Crystal Skull Hat Reference Pics

[BazzanoJones]

A little KotCS pics-collage I've made to help anyone (like me) want to bash an open-crown hat with the style of the beautiful AB of fourth movie.
Hope you appreciate it!

EDIT: I've add the official KotCS AB hat measures! Thanks Fedora!

[viper80134]

Awsome already tried my hand at it but didn't have any pics to go off of, thank you.

[Fedora]

To help you guys out, here are some specs. Height at front, 4 3/4. Height at back 4 1/4. Length of top of crease on the front, 4 1/2 inches. This is the distance the top of the crease moves back. A few of the hats were creased back to 5 inches long at the top of the crease. Height on sides was 5 inches. Brim, 2 3/4 by 2 1/2. Fedora

[BazzanoJones]

Thank you very much! I'll update the image with your official hat measures!

[viper80134]

wow much thanks fedora, This will have to tide me over till i get my AB Deluxe. Can hardly wait thanks Fedora hats off.

[DanielJones]

Thank you very much! This will be of great help for the do-it- yourselfers.

Cheers!

Dan

[fedoralover]

To help you guys out, here are some specs. Height at front, 4 3/4. Height at back 4 1/4. Length of top of crease on the front, 4 1/2 inches. This is the distance the top of the crease moves back. A few of the hats were creased back to 5 inches long at the top of the crease. Height on sides was 5 inches. Brim, 2 3/4 by 2 1/2. Fedora

Steve, I just got to see the movie this last Sunday, a kidney stone prevented me from seeing it opening weekend. I remember these measurements as you e-mailed them to me a while back and I was amazed at how the camera angles changes the look of the hat. If I hadn't of known better I would have thought for sure the crown would have been at least 5". I'm going to see the movie again, I found myself looking at the hat so much in all the scenes, it was hard to concentrate on the plot. I wore my Indy brown Optimo to the show, which you had blocked for me a few years back and it's measurements are exactly what the Crystal Skull fedora is and is shaped very similar. The adventurebilt fedora looked fantastic, both the brown and the gray. You and Marc did yourselves proud in making them. congrats my friend.

Afterthought question, did the gray Adventurebilt have the same dimensions?

fedoralover

[kiltie]

A quick bump on this tutorial, as I just used it on an Adventurebilt that was delivered to me this morning, courtesy of another member ( thanks! ).
Thanks for all the info Fedora and Bazzano.

[Fedora]

Afterthought question, did the gray Adventurebilt have the same dimensions

Hi Rich. No, the gray hat was another vintage block, and was 5 3/4 open crown, instead of the brown's 5 1/2. Bernie needed a gray travel hat and told me to make it a little taller than the brown, and that to use a different block, so the hats would not be identical. Guess he wanted Indy to have some variety. Also all of the brown hats but one had the 2 3/4 by 2 1/2 brim, while the gray hat had a 2 7/8 by 2 5/8 brim. I made only two gray hats. Originally there were to be gray stunt hats, but the action scenes involving Indy on the motor bike with his gray hat were apparently changed so he was hatless.

Personally on the brown hat, I would have creased the hat deeper, with the front being lower, like 4 1/2 and the back being a max of 4 inches. This would have made the hat have an arc on the top, as seen from the sides. I do like what he did, or had me do to the side creases, the LC style of crease.

Bernie also took a jiffy styled steamer with him, and really steamed these hats alot and worked on the creases. I can tell it, when compared to a brand new CS AB. And many of these hats got soaked during the filming, and that affected the look of some of the hats. IMO, this soaking and steam made the hat look better than as he recieved them. I wondered why he picked the boxier block, that one sample had, and now I figure he thought the hats might shrink some with the wetness of the film, and I am sure some probably did shrink a bit. But he also said he had enough left over for another film, so he must not have used up all 9 brown hats made for Harrison.

The lesson I am trying to get over here is this. Don't be afraid to steam your CS AB. It will only look more accurate, and you won't end up with a cone of a hat just by steaming them. Our hats can take the steam and you can make it look even better, or more film accurate. But, I would not hold it over a boiling pot of water. You get too much heat from the flame. Use a hand steamer, or jiffy steamer that give you the steam without too much added heat.

Bernie was impressed with the toughness of our hats, and their ability to take the water, and still be able to re-use them. Rabbit would not have been as forgiving of the wetness.

Some hate it that we did not use rabbit, but face it, a real Indy would have chosen the most durable felt for his adventures. If any realism was considered. The CS fedora has been called by some as a cowboy looking felt. But, these folks seem to forget that the LC hat was a very western style of rabbit felt, when compared to the felt of the Raiders fedora. So that dog won't hunt, in my world. We set no precedence, except to use beaver. They already had used a cowboy type rabbit in TLC. I am surprised no one but me even mentioned this when that subject came up. Fedora

[kiltie]

The lesson I am trying to get over here is this. Don't be afraid to steam your CS AB. It will only look more accurate, and you won't end up with a cone of a hat just by steaming them. Our hats can take the steam and you can make it look even better, or more film accurate. But, I would not hold it over a boiling pot of water. You get too much heat from the flame. Use a hand steamer, or jiffy steamer that give you the steam without too much added heat.

This is how I tweaked mine this morning: I used a sauce pan and put a bunt cake mold over the top, which gets me about 14" away from the element and a nice steady stream of steam.



I'll try and get some side pics later, but I did 'em as best I could to your specs, Fedora.

[kiltie]

Here are some more shots after using this thread.
Here's my patented steamer contraption:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj29 ... G_0392.jpg

And here's my creasing job:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj29 ... G_0397.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj29 ... G_0396.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj29 ... G_0399.jpg

I split the difference between the 4 1/2 inch dents and the 5". I had to watch the movie last night; really get into the groove. I really noticed the difference in the hats this time, and think I like the Graveyard scene hat the best. The whole KotCS get up is really starting to grow on me - like a fungus. I liked the movie from the get go, but I'm really starting to get that "...oooohhh, I really like this part..." thing going both for the flick itself and the gear neuances.

[Indycrazy5187]

nice creasing job kiltie

[kiltie]

Thanks Indycrazy -

I've got this obsession with putting a diamond crease in everything, so this is the first Indy I've done in several months, and the very, very first I've done using screen caps rather than intuition and/or guidance from another member. I'm pleased with the overall look and happy to find that others think it looks like a CS as well. Funny how you get to looking at your own stuff, day in and day out, and eventually you just nit pick it to death, until someone comes by and gives you an attaboy. I gotta say it's probably a BIG reason behind a lot of people's multiple purchases. Funny how that works.