MsGeek
Community Member
Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Location: Paranoia City, CA
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 Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:22 pm Post subject: The BR Bento Project... |
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Since this isn't a replica of a screen-used prop, after careful consideration I figured this would be the right place to discuss this project of mine.
The photos of the project are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msgeek/sets/72157603621394710/detail/
Anyway, I bought an extra briefcase from eBay to do this. No way was I going to destroy my 5 disc set, and the fact that some foolish people were parting out their 5 disk sets on eBay made this quite possible. Actually they might not be foolish...the parts are selling well, and the people who are parting the set out seem to be making more money in total on their sets than those who are selling theirs intact. It's a sin from a fan standpoint, but it does make business sense.
The first thing I did was rip out the foam rubber in the bottom half of the briefcase. I kept the vinyl pockets in the top because they were perfect places to stow things like utensils and condiments. This move left me with gobs of hot glue and the remains of the foam rubber clinging to the bottom of the case. Eew. I sanded and scraped, but found that there were very obvious scrape marks left in the bottom. This is only getting worse. Eew. So I decided I'd better line the bottom of the case.
I got half a yard of arctic vinyl from Jo-Ann's, in black. Most of the vinyl and oilcloth at Jo-Ann's was flannel backed. That would mean two things: hard to cut and a good chance of lint going everywhere. The arctic vinyl, however, had a polyester netting on the bottom, and cut very, very clean. I wanted a patent-leather look, I got a black leather jacket look. Not bad.
I decided I was going to glue the vinyl down with contact cement, then caulk the seams so that there would be no hidey-holes for crumbs and a nice non-porous surface which could be cleaned up with a few good swipes from anti-microbial wipes. Yes, I wanted to actually USE this. Unfortunately, this proved not-so-advisable. Both the contact cement and the "liquid nails" clear sealant seem to be throwing off fumes, even after I gave them the curing time the package said they'd need. So this is basically going to be for display and an "art project," so I will be getting some of those neat Japanese display food items to put in the boxes.
Anyway, back to the narrative about the bento. I was able to line the bottom and 3 out of four sides of the bottom half of the briefcase. However, the side that had all the latches and weird jogs around was not going to be taking a lining. So I painted most of it with black model paint and that made things look a wee bit nicer. It's still kinda fugly but it's not as bad.
I sealed up the seams with sealant, and the results once the sealant cured and became perfectly transparent were excellent. The pictures taken in the set which show the sealant don't do the work justice...some of it was still a bit cloudy.
The next step was to go to Little Tokyo to stalk the wild container. I found two beauties which were the perfect depth to fit in the box, plus they had a grid pattern on the top that was very evocative of BR aesthetics. I also found a very neat and very manly (this is Deckard's Bento, after all, or so I thought) pair of chopsticks with an Ukiyo-e painting of a tiger as decoration. I also found a chopstick box that was very masculine looking, as well as two indigo Furoshiki (wrapping cloths) which had a really cool Kanji pattern on them.
I still need a few goodies:
1.) mini soy sauce bottles;
2.) mini condiment containers;
3.) silicone bands that are used to hold the containers closed;
4.) fake food to put in the containers (this is an art form in Japan);
5.) a "One Cup" sake container (of course a Blade Runner will have booze in his Bento!)
and
6.) maybe Western utensils too.
Anyway, after conferring with my husband, who is now a Blade Runner fan thanks to viewing The Final Cut twice in theatres and watching all the goodies from my 4 disk and 5 disk sets, we've decided that this is not Deckard's bento, but Gaff's bento. Deckard is just not the kind of guy who would take the time to lay out a bento for himself to take to work. However, Gaff is so style-conscious he'd likely take the trouble to do it. He's also part Japanese (According to Edward James Olmos part Latino, part Japanese and part Hungarian...the Hungarian part is where he got the blue eyes) so it would fit him well.
Anyway, here's the prerequisite pic...see the rest in my Flickr set...
(Note: Flickr is misbehaving right now. Please be patient and try the site later to see the rest of the pix. Bleah.)
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Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish. |
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