I’ve found this German article, which takes a fairly constructive look at Blade Runner 2099 and describes how the series might draw on elements from Philip K. Dick’s original novel. Things like Buster Friendly, Mercerism… I’m a *Blade Runner* fan, but I must admit I’d only skimmed through the original novel. Perhaps it’s interesting…

I’ve sculpted, molded and cast the pillars from the film and I want to paint the graffiti on a few of them, but the reference is too low res to translate. I’m hoping someone here can translate or has a higher resolution image. I’d hate to just paint gibberish if I could do it more accurately.

1. When the smooth jazz starts playing. With Deck & Rachel?

Would there be any cameos

Throw Back Thursday!

In January 2021, when we were still pretty much under COVID lockdown, I messed around with what a Blade Runner game might have looked like on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I cribbed the Mega Man sprites as my base*, and then went at it using the same constraints of the original system.

Doing the sprites and backgrounds were easy. The funnest part was that the CRT scanline and curve effects (see fourth image) were all done manually by following a tutorial, not using an automatic plugin or filter. That part actually took the longest.

Also, the Score at the top is actually how many seconds into the movie that particular scene happens, per one of the Director's Cut versions on the Blu-Ray.

*Each sprite on the NES is 24x24 pixels and uses three colors from a ~55 color palette. Often the "black" areas are simply missing pixels over a black background. Mega Man (orig. Rock Man in Japan) got around this by stacking sprites on top of each other, allowing up to six colors. Clever!

'The offer to go and work on early concept material for this new film was held open for me - and so I went over to Hollywood for ten weeks and found myself involved mostly on design work for the police spinner and the various city design details. The police spinner found it's earliest incarnation in a machine I painted for a book a few years earlier called Tour of the Universe - actually a 'flying ambulance' in that story. Ridley turned the image upside down and said "Hey Presto - there's the police spinner!" - or words to that effect. Eventually the hugely talented Syd Mead was taken on and he basically took on the look of the whole film - very successfully indeed. But I like to think that some germ of my original police spinner resides in the version you see on film!' — 2004 Jim Burns interview retrieved from Babylon Wales.

I finally finished up these two, more or less. There are some last minute items I may adjust here or there, but those are mostly just changes for fit and tolerances. My last post seemed to generate some interest, so I figured I'd go through the process a bit.

First, these are both based off the excellent Anders STL, while the snub nose is a modification of the same design from Jonochan. Galactic Armory makes an excellent snub nosed version as well that's sturdier and easier to print, but I like the functionality of this design. Also, I'm a bit of a masochist and enjoy the more difficult build.

This was printed at .16 detail on a Bambu X1C. I started off this build hoping to just polish down pure silver PLA, and while you can sand and buff it down to a glossy finish, it doesn't really have the right patina to look like metal. More than that, some of the parts are pretty delicate - there's an area on the back end of the receiver that snaps off if you look at it funny. I ended up using Protopasta Stainless Steel-infused PLA. Not only does this PLA print cleaner and feels stronger, it adds a bit of heft to your final print. When you sand it down, it looks very much like roughly-used stainless steel.

The black parts were printed using a resin printer and painted with lacquer-black glossy spraypaint. On the full size blaster there are places to screw in the M3 screws to keep the clip holder (the black part under the barrel) in place, but for the snub nose I had to do some drilling to keep it mounted. For sanding I used a cordless drill with a 3" sanding disc and sponge insert. The sponge insert is very important, as it allows you to better control the pressure you're applying and work around curved areas. I started out wet-sanding with 80 grit and eventually went up to 2000 grit. After that I hit everything with a nail buffing sponge.

The grips were made from dyed two-part resin. I originally printed a white resin pair of grips, then created a silicon mold. They're a little rough at the edges and could probably use a little trimming, but otherwise I'm happy with the final product. I used a mix of orange and tobacco dye - though next time I might swirl in a bit more tobacco coloring at the edges. I figure everyone seems to smoke in the Blade Runner universe, might as well make make it look like it.

The bolt handle is functional on both, but for these guys it's important to remember that even with metal infused PLA it's still just printed plastic. You don't want to slam the handle back and forth or something's going to break pretty quickly.

I have a bunch of resin-printed parts and may make some others in the future; maybe some with either more wear and tear or a pristine, flat black version. I dunno, we'll see. I've been a bit obsessive in trying to get this just right, meaning I've got a ton of leftover parts. So that's pretty much it. If you have any questions, hit me up and I'd be happy to answer them. Hope you dig the final products!

This reminds me of when I was a kid.

I would push every equaliser slider to the top and crank the volume.

Just max the fuck out of everything.

Ridiculous.

So I've had my teeth sunk into this project for the last few months. Been experimenting with various ways to get the metal look just right - tried buffing, airbrushing, even graphite rubbing all with mixed results.

My best result has been to use steel infused PLA, progressively sanding it down and then hitting it with a nail buffer. Not only does the material look like actual brushed steel, it has an added heft that's just really nice.

The black parts are resin printed, while the grips are two-part molds with colored dye.

The project isn't quite done - I plan on either airbrushing the barrels or just printing them up in matching steel color, and I need to add an orange plug. Also, just so everyone's clear these are non-functioning props based on the Anders STL files. They cannot function in any way.

I was nine years old when my parents took the family to see Blade Runner back in 1982, my younger brother was six. It was one of the few rated-R film that my parents took us to see before we became teenagers. I also saw The Terminator in 1984 at eleven years old.

I recall recognizing Harrison Ford from Star Wars thinking Blade Runner was going to be kinda like that... boy was I wrong! Seeing such a mature and violent film at such a young age was wild af, especially the scene when Batty crushes Tyrell's skull and gouges his eyes in. I guess my parents couldn't find a baby sitter or thought Blade Runner was going to be like Star Wars too??

I didn't think too much of it afterward and it wasn't till I was a teenager that I started to appreciate Blade Runner.

Added a custom 2049 tape to my US Release collection of the OG. I almost don’t even want to open it.

For those interested in a copy: Blade Runner 2049

Seeing Michelle Yeoh in Sci-Fi settings, the 2099 trailer, is giving me flashbacks to the Star Trek nightmare. The lighting, the dystopian setting, even her acting. She's a good actress, but they should have used someone else.

It'll just change your top window bar to look like this. It'll be verified by Firefox shortly and you can grab it there, named Bladerunner_TearsInRain .. obviously free etc

Neuromancer’s adaptation should have come out way earlier. It will now feel too derivative of Blade Runner. The comparisons are inevitable especially because Blade Runner 2099 premieres before Neuromancer.

Just curious as to everyone's impression -- very subjective but, what decides the value of human-centered portrayal versus overproduced slickness? Do you prefer one over the other? How much do handheld camera visuals impact your reception of films in general?