Help with Han solo carbonite face sculpt

[ozzyguanche]

Hi,

I have always wanted a Han in carbonite either on a door or a free standing/hanging piece, but the prices of the castings and import duties and freight have always discouraged me, So I have started to sculpt my own, starting with the face. I have not sculpted anything of size for 20 years or more so sort of starting from scratch.

While looking for references I started to notice major differences in the castings shapes and in some cases little details. This has lead me to wonder, is there more than one screen used casing out there? I always though there was just one. Or are there castings of replicas out there being sold as castings of original screen used molds? Anyone know?

Some casts for sale are as misshapen as smashed pumpkins while others seem to be pulled of Harrison fords face yesterday.

Below is were I am at so far. I have painted with dark gray to help look for major differences, and I see some clearly already, Are there any good reference photos out there of the one displayed at the Star wars exhibitions which I assume is an original, or should I be looking elsewhere for ESB reference?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

Ozzy

 

[MartinSivertsen]

I believe all (most) the Han in Carbonite builds use a front panel that is cast from the original prop, so you should be fine to use those as reference as well.

 

[13doctorwho]

Most of the casts out there are off the Illusive Concepts prop replica. That was cast from an original. So most have lineage to the real one, however, some people are better at creating and maintaining the molds than others. If a total hack makes mold off the Illusive Concepts the mold may produce a crappy finished cast. There is also the question of using good material both for the molds and casts. At the end of the day, the cheap casts on the internet have some lineage, but the molds are cheaply made and the castings warped and distorted.

 

[Tommy]

A couple additional possibilities:

You could've come across a plaque created in 2020 as a COVID fundraiser by "Yoda guy" Nick Maley, who worked in Stuart Freeborn's shop on ESB and assisted Stuart and his son Graham in Harrison's lifecasting. These were made using a casting he received from Graham that may have come from the master face mold (with carbonite effects and hair sculpted on, but prior to being joined with Alan Harris's body in the plaster shop). If so, that would make it one generation removed from the finished prop, plus it was worn from age and Maley added new sculpting around the edges.

Also, while Maley didn't work on ROTJ (and I haven't researched this separately to double-check), he suspects that the carbonite in ROTJ may have been a new casting rather than reusing the ESB prop. If so, he said it's very likely, based on the standard practices of the time, that the plaster shop melted down the vinyl ESB molds following production, only retaining a casting. If that casting had any defects, either from the process or from storage, they would have been retouched during remolding, potentially resulting in subtle differences.