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

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.

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!

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!

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!

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

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?

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

A very special custom...

A while ago I was approached by someone who'd seen my work online, and I was asked if I could help turn a simple idea into one of the most thoughtful Birthday gifts I've seen in a long time.

He had seen a 12" figure that sideshow did of a soldier from the First World War, in a 1918 infantry uniform. This was the same uniform that his Grandfather wore, and he wanted to have a custom figure created as a Birthday gift to his Dad....of his Dad!

The idea of giving a present to someone saying "Here's a one off figure I have made for you... of your Father from the war" was such an appealing thought to me, so warm and thoughtful, that I jumped at the chance.

I was given the photos below.



From there I went hunting for a head that I could use as a basis for my resculpt. It didn't have to look like him, but simply be something I could work from. I found the following head which seemed to have the eyes, nose and mouth in approximately the right place in proportion to the photographs, so I ordered it.



From then on it was a case of doing what I usually do with my oil painting portraits.... but in 3D. There would be lots (and i mean lots) of studying of the photographs, in order to decide what parts of the head would need carving away and reshaping, and what parts would need adding to and sculpting.

All in all most of the head would be altered in some way, I think possibly only the eyeballs and the back of the neck escaped my sculpting tools. Here you can see the head during the sculpting process. The first photo shows the start of the reshaping process, with the hairline shaved off and the bare plastic of the nose, upper lips, chin and cheeks having had some work done to them. The second photo is several weeks further along the process. The white and green you see are parts I've sculpted and shaped using the 2 part epoxy clay I use.





At the same time as this was going on, I sculpted and painted a wide brimmed dress hat for the figure, as that was seen in the original photos I was shown. Also I had some rank stripes made to go on the sleeves of the figure to match the original photos. (I wanted this to be as close as possible to the man in the photos)

Eventually the head was finished, and it was time to make a silicone mold, cast it in resin and get the thing painted. As this was such a special project, such a personal gift, I wanted this to be a really good paint job... so I took my time, and tried to get everything the best I've ever done.

I'm totally happy with the results, and more importantly so is the customer. This was a pleasure to work on (even though it was difficult at times) and I'm proud and honoured to have been trusted with it.

Too many things at once......

Here's a couple of shots of (some of !) the things I'm working on at the moment. I'm doing a few hours on each so they all progress. A few big ones are virtually finished, which will let me get on with things so much quicker.

From left to right in the first pic:

Hudson (Aliens) resculpt, private commission sculpt (2 heads, sculpt and cast), Ripley (Aliens) resculpt, Arnie (Terminator) resculpt, one of the many Anakin repaints, one of the many Legolas heads, and another private commission at the end (turning a Stargate figure into an 80's MacGyver figure)



Here's a quick close up of the (still being worked on!!) Hudson



Of course these pics don't include the repaints and full figure commissions (Aragorn costume weathering etc), and other ongoing commissions like Wolverine repaint, Will Turner sculpt etc

I thought I owed you all an update though.... it's been a while since I showed anything new, but I've learnt a lesson from all this. Only show new sculpts/repaints... when you're able to cope with the sudden influx of work!! Anyway.... it's all plodding along nicely, and once the couple of big pieces have been sent off I'll be able to kick up a gear and get a move on!

Darren

Three more completed Anakins - with in progress pics...

These are the latest batch of 1/6 scale Anakin casts, made from my re-sculpt of the Sideshow collectibles piece. They have been getting painted over the last week or two and I took a few photos along the way to give an idea of the process. (there are only 6 pictures.... but at least a dozen layers for the skin colour alone, then the hair... and lips, eyes... etc. But it gives an idea of how it progresses when I paint heads)

Anakin at my work desk........

(click for larger)

My Anakin re-sculpt painted by FigureMaster Les

This is the latest example of an amazing paint job that's been done on my Anakin/Hayden Christensen re-sculpt. This fabulous paint work was done by the super talented Les Walker, otherwise known as Figuremaster Les on the Sideshow Freaks forum,for 1/6 action figures and other collectibles.

This piece is owned by Katkuru, and has been temporarily displayed on a Darth Vader figure he is working on (and if you ask me I think it looks fantastic like that!)

First of many video showcases - Anakin & Obi-Wan

I spent today making this video showing my Anakin and Obi-Wan 12" custom figures. (I would have been painting but things were going on at home and I kept getting interrupted so I knew painting was out of the question)

It's not perfect, but it's my first video and first attempt at editing, but I think it shows what I wanted to show quite well. I'll be doing one for my Lord of the Rings Aragorn and Legolas during the next week as well.

After that I'll do them anytime I have something worth making a video of!

Enjoy :)