steve.....there is nothing that you can post on my threads that would kill it imo. your comments have always been much appreciated because this is where i learn the craft
Ah, great. I just did not want to buzz your thread.
You know, one thing that really makes it difficult to replicate "the block shape" is that several can pull off the look, pretty closely. I mean, several different blockshapes. Now, each one will NOT be perfect, if you are looking at very fine details, but for most fans, a particular blockshape looks close enough, or dead on to some. But when you start disecting each part of the hat, the faults, or weaknesses come through.
The Raiders fedora has a weird thing going on with it. From the front, in most shots, the hat looks to be a different blockshape, than it does when viewed from behind! Two different hats!! That is, it looks as if you took the hat and turned it around, you would not get the same look from the back, as you got from the front. This has bothered me for years! I think this is a hint as to the blockshape of this particular hat.
I own a collection of vintage blocks, with every dome represented, as well as taper, or lack thereof. None of these has ever lended the Raiders fedora with great accuracy. And that tells me the Raiders block is NOT what I have represented by those vintage blocks. Now admittedly to many, some of these blocks pull of the look very well, but only when you start to study the 360 shots of each hat does the weaknesses raise their ugly heads. I have never had trouble with the front of the hat, only the back, and the profile views. The top crease seems to be "short" in the Raiders fedora. Like it wants to stop before it hits the back of the hat. And this area is the troublesome part to me. There seems to be a very rounded radius on the back, and that becomes part of the side when you turn the hat. LLS's rendition of this block helps this area out, but I still see a little difference between that block and the film hat. Now, has shrinkage or taper actually affected this area, and that is the reason it is hard to copy? I don't have an answer. Could it simply be the difference in felt? I think it could be. Different felt moves differently, as you will discover, if you have not already.
Also, some photos from the film seem to show a very barrel shaped crown, and one that comes to mind is when Indy is moving through the woods to approach the temple entrance. It looks very straight sided, from the rear. Other photos from the film almost look like the crown has changed shape! This is one of the difficult points involved. You seem to nail one look, to find your block weak when compared to another look. And therein is what will drive a guy nuts.
The thing is, I don't see those big differences with the CS hat in the film. I can get all of those looks, just by the creases in the hat, as the creases were not consistent throughout Indy 4. One would think the same would apply to the Raiders fedora. But with the Raiders fedora, at times it looks to be a different blockshape to the hat. So, to me, either the hat shrunk some, or there were two different blocks in that film.
What comes to mind is the gray hat on the Nazi. It seems to be the same hat Ford wore on the plane, because in some photos, you can see where a tight front pinch had been, prior. But, you get a good profile shot of this hat on the Nazi, and it has quite a bit of front and back taper, in fact, looks remarkably similiar to the current Christy, in that area. My trouble is, I cannot get the brown Raiders look from this blockshape. Some of the taper does crease out, but it is still there when viewed from behind. And if you drop the back low, you get too much taper when compared to any of the film hats. And the top camel humps look "off".
To date the best results seem to involve an asymetrical block, like the two vintage HJs that I owned. The only trouble is, we never get to see the brown hat completely, or almost open crowned in the film. Or if you do, you don't get to see it from enough angles to really tell what is going on with the blockshape. We do get to see the gray almost open crowned though, and it looks very symetrical.
Oh, Indy G, on the pics you posted above, I notice the flat spot on the camel humps that comes from the radius being wrong. This comes from the radius being well rounded, or perhaps too rounded. So when you put in the top crease, it pulls the radius over and you get a flat spot. Marc's original Raiders block suffered from the same thing. Since I always tended to go with a tighter radius, this was never a problem on my blocks. I never got the flat spots. I look forward to seeing what your new block lends. There is still one important "look" that I have never seen on any hat, other than the Raiders fedora. And it involves the way the back 1/4 of the hat looks in certain scenes. There is something going on there that no one to date has ever nailed. And hence my 99.9 per cent approval of LLs's rendition of the block. The trouble is, I have never been able to figure that one out. It could just be the way a hat appears when filmed, and you would not notice it in 3 D. Fedora
.........i believe i am very close 
that Eri saw. But, I'm just duplicating a hat Winston Churchhill wore- doesn't mean that's the Raiders hat, but it works for me..except for the bump, but I've got a tall head..
