My Harley Quinn Birds of Prey Mallet prop made it into DC comics (pics next to screen-used prop)

indiefilmgeek

Sr Member
Really, really excited that I finally got to use my hobby of costume/prop building for work! In this case, I was asked to build a large replica of the Harley Quinn Mallet from the new Birds of Prey movie. This was to be over-sized for a photo our Creative Team was doing for an ad in DC comics. We started with reference photos and I build it out of HDfoam and a thick wooden dowel. After painting it and chopping off one side so it looked like it had smashed a poster case, it was turned over to the Art team who did a GREAT job of making it look epic for the DC comic books.

Here is a look at the DC comic book ad that ran this Jan, and my Mallet prop.
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And then today (1/28/20), we got the ACTUAL screen-used prop from the movie into our office (Regal is giving it away, btw).
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FYI... Actual prop size:
Head Diameter: 5"
Head Width: 6.5"
Handle Length: 24"

And... this is a look at the my prop next to the screen-used version. As you can see our over-sized version is pretty close to the original (just scaled up)! :)
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I'm simply THRILLED at how this came out and how close to the original it looks!!!!

****

This started out as Foam... that I battle-damaged with my dremel and wood-burning tool.
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Because of the quick build required for this, I cheated and printed out the diamond pattern for my foam prop. Here is how the test fit of that printout looked before painting the mallet.
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Then it was time to seal the foam with Plasti-dip.
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...followed by 4 progressively darker coats of tan/brown/black paint to give it wood grain look.
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I followed this up with getting the writing done and adding the smiley face!

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Hope you enjoy seeing the progress pics as much as I enjoyed building this!

Keep Building!
IndieFilmGeek
 
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oh my goodness i have been looking EVERYWHERE for the dimensions of this prop. I KNEW the one i made was too big :confused: thank you so much for sharing! If you don't mind my asking how what paper/ink did you use to print the diamonds? I painted mine but I love the finish on yours! Also, how did you insert the handle so cleanly? Beautiful work btw! I'm hoping to remake mine with the screen accurate handle soon!
 
Glad it helped! :)

I had access to an over-sized printer (since the mallet I built was much bigger than the 5" diameter real prop. But if you print the pattern off on 11x17 tabloid paper you should be able to get the diamond pattern section to go all the way around the mallet head.

The handle, I just carefully cut the hole with an exacto knife and then glued the handle into place. HOWEVER, I cheated. Since we needed the mallet to look like it was smashed through the poster case, I had the end of my mallet cut open. So, it was SUPER easy to glue it into place!

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Glad it helped! :)

I had access to an over-sized printer (since the mallet I built was much bigger than the 5" diameter real prop. But if you print the pattern off on 11x17 tabloid paper you should be able to get the diamond pattern section to go all the way around the mallet head.

The handle, I just carefully cut the hole with an exacto knife and then glued the handle into place. HOWEVER, I cheated. Since we needed the mallet to look like it was smashed through the poster case, I had the end of my mallet cut open. So, it was SUPER easy to glue it into place!

View attachment 1254215
Been brushing up on my trivia for the contest, have a few entries under my belt, so I'm hoping against all odds! I clearly need to invest in a better knife because mine was nowhere near as clean :) Anyway, thank you so much for your help! And congrats again on your work!
 
Are you sure those measurements are exact? I saw the movie yesterday and the handle doesn’t look like 2 feet. I feel as if it’s longer... maybe I’m wrong
 
Are you sure those measurements are exact? I saw the movie yesterday and the handle doesn’t look like 2 feet. I feel as if it’s longer... maybe I’m wrong
It’s 2 feet. I think it throws people cause Margot is 5’5. So it looks long. But the mallet really isn’t that large. They scaled it down a Lot from suicide squad.
 
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