WIP: Dune 1984 Guild Translator Staff

[Logiwonk]

Advice, Comments, Corrections welcome!

Hello all, this is my first attempt at recreating a movie prop. I think it's going to be a long process because I have sub-optimal working space and I'll need to develop several skills along the way, but that's part of the reason I'm attempt this.

Dune 1984 is one of my favorite movies and the Future-Sci-Fi-Medieval aesthetic is certainly part of that. I ran across a Guild Navigator custom for sale here on RPF and that reminded me how much I love that translator staff the Guild navigators use to communicate. It's big, it's clunky, it looks like it's 80 years old and was put together out of radio scrap and covered in grease.

So I decided to build one, and maybe get a arduino and speaker in the headpiece so I can push a couple buttons on the shaft to trigger particular clips from the movie such as "Remedy the situation or you will live out your life in a pain amplifier."

So first thing, measurements. I took a bunch of screen captures. Then I used the one above and measured different facial measurements and standardized them to 50th percentile male face measurements for reference, then took measurements of the staff and converted them to real-world cm. I got this:

Then I threw some of the basics into Sketchup to check and see if they made sense (Scaled Sketchup lady up to 5ft 10 inch avg male height for comparison, please excuse my basic sketchup skills just started using it today):

So my first reaction was I'm in the right ballpark but will need to refine a number of the measurements along the way, probably need to build a mockup in something cheap and just hold it to see how it looks and tweak measurements, then start breaking it down into components and thinking up materials and best techniques for making them. For one the thickness of the shaft does not see right compared to the size of the main box.

Overall, I'd like it to feel really heavy and solid. Specific thoughts on specific components.

The "Box" I was thinking finding some kind of metal tin or canister and cutting off the 12 oclock and the 6 oclock sides to put flat spots on there (it's not perfectly round). Then an arduino with a speaker would be attached.
Speaker - I was thinking about finding and killing an old colander to repurpose for this.
Metal Ring - would love to make this out of steel but I don't have the right tools to bend it evenly so I was thinking aluminum armature wire?
The pylons connecting the box and the metal ring look like turned wood with some kind of hardware attached to the top to hold the ring. The bits of wire connecting the box and the metal ring will be easy.
The shaft should be metal, and hollow for mounting wires and buttons for activating noise.

Some tricky spots:
1. The end of the shaft looks like it might have some kind of knob on it but I can't see it clearly in any of the scenes.
2. The back of the box that you speak into is different (see pics below), look slike it has and additional circular component with another circular component inset into the center at the back.

Overall, it seems like a doable project that will really push me to develop some new skills. Thanks for any feedback.
Additional pictures:

 

[Karstein]

You know the overall size looks close to an empty 3d printer filament spool, that might give you a base to work from, or mock-up.

CD for scale
Armature wire might be too soft and easily bent out of shape, what about cheap fishing rod sections, rigid but flexible and springy?
For the speaker have a look at perforated practice golf balls.

I’m looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

[Logiwonk]

Thanks for the advice! I've fallen pretty deep down the rabbit hole on this already. Because it's meant as a replica for display rather than for Cosplay, I decided that I wanted it to have a very robust construction, so it feels really substantial when you pick it up.

The outer ring I've decided to make out of 1/4 inch mild steel rod for durability. I'll either have to bend it myself or will hire someone with a proper rod bender if I can't do it myself.

A perforated golf ball is probably too small, but you gave me the idea to look at other sports and a pickleball is build very similarly with a diameter of 70-77 mm which is almost perfect.

Right now I'm looking to make the main shaft from 1 1/4 inch black steel pipe (or perhaps aluminum because it will make drilling easier for the buttons). This will give me an easy end cap (threaded pipe end cap) and a way to attach it to the main box (threaded flange set inside the box).

Mounting the buttons for starting the movie sound clips in the pipe (where you hold it closer to the main box with one hand) is a non-trivial task, but I've come up with a solution involving a piece of sheet metal that the buttons will mount on inside the tube with their buttons proud through holes. When I have a drawing mock up of this setup I'll post it.

The main box I've decided I'm going to have to design and 3D print in at least two pieces, which will allow me to get the shape right and have attachment points for the three pylons, a speaker, an arduino, the pipe flange, and a battery. After studying the screen caps like a fanatic I've decided the main box is some kind of industrial salvage that they found, haven't been able to identify what it was sourced from though.

This build is really going to challenge my existing skill set and force me to learn a lot, I'm enjoying the process. Finally understand why Adam Savage has such a wide grin when he's doing his one-day builds.

 

[Karstein]

With the beading and slight concave it could be a wheel rim of some sort from a go-cart, or possiblly a pulley idler, either would certainly have some heft. But if you’ve access to a 3d printer it hardly matters.

 

[Logiwonk]

I see what you mean about the pulleys and rims, definitely has that feel. I don't currently have a 3D printer, I was thinking of designing it and either getting access to a local maker space or using a print-on-demand service, since I'm already pushing far outside my current skills with learning 3D modeling, arduino basics, and doing some electronics.

The more I look at this prop the more it looks like a cross between a old school knuckle head microphone and power line/ceremic insulators:

 

[Karstein]

Yeah it’s got that mic holder vibe definitely

I can see you’re using sketch up. From my experience of it, which isn’t much, it would be difficult to make complex parts like this.
Have you had a look at Fusion 360? It’s free for hobby use. It’s a hugely powerful program but for what you want to do it’s fairly easy to work out.

 

[BeardySi]

+1 for anything but sketchup. It's not the best for 3d modelling and getting stl data from skp files can be a pain.

Sounding like a good plan so far. Personally I'd suggest you go to a metal fabricator for the outer ring. It's should be an easy and relatively cheap job to roll one out. It's such a prominent feature that it'll stand out a mile if it's a bit skewiff...

 

[Logiwonk]

Karstein, I'm glad to hear you recommending Fusion 360. I was already strongly considering using it because I've seen some really amazing work done in it by Maker's Muse and Martin on Wintergatan (the Marble Machine Guy). I'll be downloading a copy and getting to grips with it later this week.

BeardySi, I agree completely, if the outer ring isn't a perfect circle it will be really glaring. I have some 1/4" stock and was going to give it a shot, but I suspect for the final piece I'll want it bent by someone with the perfect machine for the job.

 

[Logiwonk]

Got 360, it's a lovely program! Here are some quick mockups of the central box I'm planning on 3D printing (still needs internal spaces carved out for components and attachment points for the 3 pylons, the pipe flange the rod will screw into, mounting spots for arduino, battery, speaker, etc).

 

[Karstein]

Outstanding. One tip that might help doing the holes at the front - on the menu there’s a button for ‘merge’ bodies.
Its not obvious from the name but it’s actually 3 tools: Merge, Cut, Intersect

You can cut one body using a second body as the cookie cutter. So for your holes use a sphere or cylinder and Place it where you want the hole and cut it out.

 

[Logiwonk]

Thanks for the advice, I'll look for a video on that tool. There are a large number of great tutorial videos on Fusion 360 out there that have been very helpful. I was thinking that I'd cut the holes smaller than I wanted them on the 3D print for both the Speaker Boss in front and the attachment points and then clean them up to final size by drilling them out after printing.

I heard something about a pattern feature too that I might be able to use to setup the cylinders to cut holes with in a regular pattern for the Speaker Boss (the part that looks like a pickleball half). So that's in my homework too.

 

[RedheadKevin]

View attachment 1298906
View attachment 1298907

Are those bald guys supposed to be the same bald guy? Dude's gotta stop picking at that head.

 

[Logiwonk]

RedheadKevin, yup. Checkout this amazing costume that Rebelproof made, he had a custom bald cap made based on that charcter:

DUNE (David Lynch) - GUILD NAVIGATOR Costume

Hi Dune Fans, once again a nice Dune Costume/Cosplay for sale (I dont want to brag but this came out really cool and canon). Guild Navigator of the Lynch version DUNE (1984) Be the 1st one worldwide to show up at a Con as an awesome GUILD NAVIGATOR. This costume consists of really hi-class...

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