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.
I don’t come here to look at the build stuff but I had to look at this one. Loved the movie and loved that gun. I would love one of those. Don’t know what I would do with it but I would love one!
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Podcast - This Is Only a Test
All Eyes On Perserverance – This is Only a Test 58…
We get excited for the Perserverance rover Mars landing happening later today in this week's episode. Jeremy finally watches In and Of Itself, we get hyped for The Last of Us casting, and try to deciper the new Chevy Bolt announcements. Plus, Kishore gets a Pelaton and we wrack our brains around reverse engineering the source code to GTA …
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
Podcast - This Is Only a Test
House of MCU – This is Only a Test 586 – 2/11/21
The gang gets together to recap their favorite bits from this past weekend's Superb Owl, including the new camera tech used for the broadcast and the best chicken wing recipes. Kishore shares tips for streamlining your streaming services, and Will guests this week to dive into the mind-bending implications of the latest WandaVision episod…
This is truely incredible.
The 5th element has always been one of my absolute favourite movies, I’m so jealous of that prop.
I’m a little curious though, how does one go about actually fabricating the master for the shell mould?
I would love to see next years poster made up using Adam’s sketches of ZF-1.
BTW, love the the bear costume one also.
I don’t come here to look at the build stuff but I had to look at this one. Loved the movie and loved that gun. I would love one of those. Don’t know what I would do with it but I would love one!