Here is a special Friday night blog post. I couldn’t write it earlier, because I am in tech for one show, starting rehearsals for another, and oh yeah, my baby just came home after 14 months in the hospital. But here are some fun prop things to read and watch:
I don’t know anything about this, but Comikaze Expo 2015 in LA is having a prop making contest. It looks like you may need to be there in person to show off your prop if you’re selected.
Tested has a very cool article on making a Furiosa Cosplay Prosthetic Arm. What makes it extra special is that it was made for a woman who is actually missing her arm.
Last spring, I was approached by a local pastor for a project. He walked with a cane, and he had found a sword cane he liked, but the handle had broken off. He wanted to know if I could make him a new one.
He was a dedicated Doctor Who fan, and wanted a handle in the shape of a question mark. He also wanted his name inscribed in Gallifreyan on it, and painted in Midnight Metallic Blue to match his Doctor Who-themed automobile.
I made the handle out of some of the ash I had left over from my Game of Thrones chest. This handle would need to be strong and hold a lot of weight. The shape of the question mark made me concerned that parts of it would split no matter which way I positioned the grain. I decided to laminate two thinner pieces together with the grains running perpendicular to each other.
Preparing the boards
As you can see in the video, the shape was cut out with a jigsaw and cleaned up with a belt sander and oscillating spindle sander. I then ran it through the router table with a large round-over bit.
Cut and rounded
A Dremel and a file helped clean up and refine the shape. If you are wondering about that strange file in the video, it is a Japanese saw file. I had just gotten it and this was my first project to use it on. It rasps like butter and is easy to keep unclogged.
He wanted his name carved in Gallifreyan. Gallifrey is Doctor Who’s home planet, and the language uses a series of interlocking circles and lines to write words. I found an online Gallifreyan transliterator and plugged his name in. I adapted the result to fit the shape of the handle, and mirrored it so it was the same on both sides.
Primed
It took a few coats of filler primer and a lot of sanding to get it smooth and shiny. The last pass was a wet sanding with 600 grit sandpaper. Then I sprayed a few light coats of the Midnight Metallic Blue paint which I had ordered from an automotive paint supplier. The paint also came with its own urethane clear coat, which I applied when everything was dry.
Doctor Who Sword Cane Handle
I threaded the end onto the sword part of the cane and glued it together with epoxy. He loved the final piece. So the next time you see a preacher in the woods fighting off snakes with his Doctor Who sword cane, you know where he got it from.
This is from a few years ago, but it has everything you need to know about Blood for Film. Okay, maybe not everything, but it has a ton of information, a break-down of helpful ingredients, and a couple sample recipes for different types of fake blood.
Here’s something everyone will like: a history of masking tape. I’m sure all of you have looked at masking tape and wondered who invented it, and why. It was Richard Drew, and he wanted a tape to mask paint.
Tested stops by Frank Ippolito’s shop to see how he made sci-fi armor based off of a video game. This eight-and-a-half minute video shows how he took the 3D models in the game and turned them into patterns to cut out of foam sheets, followed by lots of gluing and painting.
Do you like making your own tools for your shop? Because Homemade Tools is filled with instructions and plans for a whole assortment of tools and jugs you can make yourself.
A little over a week ago was N95 Day, a day which NIOSH created four years ago to raise awareness for respirator-use in the workplace. It happens every September 5th – get it? N95 = 9/5 (in the US, we put the month before the day. Sorry, rest of the world).
The N95 is the most common type of respirator used in the workplace, and is probably the most common found in your props shop.
Some people think the N95 is a dust mask, not a respirator, but that is incorrect. The N95 is a disposable particulate respirator, but it is still a respirator, so all the rules and requirements for wearing a respirator must be followed for the N95 as well.
A couple of things about respirators. First, you have to know when to wear the right one. If you have The Health and Safety Guide for Film, TV, and Theater, or if you have ever attended a workshop by Monona Rossol, you know that airborne hazards come in five flavors: dust, mist, fume, vapor and gas. Dust, mist and fumes are particulates, which means they are bigger than air molecules and can be filtered mechanically. Vapors and gasses are the same size as air, so you can’t just block them; you need to chemically absorb them. So an N95 can stop dust, mist and fumes, but you need a classic cartridge respirator to stop vapor and gas.
You really need to know what you are dealing with to pick the right respirator. Using contact cement produces hazardous vapors, so an N95 will do absolutely nothing. In fact, some may argue that since any respirator creates extra stress on your body, wearing the wrong type of respirator can actually be worse than wearing no respirator.
Most chemicals we use have a mix of hazards. Spray paint is a prime example; the paint comes out in a mist, but the solvents produce vapors. So you need both a particulate and a chemical respirator. Most of the cartridges you can get for your respirator have a combination filter for doing both.
One final note: you often come across shops where they are really gung-ho about eye and tool safety, but cavalier about using respirators. It’s true that if you lose an eye, it sucks, but you have two eyes, and you can still live without being able to see. A respirator protects your lungs, and if you can’t use your lungs, you’ve only got about three minutes of life left.
Captain Cutie
This is my son. He’s adorable, right? He’s lived in the hospital since he was born 14 months ago, and needs to be hooked up to a ventilator 24 hours a day to breathe. His lungs are too small to support him. Most of us take our lungs for granted and don’t stop to think that every breath we take is a small miracle.
Not being able to breathe sucks. Wear your damn respirator.
Also in California Sunday Magazine is this great article on Phil Tippett, one of the masters of creature effects, who is currently working on an old-school monster movie by hand. Tippett has worked on creatures in Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers, Robocop, and many more. He hand-crafts his own film as a way to escape the monotony of digital effects and return to his roots.
Propnomicon points us to this video by Super Sculpey, showing how to use Sculpey to sculpt monster men. In this twelve minute video, Jake Corrick shows his technique for building an armature, roughing out the form, adding details and finishing.
Finally, Make has another round of six “now why didn’t I think of that” shop tips. Some of them I use regularly and find useful. Others, like the plastic friction welding, I’ve never heard of and can’t wait to try.
Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies
