How to Create "Aged" Props

A fun part of filmmaking is the challenge of finding creative solutions to resource limitations. Back in 2007, my team and I were working on a short film that pushed our creativity to the limit. We literally had to get “crafty” to make it happen.

The film was a simple action piece: an assassin infiltrates a military base to take out a general. It was a project designed to let us experiment with camera work, lighting, and especially, prop making. The budget was tiny, but we were lucky to get permission to use a local airport as our

"military base." The little money we had went to the cast, crew, insurance, and food. The leftovers—about $100—had to cover all the props and costumes. We needed a knife, a few old firearms, a bomb, and a futuristic monocular.

With just a hundred dollars, some junk from around the house, and a bottle of mustard, we got to work.

Building the Monocular

We needed a high-tech scope that looked like it came from a fictional world. Since we couldn't just buy one, we decided to build it ourselves. We started with the foundation: an oblong plastic juice container we found in the recycling bin. From there, we raided toolboxes and closets for things to bolt and glue onto it.

We added thin wooden dowels down the sides, then fastened on PVC pipe rings and old Gatorade caps with screws. We cut a visor out of a cardboard box and attached it, along with an old camera lens, to a PVC connector. After assembling everything, we gave it a coat of metallic silver spray paint and set it aside to dry.

Building the Fake Bomb

We used the same approach for the fake explosive. We started with a small, rectangular cardboard box and painted it matte black. For the "guts," we went through our old computer parts bin and taped on fans, hard drive cases, and circuit boards. A blinking red LED light and a switch gave it a digital cherry on top.

Since this prop would get very little screen time, we didn’t need it to be perfect. We lightly sanded the edges of the parts, then slipped the whole thing into an old satchel bag so that only the top was visible. The bulk of the box, the slightly sanded parts, and the convincing acting of the crew made it look real enough for the camera.

Making Them Look Old and Used

With the props built, it was time to age them. For the fake weapons, we were able to buy some cheap, used airsoft guns and a rubber knife. They looked like plastic toys, but they were a perfect starting point.

For the knife, we removed the handle, painted the blade metallic silver, and gave the handle a green paint job. After a few light coats of matte gray and some black dusting and sanding, we had a safe rubber knife that looked like it belonged in an action film.

From new to aged.

Next, it was time for the mustard. Mustard, toothpaste, and other products that dry thick and flake off are perfect for creating a weathered, worn-out effect on metal props. We strategically dabbed mustard on the spots of the monocular where we wanted to show extreme wear. We did the same for the airsoft rifles after sanding down and scuffing up the plastic.

Once the mustard was dry, we painted the monocular in a solid army green and the rifles in a matte black. After letting the paint dry overnight, we used sandpaper to lightly rub the spots with mustard. This caused the mustard to flake off, revealing the metallic undercoat and creating the look of chipped paint and worn-out metal. We also lightly ran the sandpaper over other areas of the props to add extra scuffs and scratches.

Just in time for production, we had plastic weapons that looked like old, scuffed-up metal, a cardboard box that looked like a bomb, and a homemade craft project that somehow looked like a believable high-tech scope.

The saying, "one man's trash is another man's treasure," is certainly true when it comes to filmmaking.

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