Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Grail Diary

In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Indy’s Dad sends him his grail diary, his chronicles of his search for the Holy Grail. The diary is full of illustrations and inserts of Indy’s Dad’s adventures. There are whole websites and forums and tutorial sites dedicated to this movie prop, some people have spent years researching and making copies of this prop. There are the “Hero” diary which is the same block of pages repeated throughout the book and is the same as the prop used in the movie, the other version is a story diary and written as a regular diary would be.

Prop as seen in shot from movie

I decided to make a story version of the diary and collected the same source text the movie prop makers used as well as the illustration and text available online. I found a suitable journal and decided to hand write and draw the diary. I modified my handwriting to better match the movie prop text. But it is still far from how the movie version looks and I would like to try again one day and get the writing nearer the movie prop.

I actual wrote the diary twice, once in pencil until I was happy with it then I went over the pencil in ink and erased the pencil lines. After several months of work and severe hand cramps I managed to get the diary completed. I made a lot of the inserts, there are bank notes, a cigarette packet, train tickets and other paper inserts jammed within the pages. I also made some original pages and inserts that don’t appear anywhere else to further make this diary mine.

I am pleased with the results after all the hard work and all I have to do is weather the pages which I have been loathe to do in case I ruined it, one day I will get it done. I do plan on making another diary at some point and trying to get the diary closer to the movie version.

More pictures after the jump

Needs dirtying up somewhat

Paper clips were soaked in lemon juice to age them

 

Jammed full of letters, tickets & other inserts

Diary with other props

 

Army ID's made from files from the Club Obi Wan forum