I've recently been getting poked and prodded by a few members to make a few more of these pipes I did way back in '08/09, and I've always been a bit reticent about doing so. I'm very fond of my first non Ghostbuster prop, but I've always felt going backwards, is, well, going backwards. My mind changed recently upon meeting an old customer, as well as stumbling upon an old leftover casting while getting the studio cleaned and reorganized. So, all the odd little pushes on this old prop, led me to taking another look at it, and updating the design and the accuracy of the prop.
I started with the old casting.
I reshaped and smoothed the stem, then I chopped the stem at the lip. From two left over cast resin pieces, I 'machined' new lip pieces on my Dremel. These are much more accurate, and also add much needed length to the stem itself, which I always felt looked a bit stubby.
When I first made this prop, I completely made up the bottom of the piece, deciding to make it look like the Tia Dalma lockets, thinking in my own head that the pipe was a gift from Calypso for Jones and the lockets were part of that. I used the 'mouth' of the face to be the spot where you could turn on the flickering light inside the bowl. Upon discussing the real prop with the maker, I found out that the foot of the pipe is just a plain crab shell. The front claws also go down a bit further than my original sculpt, so I added to that, thus creating the correct shape. I also added the rear crab legs onto the body this time, and instead of casting separate pieces, I'll just be Dremeling out the space.
Once all of that was matched up and sculpted together, I had a much more convincing and accurate pipe. I'll be creating new front pincers, and adding a bit of sandy crust to the rest of the pipe to really grunge it up. Once cast, I'll be switching to small magnets to make the foot of the pipe removable instead of the open mouth, thus making access to the flicker lights much, much easier. This will also enable the batteries to be changed. The original design has to be cracked open to change the batteries, although they did have 40 hours or so of life.
I've also re-sculpted the base; the cloth Chest key drawing, sticking closely to the original sculpt, but making the size much more accurate, and adding a lovely canvas texture with crumbled wrinkles. The slightly larger size means that you'll be able to fit the MR locket and key on the base as well, and maybe even some of Jack's rings. This will be getting touched up during the week.
I'm looking forward to casting this over the next weekend, and getting a few of these into people's hands that have been bugging me for years to get one (you know who you are
).
Enjoy!
I started with the old casting.
I reshaped and smoothed the stem, then I chopped the stem at the lip. From two left over cast resin pieces, I 'machined' new lip pieces on my Dremel. These are much more accurate, and also add much needed length to the stem itself, which I always felt looked a bit stubby.
When I first made this prop, I completely made up the bottom of the piece, deciding to make it look like the Tia Dalma lockets, thinking in my own head that the pipe was a gift from Calypso for Jones and the lockets were part of that. I used the 'mouth' of the face to be the spot where you could turn on the flickering light inside the bowl. Upon discussing the real prop with the maker, I found out that the foot of the pipe is just a plain crab shell. The front claws also go down a bit further than my original sculpt, so I added to that, thus creating the correct shape. I also added the rear crab legs onto the body this time, and instead of casting separate pieces, I'll just be Dremeling out the space.
Once all of that was matched up and sculpted together, I had a much more convincing and accurate pipe. I'll be creating new front pincers, and adding a bit of sandy crust to the rest of the pipe to really grunge it up. Once cast, I'll be switching to small magnets to make the foot of the pipe removable instead of the open mouth, thus making access to the flicker lights much, much easier. This will also enable the batteries to be changed. The original design has to be cracked open to change the batteries, although they did have 40 hours or so of life.
I've also re-sculpted the base; the cloth Chest key drawing, sticking closely to the original sculpt, but making the size much more accurate, and adding a lovely canvas texture with crumbled wrinkles. The slightly larger size means that you'll be able to fit the MR locket and key on the base as well, and maybe even some of Jack's rings. This will be getting touched up during the week.
I'm looking forward to casting this over the next weekend, and getting a few of these into people's hands that have been bugging me for years to get one (you know who you are
).Enjoy!
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