The Cryocan is finished!

 Finally!  I am so happy how well it turned out after some minor alterations!

I let dry thoroughly the nozzle and cap, and simple inserted them back into place.  

The last step was the label.  I had already printed Paul's amazing replica on matte photo paper, and I was going to stick that onto an adhesive sheet.  But I found some really cool adhesive vinyl A4 sheets that were good for inkjet printers, so I bought a box. They print amazingly well!

I printed one, and it was a tad bit large for my can, so without thinking I trimmed the excess from the bottom, and it was a mistake:

As you can see, the letters are very near the bottom

And when the can is closed, they are barely visible

So I decided to shrink the label a bit, to make it fit completely.  That did not worked out either, since now it was too short to cover all around the can - it lacked about half an inch.  So I printed it a third time, and this time I trimmed from both the top and the bottom, making sure I was not losing any letters.  I removed the first label (which came out easily and without leaving any residue) and sticked on the new one.  Now it is perfect!

Absolutely love it!

I was going to spray paint silver the cartridges that hold the vials, but in the end I decided against it.  I thought maybe the paint would prevent the vials from fitting properly, And the can is going to be sitting in the shelf mostly closed, so it won't be visible anyway.  

Considering the money I spent on the purchase of the can, and the materials needed to make it perfect (around 40 euros) I would say it was good investment, compared to what the real replica costs - and I had a lot of fun too!

Working on the Cryocan

Yesterday I went to buy some supplies for the Cryocan project, and this afternoon I started.  I am so excited about it!

I started by taking out the cap and nozzle, and then priming and painting the top of the can in white.  I gave a couple of coats of spray primer, and then another two of spray white paint:

I covered the can up until the rim with newspaper to protect it

Once removed the paper the results are great!

No silver showing anywhere

Yay!

I set the can aside to let it dry well.  I left it on my husband's table, because if it is in mine, I will not stop handling it, and I don't want to risk ruining the work.

Next, I took the cap and nozzle, and gave them a coat of primer:

I let them dry for 10 minutes, and then applied a couple of coats of spray blue paint:

I sprayed them outside, of course, but they were taking some time to dry properly, and I decided to bring them in, and also not touch them more until tomorrow.  I am sure the shade of blue I used is not the same as the original can, but it is what was available.  Hubby says the nozzle looks great - he is the expert, if he says so, I believe him :)

Tomorrow more!

Update in the Cryocan

 Still waiting for a proper moment to start crafting the Cryocan.

However, today I remembered to bring home a micropipette so I could fill the vials!  That was a very easy thing.  I simply took some bottled water, applied a drop of yellow food dye, stirred and ready!  The vials are ready to be filled.

The "embryo" mix, and the micropipette ready to work

Set to 1 ml or 1000 microliters

I do this at my job all the time :)

Gloriously filled! ♥

It was super fun to do!  Once all the vials were filled, I sticked the labels one by one.

Luckily, the upper ring could be removed, so it was easy to stick the labels without the lower ring interfering.  I tried using a Brady label to see if I could take out the vials from the can.  But even though they are quite thin, the vial did not come out.  So I decided to stick with the font and general appearance of the prop in the movie.

Next step, painting the outside and applying the Barbasol label!  But that will have to wait until the weekend...

A new and different project to take. So excited about it!

Some days ago I had the good luck that the YouTube algorithm recommended a video that I did not know I needed to see.  It was a crafter's video in which she explained that she had modified a not very well made prop into a very nice replica: the Jurassic Park Barbasol Cryocan.  You can see the original prop here.  

By the way I just realized that Nedry's contact offers 1,5 million if he gets the 15 developed embryo.  Difficult to do that with a can that only holds 10:

You can count the spaces: there is only 10

I perused the internet trying to find a vendor that had a similar one for a reasonable price.  I found it in Aliexpress, at the cost of 20 euros, including shipping.  Naturally, it was not an official product (I knew that), but I was very excited to buy it because it is a very cool prop, once modified to fit the one on screen.

It arrived today, 11 days later:

You can see the "unofficial" logo in the box

Also, the can has a different label

But the inside is perfect!

And the can will be too, after some work!

First step, to get my hands on a replica of the official label.  If you watch the video, there is a place where you can get it for free, but I visited Paul Elder Design store on Etsy, because he makes THE most awesome props.  I have bought several designs from him, and they are all very well made, and very true to screen images.  You can get the label here.  Check out also his other Jurassic Park designs!

Next step, to get the labels for the cryovials.  This time I did visit the place mentioned in the video.  You can get them here.  Scroll down for the Cryocan Components, and you can download the PDF.

So, as I always do, I started the house by the roof - Spanish idiom meaning I start with the most minute details.  I printed the labels in adhesive paper, and covered them with clear adhesive tape:

They look amazing!

I cut them and started sticking them to the cryovials.  Much to my surprise, the first vial did not fit in place with the label on.  No troubles, I took the label off and sticked it again with the vial in place.  BUT.  I thought, if I do that with all 10 vials, I will not be able to unscrew the tops to fill them up.  

You may think, "Well, what's the problem?  Just take them out and fill them first".  Well, no.  I am a lab tech (as you may already know, since I talked here about getting my degree).  My professional pride does not allow me to fill the vials with a random measure of colored liquid.  They would all be different!  Oh, no, I need a micropipette to do that.  So I need to take one home from hubby's lab. 

And again, I have to postpone the crafting until next week.  That's why I decided to write this blogpost instead, just to share a little of my enthusiasm.

Since I cannot craft more, let me tell you about a couple of mistakes in the scene where Nedry takes the vials from the storage place.

First, we have the place where the vials are stored.  See the white cloud coming out of the cannisters?

That tells me that what it's inside those cannisters would be liquid nitrogen.  By the way, you cannot have lights of any kind on the inside of a liquid nitrogen tank.  But I disgress.  Nedry takes the vials with his bare hand:

Except that something that just came out of liquid nitrogen would be at a temperature of -200º C; make that -328 F. So can develop burns if you are unlucky, and if not, at least your fingers will hurt for a while.  That's why we use tweezers or specialty gloves for cold tempertures when handling vials like those.  

Also, the metallic holders: those would be covered in nitrogen and freezing to the touch.   They would burn you for sure.  On the other hand, those are very real cryovials.  Although the ones we tend to use at my workplace are of 2 ml, and normally they have a little piece at the bottom so they can stand on their own:

They look like this

Also, storing stuff with liquid nitrogen is super expensive.  So even though the vials look very cool in those columns with the names on the side, we tend to store them in boxes so we can store as many as we can in a small space, to fill the nitrogen tank to the max.  So we use these boxes:

Also, see that the box has a transparent lid with numbers?  Each number goes on top of a vial, because you CANNOT put normal sticker labels on stuff when it is stored in nitrogen.  The labels come off.  You can write on the vial with permanent marker - it may come off, though - or you make a list of what is stored in each vial, matching it with the number.  There are some label printers that use a cartridge that can withstand hot and low temperatures for lab settings - the Brady brand.  Some of those cartridges can be used for liquid nitrogen:

Anyway, that is me just bitching, but I enjoyed rewatching the whole saga.  I will be doing a Jurassic Park theme this Halloween, so I wanted documentation to make props and stuff to put around our lab.  I may be even buying some dinosaurs plushies... We'll see.

EDITED TO ADD: I just found by chance a place where you can buy a licensed replica of the Cryocan!  Be advised, they do not ship outside of the US, and you need quite a bit of money to burn.  But it is gorgeous!! 

And you can see here a video in which you can appreciate some of the details of the construction.  Enjoy!