As seen in many early episodes of The X-Files

Probably around 20 hours.

This was a project that I wanted to undertake for a long time, but lacked the proper reference materials. Pictured here are the three "Cards" that are used by agent Fox Mulder as his FBI identification. The tall one is a shirt dangler that is usually worn in a holder. The other two appear inside his wallet along with the metal shield. I drew these up in adobe illustrator, using a set of Japaneese promotional cards as reference. The Japaneese cards were very sloppy and poorly made, so I ended up redrawing 100% of the card. I then printed them out on my HP 970CsE printer, and had them laminated. I am told that on the show they do not laminate them, but I decided to sacrifice this bit of authenticity for the sake of durability. The picture of Mulder is a high res scan from the Japaneese promo set. I am unsure if the cards used in the show use the same pic, but I cannot find any good reference shots to confirm or deny this. The signatures in the cards were traced in Illustrator from a scan of the promo cards, and are identical on each item. I thought that would be much more authentic that signing them myself using my best Mulder handwriting impersonation. I'm not that good with a pen! I also learned during the development of these cards that there were many different versions of the cards and the metal badge as the series went on. I have not yet done a definative study of what differences are available, but I may eventually. I would eventually like to get ahold of a wallet so that I can put my cards and shield into it.

UPDATE: I have made some really great screen captures of a seventh season wallet, and have added them to my website. To view them, click the picture to the left.