BS3
Abominable Showman
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2021
- Messages
- 1,839
Kaufmann's sketches apparently surfaced when he was interviewed by Schmitt and Randle for their 1994 book. Randle mentions Kaufmann having a "sketchbook" with such drawings in his retrospective account of his interactions with and assessment of Kaufmann as an alleged 1947 witness:
http://www.cufos.org/FrankKaufmannExposed.pdf
It's clear that Kaufmann's sketches were used as the basis for a series of artist conceptions developed by William Louis McDonald during the 1990s. McDonald's annotated draft drawings from that period can be reviewed at:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/aYegw9
McDonald's eventual conception is illustrated in this 1997 edition of his evolving work:
McDonald himself interviewed Kaufmann, and he noted his image development was based on interviews conducted by himself as well as Randle and Schmitt. (See sidebar text on the two ArtStation webpages linked above.)
McDonald was working with or for multiple clients, including multiple TV / movie production units, a UK scale modeling magazine, and model manufacturer Testor.
The modeling connection is relevant because the form and features of Kaufmann's alleged sketch and McDonald's illustrations bear a strong resemblance to scale models of the alleged F-19 stealth fighter marketed by Testor, Monogram, and Revell in the 1980s. Artists' conceptions of the alleged F-19 date back as far as the late 1970s. Certain features evident in the alleged Kaufmann sketches don't reflect any aeronautical R&D concepts preceding that timeframe.
I see no reason to believe the Kaufmann sketches were made any earlier than the period when he suddenly surfaced as an alleged 1947 witness - i.e., sometime after the F-19 imagery was well established in popular media and toys, when he was a Roswell Chamber of Commerce official actively promoting the proposed UFO museum.
There is also a strong resemblance to some of the early pre Space Shuttle concepts for reusable spacecraft