For this week’s Show and Tell, Norm gushes over the new Star Wars concept art book featuring all of the work of legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie. We chat with Brandon Alinger, who co-wrote the book and dug into the LucasFilm archives to find and rescan this artwork.
Norm and Jeremy record a duocast to catch up on this past week in technology news. It’s been a busy week, from Tesla’s autopilot announcement to Nintendo’s new console, not to mention the big two unveils from Microsoft and Apple. We chat about Surface Studio, the new MacBooks, and our hopes and fears for each. Plus, did we mention we’re putting on a live show this weekend?
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: My Zorg Industries ZF-1
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1. By the way, this is me trying (my hardest) to look badass.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: The Fifth Element
Just look at Gary Oldman! I’ve been obsessed with the ZF-1 since the film came out in 1997. Around 1999 I started looking around on the Web to see who could help me build one, which is how I found the Replica Prop Forum — check it out if you don’t know it. I’ve ended up making a lot of good friends there. Too many to name, but they know who they are.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: September 2006
With one of the (many) real Zorg Industries ZF-1s from the film. I couldn’t believe I was able to touch this. Don’t ask me where this was taken — I can’t tell you. This was the first time I touched a piece of the film. The next time would come YEARS later.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: November 2006
I love the control over how to view the drawings in SketchUp (and other programs).
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: November 2006
I did many, many 3D drawings in SketchUp. SO. MANY. This was so hard to draw, I can’t actually remember how I did it. SketchUp back then required many workarounds to get out a drawing like this.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: September 2006
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: September 2006
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: March 2007
Here’s my torch nozzle next to a part scaled to it. Note: Don’t build yours to these dimensions; they’re all just slightly off. But I’d print these out as my machining guides. Many angles, many dimensions …
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: September 2006
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: September 2006
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: June 2007
When I’d lose focus or interest, I’d just print these sketches and they’d inspire me to keep working.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: July 2007
Careful viewers will see that this is in the M5 machine shop. When I’d get into ZF-1 fever modes I’d often be found during lunch machining a part for the ZF-1 per day, per lunch hour.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: Flamethrower Nozzle
I recognized this piece on the prop — it was the same as the nozzle on the gas torch that i had in my tool kit. I went all the way down the road to building a replica, figuring out the dimensions from hundreds of screen grabs and scaling it to this piece. But it later turned out that all of my dimensions were slightly wrong. Sigh.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: July 2007
This photo is timestamped 11:47 am, by the way. Legitimately my lunch hour.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: Rocket Nozzle
The rocket nozzle primed and painted. This is in fact an off-the-shelf part- the Estes Bull Pup rocket.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: July 2007
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: April 2008
This is me with the closed pod that formed the base of my gun’s outer shell (after many castings and sculptings and such) Note: this is taken in my tiny 140 sq. ft. shop in the basement of my old house in Sunnyside San Francisco.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: May 2012
In one of my first videos for Tested.com, I showed Norman Chan my progress. I still have this apron. Look at that droopy barrel!
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: June 2013
A completed final resin top shell. Over the years I’ve farmed out lots of work to a moldmaker here in San Francisco named Eric Dunn. He’s a wizard and made a mold that cast this impossible piece in ONE POUR. Makes me tired just thinking about it. Great piece.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: May 2013
Did I mention that there’s almost no glue in the entire build? I have a philosophy that glue is often the worst solution to a given problem- unless it’s the only solution. Anyway I try to avoid it when I can as I often take things apart to improve them, and glue inhibits that.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: June 2013
The top shell master just before I sent it off for casting. I ended up water-cutting my aluminum frame with a friend’s water cutter. The numbers on the inside (IIRC) were to help me make sure that my DXF of the water cut aluminum fit the shell I was about to send to my moldmaker. Working with different frames, shells, and inner and outer pieces requires constant checking and re-checking to make sure everything will come out ok. After this photo was taken I added some blocks so that I could add threaded inserts to assemble the ZF1 with screws.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: June 2013
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: July 2013
Some machined, some cast parts, and a full rough assembly to see how it’s all going. So satisfying yet still so far to go!
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: July 2016
After 15 years (essentially) and with tremendous help from a slew of dedicated nut jobs like myself I finished (mostly to my satisfaction) the uber complicated and magnificent Zorg Industries ZF-1.
Photo Gallery: The Making of Adam Savage’s Zorg ZF-1 Prop Replica!
Photo Gallery: Finally Complete!
I have so many hundreds of photos and have talked to so many dozens of people about this gun over the years that it’s really hard to separate the various projects from each other. This really has been a team effort. And I am far from the first person to complete one. I’d like to give a big thanks to everyone who helped me — especially my RPF friends — make my dream of owning a ZF-1 come true.
Adam’s full panel from this year’s New York Comic Con, where he answers questions from fans, gives advice, and shares some behind-the-scenes stories he’s never told before!
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli Music by Jinglepunks
Over four years later, we check in on Adam’s Fifth Element Zorg ZF-1 replica project, which he has finally finished! Adam explains the long journey to completing this replica, detailing every step of this obsession.
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli Music by Jinglepunks
We’re all over the place this week! Before embarking on another week of travel, Adam shares another recent find connected to his obsession with the Shining maze, we talk about halloween haunts and costumes, and Will goes off on a rant! Plus, we give out more details about our upcoming live stage show, taking place this Saturday!
For this week’s Show and Tell, Norm shares the homemade wedding favors that Frank helped make for Norm’s recent wedding ceremony using his Universal Laser Systems cutter. The project was straightforward and simple to execute, and Norm couldn’t be happier with the results!
Before joining us for a recording of Still Untitled at New York Comic Con, science fiction author John Scalzi sat down to chat with Adam about his most recent writing projects, fan convention culture, and the status of John’s film and television projects.
We meet Klim Kozinevich, who runs Bigshot Toyworks, a design firm that works with companies like Sideshow Collectibles, Mondo, and KidRobot to develop and produce high-end collectible figures. At New York Comic Con, we chat with Klim about what goes into the making of toys like Mondo’s Iron Giant and Sideshow’s StarCraft II Raynor figure.
Here’s how Adam Savage built his amazing Totoro cosplay that he wore at New York Comic Con! In this One Day Build, Adam shows us how he designed the costume to be lightweight and collapsible, how he formed Totoro’s iconic shape, and the little details that brought the huggable character to life!
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli Music by Jinglepunks
