My not so accurate flamethrower from John Carpenter's The Thing

[CB2001]

An update: Still working on the tanks, but I happen to have some cool news. Earlier today, my dad and I went to the flea market in Tallahassee. And guess what? We found and bought, for $2, a J&B bottle! That's right, an actual J&B bottle. The woman said she washed it out and had knowingly peeled the label off, but we happen to know its a J&B bottle due to the red cap, the shape of the bottle and the J&B logo on the bottle itself (near the neck). So, all I have to do is print out the label I picked up from here, and you may be seeing this R.J. MacReady walking around Megacon with a flamethrower and a bottle of J&B (empty bottle of course).

 

[CB2001]

New update: My dad and I have the tanks bondoed up and I'll be sanding them down tomorrow. We also bought some pieces to attach the tanks together.

Also, we've got the flamethrower's gun completed, with the handle attached to it. I'll get progress pictures of it up sometime tomorrow.

 

[ob1al]

Nice to see some love for this movie around here. One of my favourite flicks.

 

[CB2001]

Nice to see some love for this movie around here. One of my favourite flicks.

You think this is love, I've also been working on a not so accurate R.J. MacReady custom (link in the first post).

 

[CB2001]

New Update: My dad and I got the flamethrower tanks fully assembled and attached to each other so that they can be hung and attached to the A.L.I.C.E. After that, we took the tanks and the thrower gun and have started the paint on them. We discovered the original camo green paint we got wasn't military-like enough, so we ended up buying some more paint that matched the A.L.I.C.E. frame. I'm going to also need to purchase another can of gun metal black paint so to do a second layer on the thrower gun. I'm going to attempt to use some silver to add some worn spots on the thrower gun (as my dad was opposed to allowing me to do it on the tanks, but if he sees what I can do on the gun, he may be more open minded to adding minor detailing to the tanks). But, here are some WIP shots of the the tanks and gun.

The tanks, after being bondoed up and sanded down some (did some more sanding after the picture was taken:

Assembled thrower gun (minus connector for piping):

The business end of the thrower gun. As you can see, we drilled some holes into it to sort of match what was shown in the film:

The tanks bolted together with the knob and hose attachment already attached to simulate the piping between the tanks:

The first layer of gun metal gray on the thrower gun (will have to spray a bit on the inside of the gun's "mouth", possibly glue in a piece of styrene:

The first layer of green on the tanks, after we discovered the green wasn't dark enough:

 

[CB2001]

New update shots. Tanks assembled and attached to the A.L.I.C.E. frame. My dad was opposed to me metalizing the tanks, but he compromised with me doing it with just the knob. But, he talked me into adding some minor detailing with the rub-on letters (which looks pretty good to me). He also took a shot with me in the pack temporarily assembled.

The thrower's going to go through one more coat of paint and then I'm going to metalized bits and pieces of the thrower gun, such as the business end of the thrower gun and adding some minor scorch appearances (with flat black paint). But, here's some new shots.

 

[tain669]

Looks great

 

[CB2001]

Looks great

Thanks, tain.

 

[CB2001]

NOTE: This has been copied to both related threads. What better way to end both threads on the same note, eh?

Well, here it is, the end results for both my flamethrower and my MacReady outfit. So, click here, minimize the YouTube window and enjoy the viewing of these pics. And note: I'm not wearing the grey T-shirt that I have in my closet. I'll be wearing that on Saturday at MegaCon (Feb. 18, 2012)

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won." - R.J. MacReady, "The Thing" (1982)

 

[CB2001]

New update: I have come to realize that R.J. MacReady may be doomed for obscurity. On the second day of MegaCon, I walked around for hours and only three people out of the 500+ there recognized me (and only after I began talking to them). I even had one guy walk by with wearing a T-shirt with Carpenter's The Thing movie poster art on it and he didn't even look at me. I was hoping that there'd be a few old-school sci-fi fans who'd recognize me, but there appeared to be no one.

But, thanks to my dad after the first day, he talked me out of wearing the leather jacket, so we went to a nearby Wal-Mart and bought a long-sleeved shirt that looked like the thermal shirt, and I wore it underneath my grey shirt and went as the "causal MacReady", still sporting my hat and flamethrower (I even had the J&B bottle with me, but decided to keep it in my bag. The funny thing, is most people did a double take on my flamethrower pack after walking by.

 

[CHROMIUMDIOXIDE]

great work!

 

[chuckyAPP]

Can't believe I missed this thread, the wip pics are amazing, the tanks came out phenomenal, you and your dad make quite a team. Are you going to add any "battle damage" to the tanks like scratches and chips? I really think that would bring that extra realism as shown in the film. Great hat btw and a little longer on the beard and your Mac ready to go.....

 

[CB2001]

I apologize for not getting back to you guys on these replies. Just been rather busy on my end of things.

great work!

Thank you.

Can't believe I missed this thread, the wip pics are amazing, the tanks came out phenomenal, you and your dad make quite a team. Are you going to add any "battle damage" to the tanks like scratches and chips? I really think that would bring that extra realism as shown in the film. Great hat btw and a little longer on the beard and your Mac ready to go.....

First of all, thank you for your comments. Both my Dad and I appreciate this (we even got a few people performing double takes when looking at the tanks at MegaCon). Well, I wanted to add some "battle damage" to anything that had an edge to it (such as the edges of the tanks where it went from the domed tops and bottoms to the straight cylinders of the tanks), telling him that it would have helped adding detailing and some more realism to it. However, he was opposed to it the whole time, saying that for a real military flamethrower, they would have repainted it every time it even got a small scratch (despite my explaining to him that Outpost #31 was a research facility, not a military complex, despite Mac and Garry being former military). So, he allowed for compromising and allow me to "metalize" the knob on the tank and add some "metalizing" on certain parts of the thrower gun. But as for if I'm going to do it now, I'm leaving it as it is.

And about my beard, I let it grow out a month and a half in advanced. The picture you see of me at MegaCon in my costume thread is as far as it goes.

 

[Mr Webber]

You did an incredible job on all of it, congratulations to you both.:thumbsup

 

[CB2001]

You did an incredible job on all of it, congratulations to you both.:thumbsup

Thanks.

 

[lovelyandy]

Awesome work !

 

[Noeland]

Did you wear the hat? Because that threw me at first, and I love that movie. Seen it many times.

Great build, great costume. Only thing it's missing is some weathering.

 

[CB2001]

Awesome work !

Thanks.

Did you wear the hat? Because that threw me at first, and I love that movie. Seen it many times.

Great build, great costume. Only thing it's missing is some weathering.

Yeah, the hat you see in the picture is what I wore at the convention. In fact, got a picture of me at the convention with it on (without the jacket, of course. Like I said, it was very humid in the convention center, and I probably would have fallen out if I had).

Thanks. Like I said previously, I wanted to weather the tanks a bit, but my Dad wouldn't budge on it. He was former Army and stated that any scratches or dings would have resulted in the tanks being freshly repainted right away (thus why it looks fresh and clean painted), even though I told him that the group at the outpost weren't military but did have former military with the likes of Mac and Garry (the only thing he did allow me to weather was the red knob for the tank, which I showed him how a little silver paint can make it look a bit metal, the bottom of the grip as you can see in some of the pictures above, and the bits of the thrower gun, making it look a bit burnt at the end with some slight streaks of silver to give the "scratches into metal" appearance).

 

[lharles]

I don't know HOW I missed this thread before. Glad someone dug it up for me to stumble upon it. I'm gonna' use your thread here as a starting point for makin' the thrower 'gun', if nothing else. Looks great, even if I am a few months, (at a minimum), late in saying so.

 

[CB2001]

I don't know HOW I missed this thread before. Glad someone dug it up for me to stumble upon it. I'm gonna' use your thread here as a starting point for makin' the thrower 'gun', if nothing else. Looks great, even if I am a few months, (at a minimum), late in saying so.

Thank you. Granted, the thrower gun doesn't look close enough to the one in the film, but I'm still pleased with it.