v312's builds

Well here’s to the guy (or gal) who won that auction! This Stembridge is the only true SW film prop that was actually used by Solo in the OT in the world today that we know of. I think it sold for couple hundred grand or something. With the PS blaster selling for over million.. this prop definitely is more valuable than that one. The one Ripleys won wasn’t used and it sold for 500k. This Stembridge is crazy valuable and certainly belongs in a museum. I’d personally love to see one day. What a private collection that lucky individual must have!
 
Well here’s to the guy (or gal) who won that auction! This Stembridge is the only true SW film prop that was actually used by Solo in the OT in the world today that we know of. I think it sold for couple hundred grand or something. With the PS blaster selling for over million.. this prop definitely is more valuable than that one. The one Ripleys won wasn’t used and it sold for 500k. This Stembridge is crazy valuable and certainly belongs in a museum. I’d personally love to see one day. What a private collection that lucky individual must have!
Well, the 2 scope rings MGC in the archives is also 100% used in the movie. But I guess you mean from those that are out in the wild, I agree that the Stembridge is the most valuable of all of them.

I actually don't know who's the current owner of the Stembridge blaster and what else might be in his/her collection, but anyone who can spend that much on a single prop is a lucky person in my book regardless of what it is exactly :)
 
Yep and there’s also the Hoth in the Archives as well as probably even the GK but those along with the Endor will never be leaving. Actually they might all end up in that Lucas Museum as I believe he still retains ownership over all the OT props??
 
Thanks to dindjarin22 for reminding me about this stuff. I took these a while ago, but wasn't too happy how they turned out. It's actually much harder than I thought to match all the angles, light, etc. of the archive photos. It was fun, but I don't think I'll find the time to do a proper setup and match them more closely.

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I know it sounds little bit creepy, but I've added another severed hand to my collection ... Trust me, I'm not one of those serial killers from the movies that collect body parts in jars as trophies ... I only have 2!

Still working on the glove, It's far from perfect match, but with little more work and weathering I hope it will be good enough:

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I've recast the t-racks and most of the greeblies in resin to be able to weather them somewhat accurately. I think it is a quite good trade-off between having it too idealized with regular t-tracks, bubbles, d-ring, etc. and casting the entire saber.

I was not sure how many of the d-ring greeblies I'll waste until I manage to break one somewhat similar to the real prop, but my second try turned good enough:
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This looks incredible! almost indistinguishable from the real thing, honestly. You have an eye for this.

one thing a lot of people get wrong too is the other bolt hole. I'm pretty sure they backed out the hex bolt and clay-ed in the edge to make a cylinder, and that its not a knurled screw. I could be wrong about this though?
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This looks incredible! almost indistinguishable from the real thing, honestly. You have an eye for this.

one thing a lot of people get wrong too is the other bolt hole. I'm pretty sure they backed out the hex bolt and clay-ed in the edge to make a cylinder, and that its not a knurled screw. I could be wrong about this though?
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Well, credit goes to eethan for creating this very accurate kit, I've only put it together.

I don't think i've seen that greeblie from a good angle, but it looks knurled on this side:

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although can't 100% rule out it is marks from filing if the greeblie was made separately and glued to the prop. There's similar knurling on some of the ESB stunt castings that looks like it was sculpted with a tool or just marks from filing.

On the other side it is even more tricky as it goes out of focus:
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but certainly it looks even thinner
 
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Oh ****! Good call on the first picture, I must have written that off as file marks... I use metal files on my resin casts a lot, but it is perpendicular.

I think the core/blade Leila hands to Roger was pulled from the Barbican so they must have only been able to grab one of the original bolts, since the temporary core is visible in the uppers in the cast
Supernatural GIF
 
Oh ****! Good call on the first picture, I must have written that off as file marks... I use metal files on my resin casts a lot, but it is perpendicular.

I think the core/blade Leila hands to Roger was pulled from the Barbican so they must have only been able to grab one of the original bolts, since the temporary core is visible in the uppers in the cast
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I forgot about the core!!! Im
Running to YouTube now to re watch!
 
Leia's ESB wrist communicator.

Another work in progress project, although I may just leave as it is ... it's anyway in a better shape than the real prop at the end of filming.

And of course I'd love to get some feedback as I'm sure I missed some details or maybe got some greeblies totally wrong.

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When you whatch the movie and check the promo pictures you can see how the greeblies dissappear one by one until almost nothing is left at the end:
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However the strange thing is that some greeblies appear to be added after others fell off. Almost like there were several props and we randomly see Leia wearing one or the other ... although I think it was most likely just one.

Like on the picture above you can see that all the little michell knobs are missing except one that holds the _n_ shaped greeblie on the side.
But on another picture I found in the forum there are 3 of the little knobs on the front side of the prop and the side greeblie is held with a rivet.
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I'm not sure if I remember this correctly because I could not find the reference picture, but I think I ve seen a very high resolution of this:
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And it appeared that the small knob is sitting on top of the rivet head like it was screwed in inside the rivet. If I find the reference again and it is like I remember it will be an easy change to make though.

Here are the best references I could find where the prop looks most complete with greeblies:

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Here the brass piece is still there on the tape measure part held with one of the small michell knobs. The knob on the side is still there (and is there during the entire movie as far as I can tell), but the 2 small knobs on the switch part are missing. Also the two angled contact pieces are missing in the middle of the switch part, but looks like there are marks where they used to be glued - the 2 red spots.

Here's another from the movie:
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As far as I can tell the 2 knobs in the two holes of the switch piece are there and there even seems to be some flat greeblie between them in the spot where on the pictures above looks like there is some glue residue.

When I first started building this I thought here I see some dome shaped greeblies inside the bezel greeblies on the tape measure part. Kind of like the little plastruct domes that cover the screw holes on the Barbican:

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Although now I'm convinced on Leia's wrist comm it's just some weird shadows that make it look like that.

Anyway, I had them ordered already and I'm pretty sure I didn't order the transparent ones , but that's what they sent me. I was thinking to paint them black so it didn't matter. But I tried they and they fitted perfectly inside the holes and I think the prop looks really cool like that so I left them.


Now, to the other set of important pictures:

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Here the holes on the bezels also look pretty black like there's something inside , but most likely again it is just a harsh shadow.

But the interesting part is that the angled contacts are still there in the center of the switch greeblie.

It was suggested in another thread that these are the contacts from the switch :
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and to me it also looks like that , so I used them in the build. Question was - were these glued on the inside or on the outside?
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hard to tell - but he tips don't look rounded but sraight. And there are no traces of someting that was glued on the outside, just on top:
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I tried both options, and the overall length of the parts and the holes positions aligned better for me on the inside. And could not rue out completely the option that they used some totally different part for this.
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The brass part and the knob that was holding it in place are gone from the tape measure part in these pictures. The hole where the knob used to be is clearly visible though, so here it is little confusing to me what was the order these greeblies were added or removed?

Also ther are no small knobs on the front side at all.


As far as I can tell in the scene where Leia kisses Luke is the only place where both the angled contacts are on the switch part and the brass piece and small knob are on the tape measure part:

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Althogh still no small knobs on the switch part.

The little knob on the tape measure side seems to hold another greeblie that goes to the side, maybe it is also one of the angled contacts from the switch? Does not seem to be brass though I might be wrong. It can be spotted in several scenes, but the best one I could catch is here:
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Finally, there's a mistery greeblie on the upper side. It must have fallen off pretty early as in most references it is missing, but the glue ressidue and the missing paint where it was are clearly visible.
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Althoguh I can make out the general shape I thought it is not worth it to try and replicate it. There's no chance to make it exactly what it was only from the references I could find and since I'm so used to see the prop without it it won't' even look "right" to me with something there.
 

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By the way, I forgot to mention that I could not find a definite answer in the forum about what exact model was the tape measure.
I actually had one that looked like it but it was probably from the 2000s or maybe 1990s, but cetainly not as old as the 80s. So I looked around for cheap vintage ones and I believe this 16' model is the correct type:

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This was a NOS one still in the original packaging dated 1983.

There are also a metric version (5m) and a combined metric/imperial (5m/16'):

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p
But the part is identical on all of them. The metric one I have apparently was made in France while the other two in USA.
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The only difference with my newer one that I could tell was that the knurling stripes are thinner on this compared to the newer.
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There are also older variants made entirely of metal (this one is chromed plastic). But they have slightly different shape, so the plastic ones look a better match to me... not to mention much easier to drill for the little knob and the bezels.
 
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Great detective work!

Did you make the two bezels on the tape measure part?

First I’ve ever seen of that brass bit, and I agree on the plastruct domes… the part inside the switch and on the edge look like contact block lugs.. I swear I’ve seen them.. let me do some digging
 
Great detective work!

Did you make the two bezels on the tape measure part?

First I’ve ever seen of that brass bit, and I agree on the plastruct domes… the part inside the switch and on the edge look like contact block lugs.. I swear I’ve seen them.. let me do some digging
my bezels are actually washers... I've modified them a bit of course, but I didn't spend too much time - just to use them as placeholders until something better becomes available.
 
I don't know exactly, but you're looking at a single ground/earth terminal on the side there.
 
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