What kind experience did you have before building a prop?

[ChosenPredator]

What I mean is before you got into the hobby of prop building were you doing woodworking or were you sculpting?

Just curious what kind of background people have

I just started a beginners course on woodworking 101 and we are learning the basics and i think at the end of it we'll build tables so I am hoping this helps me when i want to build props.


What are the essential beginner tools of a prop builder.

Also curious maybe I can try something simple and show the teacher a design instead of building furniture so if anyone has a cool plan that is not complex to build with wood that would be awesome.:thumbsup

 

[Mercury]

I've always been making stuff since I was at least a kid. I made a ton of stuff I saw in comic books and what my mind's eye took away from regular books. All out of tape, cardboard, markers, etc. After I read the Star Wars paperback book before I saw the movie I made a Millennium Falcon out of the main hub of the K-7 Star Trek model with masking tape, card, and a pen for the drawn detail. I made a Han blaster out of parts of toys held together with electrical tape.

When I got older, my favorite medium was wood as I had a bandsaw and could make custom parts. This was way before the internet when I relied on Starlog to supply me with images of movie stills, etc. Can't forget Marco Enterprises. I ordered their catalog from the back of Starlog and that alone let me know of the cool stuff that others were making.

 

[Etewaf]

Can't speak for everyone, but I was just a dork who wasn't ever satisfied with the toys that were released from my favorite TV shows and movies. I started modifying toy blasters and building hardware lightsabers when I was like 12, and over the years I've learned what I can from looking at other peoples work and their progress pictures.

 

[Capn_Jack_Savvy]

I had zero experience in prop building / costume construction. It all started with simple leather crafts: baldric, scabbard, etc. After that I moved into minor metal work and scratch building of props using ready made materials. Now I'm starting resin casting.

Having an art background helps, ability to find alternative substitutes to items instead of spending too much time on the hunt for the actual "greeblie" or part, and finally money. Prop making requires money so if you can do a run to line your pockets for future projects do it...........unless you are independently wealthy!

 

[Revolver Ocelot]

Legos. Seriously.

 

[jackdoud]

Mostly plastic model building with years of legos before that. Oh, and taking apart anything I could get away with.

 

[Amadscientist]

Started with an obsession with Science fiction and Star Trek as a kid. Making costumes replicas meant I needed prop replicas. It was Star Wars and the lightsaber for me and my friends. Someones father worked with highway construction and had different colors of highly reflective tape and we used a super 8 movie camera and film lights to create a special effect that was pretty effective. Just pool sticks covered in reflective tape. LOL!

Then one day my friend left her position as a prop master for a local community theatre and she suggested me. My first major build was food for the musical "Oliver" and my first major responsibility of borrowing the local sheriffs gun and blanks for a scene lead me to become more and more serious until I landed my first professional job as a prop designer/manager in theatre.

I still have a geeky obsession with sci-fi. My favorites are Star Trek, Planet of the Apes (the originals), and Star Wars. My new favorites are The lord of the rings trilogy, (which I had always wanted to do myself...but was blown away by what was done) as well as HBO's Rome, Starz Spartacus and any major Ancient History film like Gladiator.

I have far too many interests to list, but a major obsession is ancient history and I am planing a couple of projects, one on the Roman Forum and another on the Theatre of Pompey.

I also discovered something new....at least for me. Virtual props. Not a paper prop, but a prop that exists only in a digital file as art, animation or vector images or pics manipulated and used for film making.

 

[Szyntax]

I've been building models since I was a kid. I'm a journeyman tool and die maker as well as a custom car fabricator so I can build most anything mechanical.

 

[micdavis]

As a cub scout to get am engineering badge, I built a guillotine. From there I built model kits, then built models for the box covers for Revell. Built a cardboard LIS robot in the 5th grade (that's Grade 5 for you Canadians). Then endless props for costuming.

 

[Maelstrom]

Have always doodled and drawn since I was a kid. Now with a much broader aspect. Most pieces I've done are with pastel chalk, but I am fairly versatile in pen/ink, pencil, and watercolors.

I've had several pieces hang in museums (nothing on a major level, but several college campus')

Plastic models as a kid.

We built Star Trek Comms and phasers as kids. Legos, of course.

As an adult I have painted many, many gaming minis. Sculpted a fair amt. of my own minis.

And mostly have always been good with my hands. I've built Bookcases, Entertainment centers, Gun Cabinets, etc. learning woodworking from my Dad.

There is probably more that has led up to it, but that's all I can think of right now.

Mostly started when I researched building a life-size Boba Fett.

 

[themanwoaname]

when i was a kid, i used to mix and match gijoe parts and make new gijoes. then i got into starwars, and i wanted more than what they made, so i started not only taking them apart, but painting them. then i took what i learned customizing starwars, moved back to gijoes and made even better custom joes than when i was a kid.

then i found out i could build a ghostbusters proton pack. ive been propping ever since.

 

[monkeyracing]

Ditto, what everyone else said pretty much.

Childhood - Lego, plastic models, mechano, electronic kits, small engines.

Teen years/school - bikes, wood shop, doodling.

Adult - more electronics, mechanical/customizing work on cars, ran a small company fabricating go fast parts, built and raced RC cars.

I've got a wide variety of hand tools from my various adventures, but I'm not using power tools at the moment as my hands aren't exactly 'sharp' due to an illness. I think my background serves me well in my new hobby.

 

[sjorsjo91]

Played with Lego when i was young.
Tried meccano for a while (didn't work out)
Became quite skilled at origami (Japanese folding art)
Took some materials from school to home and fiddled with that for a while.
Bought a lot of toolsover the years
And I've created blasters, lightsabers and an arc reactor ever since.

 

[Spartan375]

No, i didn't had any experience.

All the experience i had was on using nails and hammer, cutting with a saw (crappy cuts actually) and spray around with the spray paint can.

Personally, i don't thing that Legos count...

 

[Dave Porter]

Hey, don't dis the Legos!!

I still use Legos today, but mainly to make my mold boxes.


I got started like most people, as a kid.

I used to take things apart, made lego structures.

When I was about 12, I made my own Voyagers Omni out of an old compass.

Real prop work was about 5 years ago. Mainly small stuff. But that helped me learn how to make molds, cast from them, etc....

The best way to put it is just to make something.

As Yoda said, "Do or do not. There is no try"

 

[propologist]

legos, erector sets , and then making everything i wanted out of cardboard. in college I designed sets in and out of school . At school I worked in the printmaking and clay rooms to make extra money for school and supplies.
I also did two years of drafting and then double majored/BFA in graphic design and ceramics.

and practice , practice , practice...you don't need to know how to draw to sculpt and visa versa.

 

[Mercury]

Here's a wood build I made back then. It's damaged, the result of years of neglect in storage. I made it based on Dan Goozee's art of Princess Leia holding a Stormtrooper blaster except in the art it was pistol size. Seen in "The Art of Star Wars" book.

 

[ihs]

I've always been into woodworking, and still enjoy it though I have slowed down quite a bit due to work/family commitments. Prop-wise, I haven't built many props at all, though I have toyed with the idea of doing a wooden saber, just to see how it could come out. I've built a couple aluminum/sink-tube sabers I'm less than impressed with, but at least I had fun along the way.

 

[Badsprout]

I sucked at woodwork/metalwork at school; but made loads of Airfix kits. I moved onto miniatures and vehicles for wargames/RPGs/WH40K in my 20s/30s, then gave up for a while. Moved into propmaking just after Christmas when I picked up a job lot of cheap plastic space guns which had interesting possibilities. Haven't looked back since.

 

[Tan Djarka]

I started with Legos and models. After seeing Star Wars and reading about it in Starlog and such, I started kitbashing my own model spaceships and even a V-8 interceptor of sorts. While I tried my hand at a scratch build Han Solo blaster and a lightsaber, it wasn't until recently that I put any real effort into props.