Greetings.....
OK, I think its about time to clear the air and "keep it real". For those of you that already know who I am... bear with me while I introduce myself. I am an industry special effects, weapons, and prop maker. I primarily work on hero props. Some of my recent stuff includes.... Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, Warehouse 13, Fringe, Mission Impossible 4, The A-Team, Underworld: New Dawn, Stephen Spielberg's Locke and Key, etc. Ok... so.... that should give you an idea of who I am in the industry and hopefully earn credibility that what I'm going to say is just "keeping it real" and not embellishing or blatant BS.
There has been so much talk about the Sonics and who did this, who did that or "no"... it was done this way, or "no"... you're wrong... it was done that way. lol Everything I'm going to say about the QMx sonics is what it is... nothing more and nothing less.
1. First, I was commissioned by QMx to build the sonics for them.
2. I persuaded QMx to bring me to the Dr. Who set in the UK to examine props that they would like to release. I told them that they could not get the dimensions I needed through pictures alone. I told them I would bring my equipment with.... laser scanner, all kinds of engineering tools, etc and I could create perfect CAD models off the actual "Screen used Props". They agreed and I went with.
3. I spent countless hours reverse engineering the 10th and 11th sonics on set and in my hotel room. I never really got to see much of the UK.
Instead, I was working til 3:30am or even all night long to get everything I could. I kept all details... imperfect as well... in my CAD. If I built a sonic right now.... no one would be able to tell mine apart from the original screen used props... period!
4. I know what the 10th and 11th sonics look like inside and out. I was given all 4 hero 11th sonics and the 10th to examine.
5. All 4 11th sonics had slight differences to them. One was a little longer... one part was slightly different than the next one. One had a detail different than another. If you placed all right next to each other, they look pretty identical but once in your hands... you saw the differences. I did a laser scan and CAD on EVERY SINGLE PART... inside and out of all the parts that made up all the 4 different 11th sonics. I took well over 300 photos of the hero screen used sonics alone.
6. Mission accomplished but I wasn't happy enough. I came up with the idea and asked Nick (prop maker who worked on the show for 6 years I believe... correct me if Im wrong on that Nick) if he would build clean versions of all the sonics from the show that QMx would want to release. He said yes. I then told Andy why I thought it would be a good idea. I told him that my CADs were perfect but had all different dimensions from all the differences between the 4 11th sonics etc. I told him that if Nick made the clean versions (try and make the sonics without all the "deadline rush" machining out of it, I would then be able to pic the parts in my CAD to match what Nick made and that would satisfy my OCD as to which of the parts of the 4 11th sonics I would use. Hopefully everyone is still following me and should give everyone an idea of how much "attention to detail" means to me. Andy thought that was a great idea and made it happen. Nick's sonics would also be used to promote the QMx sonics as true and accurate... basically we could show pics of Nick's sonics up against mine. When everyone sees no differences, everyone would be happy and put a lot of questions and concersn to rest.
7. Back at my studio, I went through my documention, photos, and CAD and got everything ready to start machining the prototypes for QMx.
8. I was in communication with Nick about various details as well as trying to find large material sources... like the material used for the crackle effect for the 10th sonic.
9. During my communication with Nick, he asked me to machine up the complex parts of the 10th. Yes.... some of those parts can not be machined up properly without the use of cnc. I had asked Nick if he had kept any of his drawings or dimensions on the 10th. He had said that the original screen used 10th sonic was machined up by a company called Aztec. This was the first time I ever heard this name. That's why I machined up the complex parts of the 10th sonic... my CAD was dead on to the screen used one and everone who would purchased one would be happy knowing that. So, I machined up 2 sets and shipped them off to Nick at the last minute so he could assemble and paint it for Comic Con. Sorry Nick that it was last minute....
. So, the 10th sonic, was a joint team effort between Nick and I to give you guys the best and the dead on accurate details everyone wants. You asked for it... you got it.
10. When I was on set, the studio was extremely professional and extremely protective of these sonics. Being an industry professional, I was able to gain enough trust with them to allow me to do what I needed to do to get the details off these sonics for all of you. And for that, I truly send a heart warm "thank you" to all those involved... from the prop master on up. This level of detail could not have been accomplished without your trust.
11. So, when I build these sonics for QMx... they will be made with my CAD I did of every part of the screen used 10th and 11th sonics. As for the other sonics (not the 10th and 11th), I will be reverse engineering Nick's work (Nick does not use CNC and does not have CAD models). He uses manual equipment and this would not be good when you have to machine several hundred or even thousands of parts for a run of sonics. I will be leaving all of Nick's details intact. Example: I made the Tesla guns for season 3 of Warehouse 13. The Tesla's frame needed to look as if it was hand cut with a hacksaw. Well, for the run of QMx Tesla guns, I left those hacksaw tooling marks in the parts when I programmed the laser to cut them out. That's the level of detail you'll be getting.
12. This is Important. I have seen some of the sonics out there and I have not come across one with all the details as the screen used ones I saw on set. I will not direct or point the finger at anyone specific.... I just don't want to get involved with those fights.... lol. What I want to say is that I have seen people try and replicate my work and state they had access to the prop and its 100 percent dead on. Yet, with all those incidents, none of them had access and none of them were dead on accurate. So... why would they say this? To make the sale. Plain and simple. In the end.... I ask everyone to STOP.... TAKE A DEEP BREATH.... AND RELAX. We're all brothers on this tiny ball floating around in space. lol Just know this... I took every step to give you the most accurate props. I mean.... Nick is now involved with all this. Everything else doesn't matter, everything else that anyone made up until this point has nothing to do with the QMx sonics except what's in this post and the sonics will be exact and that is something I stand behind saying.
OK then.... man I'm tired now. LOL Hopefully this answers a lot of questions for you guys and puts a lot of it to rest. For those of you who are Dr. Who fans and will be purchasing one of these sonics.... you will be getting the most accurate collectable built exactly like the heros. You can't even call them replicas.... you're getting hero made props... the same ones on screen. You won't tell the difference.
Kenney
