My Indy ROTLA golden idol

Gigatron · May 10, 2008

Hey gang

After an ex walked off with my first idol, I finally managed to snag a replacement. This is one of blu-five's hollow slush cast idols that he recently offered.

The casting was amazingly clean with little cleanup required. And because it's hollow, it's incredibly light. A great piece for anyone who costumes as indy but doesn't want to lug a heavy idol.

Anyway, here's the best pic of it I could get - gold does not lke to be photographed

Now here's the kicker - the finish cost me less than $10 and maybe 6 hours of time (including time for paint to dry).

The finish is a base coat of brushed on Model Master gloss black enamel with gold polishing powder on top. The black base gives a deep look to the gold and a high reflectivity. From some angles, the idol sometimes appears to be black.

The gold powder can be purchased here http://www.hawkeyeshobbies.com/productlist.htm Just scroll down till you see SnJ polishing powders.

As always, questions and constructive criticisms are welcome.

Enjoy!

-Fred

Darth Detroit · May 10, 2008

WOW!!
And done on a BUDGET yet! My hat is off to you. I place this beautiful idol up there with that gold plated 3-PO someone did a few years back. Good on you.

Tony · May 10, 2008

I'm very impressed with the look of the gold polishing powder. Imagine how even more awesome it would look if the black enamel was sprayed on smoothly instead of applied with a paint brush.
Anyway it still looks very cool!

steveo · May 10, 2008

Something I noticed last night while watching ROTLA - it looked like the idol had real eyes in there, or at least fake real eyes and not painted gold. Anyone else notice this?

I also noticed that at the end when they're opening the ark and Indy is tied to the lamp post, the lamp looks like an R2 head. Am I just seeing things?

Kadajiroth · May 10, 2008

Fantastic work, it looks like the real deal!

DarkHelmet · May 10, 2008

steveo said:
Something I noticed last night while watching ROTLA - it looked like the idol had real eyes in there, or at least fake real eyes and not painted gold. Anyone else notice this?

Yes, you are correct. Spielberg wanted the scene to look as if the eyes were watching Indy, so they installed moving eyes in the prop.

Talisen · May 10, 2008

Very nice! I can hardly believe that's a simple home remedy! Now, why brush on the gloss black? Is it just what was available?

Gigatron · May 10, 2008

Thanks everyone

!

Tony said:
I'm very impressed with the look of the gold polishing powder. Imagine how even more awesome it would look if the black enamel was sprayed on smoothly instead of applied with a paint brush.
Anyway it still looks very cool!

Funny thing, if you spray the basecoat, the gold doesn't adhere correctly; it just wipes right off. I think the powder needs something to bite into. I've been monkeying around with this powder for over a month now in preperation of doing this idol. I've tried every combination of spraying, painting and sanding. So far, this has given me the best results.

And you'll be hard pressed to find a single brushstroke in the paint. The reason I went with Model Master is because it's self leveling. Brush it on and seconds later, it's nearly glass smooth. It's actually better if you don't thin the paint. What you're seeing is the natural surface variations in the original molding. Metallics have the unfortunae side effect of magnifying every surface flaw.

steveo said:
Something I noticed last night while watching ROTLA - it looked like the idol had real eyes in there, or at least fake real eyes and not painted gold. Anyone else notice this?

I believe one of the idols did in fact have eyes that moved. But since I wasn't in the mood to try and paint eyes or buy glass eyes, I went the lazy way and went with the gold-eyed stunt version.

-Fred

vaderbreath · May 10, 2008

Very nice work for low cost. Doesn't get much better than that! Great work!!

-Corey

neosporing · May 10, 2008

vaderbreath said:
Very nice work for low cost. Doesn't get much better than that! Great work!!

-Corey

i've received mine as well, since it is hollow, i might try to put 'real' fake eyes in mine before i hand it over to our local alchemist to turn it into real gold.

blufive · May 10, 2008

Nice job, Fred!

:thumbsup

PHArchivist · May 10, 2008

steveo said:
Something I noticed last night while watching ROTLA - it looked like the idol had real eyes in there, or at least fake real eyes and not painted gold. Anyone else notice this?

I also noticed that at the end when they're opening the ark and Indy is tied to the lamp post, the lamp looks like an R2 head. Am I just seeing things?

Yes on noth accounts. Well - yes and no, literally - no you're not seeing things. The R2 head is a fun bit of Indy trivia.

PHArchivist · May 10, 2008

And regarding the idol, Fred...

eek

eek

WOW!!

I am curious about the application of the black. I have full faith in your skills and his methodical approach to problem solving, but I'd much rather spray the black. Did you experiement with differing types of spray pain - lacquers versus enamals for instance?

artoo77 · May 10, 2008

Actually, no. The light fixtures over Indy and Marion have five "pie panel" cut outs, whereas R2 has six.

--Don Bies

PHArchivist said:
Yes on noth accounts. Well - yes and no, literally - no you're not seeing things. The R2 head is a fun bit of Indy trivia.

roboprop · May 10, 2008

artoo77 said:
Actually, no. The light fixtures over Indy and Marion have five "pie panel" cut outs, whereas R2 has six.

--Don Bies

Ahhh, ok then......so the light cover in the scene isn't an R2 dome. Good to know.

smurf · May 10, 2008

Fred that is amazing. That is definitely the way to go. I've cleaned mine up quite a bit this weekend. I'll have to order that powder soon. Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

Gigatron · May 10, 2008

Thanks again, everybody

D

Rob, I tried spraying this enamel through my airbrush as well as krylon gloss black.

When I used the krylon, the finish I got was more akin to antique gold - you know, the color you get whenever you use a spray gold, or like rub n'buff.

When I sprayed the MM gloss through my airbrush, the gold wouldn't adhere correctly. MM enamel has to be thinned quite a bit in order to shoot correctly. By the time I got the sraying ratio corrected, I think it was too thin for the gold to adhere.

BUT, having said all that, I am far from the end-all, be-all expert on cheap gold plating. I experimented with what I had and these were the results I came up with. I'd love nothing more than for other people to experiment and see if they come up with better techniques and results. If nothing else, I hope this leads to people coming up with a solution that looks as good as true plating but for mere pennies on the dollar.

-Fred

PHArchivist · May 10, 2008

Gigatron said:
Anyway, here's the best pic of it I could get - gold does not lke to be photographed

-Fred

This beauty has to be repeated on page two of the thread!

I'd love to see more pics (either email, or in the thread).

Gigatron · May 10, 2008

PHArchivist said:
This beauty has to be repeated on page two of the thread!

I'd love to see more pics (either email, or in the thread).

Awww shucks, Rob :$

Here's 2 more pics

Enjoy,

Fred

vistaVision · May 10, 2008

Fred, that looks fantastic! I'm interested in the cleanup job on the casting. Looks like you did a nice job smoothing down the front hairline ridge (as seen in the pic Blufive posted in his JY thread). How much fooling around was this? Did you have to re-scribe any of the hair, or what?

How durable does this finish appear to be? Could one really carry it around and handle it without messing it up easily?

Again, looks great! Between Blufive's casting and your finishing technique, this has got to be one of the best "budget" prop projects I've seen.

Marcus

My Indy ROTLA golden idol

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