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Blade Runner Blaster Original Filming Finish

 
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DeckB26354
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Joined: 24 Oct 2007
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:24 pm    Post subject: Blade Runner Blaster Original Filming Finish Reply with quote


Hi all

I am at the moment building Deckards gun from all the original gun parts, and bloody difficult it has been too!

I am close to finishing it but I have one problem; I can't seem to get an acurate idea of how the gun parts were finished. The Steyr is blued and my custom bulldog barrel is shiny silver steel! However looking at photos of the original prop they both seem grey and dull. Years or neglect and rust is confusing the issue of how it looked during filming. Someone mentioned "cold steel" bluing may have been used but I have never heard of this.

If anyone has great ideas or great pictures of the gun as it was during filming I would love to hear from you. I have included the only (poor) pics I have so far.




http://propsummit.com/upload/303/dsc_0056_closeup_small.jpg
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amish
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello DeckB,

First, welcome to our community! You are taking on a great project that many of us would love to complete and that some of us are well on our way in doing. I am unfortunately not one of them Sad

Check this thread and download the pictures from the link in it:
http://propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=156

In case you have not seen them, Karl Tate has provided us with pictures of the real Blade Runner Blaster in all its glory.

Here is a direct link to the pictures as well:
www.propsummit.com/brpics/worldconphotos.zip

Please keep us posted with updates and plenty of pictures.

Also, Stephan (Pulseriflefan) is doing a similar project located here:
http://propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=562

Good luck!

Tom
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superjedi
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Location: Newport News, VA

PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Deck! Good luck with your project. I (and of course, pretty much all the others) love a good BR blaster.
The photos that Amish pointed you toward are fantastic reference. They do however show the "Hero" blaster how it looks today, instead of as it looked during filming.
Personally, I've never seen good images (except for screen caps) of the blaster as it looked back then.
You can use those images to get an overall idea of the finish the gun used to have. It's become somewhat grungy with age.

BTW, "cold bluing" is a fairly common practice to finish firearms. A chemical is applied to the steel to darken it to a blued finish, then doused with water to stop the reaction. It's actually an oxidation process that has to be treated with gun oil once completed, or the metal will continue to oxidize.
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Noeland
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're going to have to take some artistic liberties with your finish, because there were no solid prop dept. photos taken of the blaster, and rumour says it changed during production as well. I don't think the finish changed, but the details certainly seemed to get tinkered with.

To my eye, it looks like the bulldog bluing was worn down with steel wool, and the steyr was weathered some, but not as much. But I believe that the original finishes of the guns were used, and just weathered.
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DeckB26354
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks guys for the input. Much appreciated! Karl actually pointed me to this forum, so I already have his amazing pics!

Superjedi, the "cold bluing" sounds interesting. Does anyone else think this may be what was done to the original reciever and barrel?

From the terrible pics I have posted, it really looks like the receiver was never the originaldark Steyr blue but if anyone can find any other pics of the blaster from the filming, I'd love to see them....
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superjedi
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, if they used original parts for the production blaster, I would think the Bulldog and Steyr parts would have already been blued from the respective manufacturers. I don't see why they would have altered the base color much, unless they were slightly weathered down like Noeland said.
To my eye, in those "Worldcon" pics, the Bulldog barrel and other exposed parts are a slightly different shade than the Steyr upper receiver. I repainted my R. Coyle v.4x blaster to try to match those photos.
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andy
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

some good info here...

http://therpf.com/showthread.php?t=12127&highlight=blade+runner
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DeckB26354
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks superjedi

It's just that the normal Steyr receiver's bluing is quite a bit darker than that on the hero prop and then you have the CUSTOM bulldog barrel which was almost definitely fresh steel and quite a bright silver in colour along with the support bar when it was originally made. These are all clearly the same colour now and I am pretty confident that they were treated at the same time with some sort of finish. The "cold bluing" that you confirmed sounds like a likely process, particularly as you said it has to be treated with gun oil once completed, or the metal will continue to oxidize and as we can see from the hero prop at has clearly continued to do so!

Anyone any thought?
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Noeland
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It's just that the normal Steyr receiver's bluing is quite a bit darker than that on the hero prop


But the bluing was not maintained, and it was weathered in some way to begin with, and over time has faded away and rusted.


Quote:
then you have the CUSTOM bulldog barrel which was almost definitely fresh steel and quite a bright silver in colour along with the support bar when it was originally made.


Well, you're assuming it's custom, but what if it's not? What if it was already blued? Since we have no idea of it's origins, we have no idea if it was "fresh steel" when the fellow building the gun used it.

The gun is loaded with scavanged greeblies from scopes, and maybe a jewelers screw driver set, so who's to the say the barrel isn't just scavanged off of something?

Quote:
These are all clearly the same colour now and I am pretty confident that they were treated at the same time with some sort of finish.


They aren't the same color now, other than having the same fine coating of rust on them.

If you really study Karl's pictures you'll see the finish is never constant in any 2 shots. It always looks different.

I'm betting if you had it in your hands, showed it under arena lights, it would look one way, then walked outside, it would look different.

But if you really study the shots, you will see that the barrel is slightly lighter than the steyr upper.

I'm just as confident that the styer receiver was not stripped and then refinished to match a raw barrel.

But honestly, Rich is probably the best person to comment on that, since he's done gunsmith work for years, and held the prop in his hands.


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superjedi
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Noeland wrote:


But if you really study the shots, you will see that the barrel is slightly lighter than the steyr upper.



Yes, this was one point I felt was pretty apparent from the "W" pics.
If all the cobbled-together parts of the blaster oxidized/rusted evenly over the years, the difference in color would have to mean that they had different finishes to begin with.
Does anyone know if the Steyr was ever offered with different finishes? Or only the standard blued finish?
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racprops
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry I am so late posting here.

I held it and it looked like they had sanded or steel wooled the bluing off.

I think to give it more of a highlited look on film, blue and painted black parts end up be a nothing but a big black something in a actor's hand.

Consider the classic Black and white Phaser from old Trek, the redid them after only 6 shows and as they not showing up on film as any thing...

IF you study the film you can see the raw steel look of the real gun parts.

Hope that helps.

Rich
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DeckB26354
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for that Rich. What is your opinion on their finish on the custom barrel? It's a fairly close match to the receiver, albeit a little lighter right?

Noeland, sorry for the late reply I have been ill. You make an excellent point; it could well have been a barrel from something else and not a custom made job at all. Perhaps cut down to the required length and adapted to fit the Bulldog frame. Then it would already have had that grey finish. Maybe the same thing applies to the support bar as well. I always thought it was a bit sloppy that it was never cut to actually fit the curve of the barrel.

However, the same dilema applies. I have a Blued Steyr, a steel barrel and support and need to match them up with a finish.

What to do?!!
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racprops
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I looked at a bunch of pictures of the barrel and receiver, and they look like they are of the same metal, finish and age, they are so alike I would think they came from the same gun.

Rich
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