Max Replica
Well-Known Member
When putting together a Mad Max 2 / Road Warrior costume, you'll find that there are many items that are either very rare, very expensive, or both (assuming you want some semblance of screen accuracy of course).
So, when I started putting together my ultimate screen accurate Road Warrior outfit (full tutorial in the coming months) there were a few items that I decided to cast in resin rather than try to find/buy.
But first, an overview of the hard to get items for the Road Warrior Costume:
(in no particular order):
Max's shoulder pad (specifically the shoulder plate)
Boot knife
Vintage hydrant spanner / firefighting tool
Vintage fireman's axe
Correct leather jacket
Sawed-off shotgun
Shotgun holster
Boots
Leg brace
Knee pad
Of these items, three were good candidates for casting in resin. The shoulder plate, the knife, and the hydrant spanner.
THE ROAD WARRIOR SHOULDER PLATE
What Mad Max costume item is more iconic than Max's shoulder plate from MM2? The problem is, the vintage Rawlings shoulderpads from that time period are getting very hard to find on eBay, and even when they are found, they rarely come with the correct plate. (Even the recently unearthed pair of rare (supposedly screen accurate) Rawlings ER-46 shoulder pads that sold on eBay for $82 didn't come with a screen accurate plate!)
In fact, of all of the fan costumes we've seen over the years, only one or two had the correct shoulder plate.
(If you're reading this you probably have already seen Karol's shoulder plate guide, but if not, go here: http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/pads.htm)
Well, we finally managed to source two correct plates and made a mold from the one that had just the right mold shape and slight wear to it. We've used a special high quality white resin that is super strong and has about the same flex to it as the real plate (I wouldn't recommend actually playing football with this plate, but it will NEVER break under normal costume use - we cast a test plate just to try breaking it, and it was NOT easy)
PLEASE NOTE: This is the plate only. I still needed some shoulderpad arch padding (the underpadding) to strap it to to make the complete Mad Max shoulderpad that can then be riveted to a jacket. (see this tutorial if you haven't already: http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/maxpad.htm )
But that's the beauty of it. This accurate plate can be paired with pretty much any arch padding from a common, cheap pair of pads.
There is also a reason I actually prefer to have one of these resin plates over an original - the paint. The real white football plate is very hard to get the paint to stick to. It constantly flakes off, even if you use primer and sand the plate first (if you look closely at the movie, they had a hard time with Mel's plate too, you can often see bits of white showing through). The resin plate holds the paint much better, even without sanding.
Unpainted plate just out of the silicone mold:
View attachment 22988
Painted plate:
View attachment 22982
THE HYDRANT SPANNER
This metal wrench hangs off of the back of Max's sam browne belt and is, along with the axe, part of a set of New South Wales firefighting tools. This is perhaps the single hardest thing to find for a Road Warrior costume these days. You can pretty much only get them from eBay Australia (and I haven't seen one on there for months) and when you do find one, don't let the price give you a heart attack.
Luckily, Karol and I eventually got access to several real Aussie hydrant spanners (they are not all the same) and were able to make a cast from one that is very screen accurate.
Here's a shot of Max's firefighting tools. (I'm working on having a custom reproduction leather pouch made for the spanner as well.)
View attachment 22981
Here is the resin spanner (it's not as shiny as it looks in this picture, and you can't see the subtle silver paint weathering that makes it look like worn metal - trust me, it looks great in real life):
View attachment 22987
MAX'S BOOT KNIFE
You can see this post I did in the Madmaxmovies forum for some obsessive info all about Max's knife:
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7868&p=75316&hilit=+gerber#p75316
But the basics are that it's a Gerber Mark 2 combat knife and it sells for between $130 and $200 on eBay - when you can find a correct one (which isn't always easy).
I own a correct original Gerber, but I decided to make a resin one anyway for 2 reasons:
1. They are not real double edged knives and are less likely to get confiscated by security at a fan convention, or even worse - law enforcement (there aren't a lot of public places where you're encouraged to carry a double edged knife in your boot).
2. They're WAY cheaper than the real thing, while still looking very very accurate, so not a huge loss if it gets confiscated (see #1 above)
This knife is also popular with Aliens Colonial Marines costumers, but theirs usually uses a black blade instead of silver, and I'm not 100% sure which blade style theirs is. Could be the straight-bladed version that was released after the "Max" version.
The mold on this knife came out great and is detailed enough that you can even see the serial number on the blade from the original knife.
In the first two pictures I'm attaching, you'll see the real gerber on top and the fake one on the bottom. Then you can see two replicas side by side, one made with a silver blade, and the other with the Aliens black blade.
View attachment 22985
View attachment 22986
View attachment 22984
Lastly, as you would expect, I've got a small run of these items for sale right now. I'll put a FOR SALE thread up in the junkyard about them.
View attachment 22983
P.S. To just give you some quick tips on finding the other items in the list at the beginning of this post:
The vintage fireman's axe can often be found on eBay UK (not usually 100% SA but very close)
The correct leather jacket can be ordered from Southbeach Leather (but I recommend you order it with no shoulder pad since theirs is stupid, and order it with two full sleeves since they cut theirs off wrong.)
The good sawed off shotgun replicas by Hudson turn up on eBay pretty often. They're still expensive (anywhere from $100-300) but they're not that easy to cast in resin unless you want to use a ton of resin to make each one, not to mention the good paint job you'd need to make it look like wood and metal, so I just bought a Hudson one instead. You can also make a pretty convincing replica by painting up certain cheap airsoft guns (usually under $20 but getting hard to find)
The boots can be crafted from a modified pair of surplus Russian Army boots (but the modifications will need to be done by a good shoe/leather shop and will run you $150-$300 on top of the price of the boots).
The leg brace I covered in a previous post:http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=79226
The knee pad is still a make-it-yourself item at this point
And the shotgun holster is now available in a very accurate replica from a company called Magnolia Leather Works (email them if they don't currently list one in stock) - (They're not to be confused with Magnoli leather).
So, when I started putting together my ultimate screen accurate Road Warrior outfit (full tutorial in the coming months) there were a few items that I decided to cast in resin rather than try to find/buy.
But first, an overview of the hard to get items for the Road Warrior Costume:
(in no particular order):
Max's shoulder pad (specifically the shoulder plate)
Boot knife
Vintage hydrant spanner / firefighting tool
Vintage fireman's axe
Correct leather jacket
Sawed-off shotgun
Shotgun holster
Boots
Leg brace
Knee pad
Of these items, three were good candidates for casting in resin. The shoulder plate, the knife, and the hydrant spanner.
THE ROAD WARRIOR SHOULDER PLATE
What Mad Max costume item is more iconic than Max's shoulder plate from MM2? The problem is, the vintage Rawlings shoulderpads from that time period are getting very hard to find on eBay, and even when they are found, they rarely come with the correct plate. (Even the recently unearthed pair of rare (supposedly screen accurate) Rawlings ER-46 shoulder pads that sold on eBay for $82 didn't come with a screen accurate plate!)
In fact, of all of the fan costumes we've seen over the years, only one or two had the correct shoulder plate.
(If you're reading this you probably have already seen Karol's shoulder plate guide, but if not, go here: http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/pads.htm)
Well, we finally managed to source two correct plates and made a mold from the one that had just the right mold shape and slight wear to it. We've used a special high quality white resin that is super strong and has about the same flex to it as the real plate (I wouldn't recommend actually playing football with this plate, but it will NEVER break under normal costume use - we cast a test plate just to try breaking it, and it was NOT easy)
PLEASE NOTE: This is the plate only. I still needed some shoulderpad arch padding (the underpadding) to strap it to to make the complete Mad Max shoulderpad that can then be riveted to a jacket. (see this tutorial if you haven't already: http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/maxpad.htm )
But that's the beauty of it. This accurate plate can be paired with pretty much any arch padding from a common, cheap pair of pads.
There is also a reason I actually prefer to have one of these resin plates over an original - the paint. The real white football plate is very hard to get the paint to stick to. It constantly flakes off, even if you use primer and sand the plate first (if you look closely at the movie, they had a hard time with Mel's plate too, you can often see bits of white showing through). The resin plate holds the paint much better, even without sanding.
Unpainted plate just out of the silicone mold:
View attachment 22988
Painted plate:
View attachment 22982
THE HYDRANT SPANNER
This metal wrench hangs off of the back of Max's sam browne belt and is, along with the axe, part of a set of New South Wales firefighting tools. This is perhaps the single hardest thing to find for a Road Warrior costume these days. You can pretty much only get them from eBay Australia (and I haven't seen one on there for months) and when you do find one, don't let the price give you a heart attack.
Luckily, Karol and I eventually got access to several real Aussie hydrant spanners (they are not all the same) and were able to make a cast from one that is very screen accurate.
Here's a shot of Max's firefighting tools. (I'm working on having a custom reproduction leather pouch made for the spanner as well.)
View attachment 22981
Here is the resin spanner (it's not as shiny as it looks in this picture, and you can't see the subtle silver paint weathering that makes it look like worn metal - trust me, it looks great in real life):
View attachment 22987
MAX'S BOOT KNIFE
You can see this post I did in the Madmaxmovies forum for some obsessive info all about Max's knife:
http://www.madmaxmovies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7868&p=75316&hilit=+gerber#p75316
But the basics are that it's a Gerber Mark 2 combat knife and it sells for between $130 and $200 on eBay - when you can find a correct one (which isn't always easy).
I own a correct original Gerber, but I decided to make a resin one anyway for 2 reasons:
1. They are not real double edged knives and are less likely to get confiscated by security at a fan convention, or even worse - law enforcement (there aren't a lot of public places where you're encouraged to carry a double edged knife in your boot).
2. They're WAY cheaper than the real thing, while still looking very very accurate, so not a huge loss if it gets confiscated (see #1 above)
This knife is also popular with Aliens Colonial Marines costumers, but theirs usually uses a black blade instead of silver, and I'm not 100% sure which blade style theirs is. Could be the straight-bladed version that was released after the "Max" version.
The mold on this knife came out great and is detailed enough that you can even see the serial number on the blade from the original knife.
In the first two pictures I'm attaching, you'll see the real gerber on top and the fake one on the bottom. Then you can see two replicas side by side, one made with a silver blade, and the other with the Aliens black blade.
View attachment 22985
View attachment 22986
View attachment 22984
Lastly, as you would expect, I've got a small run of these items for sale right now. I'll put a FOR SALE thread up in the junkyard about them.
View attachment 22983
P.S. To just give you some quick tips on finding the other items in the list at the beginning of this post:
The vintage fireman's axe can often be found on eBay UK (not usually 100% SA but very close)
The correct leather jacket can be ordered from Southbeach Leather (but I recommend you order it with no shoulder pad since theirs is stupid, and order it with two full sleeves since they cut theirs off wrong.)
The good sawed off shotgun replicas by Hudson turn up on eBay pretty often. They're still expensive (anywhere from $100-300) but they're not that easy to cast in resin unless you want to use a ton of resin to make each one, not to mention the good paint job you'd need to make it look like wood and metal, so I just bought a Hudson one instead. You can also make a pretty convincing replica by painting up certain cheap airsoft guns (usually under $20 but getting hard to find)
The boots can be crafted from a modified pair of surplus Russian Army boots (but the modifications will need to be done by a good shoe/leather shop and will run you $150-$300 on top of the price of the boots).
The leg brace I covered in a previous post:http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=79226
The knee pad is still a make-it-yourself item at this point
And the shotgun holster is now available in a very accurate replica from a company called Magnolia Leather Works (email them if they don't currently list one in stock) - (They're not to be confused with Magnoli leather).
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