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Deckard's Wallet - Modified
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temponaut
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Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:11 am    Post subject: Deckard's Wallet - Modified Reply with quote

I was very happy to purchase one of the terrific BR wallet sets that spinner44.com and propcollector offered here and on the RPF last year. As any of you who have seen them know, these sets are beautifully accomplished, including a black, tri-fold Smith & Warren wallet, a custom Smith & Warren badge with inset photo, a Vid-Phon card made with gold foil, and a laminated ID card with photo and amberlith X added separately. As Andy has noted elsewhere, this set, although not strictly screen-accurate, has become something of an icon and a piece of BR collectible history in its own right.




Some time after I made this purchase I became aware of a product on the Japanese market that gave me the idea of modifying my wallet and badge. Since this was my first attempt at this kind of project, rather than risking my pristine first set, I decided to try to get a second wallet set with which I could experiment. Wink Before too long, I managed to get one.

Looking at screenshots of Deckard's badge, it appears to be thoroughly used and weathered. It looks "fat," as if it has spent a lot of time crammed full of papers and cards that made it stretch and bloat. Maybe it's been carried in Deckard's rear pants pocket, causing it to retain a slightly curved shape. The wallet is also clearly no stranger to the elements: Deckard has probably flashed it several hundred times in the pouring (acid?) rain.



On top of this, there are those who think the wallet looks brown rather than black. Generally speaking, brown does seem to be Deckard's color.

The Japanese product that inspired my modifications is a spray-on dye called Some-Q (pronounced "so-may-cue"), which, according to its advertising, won the prize as favorite overall product at the 2006 "DIY HOME CENTER SHOW."



What interested me was the representation that this product is a dye rather than a paint. According to the product Website, which you can find at http://www.teroson.co.jp, the particles that make up the spray are much finer than those in spray paint, enabling Some-Q to adhere to every little nook and cranny of the article being dyed. I was impressed with the samples on display at the store, in particular the leather articles that had been dyed with Some-Q, so I bought a can of "Espresso Brown." I also purchased a can of base coat, since I was going to be dyeing a black wallet. My plan was to alter the color of the wallet from black to brown, and then to weather the wallet to a more screen-used appearance.

My first step was carefully to cut off the wallet's thick suede flap, sewn into the left seam of the ID compartment, meant to protect the ID window from the badge and vice versa. Then I removed the badge from its recessed area in the wallet.

Next I poured a small amount of very hot water onto the Smith & Warren imprint branded into the leather, gently working the leather with my fingers until the leather had relaxed and the logo was almost invisible. (You can see the maker's logo before and after in the very last photo of this post.)

Next I masked the parts of the wallet I did not want to dye -- the ID window and the badge recess -- and gave the entire wallet three light coats of the base color, as recommended in the instructions. This was followed by several coats of Espresso Brown.

The results of these steps can be seen below.




The wallet came out a handsome, rich shade of brown (darker than it appears in these photos). And much to my delight, it seemed as if it actually had been dyed, not painted, as the color was completely fast and did not flake, peel, or crack no matter how the wallet was twisted.

In order to weather the replica, I decided to use it for a while as a practical wallet. I used it to carry money, credit cards, business cards, ID, receipts, point cards, notes... a lot more stuff than I usually carry, aiming at that bloated look of Deckard's wallet. I also took the wallet with me into the hot shower a couple of times to let the steam soften the leather so that I could work it more easily. In the picture below, you can see the original black wallet on top, and the way it looked after dyeing and weathering, below.




I figured I ought to weather the badge, too, since it would look odd to have a nice, shiny, perfect-looking shield inside of a weathered, beaten wallet. I abraded the raised areas of the shield with 400-grit sandpaper, dulling (and in some places removing) the golden finish, then gave the entire badge a wash of rust-colored Tamiya acrylic paint from a weathering set I had on hand. I then rubbed off most of the rust with a cloth and gave the badge a light mist with lacquer dullcoat. You can see the results in the photo below -- new on the left, weathered on the right. The weathered badge looks much redder in this photo than it does to the naked eye; in fact, you can see that the background of the photo itself has a reddish tint.




I filled out the wallet with phoenixvader's excellent Deckard Wallet Stuffer set. The wallet set new is above, the weathered, dyed wallet with stuffer cards below.




Finally, I put some folds and scratches into the surface to replicate the more distinctive folds on the screen-used wallet. I'm particularly happy with how the Smith & Warren imprint disappeared with a bit of coaxing, because I plan to display the wallet in this configuration -- with the ID flap open but no badge visible -- as it was shown in the film.



In the shot above, the weathered, dyed wallet looks quite a bit brighter than it does to the naked eye. I guess I need to study my digital camera more in order to get a closer match to what my eye is actually seeing. Embarassed

spinner44.com is currently preparing to offer his final run of Blade Runner wallet sets. Check the Prop Shop for more information!

Thanks for looking!



Thank you, Pilot!
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eltee
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So...when you were using the wallet for everyday carry, did you keep the badge in there? Might have come in handy if you got pulled over...

Beautiful job.
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phoenixvader
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gary,

That is just awesome. Make me want to send you mine to work on Wink

What do you think you would charge to do it?

thomas Wink
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Rick Deckard
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Man, that is nothing short of awesome.
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joberg
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh yeah! Love the new/old look of that wallet. Very good job.
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BeastMaster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

good job temponaut! Very Happy

looking at the surface texture in the screen caps I always thought the wallet was a suede material like this:



which reminds me, my wallet project is long overdue. need to get that blaster build out the way Rolling Eyes
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Nexus6
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EXCELLENT job.
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BRAVO !!!

Shocked



Congrats Gary, it really looks like the real thing !

Fred
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Mr Webber
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

First class job Gary,
Ageing things is a BR specialty that you seemed to have mastered.

Have you ever tried to age things like the streetsigns?, giving them that acid rain, oily, grimey look, would love to know how to pull that off
without damaging the item.
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spinner44.com
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent work Gary. I was holding off mentioning this on the new run, but I will be offering a new weathered option. A bit of a different process then how you went about it, but I really like seeing that someone wanted to grunge one of these up. Very nice take on it.
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phase pistol
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice work, Tempo!

Here's a bit of enhancement to the screen cap...

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spinner 44
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Temponaut,

Have you cheked the missing scenes dvd. There's another shot of Deckard in its spinner. The wallet seems to be fully unfolded and the police plaque is nowhere to be seen. Maybe a trick of the light... but.







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spinner44.com
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That would be because the badge is fantasy.
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spinner 44
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess so too, spinner44.

The funny thing is that the badge was present in the wallet made by Phil S. a long time ago. A wallet that was a exact replica of a supossed to be "production piece", but I'm afraid the original piece was not, it was a fan or pro reproduction passed as a true-prop. At least parts of it, like the id card, card key and credit card that I own Sad ... but that a whole different story.
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spinner 44
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BTW spinner44,

Having made those top accurate replicas of the ID and the telephone card, have you considered to do a film-accurate wallet (sans the shield). It may be a little less atractive visually, but for those of us who are anal about accuracy it would be a gift.
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

eltee wrote:
So...when you were using the wallet for everyday carry, did you keep the badge in there? Might have come in handy if you got pulled over...


Yes, actually, I did keep the badge in there while I was carrying the wallet on a daily basis. Although I had removed the suede flap, I carried that around with me, too, slipped in between the ID window and the badge in order to prevent damage. I was pretty careful about not flashing the badge when I had to take out the wallet in public. Maybe if I looked more a young Harrison Ford it would have been different. Wink

eltee wrote:
Beautiful job.


Thank you!
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

phoenixvader wrote:
That is just awesome.


Thank you, thomas! I really like the way the pockets in the wallet "memorized" the shapes of the credit cards in your Deckard Wallet Stuffer set. Very Happy

phoenixvader wrote:
Make me want to send you mine to work on Wink What do you think you would charge to do it?


I never even thought about it. It's actually so easy and fun to weather one of these, I'd feel strange taking money for it. All you need to do is to get ahold of the Some-Q brown spray-on dye... and if you'd prefer to keep your wallet black, you don't even need to do that!

Seriously, just stuff your wallet full of stuff and start carrying it around with you!
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rick Deckard wrote:
Man, that is nothing short of awesome.

joberg wrote:
Oh yeah! Love the new/old look of that wallet. Very good job.


Thank you very much! The only other "leather weathering project" I had ever tried before was on a 1/6-scale faux-leather jacket. And I had never tried the spray-on dye, so I was a little worried about messing that up. But with a little forethought and patience, everything worked out okay.
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BeastMaster wrote:
good job temponaut! Very Happy


Thank you!

BeastMaster wrote:
looking at the surface texture in the screen caps I always thought the wallet was a suede material


Yes, I've thought this, too. In several shots, the surface of Deckard's wallet appears to have that slightly brushed texture or "furry" look of suede.

BeastMaster wrote:
my wallet project is long overdue. need to get that blaster build out the way Rolling Eyes


Looking forward to your blaster thread and the subsequent wallet thread. (Of course, if you choose to delay these in order to do another run of Deckard's photos, I wouldn't object... )
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nexus6 wrote:
EXCELLENT job.

SKIN JOB 66 wrote:
[size=18]Congrats Gary, it really looks like the real thing !


Thank you! Very kind of you. Very Happy
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