Noble Collection - Harry Potter Prop Mods

Hylo133

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Noble Collection's Potter items are a pretty good way to get replicas with lineage to the original props.
Unfortunately the production finish tends to let the items down.

Inspired by Magnavis lovely Horcrux collection, I decided to upgrade some of my Noble items and bring them closer to the originals.

For anyone else doing something similar, feel free to post here as well!

First up, the Slytherin Locket.

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Possibly one of their weakest outings, the final production locket ended up being very different from the original prop. The chain around the body was replaced with a molded-in pattern, the chain connection section shrunk down and the snake head removed.

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First step, I dremeled down the artificial chain pattern on the sides.

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After that, I designed and printed a new connector piece and sculpted a new circular connector and snake head. Both were then painted in chrome.

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I was lucky to find a cheap miniature chain to fit around the locket and glued it in place.


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I toyed with the idea of opening up the metal edges around the 'amber' stone to make it more accurate, but felt it would do more damage than good.

After putting everything together, I ended up with a clean version ready for weathering.

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After several passes of weathering all pieces, I was happy with the results.

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Up next, Tom Riddle's diary.
 
Tom Riddle's Diary.

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This one proved a lot more elaborate than I imagined.

I originally planned on weathering the existing Noble diary and stamp Tom's name on the back. Unfortunately,
the 'leather' on the Noble version proved impossible to weather and impervious to any form of stamping.

In general, the only accurate part on this one is the metal corners. Tom's name isn't stamped, but rather glued on top a separate piece of leather. From my research this only looks to be the case on (what I presume to be) a stunt version but definitely not on the hero prop.

Also, the weathering on the metal corners wasn't very convincing.

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After lots of unsuccesful methods of making the exterior look more accurate, I decided to take the plunge and purchase what may or may not be an unlicensed version floating around online (it does have correct licensing information printed inside). You can find one of the many places it's available here.

Not knowing what to expect, I ended up being pleasantly surprised with what arrived.

In spite of being cheaper and having inaccurate corners, the 'leather' on this version is much nicer and it has Tom's name actually stamped on the back.

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So, taking this new exterior as a base, I moved the metal corners from one copy to the other and started on the pages inside.

All pages were weathered with a mixture of coffee, tea and acrylics.

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I then screencapped and extracted the written lines from the movie and printed them out. This of course isn't too accurate, but it's pretty hard to make an exciting presentation out of invisible writing :D.

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Some new weathering was done on the metal corners.

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And after some mild distressing of the leather, it was done!

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Up next, the Crystal Goblet.
 
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Crystal Goblet

Compared to the other pieces, this one proved to be a pretty straightforward repaint, though still challenging in getting the right finish without sacrificing the translucency of the piece.

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In any case, the original paintjob was quite lousy. What is supposed to represent rock was simply a patch of black paint (not to mention the poorly placed trademark), and the crystals sections had no paint or weathering whatsoever.

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Luckily the sculpt underneath all of this proved quite beautiful and accurate.

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Tom Riddle's Diary.

View attachment 1560218

This one proved a lot more elaborate than I imagined.

I originally planned on weathering the existing Noble diary and stamp Tom's name on the back. Unfortunately,
the 'leather' on the Noble version proved impossible to weather and impervious to any form of stamping.

In general, the only accurate part on this one is the metal corners. Tom's name isn't stamped, but rather glued on top a separate piece of leather. From my research this only looks to be the case on (what I presume to be) a stunt version but definitely not on the hero prop.

Also, the weathering on the metal corners wasn't very convincing.

View attachment 1560193View attachment 1560194

After lots of unsuccesful methods of making the exterior look more accurate, I decided to take the plunge and purchase what may or may not be an unlicensed version floating around online (it does have correct licensing information printed inside). You can find one of the many places it's available here.

Not knowing what to expect, I ended up being pleasantly surprised with what arrived.

In spite of being cheaper and having inaccurate corners, the 'leather' on this version is much nicer and it has Tom's name actually stamped on the back.

View attachment 1560195View attachment 1560196

So, taking this new exterior as a base, I moved the metal corners from one copy to the other and started on the pages inside.

All pages were weathered with a mixture of coffee, tea and acrylics.

View attachment 1560198

I then screencapped and extracted the written lines from the movie and printed them out. This of course isn't too accurate, but it's pretty hard to make an exciting presentation out of invisible writing :D.

View attachment 1560199
View attachment 1560200

Some new weathering was done on the metal corners.

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And after some mild distressing of the leather, it was done!

View attachment 1560202
View attachment 1560204

Up next, the Crystal Goblet.
nice work! how did you clean up the metal corners?
 
Very nicely done.

Will you do a second with the hole in it?
I might try it if I can find a good deal on the Noble 'statue' version that comes with the fang. The latter looks like it's been casted from the screen used versions.

Will make for a pretty gruesome display piece though .:eek:

nice work! how did you clean up the metal corners?

Thank you!

I used a q-tip with a small amount of nail polish remover. Definitely had to be careful though, the gold layer underneath is also painted on.

After I got most of it removed after a first pass, I rubbed the rest off with some disinfectant wipes.
 
I might try it if I can find a good deal on the Noble 'statue' version that comes with the fang. The latter looks like it's been casted from the screen used versions.

Will make for a pretty gruesome display piece though .:eek:

As you said with Noble in general, the fang is a good start, but the finish is completely opaque and too dark.

Needs at a minimum a re-paint or , ideally, to be cast in clear resin where a degree of translucency can be achieved.
 
As you said with Noble in general, the fang is a good start, but the finish is completely opaque and too dark.

Needs at a minimum a re-paint or , ideally, to be cast in clear resin where a degree of translucency can be achieved.
Absolutely. I need to dig a little deeper into what the correct finish would be.

This picture that Warner posted on twitter some time ago from the Potter exhibition, shows it being quite opaque but still a lot more nuanced.

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(credits: source here)

Also interesting here is the damaged/stunt version of the diary looking a lot more like the Noble replica. Sure they based theirs on this one.
 
Thank you!

I used a q-tip with a small amount of nail polish remover. Definitely had to be careful though, the gold layer underneath is also painted on.

After I got most of it removed after a first pass, I rubbed the rest off with some disinfectant wipes.
Where did you get the knock off diary?
 
As you said with Noble in general, the fang is a good start, but the finish is completely opaque and too dark.

Needs at a minimum a re-paint or , ideally, to be cast in clear resin where a degree of translucency can be achieved.

I've actually been digging into this some more and it seems that none of the licensed replicas out there are actually a match to the screen used fang. Maybe that isn't news, but it was certainly new to me .

The only truly clear reference I could find are various sizes of this official picture:


Guess I'll have to make a 3D model instead.

Where did you get the knock off diary?

Sent you a pm.
 

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