my Obi-Wan Kenobi 1/6 custom is UP FOR SALE!

click the image to go to the auction

good luck everyone!!

How Ripley looked last week...

I've done more work on the face since these pics were taken, so at this stage it was looking a bit rough and innaccurate, but it just lets you see the direction it's going in.

It's almost finished now, I just need to try and make a couple of sample casts, then it will be sent away for molding... but enough talking, here's the pics from last week.

I hate computers! (again)

aarghh..... I was working on my pre-order/waiting list this morning... when it crashed on me. Then it wouldn't open correctly... then I managed to get it back from a backup I'd made, only to realise that the backup was at least a week or two old.

I've lost all orders and pre-orders made during that time!!

I've gone through my emails, and I've tried to rebuild the list as best I can, but I'm sure there are still some orders missing, especially for the Anakin heads.

If anybody reading this has made any orders with me since the 1st June, could you please get in touch with me again and confirm what we discussed... It will let me confirm that I have your details on my list.

Thanks everyone

Darren

a quick update....

'morning folks.....

I've got too much on my plate this morning to do a full update to my schedule... so I'll just give you a quick heads up on what I'm working on at the moment.

I'm sculpting Ripley and Hudson, and want to get these finished as soon as I can... I wanted these finished weeks ago, so these are a priority.

I'm also painting an ESB Luke, and 2 Ben Kenobi heads. Plus a Future Reese, Daniel Craig, Neo, and a few others.

All the Terminator heads that are due to be painted will also be started this week. (maybe I'll just have to not sleep!!)

Other things I'm hoping to get a look at are a Padme bust resculpt, a Luke Premium Format resculpt, the John Lennon sculpt.... and whatever else I can get to.

Right, back to work for me

Darren

Computer problems....

Last week I had no computer access because of a damn annoying virus/piece of adware that was slowly bringing my computer to a grinding halt....

As a result, some of you have been waiting for email replies from me, or messages on forums for longer than I usually leave it. Please bear with me.

I did a full re-install of Windows over the weekend, and today am mostly back up and running. Just some programs and settings here and there to still do. But I have internet access now... so I'm slowly getting through all the emails that have built up.

Any that haven't been replied yet, will probably be done by tomorrow morning. Thanks for being patient with me...

Darren

Aragorn auction now on!!

Click on image to go to auction!


Good luck!!!

Terminator heads are in!

For those of you who have been waiting for Terminator heads, they finally arrived here today, and they look great! I'll start sending out the unpainted orders within the next day or so, and start painting the rest on Monday alongside my other scheduled work.

Also I can shift more focus back to the full-figure commissions. Can't wait!

Oil Paintings reduced!

As most of you know, during the last month or so I've been selling most of my collection to fund the upcoming Dream Honeymoon that both myself and Jane have been planning for after our wedding in September.

I've decided to take things one step further. So, in the spirit of this 'sell everything I own' sale, I've decided to let my collection of oil paintings go. Some of these I actually have up in my house, and some of them are in my studio where they were painted.

They're all up on my other website pennylanepictures.com for between £200 - £300 I think, but you know what? ...if you see something you like, send me an email and make me an offer!!

(details such as canvas sizes etc are on the above website)

Most paintings will also be available as prints

Terminator casts on their way...

Good news for those waiting for a Terminator head cast. I just heard from my guy in America, and apparently the casts were sent last week... which basically means I will be getting them any time soon.

I will post out any unpainted orders within a few days, and I'll get the heads which need painting on my desk pretty much straight away, and I'll merge them in with my normal schedule.

Finally!

Aragorn 'for sale' preview.....

on eBay in 2 days (Thursday 22nd May)

Anakin custom sold..... and next?

A huge thanks to everyone who was watching or who was bidding, you've helped a huge amount with my honeymoon-fund-raising. Selling this figure will pay for a few hundred miles driven across America... so thanks!

The figure will soon be flying it's way to it's happy new owner here in the UK. Thanks!










and the next figure?











........I'll tell you next time ;)

Darren

Anakin Auction now on!!

It's up!!!

(click on image to go to auction)

Good luck folks!

Preview of the next figure sale....

Well Legolas is now SOLD and will be on it's way to it's new home (in Spain) in the next couple of days.

I'll be putting up my Master Replicas First Contact Phaser soon too, along with my Next Generation phaser laser pointer (I love these replicas!).. and I'm starting to upload all my music CD's as well. (Selling everything to fund this honeymoon!! I'm on a mission!)

But.... the big news (and this one kills me... but it will be worth it) is that the next figure to go up for auction on Thursday is.....








*drum roll*










*more drum roll*

Legolas auction now on!!!

click the image to go to the auction!



Good luck!!!

Video showcase - Aragorn & Legolas

About a year ago I made a video of my Star Wars Anakin & Obi-Wan customs. At the same time I shot some footage for this Lord of the Rings video, however I only got halfway through editing the thing together because of my exploding workload.

Because my Legolas figure is going up for auction this Sunday *snif* ....I suddenly realised I should get this thing finished! So I spent this afternoon getting the thing edited together. I hope you like.

(and for those thinking about bidding on this Legolas figure, maybe this will give you a better idea of what the figure looks like in person)

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Legolas custom - auction preview

Click the image to enlarge...

Honeymoon funding figure sale!

Some of my online friends already know about this, but it hasn't been mentioned here on my blog yet, so....

As some of you know I'm getting married to my partner of almost 12 years (Jane) in September of this year. Woohoo! And we figured this once in a lifetime happening was the perfect occasion to try to make one of our long time dreams come true.

We've always had this dream, since we very first got together, of flying to America, hiring a 30 foot RV, and driving from New York to LA seeing as much of the country as possible in between. But we always knew it would never actually happen. Well now that we're getting married... we can't think of a better time to try to make this happen!

We've made all the plans, and put them up on a website for people to see (including a map of our planned route). This website also has a 'leading up to the wedding' blog (with some posts already made), and some links where people can 'buy us miles' for the trip. Essentially a honeymoon donation pot.

(Yes, we're being a bit shameless about this.... but you know? we don't need any normal wedding gifts having been together for 12 years, and getting to see places like New York, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park is quite possibly the best gift anybody could give us.... ever. We've never been to The United States before, and we may never get another chance... but it looks like an incredible place. (The support we've already had with this from our online friends is beyond generous!)

Obviously we're trying to find ways to save money on the wedding, so that we can save more for the Honeymoon. So we're doing things like making our own wedding invitations, our own wedding cake, and anything else that we can do ourselves for the day.

And here's the big thing I'm doing

You know the custom figures that you've probably seen on this site? (or on YouTube) ...Anakin, Obi-Wan, Legolas and Aragorn.... the ones that have been splashed around the internet, and that I've been interviewed about here and here.? The figures that each represent the very first time I made these characters, my prototypes if you like... and part of my personal collection, to be kept forever as a record of my sculpting/painting career as it progressed, and most importantly... never to be sold! ...those figures?

Well I'm selling them!

I cannot explain strongly enough how much of a difficult decision it was to decide to sell these very personal figures of mine... but you know what, I think it's worth it to get this planned Honeymoon. There's already been a lot of interest from people who would love to own one of these, and over the weekend I'll be deciding which of the figures I'll be putting up for sale first. Hopefully I'll have decided by Monday or Tuesday. (obviously I'll let you all know when the time comes!)





...so which would you like to own?

new upcoming schedule...

recently posted on one of the forums I visit regularly:

I've just gone through my waiting list, and in an attempt to speed things up a little now that I'm back, I've created this list... which not only shows what I'll be doing and in what order... but for the first time I've given myself a deadline for each piece (or batch of pieces)

Hopefully this will get rid of the "oh my god I've got too much to do" mentality and allow me to focus on one week's work at a time... and thereby getting more done. Also it has the benefit of allowing people to see where they are on the list and when (approx) they can expect their work to be finished.

*note: I appreciate that sometimes I'll get things finished before the deadline, and sometimes after... but these are dates I've set myself that I'm aiming for*

If you've paid for work from me, then you'll probably see your pieces here on the list. If you're not sure or want confirmation then pm or email me and I'll confirm if it's your commission you can see.

(I haven't included any of the Terminator heads simply for the fact that the new batch of heads is being cast as we speak... once they get here then I will included them on the list, but for now I'm just showing things I can do right now)

Schedule

4 Terminator full figures - one with swappable neck post
(all figures being made in background whilst doing everything below)

Private commission head sculpt – Estimated finish date (EFD) 11th April

Neo repaint – in transit, to be painted ASAP

Solid Snake repaint – try to get there by 16th April (can not promise)

Victorian Soldier paint – EFD 19th April

3 Faramir repaints – EFD 19th April

Ripley sculpt – EFD 26th April

Hudson sculpt – EFD 3rd May

Padme bust resculpt/paint – EFD 10th May
Luke PF resculpt/paint – EFD 17th May

John Lennon sculpt – EFD 24th May

Legolas head paint x 4 (one full figure) – EFD 31st May

Aragorn repaint – EFD 7th June
Terminator repaint (customer’s head) – EFD 7th June

Buffy PF repaint – EFD 7th June

Anakin head x 6 (4 jedi, 2 Sith) – EFD 14th June

Aragorn figure, repaint & weathering – EFD 21st June
Reese figure, repaint & weathering – EFD 21st June

I hope this helps, and as usual if there's any questions... just shout

ok... let's get back to work!

Hello people.

My Dad's funeral was yesterday. It was a long 17 days waiting for it to happen, but it's finally happened now. It was hard and upsetting, especially carrying the coffin into the chapel with my other brothers, but it is now over. (just a few bits of paperwork to sort out)

So now I'm back to the job of replying to all the emails that have built up... again, and then sculpting and painting and building custom figures. I will work out which pieces should have been done by now, and put them all into order. Then I will email people when I'm working on their custom. I may even type out a list of what is getting done in what order, so people can see where they are on the list. Never done that before so I'll see if it's a good idea.

Anyway... I just wanted to let you all know that I'm back here at work again, all day every day as I used to be... so let's see if I can get this 6 month waiting list brought right down to a month or two.

(Also to say a big THANK YOU to everybody who sent me emails, left messages in forums, comments on this blog or got in touch with me any other way, wishing me positive and loving thoughts regarding my Dad. It all made such a difference knowing that even people I don't know were sending nice thoughts my way. So you all have my lifelong thanks.)

12 days on.....

I thought I would take 15 minutes or so out of my day and switch the computer on so I could let all of you know where I'm up to after the loss of my Dad. The funeral is not for another 5 days, but almost everything is organised now. We're going to the florist today to arrange the coffin flowers for Monday, and there's a couple of phone calls to make but most of it seems to be done now.

I'm actually starting to get time to myself now, to be upset or numb in my own time without having to snap back into 'I can't be upset because I'm organising everything' mode every time the phone rings or I have to call someone etc.

I probably had my biggest cry so far yesterday, up to now I've suppressed it so I could focus on everything. Myself and Jane had just gone to Manchester (30 miles away?) to pick up the wedding rings that we've just had made for our wedding in September, and I was driving us home. I was talking to Jane about whether or not you're allowed to show people the rings before the day (hey I've never been married before... this is all new to me!) and she said of course you can. And without thinking I said..

"So you mean I can show them to Mum & Dad?"

...and as I said the word I realised what I had said. My eyes filled up pretty much straight away and just wouldn't stop. I started to remember that I'd been talking to Dad all through the process of us having these rings made and I was looking forward to showing him them. And I know he was looking forward to seeing them. The realisation that I couldn't show the new rings to him had me in pieces. I think I'm going to get more and more of these moments as time goes on, especially now that I'm pretty much finished with the running round for everyone.

Anyway... I'm rambling on here a bit. Time will heal things and I know it will get easier. I'll still have more upset days, especially in the next few months I think... but I'm sure I'll be fine by September for the wedding. (even if Jane thinks it may be a bit close for me)

As for my painting/sculpting...

I'm starting to answer all the commission emails that have built up over the last 10 days (lots!) now that I have my computer back on, and I'll start answering any messages I've been sent on various forums I go to... I think this will take a couple of days judging by the volume of messages and questions to be answered. After that I'll get back to the custom heads and figures. I'll probably be in touch with people whose things I'm working on, so you should know if your piece is one of them. Obviously I'll have Monday off for the Funeral, but other than that and maybe a few other things that I have to do I should be relatively back to normal (if a bit slower) after tomorrow.

I want to thank everybody who sent me messages of condolence or support over the last week or so, I've scanned through a few of them and it made me smile. So thank you for that... it was really nice to read messages, sometimes from people who I've never spoken to and who have never spoken to me... they know me purely by my custom work, and yet they took the time to send a message... and that means a lot. So Thank You!

I'll speak to you all soon,

Darren

My Dad died last night......

Ok folks just a heads up, I'm going to try not to let it interfere with things (answering emails, painting etc) but my Dad died suddenly last night, so I may not be completely 'with it' over the next few days.

I got a call from my teary younger brother (28) saying I had to get to the hospital quickly, it was Dad. When I got there I was taken to the small room they have set aside for family members and had it all explained to me.

He'd had a massive heart attack, and they'd been working on him for about 50 minutes, had given him 8 cycles (I found out afterwards from Jane who does this for a living that a cycle is 2 minutes of compressions followed by a shock) so they'd thrown everything at him, but his heart was so damaged that it wasn't going to work. Eventually they gave us warning that they were going to try one last time and then if there was no improvement they were going to call it, which they eventually did.

anyway... other than the funeral arrangements, I'm going to have various family members calling me for details of how it happened and wanting to grieve (Dad had 2 sisters and a brother), and I'll have to figure out what's happening with his possessions in his flat... so I'll be quite busy for a while. And to be honest I'm finding it quite hard to concentrate at the moment anyway so even when I'm not doing all that... I may not be around much.

Having said that I may just get back on with things on Monday, I'm sure I'll speak to you all soon

Darren

Aragorns finished....

Here are two Aragorn customs I finished yesterday, along with my own (and Legolas providing the usual security services!), and a close up of the heads when they were painted.

6 Anakins, 3 Terminators, 2 Aragorns and a Honeymoon

Last week there were a few interruptions to my working schedule (wedding and honeymoon planning stuff that I'd forgotten we had to do that week)... so the Anakin and Terminator heads didn't get finished. But I'm back on it now and the Anakin heads will be finished the early part of next week. Today (Saturday) I'm getting done two full figure Aragorn customs that I should have had finished a while ago... so I'm doing these today instead of housework. (It'll still be there tomorrow)

The Arnie heads I'll be starting the first half of next week when I'm painting the Anakin heads. I'll also be starting the next batch of Obi-Wan heads, I think it's 3 I have to paint although I can't remember off the top of my head.

On a different note however is the latest with our honeymoon plans. For those who don't know we're planning to spend 3 weeks in a 25 ft motorhome driving all around the USA, seeing as many of the places we've always wanted to see but never had the chance to. (Neither of us have ever been to America before)



Since me and Jane got together 11 years ago now, we've always fantasized about taking a full year and driving around america in a campervan... although we new it would never probably happen. When thinking about our honeymoon however we realised we could do this just this! (just a slightly shorter version!)

As it stands (and we're trying really hard to achieve this.... Jane is working all the long hours she can, and I am painting and sculpting my little fingers off) we can't afford the whole trip. But we have a cunning plan...

We realised that some people would be getting us wedding gifts, and we love them for that, but we've been together 11 years already.... we have pretty much everything we're ever going to need (let alone we don't really have any space for any more stuff!) so we don't need any more dinner service sets, kettles, toasters, vases etc. You get my point anyway.

So what we're asking everyone, is if they could put that money to better use. Instead of buying us a generic gift from some expensive department store, put that same money towards our honeymoon fund. Trust us... the memories from seeing all of the above places across America (along with the photos and videos we'll be taking) will last us a lifetime! And will be a much better gift. Quite probably the best gift anyone could ever give us.

Quite simply... they'll be giving us the trip we've dreamed about for over 11 years.

As we have friends overseas who won't be attending the wedding, and also so we can keep track of things and can plan our trip around the fund, we set up a website.

www.ouramericanhoneymoon.com

On this site site people can read about our plans for the honeymoon, see the full list of what places we hope to see, read the story of how Jane was proposed to... etc. There is also a section where people can 'buy our miles'. If someone decides they'd like to give us the gift of a ten mile section of the trip... or twenty, fifty etc, then they can do this with a few clicks of the mouse.

This can be used by friends overseas, or indeed family closer to home (the earlier we know how much our fund is, then we can plan our trip around that). Also if any generous strangers decide they like the idea so much they'd like to donate something? Then that would be greatfully received too!

On that site there's a link to the blog we set up for the wedding plans/honeymoon etc, but I'll give you the link here too.

www.ouramericanhoneymoon.blogspot.com

On this we'll be talking about the plans for the wedding as we make them. Including things we've booked (photographers etc), headaches, happiness, highs and lows. We'll take this right through until after the wedding... including the honeymoon. At which point the main website will be used for showing photos of the wedding and the honeymoon. We also hope to make blog posts while we're in America, while we're on the road, possibly with photos.

We can't wait for this.... we're so excited!!

Darren (and Jane)

Work schedule - week beginning Monday, Jan 14th

I just thought, it might help if people know what I'm working on in any given week (so they know I'm not just sitting around playing Zelda ) so each week I'll post up here what I have on my desk in front of me. I won't include any names, as I've already sent out emails on Monday to those people who's pieces I'm working on.

This week I am painting 6 Anakin heads, sculpting and painting 2 custom heads, and casting 6 Arnie heads (3 painted).

Hopefully I will get all of this finished by the end of Sunday. If not then I'll simply carry across what is left into next week. I'm hoping to make myself get more and more done in each working week, so I can work my way through the waiting list much faster. (I've never been a fast sculptor or painter... it's all about detail with me, but hopefully I can change my working practices to fit more into each day)

Anyway.... back to work

Interview on CoolToyReview.com

I've been really busy lately working on some custom sculpts, so haven't had much time to post on here or show new things... but I've just had an interview posted on www.cooltoyreview.com about my Terminator custom figures. It was a pleasure to do this, and something I hope to do again in the future. (who knows, maybe with the T1000 custom I'll be working on as soon as time allows)

click the image below to read the interview and look at the photos

New battle damaged Terminator finished - pics

well.... i suppose I should post my latest bundle of joy, lol

When I did my Arnie/Terminator custom... i knew pretty much straight away that I'd want to do this version as well....

so almost immediately (in my spare time before bedtime or on sundays.... too many commissions to take time out for myself, lol) I started planning where I needed to drill out, and what I needed to resculpt. Gathered tons of reference photos and screencaps, and set to work


anyway..... several weeks of sculpting, one resin test cast and a week spent painting the thing, and here's what I ended up with... the first 2 pictures were taken late at night under the desk lamp... the rest were taken the following day using my better camera and a full close up flash to show all the details (and flaws?)






now I know the clothes all need weathering, but i just put this on the body quickly to take the shots. I'll get round to all that. And I'll be making a chest piece to show the battle damage through the t shirt too.

People have been asking me about these heads already, lol.... I'm making the standard Arnie ones as we speak, should be able to work through the waiting list at the rate of about 5 per week, but I won't have time to start these new battle damaged ones until sometime in January at the least. (too many already paid for commissions I need to get done)..... although obviously I'm continuously adding people to the waiting list... and I'll get to them

Terminator meets Robocop...

Terminator 1/6 figure gets some sunglasses...

Custom Terminator figure (Arnold) finished...

Hello again. I've been working on this resculpt for a while now in between other (paid) commissions, and I've just finished it. Let me know what you think...







I'd seen photos of the Sideshow T800 Terminator figure, and whilst quite good there were things that stopped it being 'Arnold' to me. The body shape and the clothes didn't seem right, looking out of proportion somehow.

The main problem for me though was with the head sculpt. The face itself looked pretty spot on, but the neck... just wasn't Arnie's. It was too small, too thin, and the angle his head was at made him look like his chin was tiny (and Arnie has a rather large jaw) and his head looked huge.

I could see what I wanted to do to the figure, but I never bought this Sideshow figure so I couldn't do anything about it. Luckily I received the Sideshow Arnie head in a trade, so I thought I'd better get started!

I went hunting for a body that I thought represented Arnie's physique better than the large Sideshow body that was used on their figured. And I found a really rather amazing set of leather clothes. Trousers, jacket and t shirt.... all with amazing detail, and made incredibly well. This to me looked more realistic that the version Sideshow put out... although this jacket was modelled on T1 I believe... and not T2. Although I didn't mind about that... it would still look like the Terminator!

Also I got some leather World War Two boots, which were very close to the ones Arnie wore in the film. Certainly close enough for a custom figure.



I made a cast of the head so I could start working on it, and popped it on to see how it would look. (I bought the shotgun off the internet... it's the one that came with the original Sideshow figure)



I spent the following few weeks working on the head during spare time whilst waiting for paint to dry or whatever on other jobs. Also I spent some time working on the body and clothes:

• trouser belt (removed some fabric, glued it thinner), also removed stud fastener from trousers
• folded the jacket belt down and put a spot of superglue there to give the impression the belt it falling down at the sides.... sells the scale better.
• removed metal spurs that were on the custom boots I bought, and glued leather straps and buckle down
• and some dremel work on the body underneath to make the waistline look better underneath the belt

The following photos show the unpainted resculpt sat next to the original head. It was mainly the weird banana shaped neck that didn't sit right with me. It made his chin/jaw look too small.... his upper head look too large, and it was just an unnatural shape for a human neck.

.....especially Arnie's

I cut off the neck completely at the jawline, under the ears and back to the base of the hair. Sculpted a new one, trying to give it that distinctive 'Arnie' shape.

Also I resculpted the ears slightly, making them stick out further on his head. (they were too flat and squashed when compared to photos of the man himself)











Apart from the neck and ears, the facial sculpt itself is pretty damn spectacular. All I changed (and this was more a personal preference than a fault) was to make the mouth corners more defined and downturned... always an Arnie trademark for me, and I shortened the furrow lines on his brow which i felt went up onto his forehead a bit too much.





and then my rushed paint job. Not the best in the world... and a messed up cast that I had to clean up a bit for myself (it was done in between coats of paint on the 3 Aragorns and 4 Anakins I'm painting) .... and halfway through I completely lost my mojo... nothing was going right, it felt like I had forgotten how to paint.... eek

Thankfuly this head is just for my own personal Terminator figure I've put together... so it doesn't matter if it's not perfect. But it gives an idea of how it can look. I'm really quite pleased with it in the end.











next up (inbetween 'real' projects for people... this is done in my spare time... if you can call it that, lol) will be the obvious battle damaged version.... gotta figure out how damaged I want him.

And also the T1 version. Different hair, and slightly more weight to the face.

.....when I can, lol