| What is scrap building? Scrap building is the art of piecing together various unrelated items to form a creation of the mind's eye. Imagine wishing to build a model of a ship or car, but you have no pre-cut pieces or instructions given to you. You must instead locate these pieces yourself. In most cases the scrap builder must have a basic vision of the final product, but his success will depend on just how resourceful and imaginative he can be.  A prop is anything that can be used in a movie to make the set or character more believable. Many set items can simply be store bought. These would include lamps, desks, cars, guns etc. When items cannot be bought, as is with most Sci-Fi movies, they must be created. The creation of props usually falls into a combination of one of the following forms.  The first may be the simplest which include a slight modification of a store bought item. A fake label on a bottle of wine or an inscription on a pen may do the trick. In some cases the altercation may change the function of the bought item. I remember a B-rated Sci-Fi movie a while back where I recognized a hand held steamer that had been transformed into a scanning device with the addition of some blinking lights.  Scrap building comes into play when items are pieced together by whatever fashion to basically create a prop model of something that most likely doesn't exist in real life. Most movie props are done in this fashion, and their quality and believability will depend on the budget of the film and the creativity of the propmaster. The light saber in Star Wars was created from some old-fashioned press photography camera flash bars with added decorative parts. As in most cases the materials used were not immediately recognized by anyone but the propmaster, and as long as the final product looks real then anything goes. "Off the shelf" parts play an important part in scrap model building. The Jawa Sandcrawler was made from four store bought panzer tank tracks while the rest of the three-foot long model was constructed from plywood and plastic detailing. You may not have also recognized the chrome model truck rims on the training orb that Luke fought with.  In a film with a larger budget the propmaster may mold or create the specific items needed so as to more closely create the original concept idea. A wall plaque, for example, would be easily created through casting techniques. Molding/casting is best used when something needs to be duplicated for whatever reason. An entire gun could be sculpted in two halves and molded. Afterwards several replicas could be made, or just one made out of a material appropriate for the prop. A clever propmaster, however, will always resort to scrap building techniques whenever possible. The Star Destroyer thrusters, for example, were molded from the egg-shaped containers that women's stockings come in. The Rebel escape pod from the first Star Wars movie is another example of combined efforts. The pod was first created from two throw away paper paint buckets glued together-one being cut short. They were then covered with laminated plastic and detail. Of course there will be times when a precise item is desired and the only method available to get it is to mold it.  This leads us to a last technique of machining a prop so that it more closely look and operate like the real thing. Machining a fictional gun, for example, may be a desirable way to go for a high budget film, however there are a couple of things to note. One is that just because the gun may look professional doesn't mean that it actually works. It may cock and load and come apart in a professional looking manner but it is still just a prop. Most of the guns you see actually firing in movies are "real guns" with "added parts." The best example of this is the M56 Smart Gun used in aliens. The actual gun was a World War 2 German 7.92mm MG42 "Spandau" mounted on a "Steadicam" camera harness. The rest of the parts were from a bicycle. The second point is that just because a prop has been machined doesn't mean that it will look any better than something that has been molded or scrap built. Most machined weapons are intended for close-up shots where the audience can see the gun's function. In "The Eraser," for example, several versions of the Rail Gun were created. A couple guns were highly detailed machined weapons for close-up shots. A few more were less detailed and still a few more were cheaply made throw around props used in distant or fast action shots.  It is important to note than most movie props are intended for the background environment and are incorporated into the set. When the shop owner in "MIB" revealed his shiny collection of black market alien weapons, it is possible that none of those props could have been held or maybe even had a backside. They were, of course, only in the film for less than a minute. When it comes to prop making, looks are all that count.  Movies are an audio and visual experience, and the quality of a true prop cannot be trusted. Often a prop looks quite different on the screen than it does in real life. It may be obvious that a phaser doesn't fire a beam of light or make any sound in real life, but it may not be so obvious that it doesn't go clunk when it is set on a table. That may very well be an added effect in the movie to make the weapon more believable and to disguise its true construction. Some props, like a rubber gun, are made of durable material that can be thrown around, but they pay a price in detail and function. Other props are abused on purpose and then replaced by a duplicate. The Dukes of Hazard went through several General Lee's before the series was over. Props in their true form, however, are painfully delicate and fragile. They break when they are dropped and scratch when handled poorly. In either case the propmaster would always be on hand for any repairs or touch-ups.  We at the Sci-Fi Prop shop have tried to create believable props for display or movie production use. The props are constructed differently by the different artists and in most cases no two are alike. All of the items are scrap built by a variety of methods described above. I will try to provide a basic description for each of the items for sale and whether it is durable or fragile, weighted or not. If you have any questions please e-mail me and I will try to answer them as best as I can. If you have any questions for the artist I can direct your e-mail to him. I am sure you will be pleased with any of the items we have for sale. Thank you, Johnathan Roebuck Webmaster |