Making A Holocron

After visiting this website ( http://cedar.he.net/~jackal/lightwave/gallery/holocron.htm ) i'd decided i'd try to make my very own Holocron. But i don't know where to start.

Can somebody please help me out?

 

Well, first off, that link is to a 3-D computer model, not an actual model, so are you trying to make a prop or a 3-D computer model? I'm assuming the former, as this isn't the right forum for the latter.

Actually, making a holocron shouldn't be super hard, depending on the detail you want. First things first, you need to decide on the design and size of the holocron. The EPII Visual Dictionary has a huge close up of a 12 sided (dodecahedron!) holocron, and a smaller image of the pyramid shaped Sith holocron noted in your link. The problem is, there's no scale for either - they aren't show by anything, so we have no clue how big they are.

Going from the Dark Empire comic, holocrons seem to be about palm sized, but again, there's no reference to how big the actual props were, which never made it to the screen (or if they did, were hidden somewhere in the library scene). So you basically want to start with deciding how big, and then create your design from that.

The pyramid could be made fairly simply, and could be cut from balsa, plastic or, for the really daring, sheet metal. You could use plastic for the "windows" or try etching glass. I've seen a tutorial for that particular holocron somewhere. The dodecahedron would be a pain, but a lot more fun, especially if you could hide a small EL inverter and run some EL wire inside to make it glow.

Hope this helps a little, and I might have to try one of these in the near future...

 

I agree.

I think we should use plastic for a rough drapht of the Holocron to get an idea on where to cut and so on THEN go on to sheet metal or something a litle more daring.

I don't think there is a rule saying a Holocron must be at least this big.
A Holocron is meant to be personnal so i'd make it roughly the size of my palm.

Problem is i'm not very good at working with metal and wood so i'm looking for something on a low budjet

 

The coolest holocron I've seen was done by The_Clone_Emperor (Thomas Spanos)... very cool prop...

I recently did a holocron prop. Mainly just as an experement. Mine's no where near Thomas' masterpiece...but here's how I did mine:

I made a cube out of MDF (medium density fiberboard...similar to plywood, but very nice: essentially made of wood "dust" and a bonding agent...used in furnature making).

After making the basic cube and sanding it down nice and smooth, I made sides from cardstock, cut in a simple geometric pattern (square within a square). Then cut out some Veknoid letters (veknoid being one of the many Star Wars fonts found online...sometimes seen on ship/vehicle displays in the films) and glued the cardstock to the cube.

I then painted the cube in a lavenderish blue, and painted the raised decoration in gold.

[image=http://www.hometown.aol.com/kairhann/images/holocron5.jpg]

~Kai Rhann

 

That's an intresting design.

Good work!

 

[color=006699]Günten Abend,
(I am visiting in Hamburg, Deutschland for the New Year. Mark-up coding on a German keyboard is a challenge.)
Kai Rahnn thanks for the compliment, coming from a craftsmans such as yourself it means alot to me. I like your choice of fonts in the creation of your personal Holocron too.

A couple of years back, I saw the Holocron of a fellow on the Replica Props Forum who had duplicated the very one Hanybezemb1 has in his post. The fellow had first drafted the design in an illustration program and then sent the file to a service that was able to laser cut the design through a sheet of metal. The cut metal sheets still required assembly, but in the end he had produced a screen ready prop.

This particular Holocron, is a reproduction based on a Sith Holocron as found in the Dark Hourse comics series Tales of the Jedi--I might have the title wrong. The point is the writing was greeked in the comic. When the artists for the SW Visual Dictionary chose to reproduce it, they use the font Aurabesh, the Imperial script used in the movies. I have always had a problem with this and other Sith paraphenalia using the official font of the Empire. For my sensiblities, Aurabesh is out of place on Sith artifacts and best reserved for Imperial military purposes.
[image=http://www.dmeb2.org/news/images/sithholocron1_sm.jpg]

As for my Holocron, it was made before the SW Visual Dictionary, and was based on the cube shown in the tale of Dark Empire. That cube projected a hologram of the departed Jedi Master Bodo Baas.
[image=http://www.paralada.org/Estonia_self/Estonia_images/SWgeek/Boda_Baas/Boda_Baas02.jpg]
I drafted the sides of the cube in Illustrator, and printed the design enlarged to fit 8.5" x 8.5" sheets of bakable shrinking plastic (available in many craftstores.) The hologram of Bodo Bass is a resin cast sculpture.
[image=http://www.paralada.org/Estonia_self/Estonia_images/SWgeek/Boda_Baas/bbremold06.jpg]
Inside fibre optics light the eyes via a flickering wand light. The cube houses the guts of a talking wizard game (the game was called "Ask Zandar") and speaks when the photoreceptor is activated--by waving one's hand over it.

Es ist schön Zeit für eine Pause,
Ich wünsche euch eines frohliches neues jahr.
Tschüß.[/color]

 

WOW!