The food trays in "2001: A Space Odyssey"

[Markus]

Looking good markus. I used the "Foam as Food" idea also. Sprayed the foam lightly with regular spray can, so the foam can be eaten by the paint and look like mashed potatoes (or Space Food).
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Nice to see your tray again - it just looks great! And this is what inspired my build. Yesterday, I really thought that foam was an original idea; now I figure out that I had probably read about this in your build thread and stored it somewhere in the deeper layers in my brain.
What I want to try, is to scratch the surface to make it look like a "meal in progress".

However, I just read that floral foam is a very unhealthy material (formaldehyde, etc.). But I think I can find a better material with similar properties.

 

[division 6]

Look into high density and polyurethane foams.

 

[Markus]

Look into high density and polyurethane foams.

Thanks for your input.
In the meantime, I already got this:

On their webpage, they state that they use 20% post-consumer recycled material - but, of course, they don't mention if it contains formaldehyde...

 

[Lt Washburn]

Well, don't actually eat it.

 

[joberg]

Thanks markus for the praises I experimented with foam years ago and I got a close look of "food-being-eaten" by using a soldering iron and pushing the foam in little mounts to mimic food. Worked well!

 

[Markus]

The next step was to cut the foam and, with a rather sharp spoon, scratch the surface to make it look like food being eaten.

Then I treat the surface with wood glue, to harden it - as a basis for painting.

This takes forever to dry...

 

[joberg]

Looking good Markus!

 

[Markus]

Painting the foam inserts takes longer than I thought.The dry times are longer (as compared to painting wood) and it takes more layers to fill at least most of the little holes in the foam.

And this is my final prop.

 

[joberg]

Very good job all in all Markus

 

[metaform3d]

That's fantastic! I love the fake food material.

 

[Markus]

Very good job all in all Markus

That's fantastic! I love the fake food material.

Thank you!
Yes, I also like how the food came out. My daughter criticized that there is some small but clearly visible space all around the food blocks. In Joberg's prop, the food fills out all the space up to the edge which looks more realistic. However, it's funny to notice that in the movie prop you can also see a little space all around the food - at least for the two on the left.

 

[metaform3d]

Yours is a lot more appetizing than the various shades of beige from the movie. I feel like it's something I would expect to see in the front window of a restaurant in Japan.

 

[Markus]

Update!
Father's Day came with a huge surprise: The Arne Jacobsen flatware from MoMA.

(... and no discussions on the spoon size, please!)

 

[joberg]

Well, now it`s complete

 

[Markus]

One step is still needed to finalize the build: The graphics for food containers in the blue tray.
Now, finally, I started this.
I am not an expert on these graphics jobs, and I probably don't have the best tools at hand. So, I don't expect results as perfect as those that Squidman posted in the other thread here.
But I have some experience with the open source software "scribus" which I previously used for photo books, a catalog for an art exhibit and for the stickers on my GERTY 3000. Now, I try to use the graphics features and it works better than I expected.
Here is some work in progress.

I am always starting from a basic shape (usually an ellipse), add control points, adjust their positions plus the slopes, and later add some linear or radial gradients.

 

[Markus]

The graphics for the blue tray are now finalized.
It was incredible, for me to see how a combination of very simple shapes in scribus can lead to these beautiful results. I never dreamed that I could get those so close to the movie prop. (A simple detail: the black dots on the strawberry are plain circles. But once you add a small black shadow shifted the top left, plus a white shadow shifted to the bottom right, they really get some depth - while you can hardly notice this detail, it clearly makes a difference).
The only detail that I was not able to reproduce is the structure on the carrots. So, I simply keep them with a smooth surface.
The images are printed on 4"x6" glossy photo paper.

(who notices the one that did not appear in the movie)

They are glued onto the cardboard boxes - and that's it!

My blue tray!

... and: The two trays together.

 

[joberg]

Great job making those two trays...Yep, the banana is one idea (I mean, you can run with so many permutations)
One day, we'll have the detailed pics of the "Bacon box and the Egg box)

 

[Pro Mod]

Superb work!

 

[Markus]

Some afterthoughts:
I had already printed the photo with Andy Warhol's VU banana, and I still had to finish that box (this time, I cut the lower hole before finishing the box - that way, I could use my puncher).
Then, since it was so much fun recreating the food artworks from the movie, I wanted to give it a try to create some original artwork. As I was just enjoying some great Louisiana peaches, I selected those. And I like how they turned out.

Having in mind the banana artwork and a previous paper replica prop of the Soylent Green can label, my daughter bought me a bottle of "Soylent Banana". I'm not sure if I ever want to try that - but I love the composition below in which the "Soylent Banana" acts as the link between the "Soylent Green" and the "2001: A Space Odyssey" props.

 

[Lt Washburn]

Soylent banana is banana!