Props N'@

I'm Jim, a 23 year old, professional prop maker. Recently graduated from Point Park, I'm currently living in Los Angeles pursuing a career building cool stuff! I'm constantly working on something new, whether it's at a shop, or in my free time. This...

[props-n-at]

And finally, I present the finished helmet of...

Doctor Doom!

To finish off the helmet, it was primed in Dupli-Color black, the sprayed with a warm, stainless steel colored Dupli-Color paint. 

To really give it a unique finish, after letting the paint cure for a couple of days, I then buffed it with graphite powder. In fact, there are no other paints or washes applied to the surface. After buffing the entire helm to an even finish, I simple took more of the powder and a Q-tip and continued to rub the areas I wanted darker. 

That’s how I managed to get the dark grey in the cheeks and mouth. To get the lines under the eyes and any of the sharp corners, I cut the end off a Q-tip and used the paper stick to get into the hard to reach spots.

I really debated not clear coating the helmet, because the graphite over the paint gave it a really nice sheen. However, too much handling of the helm ended up fingerprinting the graphite. So, I settled for Dupli-Color’s clear coat. Its a really good clear, and I knew it wouldn’t react with the paints already on there. And ultimately, it only made it a little glossier. 

And that’s my Doctor Doom helmet! I hope you guys like it! I’m gonna post some more pictures in the coming weeks of the other stuff I have finished, and more as I get the rest done.

Thanks for reading!

[props-n-at]

Doctor Doom helmet part 2

Picking up where I left off:

The smaller rivets around the eyes and mouth are these pre-made sticky-backed epoxy dots. The larger rivets are simply furniture tacks. I patterned out the  mouth in CAD, then printed out several versions before making my choice. After choosing my design, I fabricated the mouth out of strips of styrene. 

From there it was a final prime coat, and sanding, then the mold!

I know the basics of doing a helmet mold. I’ve done similar stuff before, but never molded an actual helmet. I did a brush-up mold of rebound 25, doing four thing layers. The jacket was made in two parts. Each part was made by layering paper towels and soaking them with sil-tool urethane. 

Over all, it worked pretty well. If I were to do it again, I would have made the mold itself two parts, not just the jacket. However, I still got some good castings, so I can’t complain.

The casting was done using Smooth-on’s Smooth Cast 325. Honestly, I don’t love Smooth Cast. Its not a terrible casting resin, but given my choice, I would have went with Sil-tool. But, I had Smooth Cast on hand, and it did the job fine.

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted this helm to fit my head tightly. Because of this, I knew the helm would never just slip over my head. The plan was always to make the face plate removable. This way, I can slip the back of the helm on, then snap the faceplate on to it. 

To accomplish this, I cast the front half of the helm, allowing it to over lap where my seam would be. The did the same for the back, allowing some over lap for the face. I then sanded away the excess resin so that the faceplate overlapped the back of the helm, leaving an extra 1/2″ of material along the opening edge of the back.

After I got the two pieces to line up the same way the did one the original model, I temporarily taped the two together. With the pieces together, I carefully drilled around the opening edge, from the inside, through the back and into the face, without going all the way through. I then placed pairs of 1/8″ disk magnet into each new pair of holes. Now the face can easily be removed to comfortably walk around a con, but quickly snap back into place.

Lastly, for whatever reason in my original design, I had ended the back of the helm in the middle of the back of the head. I didn’t realize how silly it looked until I got to try it on. Even though Doom primarily has a hood on, it really bothered me. So, I took a scrap casting of the back half, and re-purposed one of the panels to extend the helmet down to touch my neck. It turned out to be the perfect quick fix!

That’s all for now. I’ll get the final pictures up tomorrow!  

[props-n-at]

It feels like its been ages since I’ve posted!

A lot of that is due to the fact that I only post my personal projects, and I’ve been working, albeit much slower than I would like to be, on something big. So at long last, I finally present...

Doctor Doom

Since it seems the movies are never gonna get it right, I have to take matters into my own hands! Doom is easily one of my favorite comic characters, and I’ve been wanting to do a Doom cosplay for a very long time.  

I actually started this project around this time last year, with the intention of getting it done for Comic Con, but, as always, life gets in the way! 

I considered 3d printing the helmet, but there’s only a couple versions of Doom’s mask floating around the internet, and I wanted to do my own original take. Since I’m not a 3d modeler, I decided to go about building it the old fashioned way. 

The build process won’t be too detailed here because there really isn’t too much to it. It was a lot of work, mind you, but it was a relatively simple process. 

Doom’s design always has similar elements, such as (but not limited to) the blocky, open eyes, the pointed nose, the “open” mouth, and rivets. So I wanted to work all that into my interpretation, while keeping it somewhat unique.

I started with a styrofoam head as a base to build off of. Then, using a ton of different references pictures, began roughing in shapes. Most of the helmet was made using Sintra, a foamed PVC board, because it’s incredibly easy to cut, sand and heat form. Thinner bits, like the nose, were made using styrene. For the ears, I had one 3″ acrylic lens that I mounted on a 3.25″ acrylic tube, then made a quick mold so I could get two.

You can see in the last picture that the helm was cut almost completely in half. I wanted this thing to fit my head fairly tightly, because I really wanted to avoid having a bobble head. However, after I had started roughing in the back, I realized it was still too narrow for my head. I had already done most of the major work to the face, and really wanted to avoid damaging it. So, the solution was to cut the helmet from the back with a bandsaw all the way until it touched the face plate, then inset a spacer. It was mildly terrifying. But completely successful

That’s all I’m gonna post for now! The helmet is actually done, and I’m gonna post the rest over the next two days. I’m also done with the tunic and cape, as well as some of the other smaller parts. I’ll get that all up in the coming week. 

I really want to make an effort to start posting some more. But for now, that’s what I got. Thanks for reading, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

[props-n-at]

Hey Props N'@, I was seeing your work and it is marvelous! I'm also a big fallout fan and of course I have the pip boy edition! I also thought the paint job was bad so i also weathered it with rust, real screws... . But there was something missing, and then I came across your blog and I had found the missing part: The CRT screen! I would like to ask if you still got such a vaccuum formed screen, if so I would like to buy it ( it doesn't have to be painted black). Keep up the good work!

Hey, thanks! I do still have the buck, so I can vacuum form another screen, if you’d like. 

I’d have to ask $15 to cover both materials and shipping. Let me know if you’re still interested!  

[props-n-at]

So I finally got around to doing a repaint of my Pip-Boy from the collectors edition of Fallout 4!

While the model was always very nice, especially considering the price, the finish was terrible. The thing always looked like a hunk of molded plastic. 

Instead of doing a full repaint, I disassembled the Pip-Boy, and sprayed it with a satin clear coat to change the sheen. Then, I reassembled it and aged it down with a few different washes. Finally, I added some rust spots with some acrylic paint. Admittedly, the rust could be a bit nicer, but from any sort of distance it looks pretty good.

More importantly, I made a replacement screen. While I love the idea of being able to put a phone in the Pip-Boy and loading the app, in practice its not the best. When the app is running it looks nice, but you can’t use your phone, and it kills battery pretty fast. Plus, its mostly a display piece, so it sits on a shelf. They give you a printed card to put in the opening when there’s no phone in it, but it just looks silly. 

So I decided to make my own! I didn’t want to shove a flat piece of acrylic in there, because the Pip-Boy is supposed to have a CRT screen, so there’s a curve to it. I made a vacuum buck out of MDF and smoothed it with a layer of urethane. Then I sanded it down just a hair under the size of the opening to allow of thickness of the plastic. 

The shop I work at doesn’t have a vacuum former, but the part was small enough that I was able to build a vacuum box and heat the acrylic it the shop’s toaster oven. (Not the one we eat out of!)

That’s it for now! If anyone is interested in getting a screen for the own Pip-boy, I may do a short run of these. Feel free to PM me about it!

[props-n-at]

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been pretty quite recently, but I promise I’ll do an update soon with some cool new things I’ve been working on.

But for right now, I’ve got one final update on my Laser Musket!

Shortly after finishing the musket, and selling off a few of the kits, I decided to build a nice display stand for my own build. It turned out very nice, I just never really got around to posting the pictures!

Anyway, it was a pretty simple build. The board is a piece of 1″ x 6″ walnut. I simply put a 45 on the corners and routed the edge with an ogee bit, then sealed with a clear urethane. The uprights are 1/2″ steel rods with a 1/8″ x 3/4″ piece of strap steel to form the cradle. The cradles are both slightly oversized to fit a foam pad for the gun to rest on.

That’s the last news I’ll have on the musket build (I think!), but I’ve been really happy with the way this whole project has turned out.

Finally, the musket kits are still on sale! It is a limited run, but I still have seven left!  

The can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/454997826/fallout-4-laser-musket-replica-kit?ref=shop_home_active_1

And, since my birthday is this month, and I’m a generous soul, if you enter coupon code “MINUTEMEN” at checkout, you’ll get $50 off your order! But hurry, the code expires at the end of March!

[props-n-at]

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been pretty quite recently, but I promise I’ll do an update soon with some cool new things I’ve been working on. 

But for right now, I’ve got one final update on my Laser Musket! 

Shortly after finishing the musket, and selling off a few of the kits, I decided to build a nice display stand for my own build. It turned out very nice, I just never really got around to posting the pictures!

Anyway, it was a pretty simple build. The board is a piece of 1″ x 6″ walnut. I simply put a 45 on the corners and routed the edge with an ogee bit, then sealed with a clear urethane. The uprights are 1/2″ steel rods with a 1/8″ x 3/4″ piece of strap steel to form the cradle. The cradles are both slightly oversized to fit a foam pad for the gun to rest on.

That’s the last news I’ll have on the musket build (I think!), but I’ve been really happy with the way this whole project has turned out.

Finally, the musket kits are still on sale! It is a limited run, but I still have seven left!  

The can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/454997826/fallout-4-laser-musket-replica-kit?ref=shop_home_active_1

And, since my birthday is this month, and I’m a generous soul, if you enter coupon code “MINUTEMEN” at checkout, you’ll get $50 off your order! But hurry, the code expires at the end of March!

[props-n-at]

do you do commissions?

I do on occasion, but I’m currently not taking any. Between work and Laser Musket kits, I don’t have the time, sorry. 

[props-n-at]

Just a small update to the Laser Musket!

I managed to the Musket done in time for Comic Con International, so I quickly threw together a Fallout 4 cosplay to match. I decided to go with the Minuteman General, since it is much faster to do than the Vault suit, plus, everyone wants to do a Vault Suit! 

I really enjoyed this cosplay, and I want to take the time to improve it for the next convention. I only had a week to get this costume done, so there is plenty of room for improvement. 

As for the musket, I decided to improvise a sling for it. It weighs nearly 10 pounds, so carrying around the Con would have been a nightmare. I based the sling off an old revolutionary musket’s so that it wouldn’t look out of place. The strap is made from real leather, and it was attached with some nylon strapping hardware. It gives it both the revolutionary war look and the kludged post apocalyptic look that the rest of the gun has.

I also have some pictures of the on/off switch and the charging port, because I realized I never included them!

Finally, I included a couple pictures of the completed kit with all its hardware.

The Laser Musket kit is for sale, and is available here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/454997826/fallout-4-laser-musket-replica-kit?ref=pr_shop

It is a limited run of 10, and one has been sold. There are only 9 left!

As always, feel free to ask any questions!

[props-n-at]

At long last, I present the Laser Musket!

(Photo set 2 of 2)

I put just over six months of work in my free time into getting this thing just right, and it is equipped with lights and sounds! Check it out in action in the video here: https://youtu.be/TgwlL7uzKDg

And, as I mentioned before, I am going to be selling kits to build your own!

The kit is a limited run of 10, and the price is set at $550. It comes with everything you’ll need to build it, minus paint and the electronics.

They’re available at my Etsy store, here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/454997826/fallout-4-laser-musket-replica-kit?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Hope you all like it! As always, feel free to message me with if you got any questions.

[props-n-at]

At long last, I present the Laser Musket! 

(Photo set 1 of 2)

I put just over six months of work in my free time into getting this thing just right, and it is equipped with lights and sounds! Check it out in action in the video here: https://youtu.be/TgwlL7uzKDg

And, as I mentioned before, I am going to be selling kits to build your own!

The kit is a limited run of 10, and the price is set at $550. It comes with everything you’ll need to build it, minus paint and the electronics. 

They’re available at my Etsy store, here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/454997826/fallout-4-laser-musket-replica-kit?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Hope you all like it! As always, feel free to message me with if you got any questions.

[props-n-at]

The Laser Musket has been finished! 

I’m going to be posting all the final pictures between today and tomorrow.

Last I left off, all the parts had been made, and I was starting paint and final assembly. I went back to each part and sanded away all my seam from the molds and filled any air bubbles. From there, there were parts that needed holes drilled for bolts, lights and shafts. 

From there, I began priming and painting. Before I painted the stock, I sprayed it with a heavy coat of Duplicolor heavy filler primer, and dragged a chip brush through it, giving the stock a physical wood texture. I then based it out and decanted Design Master glossy wood tone to grain it.

All the rusted parts were based with black and layered with acrylic paints, then dry brushed with metallic silver on the edges. The laser barrel, grip and muzzle are all painted with Tamiya spray paints.

Everything was also hit with a black wash to even the tones and add some wear. 

The lettering around the lenses was done using a sheet of dry transfer decals. All the windings around the coils and the rotor core had to be done by hand with brass wire.

My next post is going to be of the fully assembled gun! It’ll be in two parts, given the amount of detail this thing has, it’ll take a lot of picture to cover. But I’m going to skip the explanation of the assembly process; its not terribly exciting. 

 Look for it tomorrow morning! 

[props-n-at]

Nearly finished! All the parts have been made, and final assembly has begun.

The last major part to be finished was the laser muzzle. The bulk of the muzzle was made using sintra blocks layered based on the divides in the muzzle. The most tedious section was easily the “fins”, which were styrene. 

I finished a few detail parts, including the clips that hold the yellow tubing in place, a reducer for the tubes, and a few “terminals” that get bolted onto the mounting plates. The rear sight was made from a stick of 1/8″ brass bent around a form, and the slide was two brass tubes spanned with a strip of styrene, then molded. I also finally parted the clear acrylic chamber.

I also had to do a recasting of the stock, because there was too much flex happening on it with all of the weight of the parts on it. It was causing parts to misalign and I was worried it would break. I welded up a super sturdy “T” armature for inside the new casting. The downside is there is more weight, the upside is it is impossible to flex.

I’m currently working on assembling the gun. There are some holes that needed to be drilled, and all the seams and flashing needed to be sanded off. I also had to run the wiring for the electronics down the stock. That required trenching out a path down the center of the stock gluing wires and bondoing over the path. The electronics will be hidden inside the laser barrel. 

The work will be done this weekend, and leaving only the paint and final assembly! 

Expect to see the final product soon!

[props-n-at]

So close! 

I finally got around to making the core piece that’s inside the clear chamber. The shop I work in has a nice mini lathe that I’ve been dying to learn to use, so I asked my boss to teach me. The core was turned in a few pieces, for simplicity’s sake, out of a stick of delrin.   

I also finished up the lens assembly last weekend. The housing for the set of two black lenses were made from a stick of delrin using my new found turning skills. The lenses themselves are made from siltool that was cast into a dome then turned to the right diameter. 

I also got around to making some of the minor details, including the rear sight mount and a set of fins that run along the bottom of the laser barrel. The sight mount was a piece sintra that was wrapped around a pair of 1/4″ rods and folded back on itself. The “fins” for the laser rifle are just cut from a sheet of 1/32″ sintra.

The last major part I’ve been working on is the muzzle to the laser rifle. It’s easily the most detailed part of the whole project, and why I’ve put it off until last! I only seriously started it yesterday, and have made some real progress. 

I also built a small mounting block (not pictured) the helps to properly attach the rear mounting plate (where the crank and everything mount), to the stock. Before this, the mounting plate bolted awkwardly to the stock because of the way the bolt hit a relief in the plate. This little block brings it all the same level and prevents the plate from spinning. 

Because of that, I’ve been able to start truly mocking up the gun. I finally attached the bracket for the crank to the gun, and and got the crank and gears assembled. All I need to do for that is figure out the reverse turning on the one main capacitor rotor thingy. 

Well, I plan on having the model done by the end of the month, so look out for updates!

[props-n-at]

Updates! Its been a short while since my last post, but I’ve been hard at work on the Musket! 

The biggest thing I’ve done since last update is the trigger mechanism. I bent the trigger brackets out of sintra and cast them in siltool. The trigger itself is cut from sintra and has a hole on top to receive the spring. Similarly to the brackets, the hand guard is sintra wrapped around a form, and was then molded and cast in siltool. After assembling the trigger mech, I added a spring to it, but I need to go in and adjust the range of the trigger. It currently goes all the way down and touches the hand guard. When I’m done, it will also trigger the lights and sounds.

I’ve also done the front most lens and the focusing thingy behind it. The actual “lens” part was made using a sintra disk and a fine toothed gear to give it a bit of texture, and a smooth dome was used to make the lens. Since its the same front and back, I made a small mold of the part to save myself the work of doing it a second time. The body of the lens is a sintra disk, and was wrapped with a layer of sintra to give it more depth. I added another disk front and back to give the reliefs around the border. I bored a hole along the edge to get my cut away, and added some disks. A screw will eventually be added through it.

The focusing thing that sits behind it and in front of the other lenses is a set of stacked disks. To get the ridges, I simply drilled holes around the perimeter before cutting out the disk itself, then rounded over all the edges.

I also finished up some other parts, including molding the resistors and the rear sight mount. I also just finished the core that sits withing the glass chamber today! I’ll get pictures of that up soon!

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for more!

[props-n-at]

Laser Musket Update! 

I’ve been working on this nearly non-stop since I made my first post, and I’ve gotten a lot done! Plus, I have a definite deadline now: Comic Con International! I managed to score a Sunday badge, so I’ll be bringing this thing along with me!

The first part I tackled was the bent bracket that supports the crank. I had been racking my brain on this one since I started the project, and ultimately settled on a relatively simple solution. I made my part as a flat piece, doing all of my finishing work and locating points, and molded it that way, as opposed to bending it first. I cast this part in Siltool, which is a casting urethane similar to the more common Smooth Cast, but has one major advantage: Siltool remains soft for a sort while after the resin has solidified. The resin is solid and can be handled, and I you’re careful, it can be de-molded and formed around an object. I build a specialty jig for the bracket to be formed around after the part has been de-molded, but before it has completely cured. Once fully cured, it becomes very rigid, and should be able to support the motion of the crank.

Next, came the mounting plates. There are a series of three plates that the rotors, coils and the clear chamber are mounted to. The first one, closes to the player, took a good bit of effort. There is a lot of detail in it, considering it is the part the player sees the most. It actually appears to be two plates together, with the top one notched out for another smaller piece. The two disks and the small grill piece were made of sintra, and my inset detail on top was cut from styrene. There are a few small detail parts that will get added later, but I left them out of the mold to make it easier to paint, since the plate is rusted and they are not. 

The two other mounting plates where identical, but had different thicknesses. The middle is thinner, and has locating marks for the resistors that get placed around it. The thicker one has locating marks for some details on the front, as well as a guide hole for the laser barrel.

The laser barrel took some work simple in the matter of trying to keep it perfectly square and smooth. It worked out so that the top and bottom of my box could be 1/2″ sintra, and the side walls only had to be 1/4″. Doing that gave me the proper spacing for the reliefs on sides. I achieved the chamfered edge on the slopes by taping off the angle from the front edge to the point on the inside surface and filling it with bondo. Then cut my groves into the top edge on a mini table saw. The edges were hit with a roundover on the router. Lastly I added the detail screws, and spent a large about of time sanding this thing to get it incredibly smooth. I got the mold made over this weekend. 

A few of the misc parts I have started are the crank lever and the handle. The lever was simple, and I got it molded this past weekend also, the handle is coming along pretty smoothly as well. I also began the trigger and started thinking about the gears.   

That’s it for now! Expect more soon, again, I gotta have it done by SDCC, and that’s mere months away! As always, feel free to ask questions!

[props-n-at]

Alright, I’ve got something big in the works!

Fallout 4 Laser Musket

Specifically, it will be the extended long barrel variant, which is most commonly seen in the promo work. All finished, I plan on including lights and sounds!

This is still a work in progress, but I’ve been working on this fairly steadily for the past month and a half during my free time. I’m making the gun in kit form also, so I’m molding everything, which is another reason the process has been on the slow side. 

Now, there is a lot more work that’s been done than 10 pictures can do justice, and I could write a paper detailing all the process behind what’s already done, so I’ll try and keep this short.

The “coil” section was made by making a single one of the blocks coming off of the center disk, then molding it and casting a set of twelve more. That way I had matching set with without having to make twelve individual pieces, same goes for the the square caps on top. The original block and the center disk was made of sintra, and sanded smooth.

The “claw” piece, as it turns out, is actually based off of an alternator rotor. I considered trying to find one, but ended up deciding to build my own, which gave me more control over the final design, and allowed me to make a mold. The claw is the only piece that has, and probably will be, the only part I 3d printed. It was designed and molded in CAD. 

After staring at the Musket, it occurred to me that the “extended barrel” mod was built off of the original musket’s iron barrel. The barrel is octagonal, which meant I has to make my own. It was cut, very carefully, on a table saw from a piece of alder. The cast barrels have a piece of pencil rod out the end to strengthen it and give it a better attachment point for the rest of the gun.

The front grip comes off of the laser rifle. It was made from a piece of alder, then layered with some semi-flexible urethane to build the second step up. The finger grips were made from a piece of styrene that I shaped and finished flat, then molded. They were cast with Siltool resin, and wrapped around the grip before the resin completely cured. 

The stock is made from two stacked pine 1x6′s. It was shaped, then smoothed with bondo. The biggest challenge came in hollowing out the groove where the original musket bolt would have been. To try and conserve some silicone, I made a tight fitting wooden mold jacket. So far, the biggest I’ve made yet! 

I cast the stock in a few stages, first by brushing a layer of siltool in both halves, then I placed a piece of 1/4″ pencil rod protruding from the front to give it a mounting point for the grip. I also placed a 2 pieces of 1/8″ pencil rod in the front to support it where it thins. The mold was closed and the the piece was filled solid to the back of the had grips. Then I poured the seam of the butt with a thin layer, leaving the center hollow. 

That’s it for now, but expect more updates soon! As always, feel free to ask me questions!