Tag Archives: foam

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End of Week Prop Links

First up, Rolling Stone checks out the ghost fighting equipment in that new Ghostbusters movie everyone is raving about. Props master Kirk Corwin shows us all the proton packs, traps, and other sundry items used throughout the film.

Rosco shows off how to make a statue of David out of foam and FoamCoat. Though the emphasis is on the FoamCoat, the real interesting part is how they were able to export a 3D model of the statue to a CNC machine and build the sculpture out of many layers of regular insulation foam.

Back to Ghostbusters, Rick Lazzarini shows how his shop built an animatronic “Slimer” to use as a stand-in for the CGI effects in the film.

Back to foam carving, Make Magazine has some quick tips for sculpting Styrofoam. Though short and fairly basic, they have a few tips that you may not have tried yet.

Finally, Popular Woodworking dispels six myths about wood finishing. They aren’t fun myths about unicorns and bridge trolls, but myths about stains and grains.

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Prop-tastic Friday

Meet Jim – Our Props Director – The Milwaukee Rep Tumblr has a conversation with Jim Guy, their props director. Jim is also the President of S*P*A*M and knows 97% of the props masters in the US.

The Day They Nuked Buffalo – Propnomicon brings us this interesting historical tidbit. In 1952, the State Civil Defense Commission had the Buffalo News print a newspaper as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated over the city. It was “the only prop newspaper ever officially sanctioned by the US government.”

Check Out This Amazing Ghostbusters Proton Pack – The new Ghostbusters movie opens this weekend, and Make Magazine brings us this great Arduino-powered proton pack. It’s from the original film; maybe in the coming weeks, we’ll see more builds of the new equipment.

Punished Props’ Foam Viking Axe Build – Tested shows us how Bill Doran built a viking axe out of flexible foam in this video.

How to Build a Foam Cosplay Helmet – Also from Tested, Evil Ted shows us how to make a helmet out of flexible foam. Basically, you can build an entire suit of armor and weapons out of your floor mats.

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Triskaideka-Prop-ia

Chuck Fox, the props master at the Arena Stage in DC, is retiring, and the Washington Post has a great look back on his career. He started as a props carpenter at the Arena back in 1980. Kids, that was before props masters had Amazon and eBay. It was before you could do research on Google. Heck, it was before you could keep your props list saved on your computer and print out a copy every you updated it.

Genevieve Bee has this massive blog post documenting her construction of a life-size troll figure out of foam.  Over 150 photos and a video detail her process from scale model to finished piece. She uses flat foam patterning, fabric manipulation, sculpting, plaster molding, latex casting, and a plethora of other techniques to bring this to life. And it’s her first time doing a project of this scale; she points out all the things she learned along the way.

Bill Doran brings us this introduction to 3D modeling for prop and costume making. Doran got his start as a 3D modeler, and he shows us some of the more accessible programs out there. 3D modeling is great for making 3D printed parts, but it can also be used to visualize a project and create blueprints for more traditional fabrication projects.

Myles McNutt hates when television characters carry around empty coffee cups. I mean, he really hates it. He has put together a video showing some of the more egregious examples of empty coffee cup usage, and has even created an award for the best (or worst?) empty cup acting on screen. Despite being a props person, I have actually never noticed this when watching TV.

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Some Good Links for Friday

Hey Foam Dome! Want to learn how to make a foam dome? Evil Ted shows some great tips for patterning and forming a dome shape out of flexible foam rubber sheets.

Make has rounded up five basic hand stitches you need to know and illustrated them with some great diagrams. As a bonus, they have a few other tips for working with textiles.

Batman V Superman comes out this weekend, and DC All Access has a look at the props. They visit prop master Douglas Harlocker, who shows us some of Batman’s weapons and talks about how their design came to be. You have to skip past about two and a half minutes of the ultra-bubbly hosts talking about upcoming comic books before you get to the props stuff.

Chris Schwartz shows how to make custom sanding sticks for smoothing the edges of really hard-to-reach places. I’ve also seen people buy those disposable nail files to achieve a similar goal.

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A Prop-er End to the Week

First a quick announcement. For anyone going to SETC next week, the conference is in Greensboro, just a few blocks from where I work. We will be opening up our shop for an open house on Saturday, March 5th, from 2-5pm, if you wanted to see where I make things. And if you’re looking for a job, I’m looking for an intern next season. It’s August through May with a weekly stipend and shared housing. Check out the Triad Stage booth for more information.

Buzzfeed takes us to the scene shop where Arcadia is being built for the Sydney Opera House. There are some great photographs here.

Harvard University is recreating an Ancient Egyptian throne using Ancient Egyptian craftsmanship. They have also used an impressive array of digital scanning and fabrication tools to design and mock-up the throne, but for the actual construction, they are trying to learn how the Egyptians may have actually built a piece as exquisite and intricate as this.

Propnomicon reminds us to NOT burn the edges of paper when ageing it. Instead, there are a few more realistic and accurate methods for giving paper that antique look you desire.

The Unicorn Theatre over in the UK catches up with Alexandria Kerr, the prop maker for their production of Minotaur. She has a fantastic mask made out of Plastazote, which some of us recognize as EVA foam (more accurately, XLPE foam).