Multipass Tutorial - Introduction and Overview

Welcome to my MultiPass tutorial!

This tutorial will walk you through all of the steps necessary to build up a MultiPass kit to look just like this one.

To see the entire tutorial listed in order in your browser, click on this link.

In fact, the picture here was taken at the end of the making of this very tutorial.

I have tried to document every detail of the build, including recommended techniques, tools and methods. If you find anything that is lacking, or think there might be ways I can improve the tutorial, please don't hesitate to drop me a line with your suggestions.

I was digging through some old files on my PC the other day and realized that this project started in August of 2000, if not shortly before that. The idea to make my own MultiPass started long before that, but the actual process of getting together a kit for myself started many years ago. I wanted my Multipass to be the most accurate kit ever made, from the body, to the graphics.

While the kit I made has a few minor flaws in it, I believe it to be the best one made. This tutorial even shows you how to fix one of the flaws.

For the record, there is one detail on the pass that I intentionally did not replicate, and a second detail that I could not figure out how to replicate. The former is a bevel that is found on the ring around the yellow button. There should be a raised lip on the inside of the ring, but I could not find a way to economically accomplish this. I may end up getting a piece machined, and then mold it later, but that's a long way off. The other detail is a small angled edge that can be found just below the LED on the front face. I don't know if this is a cut, a crack in the prop, or a step up from a different level. I have spent many hours trying to reconcile the details found in the different props in the movie with the the details that I "know" to be true about the pass. I came up with a compromise that eliminates this detail, but keeps the pass easy to make. I tried incorporating the step in a couple of prototypes, and just couldn't figure out how to engineer it.

I've seen some other great pieces out there, but none include the research, time/money spent, and just plain dedication to getting the details right that I feel this piece does.

Some steps of the process proved to be more difficult than others. In order to explain what I was thinking or doing at the moment, I often describe in great detail what is being done. The pictures reflect intermediate moments in the process and are to be used in conjunction with the text.

I recommend that you follow the steps in order. At the very least, read the tutorial through in chronological order before attempting to build your own. Some of the steps MUST be done before others, whereas some steps can be done at any time. If you familiarize yourself with the various steps involved before beginning, you can make your own construction decisions along the way.

Good luck!

Multipass Tutorial - Step 1

The most important step: The first step!

Here I check to make sure that each part that is supposed to be there is actually there.

This is what it looks like before opening. Snazzy packaging, yes??

Here's a breakdown of the parts. I will refer to these parts throughout the tutorial using the names I give here. Click on the little picture to see a bigger picture, which has all the parts numbered.

1. Front Graphics
2. Back Graphics
3. Back Plate
4. Top Plate
5. Mid plate
6. Bullet Strip
7. LED Surround
8. Red Wire
9. Yellow Rod
10. Thin Rings (x2)
11. Disk (x2)
12. Thick Rings (x2)
13. Clear Dome
14. LED
15. Yellow Vinyl
16. Ribbed Styrene (x2)
17. Ribbed Styrene Template

Multipass Tutorial - Step 2

In this step, we remove the paper backing from the styrene parts.

One of the artifacts of the laser cutting process is the paper backing that is stuck to the styrene. I don't know why it's there, or how it effects the laser cutting process, but it's there, and it needs be removed.

The adhesive that is used to attach the paper to the plastic is not water soluble, but soaking the pieces seems to help.

Dump all the styrene pieces that were laser cut into a bowl of warm water.

Let them sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

After the paper has softened up, user your thumb nail to get under the edge, and slowly peel off the paper backing.

Note: this is not rocket science.

Aftermath.

Mulitipass Tutorial - Step 3

Now that we've removed the paper backing from the styrene parts, we need to do a bit more clean up. If you take a close look at the various laser cut parts, you'll see that there is sometimes some melted styrene around the edges where the laser got a little too hot, or stayed in one place for a little too long. I'm not talking about the texture inside the cuts, I'm talking about little styrene blisters that have melted onto the flat surfaces.

Here we clean those up, and get rid of some burn marks.

Take some high grit sandpaper, say about 600, and run it over the edges of each piece. You don't want to reshape the styrene pieces, or flatten them out. You just want to "deburr" the edges, and get rid of the zits that may have developed during the cutting.

Here's an example of a cleaned up piece. It might be hard to see the differences from these pictures, so use your best judgment.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 4

In this step, I assemble what I call the "Battery Case".

For this step, you need two parts from the kit, and some styrene gule. You'll need the large circle with no hole in it, and one of the thin washers. Do NOT use the thick washer.

Take your plastruct glue and brush some on to the thin washer. You don't want to soak the piece, but get even coverage. Before it has a chance to dry, press it onto the large disk, lining up the edges as closely as possible.

When this step is done, it will look like the photo on the left. You've finished constructing the battery case.

PLEASE NOTE: I have included in the kit an extra thin and thick washer. If you want to make a working version of the pass, and need some extra room for a battery, these may come in handy. It will make the pass less accurate, but you may want to sacrifice that in order to fit in a momentary switch or something. I will leave that as an exercise for the student.

Though not manditory, I chose to sand down the edges of the battery case here. This makes for a nice smooth edge. You must sand carefully, and be sure not to introduce a bezel into the shape. When you glue the battery case onto the body, if you have sanded it down too much, it will be too small in comparison to the rest of the body.

You can easily skip this step and just sand the edges once you get the body assembled.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 5

In this step, we prepare the dome that is used as the "button" for the Multipass. Key to the success of this step is a simple battle of psychological warfare. In the process of cleaning up the dome, it gets really trashed. The sanding an filing ruins the transparency of the dome and makes it look awful. But have faith, and stay the course. By the time this step is done, the dome will be as clean and see-through as it was when you started.

I was once convinced that the dome for the multipass was a google eye that can be found on stuffed animals and such. I'm no longer convinced of that for a couple of reasons. First, plastruct parts are a mainstay of any prop/miniatures shop. It is very likely that the propmakers on the movie had plastruct stock sitting around. Second, the domes I use are precisely the right size for the doughnut shape that appears on the multipass, as scaled from a known critical measurement on the pass. Third, to get the google eye to work in this context requires a lot of labor. So much labor that I have decided not to include a tutorial on how to make it work. Frankly, it's very difficult, very problematic, and does not provide results as nice as you get with the plastruct dome.

Here is the dome as it comes straight from Plastruct. You can barely tell from the picture, but the main problem with this piece as it stands is the ejection port nipple on the top of the dome. It's basically a big hole in the top of the dome that is created when the part is made. The first thing we need to do is remove this so that the dome appears smooth.

Note: The removal of the nipple is totally optional. if you don't care about the nipple, then you can skip the first few steps of this part of the tutorial. Go straight to the part where you put the yellow vinyl on the back. In fact, there's even a shot in the movie of Korben's pass where it looks like the nipple is in tact. So it's really up to you.

The first thing I did was file down the sprue on the side of the dome. I did this using a hobby file. The dome is a tiny little bugger, and one of the more challenging aspects of this part of the process was simply getting my fingers around it in a way that will allow me to attack the dome with whatever tool I'm using. I do not recommend using a clamp or clasp to hold the dome in place, as the plastic is pretty soft and will damage easily.

Now it's time to wear down the nipple. I started in with a flat hobby file and basically just filed away the top millimeter or two from the dome. Keep filing until the nipple disappears altogether. You'll be surprised at how deep it goes. After you sand off the main lip, there will still be a small white dot in the middle that will take some work to get rid of. Keep going until it's totally gone. Don't worry about the shape of the dome and how it's changing. We'll fix that later.

This picture shows the dome after I filed the nipple down. It looks like there's a flat plateau on the top of the dome. There is! Our next task involves fixing that.

I start out with some 220 grit sandpaper. I wouldn't recommend using anything lower than that, as it may carve lines in the dome that will be too deep to polish out. If you want to start with a higher grit, you'll just need to do more work. Basically, with the 220 grit paper, I reshape the dome. I smooth out the transition from the dome to the plateau I just created in the previous step so that it resumes it's domed shape. You can also use this opportunity to flatten out the dome a bit more if you chose to.

After using the 220, the dome looks pretty foggy. We've scratched up the surface pretty badly. However, it has the proper shape, and that's what we're after.

This picture shows the dome after I hit it with some 1000 grit sandpaper. I went straight from the 220 to the 1000, and used water in the process. Wetsanding will always provide smoother results than dry. Just take a bowl of water, dunk your sand paper in it prior to use, then go to town.

Now that we've gotten any grooves out of the dome that were cut by the 220, and gotten the dome into the shape we want it to be, we're ready to polish it. Grab some colgate, a sock, and some water. You can probably use any type of toothpaste, I just happened to have Colgate sitting around. You know... for my teeth.

Place a gob of toothpaste on the dome, wet your sock with the water, and rub the thing down. You actually won't need to polish it that much to get it perfectly clear, assuming that you did a good job with the 1000 grit sandpaper. After rubbing the toothpaste on it for a minute or so, wipe it all off to see how it looks. Repeat if necessary.

I'm not convinced that the breath strips in the toothpase add any advantage!! hah! But hey, it's what I had on hand.

Here's a picture of the newly improved, nipple free, recently polished to perfection dome.

I've noticed that sometimes, the back side of the dome is not completely flat. I think this varies from dome to dome. I was not satisfied with the back of my dome, so I used the 1000 grit sandpaper to flatten it. I drew little figure eights with the dome in order to avoid wearing down one side more than the other. After it was flat, I polished it with toothpaste.

In the next few steps, we're going to give the button its yellow background. I use a piece of yellow vinyl, but there are probably a million different ways to do this. You could paint the back of the button, you could paint a piece of styrene and then glue the button to it, etc. Feel free to improvise.

In this step, I'm peeling the backing off the vinyl circle. This exposes the adhesive side of the vinyl.

Here, I simply plop the button down on the adhesive side of the vinyl. Assuming I haven't screwed up the dome, the underside of it should be pretty darn flat, meaning that I shouldn't have much trouble getting the vinyl onto it.

I now use an exacto knife to cut away the excess vinyl from around the button.

There you have it. One yellow dome.

Multipass Tutorial - Step 6

As "The Dude" from The Big Lebowsky is fond of saying, "New S&^T has come to light!!!"

In this step, you perform a modification to the kit. But allow me to ramble for just a bit. First up, big thanks go out to user Charles Kline of the Replica Props Forum! Charles got ahold of one of my kits, and during his build up did a little bit of "Above and Beyond" research, and actually discovered an answer for a long standing question of mine that I was never quite able to answer.

One of my common laments about the multipass project is that there are a few details which I describe as "Irreconcileable". These are things that look one way in one picture, but different in another. Or there's just a detail that I cannot seem to make sense of. Take for example this picture.

This is one of the most valuable pictures of the multipass, as it's a "straight on" shot of the pass, and is of decent resolution. Well, THIS pic isn't, but for my project, I scanned it directly from the "making of" book, and relied on it heavily for the overall shape, and the graphics. One of the things I recognize from this picture is that it has a clipping path around it. This is basically a way that book makers can isolate graphics from one another on a printed page. The bummer with this is that the clipping path may not follow the contours of the prop precisely. Since I'm ALL about precision, this was of course a bummer for me. But I digress. There is one detail that I see in this picture that I could never completely make sense of. Take a look at the horizontal line running along the top of the pass.

To MY eye, it's kind of hard to figure out what is going on here. Is that rounded? Is it a step? Is it an illusion, or a trick of lighting? is it an artifact of the clipping path? I could never really tell for sure, so I just made some assumptions and proceeded with my multipass kit design, not really worrying about it.

But Mister Kline managed to find this screen cap, which CLEARLY shows that this is indeed a hard step, just like the one at the bottom of the pass.

I'll throw in some arrows, just so you know exactly what I'm talking about:

In my mind, what this capture reveals is that the "lip" sticking out is the same height as the lip on the bottom. For reference, here's a great screen capture that shows the lip on the bottom of the pass, as seen in Korben's apartment.

The punchline is that in this step of the tutorial, you make some modifications to the front and back plate so that the lip on the top is the same as the lip on the bottom.

HUGE thanks to Charles for his dedication to building the most accurate Multipass, and for sharing his insights and discoveries. Though I cannot guarantee this link will be active forever, here is the original thread showing Charles' build up.

For this step, we are going to modify both the front and back plates.

To make the modifications with a level of precision, we are going to use the plates themselves as guides. Flip one of the plates around so they line up like this.

Then slide one plate over the other.

The trick here is to align the two pieces using the arches at the tips of the arms. Click on this picture to see some arrows that are pointing to what I'm talking about here. Once you get them aligned, you can either tape the two together, or just hold them in place for the next step. I chose to just hold them in place.

I took a mechanical pencil, and used it to mark where the cuts are going to go. Just follow along the lip of the plate on top. Repeat this step for both pates. This means you will have to flip over the two plates, re-align them, and then mark where you're going to cut.

This is what the plates look like after you've done your pencil work.

Because the cuts we are going to make run the full length of the plate, you'll need to extend your pencil line. I pulled out my trusty straight edge/ruler, lined it up with the marks I had already made, and then just drew them out.

Here's the fully extended pencil lines. You're now all ready to cut.

Using a brand new x-acto blade and my straight edge, I make the cuts. Just line up the straight edge along your pencil mark. If your pencil lines were not PRECISELY where you wanted to make the cuts, but sure to slide the straight edge away from the cut a bit to allow for any fudge factor.

When cutting with the blade, it is MUCH better to do 10 or 12 shallow cuts than to try to cut it all in one slice. More pressure = bad, and usually results in you slipping or losing your grip on the plate.

And here are the completed plates, with both cuts done.

While you are here, take some 220 grit sandpaper (or whatever you are happy with) and sand down any ridges you may have created with your multiple x-acto blade passes. Also sand out and residual melted plastic from those arches.

For reference, here's a shot of how the newly modified top plate looks on top of the center plate. You can see how there is now that step on the top, whereas before there was none. I notice that mine is a tad too shallow. I will probably go back in with the x-acto and straight edge to extend that a little bit. As per the screen capture above, it looks as if the step height on the top should match the step height on the bottom. It's really up to the builder to decide how crazy you want to get on precision at this point.