Darren Carnall's creative corner

[Darren Carnall]

I posted this over in the Obi-Wan and Aragorn threads but I might as well put it here too.

I managed to buy some cheap LED click lights recently, and the shelves to my left here were getting cluttered with resin heads, paint tubes... and general crap and taking away the coolness of my figures. And I'd wanted some proper display shelves for my custom figures for a while anyway. So on the bookshelves behind me I moved some books around

and went from this.......

to this...... (much better!)

 

[Reinhardt]

that looks sweeeeet!!!!!

but where is Robo???

 

[Darthrazz]

That looks awesome Darren! Are you sure that having that bright light over Gizmo is a good idea?

 

[sunohc]

what a nice display. those lights really did piff things up!

 

[The ill Jedi]

Wow Darren, talk about a major makeover!! The shelves look amazing now!!

 

[figuremasterles]

Darren, that is a magnificent makeover! And it so does your figures proud!

And yeah, I DARE you to put a little red bandana and some hanging baubles on Gizmo now! He looks GREAT there.
They all look super!

 

[abake]

Beautiful display Darren!

Oh... and, weren't you working on a Ripley resculpt from Alien?
Just curious...

 

[DarkArtist81]

Looks great Darren! I love the pirate medallion on Gizmo too, hilarious...

 

[Darren Carnall]

that looks sweeeeet!!!!!

but where is Robo???

funny you should ask, I just cleared out another shelf under the lightsabers last night and put Robocop and Darth Maul there.. looks great

That looks awesome Darren! Are you sure that having that bright light over Gizmo is a good idea?

it's umm... special 'mogwai friendly' light.... yeah... that's right *cough*

I DARE you to put a little red bandana and some hanging baubles on Gizmo now! He looks GREAT there.
They all look super!

haha..... that's a cool idea putting hte red bandana on him. Might do that one day. The Giz was a birthday present for Jane last year I think. He's one of the one's that rock from side to side singing his little mogwai song that he does in the film. Quite cool

but me being me.... I repainted it I did the hands, feet, ears, nose/mouth and eyes. Looks much better than the standard beige plastic version. Oh and I wet the fur and tufted him up.... became a mogwai hair stylist for the day, lol. Stopped him looking so generically fluffy though... much more screen accurate. Although it's fluffed out again a bit now... I'll have to re-do his hair.

I wanted to recreat the moment from Gremlins where billy gets Giz as a Christmas present... with the wooden box... I spent MONTHS on ebay trying to find an old antique looking wooden box the right size, couldn't find anything... so I ended up making one out of a heavy cardboard box.... made a hinged lid.... covered the outside in panelling to give it the wood effect... painted it the right colours, and lined the inside of the box with black velvet.

Then on her birthday morning, I went downstairs first..... closed the blinds and lit some candles (re-create the feeling of the old man's antique shop) and I'd wrapped the box (complete with huge red bow) in a way that she could pull the wrapping paper up off the box without disturbing it.

we went in... i told her the room had to be dark..... and she was puzzled..... then she pulled the wrapping paper off, and saw this (fake) old looking box.... at that point I think she got it. I said "why don't you give the box a gentle shake? see whats in it"

so she shook it a bit.... and gizmo started singing..... then she did the biggest smile ever, and opened the lid... to see gizmo in the box rocking from side to side singing his song.

It was a great moment..... and well worth all the effort!

Beautiful display Darren!

Oh... and, weren't you working on a Ripley resculpt from Alien?
Just curious...

I'm working on lots of things

Looks great Darren! I love the pirate medallion on Gizmo too, hilarious...

yeah that's Jane's too. Gave it to her on the same birthday where she got Giz. I said she was my Elizabeth Swann (awwww). plus... I'd always wanted one of those pirate coins, so this way I got to have one on my shelf... but it's hers really, lol. So made sense to have giz wearing it lmao

 

[Darren Carnall]

took some pics of the next shelf down cleared out with Maul and Robo there now. Woohoo.....

 

[BDboystoys]

Thats a freakin superb clean up you did. It looks like a totally new space! And vastly improved. Very classy too.

Kudo's! You work deserved such a display

 

[Darren Carnall]

thanks BD

These aren't the best pics, but it's just a few 'where I'm up to so far' pics of Arnie. I'll go through it in the usual detail once I'm finished with it, but basically I cut the neck clean off from the head, and resculpted a new neck allowing the position of the head to be more 'Arnie like'. Also with more shape/definition to it.

The main thing with the SS sculpt wasnt the face at all, but the positioning of the head. It made his chin area look too thin... and the top of his head look too wide. Arnie has always had a very prominent jaw, and the angle of the SS head took away from that for me.

other than that I'm working on the corners of the mouth, sculpting the ears to not be so flat, reducing the frown lines, and making the neck at the back go under his hairline with more human proportions.

I can't wait to have this up and painted in my display (custom body.... biker set of leathers, not the SS figure)

anyway.... here's the pics for today

 

[mrhatrulez]

Wow... first one looks like the Governator... the re-sculpt looks like Da Terminator!

Nice job!

 

[Darthrazz]

Darren, nice work. That's looking real good. Can't wait to see it painted. Any plans for a battle damaged Arnie??

 

[figuremasterles]

Excellent revision Darren. I think I can agree with you on the neck angle thing, and the chin. This does respect the original sculpt (which I am not unhappy with myself) and yet improves it just enough to let us see the true Arnie in it!

BTW, change the hairstyle just a smidgeon, I see Dutch!

 

[Cocoboloboy]

That is so wierd how much of a difference that makes in the way the SSC face looks. Hurry up and finish it, I can't wait.

 

[Darren Carnall]

Darren, nice work. That's looking real good. Can't wait to see it painted. Any plans for a battle damaged Arnie??

I hope so. I just need to decide how battle damaged. I could fairly easily sculpt some bullet marks and small amounts of damage onto it like this....

but once you start getting into revealing the robot eye.... that's all mechanical, and a lot harder to make look right. And I only do something if I can do it right, lol. We'll see though.... there's be at least one battle damaged version. maybe more

and Les.... I'm starting to think of all the Arnie films this could be used as a base for a custom for.... all that would have to be done is change the hair.

 

[Imaresqd1]

thanks BD

These aren't the best pics, but it's just a few 'where I'm up to so far' pics of Arnie. I'll go through it in the usual detail once I'm finished with it, but basically I cut the neck clean off from the head, and resculpted a new neck allowing the position of the head to be more 'Arnie like'. Also with more shape/definition to it.

The main thing with the SS sculpt wasnt the face at all, but the positioning of the head. It made his chin area look too thin... and the top of his head look too wide. Arnie has always had a very prominent jaw, and the angle of the SS head took away from that for me.

other than that I'm working on the corners of the mouth, sculpting the ears to not be so flat, reducing the frown lines, and making the neck at the back go under his hairline with more human proportions.

I can't wait to have this up and painted in my display (custom body.... biker set of leathers, not the SS figure)

anyway.... here's the pics for today

Nice job! can' t wait to see you paint this guy up; by the way, where you get the jacket set?

 

[Double Dare]

Darren that's another excellent job of fine tuning a likeness. You have an excellent eye with the talent to match.

Nick

 

[nash]

hi darren did ya get my pm by the way? :chew