Han Solo In Carbonite prop… going under cover...

darthchromer

Well-Known Member
Hi friends. As some of you know, I’ve been searching for an Illusive Concepts Han Solo in Carbonite 1:1 prop to strip the paint from for sometime now. Jeff “Gotmagic” on the Yahoo Han in Carbonite builder forum, took me up on my offer. He sent me his #345 Illusive Concept prop with the body and carbonite section already cut out of the box. He is going to build a more accurate cabinet and side panels. I will strip down his cast and repair the defects and remove detail added by IC to bring it back as close as possible to the screen used original.

I will be doing a paint strip down and removal of all the top and base coats IC applied, and get down to the original as cast details which were buried under all the applications of paint.

I will be examining the Illusive Concepts casting and will try to answer the questions of what was original and what, if any, modifications were made to it after it was cast by comparing it to original photos of the movie prop. I will be looking forward to getting feed back and advice from some of the very knowledgeable HIC experts out there.

A small bit of history on the IC prop.
This was a 1:1 prop produced in 1997 by Illusive Concepts at a run production of 2500 pieces, but that number was never achieved. I have heard due to the company going out of business. The body and carbonite section of the cast was taken directly from an original movie prop. The surrounding box frame and eight side panels were custom made by them. There were supposedly modifications made to the hair, face and hands possibly due to damage and/or to help with ease of molding such a large amount of units.

So, lets get started...
One thing I noticed when I first unpacked it is that these props weren't made flimsy. Jeff had cut the body out of the frame before shipping it off. We have 1/2 to 3/4" thick fiber glass here, nice and strong.

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One thing that I was disappointed with was the quality of this low number cast. I knew there were problems with parts of it from the pictures Jeff initially sent me but this project is turning from just a strip down and minor repair to a full on resculpt of the face and hands...cool, I get to re-sculpt my favorite prop? That'll work too :)






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Put up some really good pics of HIS right hand and I'll find some ggod ones to show how they massacred it for breakage. Later #'s were also shrunken down another 5% due to another casting of the reworked hands which were the main problem in shipping since they packed them so poorly.

Does this one have a glossy coat on it or is it rough to the touch? That will tell you what generation it is.
 
This one has a gloss coat applied. The right hand, along with the face and some of the fingers of left hand were messed up pretty bad when they applied the initial gel coat so the detail, IE wrinkles and structure mainly in the right hand were wiped out. They also tried to fix it with Bondo.

I will show detail shots when I get a chance to do my next post.
 
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Hey guys. Im fairly new to the RPF, at least when it comes to posting messages. Since I began collecting over 12 years ago the IC HIC was something I never dreamed I would own. Well, I was able to get my hands on one last weekend at auction for what I believe was a great price. It's in great shape, but also evident that there are some problems that need correcting; however, I knew I would be able to find some guidance on these forums. Anyways, I have a later edition, I believe #938 but not positive. Once I get the courage I will be attempting to make improvements and look forward to using this thread for direction. If for any reason reference photos are needed from a "later model" IC HIC, I'd be more than willing to post some. I'm in no way an expert when it comes to a film accurate HIC so I'm really looking forward to your findings and progress!
 
Congrats on the purchase of your HIC. I definitely would like this thread to be a group effort and any pic's you want to show, from your IC's, as we progress, are very welcome. There were a ton of these props made and the problems with this one is hopefully not the rule but the exception. I'll have some more shots coming soon.
 
If that one is like mine, the right pinky will look like it is made of bondo. I have always wanted to see what was under this thick gloss. Thanks for taking this on.
 
Finally have some time to post. Here are some of the problem areas on this particular cast.

The face had a lot of issues, you can see the mottled rough surface and the stepping or ridging around the lips, nose, cheek, toes and forehead.


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Same with the left toe.

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Two of the right hand fingers were broken off at one time and repaired. This may have been in the mold itself. We will see after it's stripped.

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Right hand was real bad, the pitting in the fingers.
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The palm in the right hand was the worst area. You can tell that the palm wrinkles are wrong and I suspect was repaired with bondo at the factory to save this casting. We will know more when I strip off the paint.

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They did not even bother to fix the lower finger area, YIKES!
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More pictures to come...
 
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Wow. That is horrific. I'm afraid you'll probably find it all in the casting and not in the paint. This one is much worse than the one I had and sent back, and that one was not worth the money with all the flaws.

I can't get over all the holes in this one. And that hand. Good grief.
 
I have wondered if the number on the plaque actually identifies the order these were pulled from the mold. My #499 doesn't have quite that many quality control issues with the right hand and presumably was pulled after your 345. My gloss does seem much heavier than yours too. Thanks for the updates. Let me know if you want any specific photos of mine.
 
Antwayne, I don't think it's a matter of the mold being deteriorated, I believe that they either had a gel coat cure problem, maybe an equipment failure or the guy that showed up to work that day had one cerveza to many the night before and just mixed the material and hardeners wrong. Who knows. The next one they pulled might have been perfect. I think this was operator error.

I'm not counting out the fact that it could have been the mold itself though. I don't know how many mold negatives they had, I would assume they had more than one for the numbers they were going to produce. This one may have been a bad negative and was tossed shortly after.
 
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I actually have a original HIC from Illusive which I completely stripped down, it had a very thick clearcoat, I will apply a new paintjob and make a new box for it. I will take some photos which might help your fixes, I applied primer to see details. Alot of details were lost under that superthick base/clearcoat paintjob, basically whoever buys Illusive recasts without being stripped first the copies will have way less details which are buried under that thick clearcoat.

GFollano
 
I actually have a original HIC from Illusive which I completely stripped down, it had a very thick clearcoat, I will apply a new paintjob and make a new box for it. I will take some photos which might help your fixes, I applied primer to see details. Alot of details were lost under that superthick base/clearcoat paintjob, basically whoever buys Illusive recasts without being stripped first the copies will have way less details which are buried under that thick clearcoat.

GFollano

Exactly why I'm doing the strip down GF :thumbsup Hopefully what you had underneath your paint was better than what I have. Most all the body and cabonite was cast in real good shape. Just the most important details were smugged on this one. :unsure
 
Here are a few photos of mine stripped with a light coat of primer, one of the finger tip has a small chip, easy fix since it's on the plain area of the finger tip not the nail section.

GFollano
 
I just purchased a front panel on ebay a month ago, also just purchased a side panel that I will be making 7 copies from and I also have the water jet cut box. All I need now are the pieces for the side panels. Im glad you have this post on here as I am about to strip my front section as well. Good thing I worked in a body shop 18 years ago. Does anyone know where I can find the sidepanel Greeblee parts?

Thanks
 

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