After receiving a windfall pile of 1977 Ralph McQuarrie Star Wars portfolio prints - a bargain at 99p plus £5 postage and I only actually expected two - I set about cleaning up a few stains and scratches, something I really looked forward to.
I find touching-up paper items really enjoyable, even though I have no skill to speak of!
This is how I got them from Ebay, in a splendid A3 Episode 1 tin! [no idea what that was originally for]. Alas, it was covered in sticky tape, which I started to remove but found it was stuck fast to the metal.
Inside the tin were the gorgeous ream of card prints, which are really something else. Not a full set but then again I was only expecting two, so I'm certainly not complaining. the seller was more than generous!
Here they all are in the kitchen. They'll hopefully make a great gift.
To soften the sticky tape I left the tin to soak in a warm bath and started on the paper scratches.
These two were first.
Coloured pencils gave me this finish.
This is how it looks fully cleaned up [interestingly Luke is a girl in this early concept!]
Next was the top left corner surface scratch on this wonderful Millennium Falcon image.
Fortunately the area was a basic grey so I just used a normal pencil for the patch and ruler for the edge.
It ended up like this.
Easily the most exciting print of my lot was this epic duel between Luke and Vader
Being such a fabulous picture I was worried about messing this up. The scratch was immediately above Vader's fist on the roof.
Using three different pencils I had a go and the result, although not perfect, is better than the original white zig-zag I think.
The final picture issue was a hard diagonal white crease on the left side of this X-Wing concept.
Again, coloured pencils seemed to at least slightly blur the original white line.
The prints were done. What do you think?
I then finished cleaning the tin box. This took an hour!
The sticky tape had left such a gunky residue it required copious amounts of lighter fluid and elbow grease to shift it from the lid, sides and bottom.
I also tried a final rubbing of T-Cut to soften the many scratches it came with but it didn't really work. I'd love a mirror finish but it the cost isn't warranted.
Still, I have ended up with a glue-free tin nicely cleaned-up and shined.
I plan to make a large envelope for the prints out of baking paper so the prints don't move about in the tin container, whilst Santa drags it down my daughter's chimney!
A nice job! I wouldn't have considered touching up the prints, given their vintage, but they look great. The mirror finish case looks like it held the prequel era prints, by Doug Chiang. McQuarrie didn't work directly on the Episode 1-3 sequence, but his work clearly influences the designs. Bill
ReplyDeleteTa Bill. I enjoyed doing this. In the end I placed all the prints in a large brown envelope and then inside the tin box. Hopefully it will make someone smile this Christmas. You're right about the tin box as well, it did house Chiang prints . I prefer McQuarrie's pictures.
DeleteMuch as I enjoy Chiang's work, its not nearly as iconic as McQuarries. Bill
DeleteExcellent restoration work, and I like the illustrations far better than the finished product! SFZ
ReplyDeleteThanks SFZ. Its fascinating to a Star Wars fan like me to see these original concepts and see how they differed from the film, a bot like the differences in the 1977 novel, also fascinating.
DeleteA great job. Really well done. I would not have dared to try.
ReplyDeleteCheers Paul, I enjoy working on paper a lot.
DeleteBravo! You're really developing some nice restoration skills. Using lighter fluid (Zippo to our American friends) on tape and stickers is the best! It doesn't attack styrene (unlike mineral turps) and it evaporates without changing the quality of paper, so it's ideal for removing stickers that you want to reuse.
ReplyDeleteYou can get a quasi morror finish on printed tin and plastic surfaces with a clear spray on auto protectant like Armorall.
Maybe you'll need to rename this blog MOONBASE RESTORATIONS!
ha ha, thanks very much Looey. It is fun to restore things and bring them back to life for sure, even with my limited old school bodging!
DeleteNice find and great work,i love mcquarrie works,the real Star wars Spirit!!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot EW!
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