Tim Huchthausen

Taking John Milus' vision of the Hyborean world and Ron Cobb's highly detailed but two-dimensional production designs and turning them into living reality was the job of prop coordinator Tim Huchthausen (pronounced "hook-tao-zen").

Tim was responsible for all aspects of translating Ron's designs into three-dimensional props for the film, which presented challenges to all of Tim's varied skills as propmaker, model maker, and as a manager of other craftspeople.

Prop coordinators and propmakers are the unsung heroes of the film world - you see their work in every film, yet they are rarely credited for their challenging work. Creating original designs, often on tight budgets and timelines, means that a prop coordinator needs to possess the skills of an artist, woodworker, metalworker, leatherworker, modelmaker, moldmaker, sculptor, engineer, graphic designer, and architect - in short, a jack-of-all-trades but also master of all trades.

It was no small task to take even just the sword designs for Conan the Barbarian and turn them into real swords. Tim located and contracted with Sun Foundry to do the casting work, Daniels Engraving to do the EDM engraving, and worked closely with Jody Samson on every aspect of the design and assembly of the swords.

"I'd never had any prior experience with swordmaking," recalls Tim. "Like everything else in my business, every day was a new experience. But I approached making the swords the same way Hillary approached Everest -- because it was a challenge and because it was there."

As sculptor and mold-maker, Tim carved the hilt components of the Atlantean Sword™ himself, based on Ron's drawings, and did final detail work on the Father's Sword™ components prior to casting. In addition, Tim carved the original of Thulsa Doom's standard, Valeria's Sword™, and Subotai's Climbing Knives™, and a host of other pieces.

Subotai's Climbing Knives™ were cast out of lightweight aluminum and finished to look like steel. Tim's one regret about Conan the Barbarian is that Subotai's climbing knives only got a brief and somewhat distorted appearance in the film. (They are beautiful pieces and we hope to reproduce them.)

As modelmaker and engineer, Tim personally built the working miniature of the "Wheel of Pain", mounted on a 4'x4' sheet of plywood, used as a guide to build the full-scale version, and managed to get it done in only 2 days.

We owe Tim a great debt of thanks also for his work as "curator" -- providing the original molds, drawings and other specifications for the swords of Conan the Barbarian - without his work and care in preserving these materials, the swords we are making now would only be pale imitations of the originals, rather than the exacting reproductions we are able to create with his help.

Tim Huchthausen's Film Credits

1941 (1979) (miniature prop maker)

Conan the Barbarian (1982) (property coordinator)

Blade Runner (1982) (hovercar miniature maker)

Blind Fury (1989) (sword craftsman)

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) (model maker)

Independence Day (1996) (model department: model maker)
... aka ID4 (1996) (USA: promotional abbreviation)

Charlie’s Angels (2000) 

Planet of the Apes (2001) 

Scorpion King, The (2002) (special effects)

For more on Tim Huchthausen and his films, we invite you to visit the Internet Movie Database

© 2003 Conan Properties, Inc, all rights reserved
Conan™, Father's Sword™, Atlantean™ Sword, Fangs of the Serpent Dagger™, Conan Dagger™, Subotai's Sword™ and Valeria's Sword™ are registered trademarks of Conan Properties.