Many of you will have seen the interest thread I started for this in the JY waaaaay back, last year. Well, the project dragged on and got delayed because of other commitments but now that it is FINALLY nearing completion I thought I'd make a thread here and talk about how it has progressed before I resurrect the JY thread from the depths and offer them for sale.
Since I've consolidated my main collection down to mainly Firefly, Aliens, Hellboy and Ghostbusters stuff (with a few oddities), I'm running out of major "iconic" props to replicate- especially ones that have not been done before. Kroenen's "crank" jumped out at me as a prop I haven't seen done and since I had never, up til now, done any BRASS ETCHING I figured maybe that would be possible.
I used to call this prop his "heart key" but after reading through the script I realized that they called it a crank, so from now on that's how I'll refer to it!
At first I was dreaming about disassembling Wagner music boxes and making the key SPIN to tunes but after a while I realized that it wasn't going to be feasible. The first hurdle was to decide on a material. Could i do it out of brass or would I have to go all-plastic?
While waiting for replies to a bunch of inquiries on brass etching, I started working on a 3d model of the handle and made this template:
After studying all the images I could find it dawned on me just how "sloppy" the prop looks in real life! Getting the details correct proved to be quite the puzzle- it's so full of bends and twists and is never seen in bright light in the film.
My first attempt at cutting out the key BY HAND out of brass sheet proved to be a waste of time and failed miserably- there was no way I was going to be able to cut out such fine detail. It then took me a LONG time to find a (somewhat) local firm that could do the etching for me.
After some revisions (and a little research help from fellow Hellboy fanatic and RPFer Hollywoodharware) I ended up with a 3d model for the handle. Since I wanted to make nearly identical multiples, I decided to model som of the gears of the mechanism as well. (These will be "hidden" slightly by thin brass stock that will act like a coil spring.)
And the final (raw) 3d printed parts:
After finally sending away the blueprint master to an etching firm and waiting... this came back in the mail:
I was AMAZED at the fine detail that had been etched. Next up... my first experiments putting this together... soldering brass and whatnot.... stay tuned!
thumbsup
