CHIPPING THE AMBER GRIP TO MIMIC WORLDCON HEROPROP DAMAGE?

[panzerrune]

Hello,

To further mimic the WC heroprop and all its "perks and personality" including damage to the prop, i want to attempt to take the corner off of the grip on my SIDKIT. I am contemplating ways to do that, one is to take off the grip and carefully sand down with fine grain sandpaper approx the angle and look of the damaged corner of WC heroprop. I believe that will work as i am going gentle on the grip so to avoid massive splintering and cracking (i would then be in trouble)! I would than most likely take a very sharp x-acto blade and fine tune the area after sanding. Issue i see happening, the chipped/cut corner will most likely turn opaque!? My option would be to have to paint it so it is not a garish opaque color. I figure black would be my best option to blend it in best i can.

These are my ideas and i am posting here for anybody else that has a possible different and better way to pull this off without plastic all over the place. With SIDKITS website down/gone i cannot get a replacement grip if i screw this up. Any tips and advise is MOST welcome!

Thank you!

[andy]

Please understand what I talked about before, and know that the chip is still there. It is glued in place and is more transparent and invisible because of the glue. I think you could mimic it by scratching in the cracks and paint the back of the piece black directly on the grip itself. No need to ruin the grip by an accident.

Andy

[panzerrune]

[Helder22]

the grip on the picture above has not been cracked and glued back on . It hasnt been broken at all. Its just pressed onto the black paint so hard its causing an optical effect. I know because mine does exactly the same thing when I tighten the screw too much . EXACTLY. trust me.

[andy]

I agree with helder. Either it is the paint which I pointed out before, or if it is glue they glued it to prevent it from cracking like the opposite side. The reflections on the cracked side show that the piece is there, but it may be missing a small shard in between.

Andy

[panzerrune]

Thanks guys!

So now i know that side has not been snapped off and put back on. I thought it looked way to clean for being something possibly glued back on. The pressing down so tight at that screw area makes complete sense as that is what would cause the black to be dominate in that area as pointed out.

[panzerrune]

Andy,

After studying more photos as per the ones i am posting here, you are correct! There is surely a piece glued back on, and also there is a piece missing. For me to replicate that would be very hard!

Thanks.

[Helder22]

Unless you are able to determine when the damage happened, it might be a bad idea even to consider copying it. For all we know that chip (and any other blemishes) might have happened after filming. Replicating the gun as it is now, decades after it was used in filming is unwise to say the least.
It is obvious to me that that gun has been severely neglected over the years. I doubt that the gun looked anything liked that during filming, it probably looked much much newer.

[panzerrune]

[andy]

Actually the broken chip can be seen in the movie, right before Deckard's hand is pulled through the wall at Sebastian's by Roy. Of course it looks like the hero prop was replaced with a stunt at that time since you can see the seam the stunt casts had along the top of the gun. So very possibly another set of grips all together. The piece is completely missing too.

Andy

[andy]

To add more to this, you can see that the "chip" is there when the hero prop is handed back to Deckard (so is a lot of plaster dust in the grip pattern ). Also interesting to note is that the White wires are missing at this point even though they could be seen pretty clearly right before the scene of his hand being pulled through the hole in the wall.

This could mean a few different things. The scene of him getting the gun handed back to him was filmed before the scene of him along side the wall before that where we can see the wires (as it is in the worldcon), Or there is more than one hero, Or the wires were hidden somehow.

The chipped handle could have happened during this scene or several where we see the gun drop. The hero was dropped for sure when he is climbing the bookcase. It is also possible the crack happened when they tightened down too tight on the screw at that spot.

Andy

[andy]

Well I decided to go back and double check and sure enough, after Deckard drops the gun from the book shelf you can see that it looks like the chip is missing, exactly how it is on the worldcon (without the piece replaced yet). Sorry for some reason any of the Players I have on my laptop will not let me do screen caps.

I still think doing it without the chip is still the best Idea though. Just because it would be disastrous to make a mistake trying it.

Andy

[drmcoy]

now that we can see that the corner piece is not missing entirely but was glued back on and there is a little "gouge" indentation left behind, one COULD replicate the gouge with a dremel tool -- take one of the very small drill bits -- the one that has spherical drill bit on tip) and chisel the gouge into the resin.

However, as interesting an idea this chip recreation is, I agree with Andy that it is not worth pursuing UNLESS you had a spare replacment grip, as even gouging the resin could cause the grip to crack and the screw might not be able to hold grip to grip frame.
_________________
teckel@bellsouth.net

[panzerrune]

Well that sums up that mystery, the grip chip was done during filming, now i want to replicate it even more! Andy thanks for scrutinizing the film frames!

drmcoy, i do not have a dremel kit, but i have x-acto blades. I will have to ditch the idea of actually taking off a corner and putting it back on (WAY TO RISKY), BUT i can try to carefully remove that section out of it to still give it a damaged look. I feel carefully working it with continuous sharp x-acto blades will do the trick.

This has been proven now to be on film and happened during filming. I will give it some thought and work with it when i have a lot of time to sit with the gun and figure it all out. If i do something i will post photos here. Keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks.

[panzerrune]

Looking at those photos again, i realize the piece missing will be so very small it should not be a problem taking it down with x-acto blades. I just have to lay the grip flat and NOT bend it at all when i am cutting into it, if i do the plastic could very well snap in half! I may take on this project over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Thanks again!

[panzerrune]

Working in such a small area and working on those grips too boot can be dangerous ground to tread on, luckily the plastic is very dense and hard and one would really have to just beat on them or bend them to get them to just break appart.

Considering i was cutting into the grip to create that small chip and replicating cracking on such a small area and on the tip of the grip, i did best i could do to replicate the WC heroprop damage. I also painted the inner grip frames black, so to replicate the spot on the other grip top corner where the screw is clamping down tight to show the black paint pressing through, i went in and took care of that area also.

Thanks.

[drmcoy]

WOW...looks like you nailed it. You, sir, are a braver man than I!

Nice work.

Now all you need are Harrison Ford's fingerprints on it!
_________________
teckel@bellsouth.net

[panzerrune]

[andy]

Looks good. I would be too afraid to do it myself.

Andy

[The Loyalizer]