The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows - New Pics

I've received so many queries about this replica that I made so I thought I'd post some more new pics I took of the book and the inserts that come with it.

This books has been weathered to emulate the look of the prop used in the movie. The 9 LCF woodcuts, the fake 9th woodcut and the two-page spread with the genuine 9th woodcut have also been weathered. Other inserts include Balkan's postcard, Corso's business card and Corso's chart comparing the Balkan, Fargas and Kessler copies. In the foreground is the weathered yellow fabric in which the book is wrapped in.

If you're interested in acquiring this replica, drop me a line at swakprops@gmail.com.

Sidkit Blade Runner Worldcon Blaster

I bought this kit from Siderio last year when he started making them and its been sitting in storage until last month when I finally decided to get on it. I followed Sid's prep instructions, except after I sanded the parts I tried buffing them on a wheel. This almost proved to be disastrous when a small piece of the first part I tried buffing actualy melted!! Luckily that part is not visible (it's internal) so I let that buffing idea go. I used Perma Blue to blue the parts that need to be blued and painted the black parts with Krylon Satin Black. The LEDs also proved to be a pain in the butt coz I accidentally broke the switch when trying to put it in the mag cover, so until I can find a replacement, the LEDs are non-functional.

Here are some pics:

Nine Gates Comparison

I wouldn't have been able to embark on my Nine Gates run last year without the help of M. Haspil, who provided me plenty of reference materials and files. He himself embarked on a similar run a few years ago, but his Nine Gates was the definitive version as his books were bound by the same people who bound the actual books for Polanski's movie. His high end price tag reflects that.

Recently, Haspil asked me about acquiring a copy of my Nine Gates for his collection, and I look at it as a great honor. So I made him an unweathered copy (as per his request) and shipped it to him. He received it a couple of weeks later and told me he was pleased with the acquisition. He also sent me this picture of my book and the book he did from his run (my book is the one on the right):


As you can see, aside from my leather being a bit more browner, the dimensions of the book, the positioning of the frame, pentagram and the spine ridges are almost spot on. Too bad the tooling detail on the cover is not as superb as the original. Well, not bad work for binders operating out of Kampung Baru!