Production cast cowl shell/ Holy Grail

[Chuck Williams]

If you keep looking , eventually you get lucky.

In a trade for a covered cowl, I received what was described as "a production cast shell that was purchased from an estate sale in Hollywood".

While it bears every bump I would expect to see in a production shell, in particular the seam down the center, the trimming was done by someone without a clue of how to trim fiberglass or what a cowl shell should look like.

There are remains of score lines in the eye, face and sideburn areas.

I popped it into the mold of my Ultimate Cowl Shell and it fit almost like it was cast in that mold except where the trimming went wrong.

So in some ways I'm beside myself and in other ways it's almost like old news.

But mostly over the moon!

[Chuck Williams]

My first Holy Grail was a plaster cast taken from in inside of a screen used cowl that I traded for over 10 years ago...

[BiffPow]

Cool!

Looks like some archeological find for an ancient BatRoman.

[AndyFish]

Amazing find, Chuck! Congratulations!

[Ben Bentley]

Your tenacity and perseverance knows no bounds, Dr Williams!

[A. Pennyworth]

Now to try and match it up possibly to one seen on screen! That odd angle outside side edge on the right eye might help.

[Chuck Williams]

Thanks Guys!! I've been mulling over the next step in the restoration.

AP, I don't think it was screen used. I wish it had been!!
There is no sign of padding or traces of any cover ever being on it.
It was just an unused casting or a test of some kind.

My best guess is that it was cast during the show as a test and it was trimmed or retrimmed later by a former owner.
The other possibility is that it was cast by someone with access to the production mold.

The sideburns have been trimmed quite short unfortunately and in the wrong shape compared to other screen used examples.

I'm tempted to recreate the sideburns and repair the bad trimming. It also needs to be re-enforced a bit. It's very beaten up.

[Chuck Williams]

The eye cutouts do match the width and height of the Hardeman cowl though... Just roughly done...
Which are bigger that Stwarts cowl's eyes.

See, I live for this stuff! LOL!

[rsaffle]

I would probably leave it alone. It has its own story that way.

[BiffPow]

I would probably leave it alone. It has its own story that way.

I agree with (R)andy.

[Chuck Williams]

I'm not making any changes to the shell but I did put it in the mold of the Ultimate Cowl so I could cast clay behind it and fill in the missing parts.

Once it's done, and a new mold created, the shell will get cleaned up and put on display.

It's difficult to imagine that the studio prop shop or a professional mold maker made the mold this was cast in..

It is fantastic to see what the three bumps on the nose look like on the raw casting. I've been obsessed with them!

As you can see, it fits in the mold I made from Stewarts cowl scan like a glove!
You can see where the shell was cut too short on the sideburns and back.

Click on the images to see them correctly...

[Chuck Williams]

The 3 bumps I mentioned...

[Ben Bentley]

The 3 bumps I mentioned...

I've seen the top two so many times, but I had never spotted the third or dismissed it as a highlight! Every day is a school day!

[Chuck Williams]

Narrator Voice; What's this? A Twist! Holy Prototypes!

I think this new shell is a pilot cowl shell!!!

I molded the new shell after I had fleshed it out in clay.
I'm almost done cleaning the original and it will be back to it's old self in no time.

The new cast is a hair smaller than my ultimate cowl shell, which I expected, but the shape in the new casting is a bit rounder overall and the sides of the nose pull in and have a hard lean to the left.

After sleeping on it I did a quick retrim and compared it to images and I do believe this is a pilot cowl shell...

This was trimmed in a moment and it can be whittled down quite a bit more but the shapes are lining up.

Essentially, this was the the first building block of the cowl. Wardrobe added material to the sides of the nose and widened the overall piece , changing some shapes here and there to make the cowl better for Adam, and in the process, making the cowl we know and love.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

[BiffPow]

WHOA!!