won't be giving away what i'm doing, but stay tuned and enjoy the pics:

getting the $.05 tour:

flight simulator. toppin' off a C-5 Galaxy:

pro move, totally forgot to print out sheets 10, 11 & 12. know exactly where i'm wrapping this project up on this trip in particular

end of Day 1/Trip 1. 2 hours of work.

stay tuned for more!

Invaders Dark Finished:

you may have already seen this over on Uni Watch. but if you haven't, or want more detail, this is the post for you!

starting off with the rear templates & numbers:

this was the result:

you may remember the number font i created for a different project, The Crabbers:



i liked it so much, i decided to use it for this Invaders project, obviously.

for the shoulder "TV" numbers, i shrunk the font down to shoulder scale/size, and two toned it. the subtraction of lite blue makes the numbers look darker, which you may remember is the whole theme of this particular jersey.

for the shoulder patch, i had a few ideas floating around in my head. one was just the PA State Flag:

fit in nice with the jersey colors... this was also in the running:

the other two invaders jersey already had their "nod" to the great state of Pennsylvania ;-)



so i was looking for something new. something "spacey" in fact. i came up with the idea of a hockey-puck-comet-type-thing. i drew inspiration from one of my all time favorite hockey logos. the McFarlane designed Edmonton Oilers logo:

so after a bit of AutoCAD work, and some good ol sketching:

i came up with this:

made 3 separate templates for the patch (included are the 2-tone shoulder number templates):

and this was the result:

and the front logo...

i wanted to get away from the "8 bit" video game image, but still hang onto the spirit of the Invaders. so i drew inspiration from the side of the old arcade video game machine. this was the creature we were all afraid of invading our planet:

i tried to make the logo as basic as i could so that i could just DIY it myself. but even after "smoothing" out the creature, the logo was a bit too much to handle. just past "simple" status. 

involved with the effort of making this easier to DIY myself, i smoothed out the creature, and "hockeyed" him up a bit:

i wasn't too satisfied with the circular wordmark, and was trying to think of something cool to put around him. i kept repeating in my head "think of something that looks sharp." so i finally (after a few days, maybe a week, mind you), took that literally and used the image of a buzz saw blade. not only looks sharp, but gives it a "fast" feel too:

next step was to search around for a letter font that matched the number font. found one that made me more than happy, added a boarder, and came up with this:

put the creature and the font together, and came up with this:

added the buzz saw blade:

cut, trimmed, extended, cleaned, and played around with a color scheme:



you see how involved and intricate the main logo has become at this point. i was more than happy with it. so i had to call in the experts over at Pro Knitwear Pittsburgh for help. if you remember, Pro Knitwear is the same company that made my Ryberto's patches for me:

after just a few e-mails and tweaks with each other, we came up with this stitching pattern. you'll note the 3 different stitching patterns:

this is the finished product:

centered, glued, and stitched it onto a dark navy colored jersey:

one of my best DIYs to date! fits in nicely with it's uniform set:



hope you enjoyed reading about the Invaders Dark Jersey as much as i had creating it!

also, thanks to my friend Rob Ullman for artistic advise along the way!