Thursday, September 29, 2016

Jurassic Park Sign

The last part to the JP gate is the big sign with the "Jurassic Park" lettering between the columns.  Today was about getting a lot of that all done.  I had ordered some foam core sheets that I painted yellow to use as the outline.  I printed out each letter separately (Jurassic Park font) in red ink (with some modification--I added a red section in the middle of each letter) and cut them out.

Next, I mod podged the letters onto the sheets of foam core, making sure there was enough of an outline on all sides of each letter.  I did a couple of layers of mod podge, trying to put out any bubbles that cropped up.  Once the last layer was dry, I drew a light pencil outline all around the letters, maybe...1/2 inch or so, maybe a bit less.  Then I took a sharp razor blade knife and cut all around on the outline.  This gave me the classic look of the signage.

Next step was putting together the actual sign.  Based on some measuring I had done when the towers were up, I knew I didn't have a whole lot of wiggle room.  But as I examined the movie gate, I realized that the "J" actually overlaps the sign, and there's a special little section for the "Park" section.  Another problem was that I didn't actually have a piece of styrofoam 6 feet long.  I had some that were 4 feet though.  And I wanted the sign to be pretty sturdy, so I went ahead and made it two inches thick, layering the sections on top of each other to get the length I needed.  I used the 'gripper' wood primer that has been successful so far in adhering together styrofoam.  I set some paint buckets on top to hold it down while it dries at least overnight.  I think I'll also use the heat gun to seal in the edges before painting it--less mess.


No comments:

Post a Comment