First up is the updated Glaive from the movie Krull. I was never entirely happy with the sculpt on my first one and so I stopped making them in order to some day completely improve everything about it. When I made my first one, there weren’t many good reference pics to be found and so my primary reference was pausing the film. Not the best method but its what I had at the time. After a few years, I’ve concluded that my initial design was much further off than I was happy with. Well, over the last week I have been able to start producing parts for the new model. Hopefully, within about a month I’ll have it available.

Another small item I was able to knock out on a whim is another keychain design of the Punisher skull logo. I realized it was a fairly simple design and I was able to have a couple designed and cut out within a day or so.

I’ve also been able to dive in more fully into some of my personal projects that have been stagnanting, or at least moving very slowly, for awhile. I have two remote control R2D2 astromech droids I’m working on, and I’m soon going to have motors installed once I finish the motor mount assemblies. I can’t wait to get these done. Why two of them? Well, I’m not ready to reveal the one until finished, but its VERY different from the other one you’ve seen in the films.

One day my dad met my mother and… ok, I don’t need to go THAT far back. Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed creative activities from the time I was little. I was (still am) an avid Lego fan and drawing was a passion of mine. In fifth grade I started drawing my own comics on note paper. The closest I came to making props however was after I had seen the movie Krull. I tried to make myself a Glaive out of cardboard. That was the coolest prop I had ever seen and it wasn’t until a few years ago, I finally realized that dream of making one. I was always fascinated by any “behind the scenes” TV specials showing how movie magic was made, and remember, at this point there was no internet. No DVD special features.

Fast forward to 1996. I had the opportunity to get a job working at a haunted house attraction and the big draw for me was that one of the scenes was to feature a set based on the movie, Aliens. While working there I got hands on experience working with building sets and seeing how a show like that was put together. My primary job was making sure
all the technical stuff was working. That music was queued up, fog machines were charged up, lights were on, etc. My second job was filling in as one of the Aliens. There were some funny moments where our aliens would jump out to scare people and promptly run into a wall! Let me tell you; Its hard to see when you’re looking out a small hole at the end of a giant banana shaped head… and you’re in the dark.

The best thing about this experience is that I met some of my best friends I have today and found a focus for my future career goals. At first, two of us discussed producing two comics based on story concepts we each had. But our love of film won out (thank goodness cause I can’t draw THAT good!). So, with a few more friends we set out to make a film. We dived in with little clue what we were doing and someone had to make the props. I was the
 most handy who could figure things like that out so the job fell to me. It took us quite some time to get our little film done, but WE DID IT. It was crap, but it was OURS and we even had a couple showings at a local theater where part of it was filmed. Not everyone can say that and this was before Youtube where everyone thinks they’re a director. By the time
we premiered, home editing software and fan films were just becoming more common place.

Which brings me to the next stage. Fan films (particularly Star Wars) were becoming an internet sensation and I followed them closely. Being a life long Star Wars fan plus a fan of filmmaking meant this was a combination of two of my greatest loves. While working on our first film, my one friend and I met a guy who “had his own prop making business”. A use those quotations loosely and you’ll see why in a moment. He said that he wanted to make a fan film and wanted to know if we could join forces. After a few months of preproduction I began to feel that we were working with what I call, “a BS artist”. Someone who talks themselves up and even makes things up just to look good, but can’t deliver. His “prop business” was essentially converting old flashtubes to sabers, and selling them on ebay. I realized quickly that this partnership would go no where, and my friend
and I split but now that fan film bug had bitten us and we started working on our own storyline. Once again, someone with the skills was needed to make the props and costumes. I had to learn how to sew! A year and a half later we had filmed a couple of scenes, but were plagued with casting problems, and the inability to secure a couple key locations. Regretably, we had to pull the plug.

About a year later, I read about a Star Wars fan film in production called, Revelations. They had posted that they were looking for some volunteers. I contacted the director and mentioned that we had a bunch of costumes from our unfinished film and they could borrow them. A few misc pieces were used and upon completion of their film, we were invited to a wrap party being held at a sci fi convention. My wife, a friend, and I all went
and enjoyed ourselves and made sure to return to the next convention.

At the following con, we dressed up and I brought along a photo album to show off pictures of my work. While there, we met a production company that was in preproduction for a feature film, Dark Operations (www.darkopsfilm.com) and were looking for cast and crew.

I showed them my photo album and we ended up as part of the team. I became prop master and was even cast for a major role. At the following convention, I was invited to bring along any props I had made as “filler” for their table promoting their film. People kept asking me if any of these items were for sale and although they weren’t it made me wonder about actually making props and costumes as a business. My wife had begun sewing as well, and together we founded Hole in the Ground Productions.

And the rest as they say…is history!

Somewhere between all this, I’ve been slowly working on some of my own personal projects. Mainly, my full sized R2 D2. I’m finally at the point where I’m going to need to start work on the mechanical aspects of it. Also today I finally got back to something I’ve meant to complete for a few years now. A Vulcan Harp.

I was able to get my hands on actual blueprints on how to make a real working Vulcan Harp and I thought that this would be a cool instrument to produce. I’m not musically inclined, but my wife is, and I thought that if she could learn how to play… well how cool would THAT be?! Ok, maybe that’s only a few geeky steps down from being able to actually speak Klingon. LOL  Shortly after starting I decided to go the easy route though and make a non working “prop” version. The real working one was a bit more involved than I wanted to get into. Well, as is the case with most of my personal projects, it got so far and then sat in the attic like that Jaaba’s Palace diorama thats been there for ages. I figured maybe if I brought it down to the hobby room, maybe I’d get to work on it. So then it just sat there forever. Finally today I decided I’m going to just GET IT DONE! I hit the hardware store, bought some parts, cut out a section of lamentate, and started painting. Ironically, I’m getting to work on this while having just sold a bunch of my personal Trek collection online. I don’t enough room to display even half of the stuff I want to and something has to go. Sorry, but Star Wars wins hands down! So Trek’s gotta go (except for a few Tribbles, cause you never can get rid of them all)!

The design is pretty basic. A simply wood table with a commonly found box fan on the one end. In front of the fan, I’ve placed a filter made for spray booths. The idea here is to have the fan draw the air away from the table surface thus pulling the dust particles into the filter material which can be replaced once its too gummed up. I don’t know if this can reduce the fumes/smell, but should greatly reduce the dust at least. It cost me nothing to make as I had the fan and the wood was leftover from an old project. We’ll see how this thing performs soon!