My journey with the Stunt Macro (part 2)
Continuing where I left off last time… the bubbles and their enclosure.
Here’s a picture of the complete unit:
Why not use it as it is?? It even has nice loops so it can be screwed at the top of the camera and will look really cool. I don’t have such small drill bit and tap though, so I just used a double-sided tape and glued some small pieces over the loops to make it look like it is rivetted.
The Mystery Disc
I guess this could have come from anywhere. But just looks too much like the discs on the old film cameras with a hole to mount to a tripod. After looking briefly for some other options, I’ve decided to focus just on camera discs and use the one that is most similar in terms of size and shape that I can find.
What I could make out from the picture:
I see chrome part with the thread in the middle, then black ring then some grayish area and then another black ring as the rim of the disc.
The grayish area is probably filled with tiny concentric circles (it is a very common pattern in these discs) and there’s desert dust stuck between them that makes it look gray (plus the lack of resolution in the pictures).
The disc does not look to be very thick, and I assume they had to drill a hole to install it, at least for the chrome part with the thread.
In fact, the disc on the Kalimar camera matches the description (imagine it painted black), except that it is too big:
I’ve quickly found out that the discs on the typical 35mm film cameras are generally too small, and the ones from TLR cameras are generally too big. They are also usually too thick or hard to remove from the camera. Very few are black, most are chrome (but can be painted, so I didn’t consider that to be a dealbreaker). Another problem is that apparently most sellers on ebay for example don’t bother to post pictures from that side of the cameras they sell.
I could not find any that looked like a good match and decided to use the one from the Kalimar for the time being. I was thinking to maybe look again for something better after I’m done with the rest of the build. While I was working on the transition box I remembered that I had a couple of TLR cameras that I just used for display at my old place, but I never took them out of the box after I moved. Took them out and immediately noticed that one is much smaller than a typical TLR camera (I had totally forgotten how they look). It was a Sawyer’s Mark IV and initially I dismissed it was chrome and it had “JAPAN” stamped on it and some other markings:
but then I realized the size is very close match and when painted the markings practically won’t be visible.
Here it is installed – painted black and weathered with some desert dust:
The side Mystery Box
It can be spotted in few different scenes, but the best few frames are when Luke and C3PO are waiting for the red droid and then for R2D2 after the red one malfunctions.
and here:
It should also be at least somewhat similar to the Mystery box on the hero is a EIAJ plug:
In fact, it practically looks the same in the movie:
even if that does not prove the box on the stunt is also made from the same plug, it must be something really similar.
What I could make out of it is:
Metal rectangular box with rounded corners painted flat black. Some paint wear around the edges. More on the front side (towards the lenses). Appears flat, without scratches or details (but there could be, just the pictures are too small and blurry to tell for sure). About the same size and shape of the EIAJ plug , but maybe just a little smaller.
The sides:
On each side of the box there is a single line from edge to edge at about 2/3 of the length of the box. The lines look straight, so this was one of the things that made me think it can't actually be EIAJ plug as it is not flat on the sides so the line should look like this from these angles: _----_ or -__- instead of straight -----.
Front side(towards the lenses):
Gets smaller than the main box body, probably with a step, has more paint wear than the sides. Then on top of it there’s something that looks like roughly rectangular flat plate (first picture above), bigger than the front but slightly shorter smaller size than the main body. I assume it is somewhat similar to the front of the hero mystery box.
Back side:
On the back side of the box there’s another rectangular plate. This one is slightly larger than the back wall of the box. In the middle of the rectangle there’s something that could be a knob (for example like those small knobs on the hood or the other side of the camera), a thumbscrew or maybe just a simple screw:
Initially I thought it is like the part of the EIAJ plug where the cable goes in, but from what I can see - the proportions do not seem to match (for that part in particular).
So roughly looking first from the side, and then front of the box, this is what I see:
Not to far from EIAJ plug, but also the shape is pretty similar to these (especially if you drill a hole in the middle of a rectangular plate on put it on the rear side):
Maybe a similar plug/connector exists that is 1) little larger; 2) more rectangular; 3)made of aluminum or other metal (but not copper/brass), but I could not find anything that matches.
However, it does not make much sense to me that it is just a rectangular plate glued on the back side of the main box. My interpretation is that it is actually L-shaped bracket that is either glued or held with screws to the side of the body and then the mystery box is attached to it with this knob/screw thing in the center:
For the scratches on the sides I’ve ultimately decided that the main body is made of two connected parts and what looks like a scratch is paint wear around the edge of one of them. I’m not saying it is actually like this, because it looks just like scratch on the pictures, but this is how I decided to build it with the parts that I could find.
I found a small lot of some vintage connectors and used 2 pairs to make two mystery boxes. Used one for the build, and this is the other:
The little square is inspired by this screenshot:
where it kind of looks like there’s a black square. The thumbscrew is a dial from a film camera, probably from the Neoca that I used for the lens.
The connectors were Chinch Jones 8 pin similar to these:
The one that ended on the build is just a little different, as you can’t have 2 props be exactly the same in star wars.
On my “wrong and leftover parts” build that followed shortly after I used a right-angle EIAJ plug just so it does not go to waste. I cut the part where the cable goes in (as it was on the side) and this time used just a plain thumbscrew that I had lying around.
I like how it looks better than the other two, maybe if all the shiny parts and the tab are painted black it will be as close to what I see in the movie.
Here are some size comparison pictures (the piece in the middle in the first picture is the part I cut from the EIAJ plug):
The "transition box"
Here are the 3 main references that I used for the shape and later for the weathering:
As far as I can tell it is made of 3 parts. 2 sides and a cover that attaches to them with 2 screws on one side and 1 on the other (and the shapes of the side sections are not he same) . Of course there are the 2 knobs from the Yashica camera installed in the middle.
The two side pieces have a small part bent at straight angle at the top side where the Kalimar hood is attached with 2 small screws on each side piece. I was not sure how exactly it is attached, but after some experimenting I added additional small pieces to make something like a clamp on each side that is held together by the small screws.
The side piece that is towards the side knobs is attached with a single screw to the side of the camera part.
The other side piece after some thinking I decided goes inside the opening where the light meter bubbles used to be.
Here's a rough drawing of my design (not to scale):
There does not seem to be anything closing the box from below as can be seen in the picture below. I didn't like how it looks and wanted to add another piece there but so far I have not done (also wanted to add a little screen inside to look at when you open the Kalimar hood , but have not done that yet either).
Note that some of the parts of the Kalimar hood are missing. I'm not sure if it was broken by accident or they had to remove them so it can open and close when installed (however mine opens and closes and I didn't have to remove or cut any parts).
The Lens Plate
This is the single best reference for the lens plate that I could find. Looks like plexiglass or some acrylic plate (what's the difference??) painted black. 3 holes for the screws to attach it to the body. Only 2 screws are used though, one is missing. Of course, on this picture one of the lenses is also missing, so maybe is not very representative in regard to what was generally missing on the prop and what not. But where the missing screw should go there is a gap between the plate and the camera body (because of the weird camera body shape) that at least requires a longer screw then the others.
Because of this, I guess it is very possible that they drilled the plate, then realized they can’t actually use the screw (maybe was too short) and left it out.
I could not see it in any other reference, so in my build I drilled the hole only on the plate and left it without a screw.
The Miranda was an interchangeable lens camera so I could take the mount out of the camera body and screw it on the lens plate. It allows the lens to be attached and detached from the stunt macro just like on the original camera. However, the focusing ring can’t be turned all the way to infinity because the rear of the lens hits the lens plate (that’s unless you drill a large hole in the plate behind the lens, but I didn’t bother).
I don’t know if they used the mount at all (probably not) or just drilled and tapped some holes in the lens and used screws like for the other one, but to me it is the better way to do it. Also allows me to switch between 2 lenses that are painted differently.
The Neoca was a fixed lens camera so there was no mount that I could use. The lens are mounted to a small plate, that is in turn mounted to the camera body:
I was tempted to install it with this plate as it looked nice, but was obviously not accurate, so I only used the plate as a template for where to drill the holes.
I had to glue together some of the lens parts that came loose when the lens were removed from the camera and also cut the lever that sticks out of the back of the lens. (I guess I could have drilled a hole for it but it was just easier to cut it). Found some longer screws that could go all the way through the plate I made and screw into the original holes on the lens.
The top "Mystery Box"
This one is not such a mystery, as just from the picture below one can figure the general shape and size of the box:
So it is another rectangular box, top corners are rounded, two cheesehead slotted screws hold it in place. Front side is painted black, back side light gray.
But was it entirely scratch made part or some found part was used? Is this highlight in the picture above a little finder window? To me it looks very much like it, like there's a glass rectangle and a hint of the screw behind it ...
Is the front (black) side of the box flat or is there a little step like what I think I'm seeing here?
I've decided to add a little window and also make a step. Used the viewfinder from the Neoca Camera:
So as I had to follow the shape of the viewfinder it ended being little different from what I actually wanted it to look like, but I think it's good enough ... I'm still not sure about the step, but if I find some picture where I can see clearly that there's no step I can easily fill it with some sculpting putty and paint it over
The Belt Clip
Pretty good references for the shape and size, held with 2 screws to the bottom plate of the camera. Worn black paint on the outside, black on the inside. Tip is almost exactly aligned with the tip of the shorter lens (last picture). Funny enough on the last picture the bigger lens is missing this time.
After I made my clip and installed it I found it little annoying sticking out that much, so I've shortened it a bit to somewhere at the middle of the lens:
