Giger Harkonnen Capo Chair (and Alien egg) 1/6 replica repaint

Palantirion

Active Member
I bought a black version of the 1/6 scale Giger Harkonnen Capo Chair. It's a pretty decent replica overall. And it's black...and it comes with an egg from Alien for some reason. Makes no sense to me, but fine, it's nice. And it was painted kinda sorta realistic. But why would I want a green and brown and pink egg from Alien next to an all-black chair for the un-produced Dune? If I had more Giger art in 1/6 scale maybe that could be a display, but the two together just didn't make sense to me. And I have other 1/6 (and 1/4, and 1/10, and 1/12, and 1/18) eggs, and being painted differently it would clash if displayed with the other 1/6s.

My first thought when I took the chair out of the box was that it would look a lot better as a metallic black, not a semi-gloss black. I thought, I wonder how it would look with a simple graphite rub? But also I wanted to respect Giger's original vision too, even if it's just a 1/6 replica. So I did some digging and found this gallery display, in which the chair is definitely NOT black. In fact, it looks a lot like a graphite rub over gloss black.

And then it hit me that this is how I will deal with the egg too. Black! With a graphite rub and detailed in Tamiya Rubber Black to match the rubber I'd paint on the chair. Then I could display the two together and they would look as though they should be. This would shift the context of the egg from prop to sculpture, which the chair really is.

Also, how rare is it for a one day build to actually be a one day build! And sorry I forgot to take a pic of the egg before.

Here are the 5 pieces after being airbrushed with black Vallejo Polyurethane primer. I used this primer as the base coat because if you use a heavier coat after misting it gets shiny without feathered edges. It's also sort of rubbery feeling, which I thought might make a good surface for the graphite. And the egg needed priming anyway.
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The arms, one after being rubbed with graphite.
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The seat area, after graphite.
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And the chair, assembled, and egg after Tamiya Rubber Black details were applied by brush.
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It gets brighter from different angles.
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Currently in my 1/6 Aliens/Predator case.
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Very nice.. I like that sheen it has now.. I heard that chair is actually comfortable to sit on. Funny if you look at the real chair the details are kind of muted up close... almost like it's a multi generation cast and not from an original mold. The model actally looks shaprer than the full size chair. you have linked above.
 
Very nice.. I like that sheen it has now.. I heard that chair is actually comfortable to sit on. Funny if you look at the real chair the details are kind of muted up close... almost like it's a multi generation cast and not from an original mold. The model actally looks shaprer than the full size chair. you have linked above.
- Yeah, I noticed that too, about the rubber edges. Probably Giger made a few pulls from that mold before the part for the chair in the museum, but still, weird. Maybe they used a rubber that was too hot for the mold? Also, could be the original sculpt wasn't super refined...but that doesn't seem like him. Looking at those museum pics again, after finishing mine, I think that I should have sprayed a few coats of gloss clear over my graphite rub to give it the "saran wrap" look from a thick clear. That might have matched the real chair perfectly.
 
- Yeah, I noticed that too, about the rubber edges. Probably Giger made a few pulls from that mold before the part for the chair in the museum, but still, weird. Maybe they used a rubber that was too hot for the mold? Also, could be the original sculpt wasn't super refined...but that doesn't seem like him. Looking at those museum pics again, after finishing mine, I think that I should have sprayed a few coats of gloss clear over my graphite rub to give it the "saran wrap" look from a thick clear. That might have matched the real chair perfectly.
I wouldn't be too worried about matching those museum pics... those chairs have a lot of finishes... I say do what you like best...
 

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I wouldn't be too worried about matching those museum pics... those chairs have a lot of finishes... I say do what you like best...
-Thanks for posting those pics. I hadn't seen a couple of them. My comment was less about being self critical and more about my brain automatically wanting to figure out how to do a thing. I like the way mine looks, and I've got other projects to finish. But....some Tamiya gloss clear with a 10th of a drop of clear blue in it, built up in layers, would look really cool ;)
 

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