Hellboy Prop: Broom's Box. Need info.

contec

Great, I thought they looked a bit odd. Now i dont need to run around and find some old drift wood to build it from.

/Conny

Gigatron

Those isometric drawings gave me flashbacks to all my classes in architectural drafting. I almost expected to scroll down and see some 3 view line drawings .

Keep up the great work, Adam. Can't wait to see someone recreate the prop from all the info.

-Fred

madrobot

Thanks a lot killjoy. Now I have to make a new plate.

RelicMaker

I think the symbol on the box was put in with a dremel, along with the wear on the box Adam had mentioned.
So, there's no need to get a new plate made!

madrobot

Yeah, but I'm lazy. Who wants to dremel out a design, when you can use 20 tons of force to press it into something?

I like 20 tons of force.

madrobot

Not to mention, I used the plates today with a fair amount of success on two leather bags. Wood however will require some real work.

madrobot

I am going to build a box after seeing this. I want one, and will have one.

cavedwellar

Well since my woodworking skills are nearly nonexistent, do you guys think there's a box out there somewhere that this box is based off of?
I guess my search is on...............

contec

My guess its based on boxes used in the civil war, because many things in the box are Civil war items and Abe was born around that time.

asavage

The front text, the latin phrase, as you will see when I post a nice photo of it, is laser etched into the wood. I believe that the BPRD logo is also etched (that's how I'd do it if I had a laser cutter) and then chiseled out. The laser would make the best guide for a chisel, and make it a simple operation. It's definitely not dremeled.

madrobot

I think I like the idea of going old school and doing the work by hand.

madrobot

What kind of wood is your box made of Adam?

asavage

The outer shell, sides top bottom and folding front, are 1/2" thick oak. It really looks to me like they scabbed it out of an existing box or piece of furniture. I'ts sides are 1/2" fingerjoints that look older than the rest. The inside dividers look like a mixture of pine and oak planks. Mostly planed pine. Weathered to match the outside.
There is no plywood in the box, though that would be the easiest material to make it out of, considering the varying thicknesses of the pieces.
The drawers are pine.

madrobot

Thanks!

Entropy

The finished prop has definitely got the look of what's known as a "field desk" or "campaign desk," though I would expect the front to drop down to a larger writing surface if that's what they started with. It also bears a strong resemblance to an old machinist's tool chest with half the drawers knocked out.

nwjedidave

ya NEVER know when HB is gonna run into a VAMPIRE !

asavage

Okay, I own a few campaign desks and this isn't one of them. Honestly I think it's potentially a more quotidian piece of furniture. But as for the machinists chest, I shoukd make this clear, the drawers and ALL the dividers were added after the fact.[/I]

asavage

I should point out that on my first anniversary, for which the gift is primarily paper, I researched campaign desks. I eventually bought a new one out of teak from india and hand carved my wife's name it the cover, so I'm pretty familiar wtih the form.

TheMalum

That sounds like a really cool gift! I bet she loved it! Nice job, man!

madrobot

I'm trying to find a good source for oak, but specifically white oak. It's looking like Rockler is going to be my source locally.

contec

Just a friendly little bump... Any update on this Adam?

/Conny

asavage

Well, it's been somewhat dormant, because I've been in Socorro NM for the last week, and I'm only briefly home in SF before doing a few appearances in Portland and Seattle this weekend. I plan on posting some pix of the carved lettering and BPRD logo, but I haven't gotten to it just yet. I did see in that lovely shot from the menu, that there are clearly a couple of beeswax candles, so I got a couple of those.
As for that case with the latex drum lid: it's driving me nuts. I know for a fact that it's something quotidian, or the propmaster wouldn't have used like 9 of them. I plan a trip to the health food store soon. Isn't there a site for identifying strange objects? I mean besides this one?

contec

Are you sure its latex?, could they not have used some sort of thin leather?
Draw a circle ,cut and place over the bottle ?

Do you know what that sort of covering is called, i could do a net search.

/Conny

asavage

Looks to me like the bottom might be leather. It isn't necessarily latex, could be leather. I think that the bottom piece is a single circle of material, bunched up. I've been looking in chinese herb catalogs, in homeopathic websites, figuring it might have held medicine or cream...

I don't know. Take a pic to your health food store... see what they think.

asavage

So I was just looking at my reference files and it seems that there were two boxes! I can clearly identify my box as the one used in the film by the clearly visible worm holes. The drilling patterns of them are dead on. Also: the box in the middle (that held all the rosaries) is identifiable by the grain.
But the photo here:
http://www.wackychimp.com/uploads/hb1.jpg
the hole patterns are slightly different. So is the weathering. So are the characters in the lid compartment with the trinkets on the lower left. Different too are the holes around the virgin mary painting in the lid door on the right. Clearly not my box. But get this: the box in the middle, the rosary box? Definitely mine. Grain matches perfectly.
That would explain why I've got 2 of the number one books, no number 2 or number 5.

I talked to a bookbinder today who may be able to replicate two more books for me to complete my set... with the gold numbers and all.