UD Replicas Smallville Jacket

When Smallville was on the air, I was a huge fan of this jacket and definitely wanted to get one. There were a couple of alternatives that cropped up over the years. The folks that made the jackets for the show started offering jackets for sale, but at a price tag that was too steep for me. Not saying that it wasn't a fair price, just that it was more than I was interested in paying. There were also a few cosplay companies online and ebay who offered a jacket, though the quality looked extremely questionable.

So it came as a complete thrill, and no surprise, to learn that UD Replicas would be bringing a high quality, affordable replica of the jacket to market. Though they announcement was made after Smallville went off the air (May need some fact checking on that claim - ed) interest still existed for the jacket, especially from me.

Mine arrived just the other day, and as with all of my previous UD Replicas purchases, I'm really happy with it. To my eyes, it's a really well made garment, and looks just like the one from the show. It's a very flattering cut, and looks great when worn.

Please be sure to check out the UD Replicas website at www.udreplicas.com for more information, and a listing of their currently available products.

Smallville Daily Planet ID

This is a project I picked up about a year ago, spent a few hours on, then abandoned for some reason. Don't even know why. I guess it's just my nature.

It was about 90% done at the time, but I wanted it to be JUST right. I'm thinking I may take this with me to DragonCon this year.


Here is the front of my replica:



And the back:



And some screen captures for comparison. Note that the first one was digitally "straightened" by me so I could trace it properly.





I owe a big debt of gratitude to a gent who goes by the name of Cmdr.Kerner on the interwebs. He pointed me in the right direction of the font used for the "Daily Planet" logo, and also provided a first draft of the ID in vector format that I built on.

I ended up redrawing the Planet logo, though I kept his original sphere and latitude lines. Other than that and the words "Daily Planet" on the yellow ribbon, it's all new.

I picked up some heat free lamination pouches at Target, and they appear to be the PERFECT dimensions for my badge. Good luck, I suppose, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Smallville Book of Rao

In a moment of weakness, I just HAD to buy this!

This is a replica of the "Book of Rao" as seen in season 9 of Smallville. It was sort of one of those instrumental plot devices that never quite became instrumental. It played a good role in a number of episodes, but I get the feeling that the original plot-line that they had in mind for this device got lost in the shuffle of everything else going on for this season.





Overall, I would say this is an EXCELLENT quality replica. VERY nicely made. Looks like it's all CNC'd, and hand polished. The company that makes these has had a bunch of hands-on encounters will Smallville props, though I cannot say with certainty that this was modelled after a screen used piece, or just off screen captures. If I find out more, I will let you know.

If you're interested, here's a link directly to the product if you would like to order one of your own.

And on the off chance they change thier website layout and that link goes dead, you can visit them at www.replicaprops.com and check out all of their cool Smallville props.

Smallville Boots Ordered

I'm putting together a Clark Kent costume, and finally got some of the missing details and pieces. Today I ordered the boots he wears in the first six or seven seasons. Found them on amazon at a decent price:

Red Back Crazy Horse Boots

You know, for a farm boy, that kid sure does wear some top of the line gear!


Here's an older post where I show the Clark Kent watch I acquired for the same costume.

Fiberglassing Is Done.

Man, talk about "not with a bang but a whimper"!! I today finished the very last little segment of fiberglass work on the cape mold, so it is all good to go. Just need to let it cure overnight, and then I will flip it over and start in with some latex tests.

I actually ran out of epoxy resin today, so I had to finish up two little patches with epoxy resin. PEEEE-YOOO does that stuff smell bad. I can smell it on my t-shirt right now. I wore a respirator during the lay up, so hopefully I won't die an early death. But you never know with that stuff. It's nasty. I had thought of getting some more epoxy resin, but I didn't want to introduce another 3 day delay into the project, or lay out another hundred bucks for a kit. So it's done.

In other news, I did some tests with the latex products I ordered from Burman. I brushed some onto a rubber mold I had sitting around, just to see how it handled. One brand, the kind that was a little thicker, lifted off the rubber like crazy. It just would not stay down. The other, thinner one handled much better. I let it dry overnight, and I have to confess, the balloon latex turned out really nice. Color was a little pale, but I'll just have to double up on the pigment. Very opaque, and very light. So I'm actually feeling very optimistic about the cape right now. I guess my only worry is getting a good color match. I have no hopes of nailing it perfectly, but I think I can get it pretty close.

Once the fiberglass cures, I'm going to do a series of tests to make sure I've got my system of brushing in the latex right. Not sure if I will use a brush, a sponge, a roller, or whatever. That'll be what I'm experimenting on.

In mostly unrelated, yet equally as nerdy news, I picked up this on ebay the other day :



It's the same model of watch that Clark wears on Smallville. Nice! Nice and Nerdy, that's for sure. They're very common on ebay, and can be found for under fifty bucks if you get a used one. Just be sure to get the braided strap. It's the Swiss Army watch #24221. Be sure to get the one that says "Swiss Army" on the face, not the one that says "Victorinox" as that is not accurate. You want the older one.