User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4941023
I just eyeballed the placement so each one is kind of behind each corner of the centre piece of the bumper.
They aren't exactly consistent or precicely placed on the screen used packs so you don't have to worry about them being perfectly spaced.
Basically, they should face towards the center of the cyclotron on each ring if that makes sense.
They were drilled and tapped with M3 or 4-40 UNC threads
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4945661
Here's where I'm up to as of today.
I'm currently working on the lever for the pop mech but aside from that it's pretty much complete in terms of metal work, barring a few tweaks here and there.
Next it's on to the part that I've been looking forward to.
Sculpting the wonky grips, making a mould and producing a couple of castings to attach to the handles.



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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4945863
After some trial and error.
Who am I kidding, it was mainly error.
I have a working pop mech in the thrower.

This is inspired by Mburkit's amazing build.
I'll link to his thread when I can find it for those who haven't seen it.

On to making grips!

Last edited by Kingpin on February 12th, 2021, 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Fixed YouTube code
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4945979
I finished sculpting the Hero style, warts and all wonky grip today and I'll be making a start on the mould tomorrow.
There are plenty of great thrower grips out there to purchase but none of them tick the specific boxes that I'm looking for.
I'll go into the reasoning behind this later.

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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4945991
Lets talk grips.
Or specifically the features I'm looking for that aren't currently offered amongst commercially available grips which prompted me to make my own, featuring these details.
I won't touch the great colour debate right now, I'll leave that until I get around to casting a set of grips to attach to my thrower.

The original grips were fairly roughly sculpted no doubt due to the timescale in which the packs had to be constructed.
As such they are pretty unrefined, with various markings left from rakes, loop tools and various other tooling marks evident on the surface as well as some indentations which appear to be left by air entrapment during the casting process but that isnt relevant to what I'm looking for in this case.
You'll see the tooling marks present in the following images.
The most noticeable of which are these etched lines which are the result of using a rake tool when sculpting in order to smooth and unify the surface.

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The second, and most important feature that I am looking for also happens to be the most striking one.
As you'll see in these images the grips were not level along the length of the handles.
Instead, they feature quite a dramatic change in angle from front to back.
The orientation of the grips differ from pack to pack as many things do and some grips are trimmed down at the ends in order to accommodate the specific quirks that would otherwise cause fitting issues but this is a common quirk across all hero packs

Here is some reference from the various packs, most noticeable in this image of the recently resurfaced Aykroyd Hero pack.

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I know for many they would consider these details to be flaws, preferring to use a more idealised, cleaner set of grips.
But for me these are essential features which add greatly to the character of the original packs.
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By JWils23
#4945994
Love the updates and the attention to little details, I'm sure your grips will be spot on! I'm glad you posted this as I've got two sets of lineage grips from Ron and I'm trying to decide which ones to use, I'll have to see if they have any of the imperfections you've shown here. Maybe that will help make my decision haha
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By Nuclearjungle
#4945997
I don't know what caused all those scratches/grooves on the grips, but I really don't think they're rake or loop tool marks. That's just my opinion, but I am a professional sculptor at a large animatronics studio.
Last edited by Nuclearjungle on February 17th, 2021, 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4946005
Fair enough.
I'm not looking to debate anyone here, nor do I expect everyone to agree with me.
It's just my own interpretation of what I see in the reference images, drawing from my own knowledge of sculpting and the familiarity of those particular markings.
User avatar
By Nuclearjungle
#4946007
That's cool. It's definitely possible I'm wrong, but doing this is my job, sculpting both props and figures for clients like Disney, so my eye is not untrained. I personally think they're tool marks left on a hard material, not clay.
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4946388
This is the first test casting of the "wonky" grips straight out of the mould.
The only purpose of this particular casting was to clean out the mould and make sure it was working as intended so I've used some fairly old urethane resin, which is why it's unpigmented and riddled with air bubbles.
I have some fresh color match resin on order so once that's here, I'll mix some pigment to get as close to the original colour as possible and churn out a master casting as well as a set of grips for use on my thrower.



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By RedSpecial
#4946445
The resin that I had ordered arrived this afternoon so I'll most likely get the ball rolling on the grips tomorrow.

With that in mind, let's talk grip colour.
Now before I go down this rabbit hole, I'll preface with this.
I do not know the exact reason for the discolouration of the grips as we see them today.
However it is definitely surface discolouration, not the original colour.

One possible reason could be the material itself as many casting resins, particularly older formulations of polyurethane resins ( and rubber) will exhibit this kind of surface discolouration with age, often changing to yellows, reddish or darker browns.
The latter of which we see to varying degrees on the hero thrower grips, currently where the paint has deteriorated.

If I were replicating a Hero pack in it's current state with a relic'd weathering finish I would most likely add this surface discoloration.
But as I'm going for more of a mid to late production look with my pack, I'll be going with the original colour of the grips.

Take a look at the following images of the pack as they are now, then compare them to the screengrabs.
If you look closely you'll see various chips and cracks in the grips which exhibit a light beige colour.
Which incidentally is also the colour of many older general purpose urethane casting resins.
This is the original colour of the grips.
looking at the screen grabs of the rear grip on the Murray hero and Aykroyd hero throwers during the rooftop scene, you can see where the paint has rubbed or chipped off showing the same light beige but none of the browns that we see in those same places today.


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By JWils23
#4946451
I’ve been staring at those for weeks trying to figure out which to use. I suspected the lighter grips might be correct after looking at some of the same screen grabs, especially the rooftop scene. But then I wasn’t sure if that was just marshmallow residue like on the jumpsuits.
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By RedSpecial
#4946453
It's definitely the lighter set of grips in your pic.
That scene is a little washed out due to the strong set lighting but there's a distinct difference in colour between the residue on the suits and the wear on the grips.
It's especially noticeable on the 4K HDR transfer.

I've since looked at your post on my monitor as I first viewed it on my phone which isn't ideal colour wise and it looks very close indeed to what I'm seeing in reference images and the movie stills.
I'd go with the ones on the left :)
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By JWils23
#4946455
Love stuff like this! I’ll have to dig into the 4K version to see this better. This actually works out perfectly because I can use the darker grips on the stunt shell I have. That’s going to be a GB2 semi hero and I’ll be trying to replicate what they look like now.
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By RedSpecial
#4946515
I've had a challenging time getting what I need from the mould for these, but I've finally got a casting that I'm happy to use.
It has exactly what I was looking for as well as some extra little quirks and imperfections from casting but as the ethos of this build has been warts and all from the start I think it'll work nicely.
The main thing is that it has the angle and features that I set out to have.
I've nothing to blame other than myself as at this point I'm around a year and a half out of practice with my mould making so it was far from the best designed or executed mould I've ever made.
I'm pretty disappointed in myself for that one 😅
I'll most likely pull another casting for use on my thrower and a master then destroy the mould and redo it later incase I need spares.
I just don't have time, energy or funds that I'm willing to dedicate to that right now.


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