The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

[Q Is For K12]

So, I'm a bit new here and I have a VERY limited budget. However, I was able to produce this veryvery mediocre replica of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

(kelvin8 on deviantART in case people can't see the image above)

Which I built from this papercraft: Hitchhiker's guide by ScannerJOE on deviantART

Originally I built it all together, gave it some cardboard backing, painted 3 layers of Mod Podge over it, spray painted it 2 layers of silver, then one layer of black, and received the end result you see up there. Unfortunately, it looks terrible to me.

I'm going to build another one soon, but before I do - I was wondering if you guys could give me some cheap ways to make it look more screen accurate (AKA smooth, non brushy cover/right texture for cover, getting the metal the right shiny brushed metal texture, and being able to actually scratch it without peeling off all the layers of spray paint).

Attached is some reference pictures I took of the Guide (one of them is a replica I found here) just in case.


Thanks! - Kelvin.

 

[Eagle]

Great effort - you have a promising future.

 

[Q Is For K12]

Thanks! By the way, to anyone else who was ever interested in building this prop, I figured out the fonts to the spine logo. Well sorta, I used a combination of both WhoopA** and KiloGram in recreating the spine logo.

I can't remember what I used to recreate the book's index but I'll upload what I made anyways. It's pretty large. The other decals I'll be using in Mark II is around this site somewhere as well. Made by people much better than me...

 

[Contec]

Looks great I made one myself a few years ago
http://www.therpf.com/f9/dont-panic-i-got-guide-50280/
but mine don't open up.

 

[Q Is For K12]

Looks great I made one myself a few years ago
http://www.therpf.com/f9/dont-panic-i-got-guide-50280/
but mine don't open up.

Yeah, it ended up looking pretty great and the decals are just as good. I'm cheap so I used stickers on mine though :x

How'd you get such a solid look/scratched to it though?

 

[Contec]

I built mine from styrene plastic, its the same plastic that model kits are build from. The scratched look I was able to do by dry brushing silver paint along the edges of the book.
I have known about dry brushing before, but I used this video tutorial : How to Weather a Prop - Dry brush and rub techniques - YouTube

 

[Pagz]

I mocked up 2 guides today for my Ford Prefect costume for PAX at the end of the month (the second one is for my friend Christine who is going to be my Arthur Dent). It's not exactly screen accurate, but I think they look pretty good:

Made them out of some DVD steelbook cases I had. Used craft foam for the bumper panels. Printed the logo, spine and don't panic on gloss paper and glued them on. Made one backwards accidentally, but I'm far too lazy to fix it

 

[micdavis]

There should be an app for this.

 

[Avolow]

All of these look great. I have been wanting to do a version from the BBC TV production. Started it in high school, but never got past the start. This is making me want to break that out and give it another go. :thumbsup

Avolow.

 

[Tom Starkiller]

Wow! That looks incredible. Awesome job, mate.

 

[disposablepal]

that's actually pretty cool! i kinda want to make one now, maybe one where i could rig up lighting on the front and back covers like in the movie but the inside would still be the image you provided, but lit up, sort of like how the screen on a macbook illuminates the apple symbol when its on.

 

[captain avenger]

whenever I see one of these threads, I think: this hoppy frood knows where his towel's at!