Han in Carbonite H.I.C. Resto-build

[Redman2187]

*This project is being conducted by RPF members kenblomi, Hanamaid & myself *

CONTINUED FROM: Original Illusive Concepts makeover by DarthChromer Thread here:

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

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...

www.therpf.com

Please take a moment to go back over DarthChromer’s original project at the link above. This build goes through all the alterations and fixes he did to this Illusive Concepts HIC and his mold making and subsequent rubber castings he offered nearly a decade and a half ago. It then goes into my acquisition of the original mold and first gen rubber casting and our initial fiberglass casting from that.

We initially took a couple archival fiberglass castings, and the mold has since DIED. RIP. We did get a few castings out of it before its demise, so we have a couple for archival purposes.

So here we are today... I had hinted at the plan of going even further with the casting to bring back a few details that were overlooked, not deemed as important or whatever, but were VERY important to us and our OCD. So that is exactly what we have been doing over the last year.

The box itself is our own design that started with 15+ years of research and sketchup work by Kenblomi with further refinements to match the original prop and to be as lightweight & functional as possible.

Here are some photos of our fiberglass master of the DarthChromer and our raw box together before we started the project.

Initially we made a list of all the things we wanted to rework and accomplish with our new iteration of this cast. At the same time Hanamaid was commissioned to build a HIC for a friend, so he used one of our boxes and Han castings for that commission. He used that Han as a warmup and to do an initial rework of all the areas we identified for our final makeover. Here are some photos of how that turned out.

Here are a few comparison images to show the original prop against DarthChromers IC sculpt and what our goal is with the final sculpt based on photos of the first one-off by hanamaid.

So, the plan moving forward is to build out our box to as closely match the original. To sculpt all the identified areas on Han. To integrate Han into the box and sculpt in the transition between them. To make a mold of the entire HIC, box and all. From that we can cast a full light weight HIC shell from fiberglass which will be easier for us to hang on the wall. After we succeed in that we will move onto Phase 2, the panels and electronics which we plan to get from Todd Blatt's 3dstuff.com.

Here is a comprehensive list of the identified areas of work:

-Nose width and shape need minor adjustments.
-Enhance areas where pores and wrinkle details are faded.
-Re-apply carbonite texture on fingernails.
-Enhance minor hand wrinkle details.
-Restore hip scar that was smoothed over during IC’s run of HiC’s.
-Sculpt collar tip back on and thread textures that are missing in IC HiC.
-Sculpt carbonite texture in both top corners where the carbonite meets the box. This was a detail that we assume was altered during the IC cast.
-Sculpt box edge carbonite texture transition with high accuracy.
-Other misc. details.

We have already progressed through most of this work but ill space the progress out in some separate WIP posts.
-Dan

 

[jtalaiver]

Stunning!!

Happy to say I was the recipient of the "warm-up" commission and it is phenominal.

 

[encased]

Love how you handled the paint. Been trying to figure out how to approach it. May I ask what colors you chose? You seem to have nailed how the body panel differentiates from the box in certain views. That's what I'm going of as well.

 

[Hanamaid]

I used Glidden shining armor for Han and Glidden Phantom Hue for the box. I then did a lot of weathering using some alcohol and some various acrylic washes using earth tones and avoiding any black. Lastly I did a good amount of the painting by hand using various colors to get the rust/dingy look. It took me about a week. I practiced a ton with these various steps to get the right look before applying it to the jtalaiver HIC. It was a ton of fun.

 

[Redman2187]

THE BOX

So here is a brief history of the box that brings us to 2024:

2007-2022

Our replica of the Han in Carbonite (HiC) Box has been a passion project of Jeremy’s for over 15 years. It all started back in 2007 when he randomly purchased a fan made replica of the front plate on eBay. Having that panel in hand, he originally planned to make the box himself by just manually cutting all the pieces from MDF with power tools and so started the deep dive, researching photos, references and measurements online. Then eventually stumbling upon the infamous blueprints that most everybody uses, (The ones posted by "miqt" on the dented helmet in 2009, where he states that he didn't know where they originally came from)

Using those blue prints, he first attempted to hand cut all the panels with a jigsaw (which was all he had at the time) but the cuts didn't turn out as well as hoped, so being a graphic designer by profession and working at a sign shop at the time, Jeremy figured he could recreate all the panels in vector format to have a machine cut thru his job, so that’s what he did. During this process, because of all the research he did, he also realized how inaccurate the fan made front panel was that he purchased on eBay, so he ended up selling that and the project got put on hold for quite a while.

He never assembled the box since the front panel was sold and the box panels became lost in the mix of scrap wood in the shop, lost or thrown away. Fast forward a few years to 2013, Jeremy stumbled upon a rubber casting of the front panel made by "Darth Chromer" here on the RPF, which was beautifully reworked from an Illusive Concepts HiC, so he bought one, then stumbled upon the Zenix box kit around the same time on the RPF as well which used the same blueprints he originally started with, so he considered going that route for the box for a bit. Now not to say that the Zenix kit isn't outstanding (because it is), Jeremy was ultimately turned off by the puzzle piece side panels, the fact that they would still require the purchase of additional material for supports and such, and the fact that he had the means to create the panels himself the project was put on hold yet again where it would stay in limbo for the next 10 years.

Fast forward to 2021 when he started working here, with me, a good buddy & fellow costumer/prop maker the project was given new life. The two of us set out to review and perfect not only the accuracy of Jeremy’s drawings but the functionality & integrity of the design. So began another deep dive into research and development. Together we refined several elements in regard to the accuracy of size, angles & details. We developed an attractive internal support structure that not only served to add rigidity but also kept weight down and was aesthetically pleasing when viewed from the reverse.

In the end as we built the 3rd box with all the modifications, we also made some dummy end caps (Seen in below photos) to add some detail organic to the panels.

2022-24

After it was built, this latest version of the box sat here in the shop for quite a while as we contemplated our next steps and found time to jump back in. When our new friend Hanamaid joined the crew and brought with him a newly found DEEP obsession with the prop our motivations went into overdrive, and we found time to get things moving again.

We made the final decision to mold the box rather than to keep making them from MDF for a couple reasons. We knew we would be making several more for ourselves and friends and a mold would save LOTs of time on any future builds, they would be very light weight in comparison, and we could do them 100% in house as we don't have the large CNC for the MDF.

Once we made our mind up, we decided we wanted to go as far as we could with perfecting the details, so we combed it over and made a few notable changes as we got it ready.

1. The height was off a 1/4" or so in our determination so we added 1/8" of balsa to each end. We Also closed in the top and bottom recesses rather then add the detail cutouts. This allows us to do various things with them on each build like adding the cups or NOT adding them or adding details etc.
2. We rounded ALL the edges of the box. Each edge rounded to best replicate what we feel we see in the original. This included all the inside edges of the panel cutouts on the sides and more drastically on the ones on the top and the bottom.

3. We added a piece of balsa inside each panel opening at an angle to mimic the real prop design. (See photos)
4. We had to re-shape the panel cutouts on the side of the box. This was a big deal and a bigger decision to make as it would lead to a lot of extra work, but we felt it was important enough to us to do it. The shape of the cutout was just a bit off, and we solved the issue by drawing up some VERY fine shims that could be laser cut from some balsa and glued into the corners of each panel (See photos). From there we could fill all the gaps and seams with filler and sand smooth. Considering we would have to do this all around it was just more of the same... but a lot more.

4. We added a 1x strip of wood around the bottom/back edge to raise the box for molding.

After we made all the changes we got deep into filling and sanding everything. all the corners, wood seams and nail heads etc. as well as all the panel recesses. This was no small feat.

Finally, we glazed the entire box and sanded her down smooth and added some details along the way. After that we primed the whole thing, but I'll drop those pix once we get through the Han panel work and the phase when we actually marry them together.

These couple photos include some sneak peeks of Han that would get posted later on in the WIP but I wanted to include them here. ENJOY.

 

[encased]

Wow! You guys are killing it. I have a Zenix kit I'm about to build for a Darth Chromer panel but I also have the panel I got from you that I will need to do another box for. Does this mean you'll be offering these?

 

[Redman2187]

We just aren’t really sure what we could commit to right now so if we did it would likely just be one here or there as we are making ours and can do an extra. The Han panel alone exhausted a LOT of resources of which we are still recovering from lol. This box will likely be double that, so we’ll see what we can do when that time comes.

I’ll surely try to help you out though Brother.