Osterhagen Key

[Davros Skaro]

I was wondering if anyone here had any info as I was considering making one (using card) using gold card as a base & then blue card layered on top etc. Thanks in advance for any help.



Someone on the RPF page had made one: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=58915

Chris.

[galacticprobe]

Fortunately, there are loads of images of that Osterhagen Key all over the net, so we can start our own Reference thread on this prop, and hopefully get some good feedback on it from our members.


(Yeah, I know this one is on the small side, but it's a reference.)


(Nice one of the prop on display at the DWE, courtesy of the BBC web site.)


(And what would an Osterhagen Key be without a "keyhole" to plug it into? )

Just about all of these were from some sort of BBC site. Just search Google Images for Osterhagen Key; they're all over the place! (Watch out world; with these being all over the place, let's hope no one decides to play it as their Trump card! )

Dino.

[warmcanofcoke]

We may find something similar.... I don't know how much it is to Laser cut something - never looked into it. I'm sure if there were a suitable alternative people could purchase ,this discussion might be helpful.

Maybe even a Ball Bearing Maze -


It would make a nice Osterhagen Key-chain.

[galacticprobe]

Looking closely at that really large image (which may open even larger in a new window) some of those smaller "circuits" in the key bear an uncanny resemblance to some SIM cards used in digital cameras. And since there are many types of SIM cards, it would be easy to just pop a few different ones together in the right places on a piece of cut black plastic to get that circuitified look. Judging the size of it in Martha's hand, it doesn't look that much smaller than one of those old 3.5-inch floppy discs, and that thin black plastic could even be the casing of one such disc cut for the purpose.

As for the clear plastic casing for it, I think Nate may be onto something. (And if the BBC Props Guys work anything like the props guys do in the States, they'll look for and use any off-the-shelf item they can to save time and money.) One of the examples I still fall back on is that device McCoy uses to heal Checkov's head injury in "ST IV: The Voyage Home" after Checkov falls and is taken to hospital. Look closely at it; it's part of the Klingon Battle Cruiser model kit from AMT/ERTL, with a few LEDs added to it, and not much else! And when I had friends working on DS9 and 'Voyager', they said all of their props department does the same thing: look for something off-the-shelf that can be repurposed with little effort: save time and money, and make a mould of the thing to cast multiples of it if you're going to need lots more. And if one studio is doing that, then I'm pretty sure they're all doing it (even the BBC).

So anytime props guys can find off-the-shelf items to use (under any level of disguise) to save time and money, they're going to use them. My guess is that the innards are made from different SIM cards from cameras, and that case is something like what Nate's found. Those kinds of cases are out there; we just have to know where to look. (And me, personally, after reading what that guy on the RPF said, I have a feeling that he's over-inflating the original prop's construction process to make his replica look and sound that much more impressive.)


And great find on those cases, Nate! There has got to be something out there that's about the right size for the Key casing. We just have to find it, and know for sure what the Key size is.

Dino.

[Davros Skaro]

I pulled out the disc & got some actual screen shots.

[galacticprobe]

I've lightened this image as much as I could without losing resolution:



If this is the "back" of the key (as compared to the side we see when Martha is holding it to threaten the Daleks), then the sides have similar components on them, but arranged in a different order.

Dino.

[Davros Skaro]

Here's the ones I've lightened.