Hey all,
Just posting up another Movie Prop Restoration project.
This piece was in the last PIH auction and was noted to be in poor condition. When it arrived in my shop, the head was barely held in place by two small bits of material on the right side (when looking at him) of his neck. He also had some bad cracking and flaking and quite a bit of exposed foam/missing skin.
The client and I discussed the project in depth and settled on a balanced approach. Repair and resculpt the neck, patch the major missing areas, seal the belly and relatively minor cracks and such.
I set about making a sturdy repair for the neck and rebuilding the missing areas, carefully matching the skin look and textures to make it as seamless as possible. I also backed the belly with some eva sheet foam (to help stabilize that area which was thin foam latex and begining to crumble). I then sealed the belly and cracks and and patched some of the larger flaked off areas on his sides and back. Then I carefully painted the repaired spots and neck to match the surrounding, 24 year old paint (always the most difficult part!).
My client and I are both very pleased with the result. He's much more stable and sturdy, his look is greatly improved but he's still "age appropriate" and looks and feels like a vintage piece and not some brand new replica.
All that remains on this is an acrylic display stand which is being fabricated this week and then he'll be back to his owner! Tough to let this one go... it's a very cool piece!
Tom
Just posting up another Movie Prop Restoration project.
This piece was in the last PIH auction and was noted to be in poor condition. When it arrived in my shop, the head was barely held in place by two small bits of material on the right side (when looking at him) of his neck. He also had some bad cracking and flaking and quite a bit of exposed foam/missing skin.
The client and I discussed the project in depth and settled on a balanced approach. Repair and resculpt the neck, patch the major missing areas, seal the belly and relatively minor cracks and such.
I set about making a sturdy repair for the neck and rebuilding the missing areas, carefully matching the skin look and textures to make it as seamless as possible. I also backed the belly with some eva sheet foam (to help stabilize that area which was thin foam latex and begining to crumble). I then sealed the belly and cracks and and patched some of the larger flaked off areas on his sides and back. Then I carefully painted the repaired spots and neck to match the surrounding, 24 year old paint (always the most difficult part!).
My client and I are both very pleased with the result. He's much more stable and sturdy, his look is greatly improved but he's still "age appropriate" and looks and feels like a vintage piece and not some brand new replica.
All that remains on this is an acrylic display stand which is being fabricated this week and then he'll be back to his owner! Tough to let this one go... it's a very cool piece!
Tom
Last edited:
