Darren Carnall's creative corner

[Darren Carnall]

Thanks fellas. Thankyou thankyou thankyou

Josh, I got your comment you left on my blog... thanks man

Thankfully my painting picked up a bit last night..... I swear I was having a really bad 24 hours, everything I did took at least 3 or 4 attempts before I could get it how I wanted it... and it just seemed than nothing was going right.

It just felt like I had forgotten how to paint. Thankfully by the time i put my brushes down last night I'd made a ton of progress on the Aragorns and Anakins, and the Arnie test head (rush job.... definitely not my best, but will give me an idea how the new neck will look on a figure) is virtually finished now. Today maybe

anyway.... back on with it

 

[Darren Carnall]

ok, these are just a few very quick snaps I just took. Literally finished this a few minutes ago, so haven't had any time to assemble the figure or take any flattering photos. So bear with me for the crappy pics. I'll do more later.

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.

 

[Darren Carnall]

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.

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

 

[DarkArtist81]

Very nice Darren!! You got the shape perfect man, Arnold looks a million times better now. I had the same issues with the sculpt, that damn neck and his lack of chin just threw off the likeness just a tad. The sculpt is amazing, but at the angle it was....

Great work bro, I love it. THAT is the freakin Terminator.

 

[Stendec]

OMG . . . that reworked Arnie sculpt is incredible . . . really . . . . absolutely perfect!!!!

I cant believe how few changes you said you have made, it looks a million times better than the original!! This is easily the best Terminator Arnie out there right now and if I had a Terminator figure (and any money lol) Id be all over this in a second!! I really look forward to the T1 Arnie too.

 

[superdoug]

Thanks is amazing and you say its not great! If you ever throw a list together to try and see how many people are intrested in try to get one put my name down because now I'm definently not satisfied with the Sideshow head.

 

[abstractharmony]

Darren.

That Arnie Facial sculpt is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Because his face was sooooo similar for a long period you'll be able to use it for :-

Conan - You KNOW you want to
Dutch - Has to be done
Matrix - How could you not?
Slater - It would be rude to do otherwise...

I think that you'll be getting a LOT of orders for this one. Then everyone will be rushing to find Hot Toys Muscular Bodies...

Awesome, simply awesome.

M!

 

[superdoug]

yeah I'd love to see you do a figure of Dutch. I keep hoping since Hot Toys made the USCMs that they'll do Dutch and company from Predator.

 

[Darren Carnall]

no time for any long comments at the moment (sorry), but I put the head on the body I had. I did a bit of work 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

I'm really quite happy with this now, the donor body I bought for it (seemed the best match for Arnie's physique), the biker set of clothes, and obviously now this head. (I'll probably do some work on the jacket when (if?) I get the time, some paint work to age the leather a bit round the edges.... but this is good enough for now)

I'm sure I'll do a proper set of photos at some point, but for now these ones I just snapped on my desk will do

 

[Stendec]

Great . . . now Im making involentary Arnie impersonations after seeing these photos . . . "I need you clothes, your boots and your motorcycle" lol

Astounding work Darren, the head looks fantatic mounted on the body. Loving the clothes too, they look dead on. I'l be calling you if I ever get round to making a custom teriminator.

 

[superdoug]

holy cow that is great. So is that basically the sideshow arnold with a new head, boots and then some minor changes to the colthes?

 

[Sachiel]

OMG, that's awesome!!!

 

[figuremasterles]

Great work on Arnold, Darren! Super!

OK...

As for that head...

In the words of Veruca Salt from the ORIGINAL Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory...

I want one. I want one NOW!

or two...or more....

Please! Pretty please! With sugar on top!
PM's open!

 

[DarkArtist81]

Man, that is AMAZING... It looks Like Arnold standing right there...

I MUST have one bro. Or maybe a few to make a few other figures with.

 

[C-Phan]

Holy poo !!
That hurt really bad, congratulations.

 

[EVILFACE]

Nice work man. Now just get the T1 version of the long hair and spiked hair/no eyebrows and I'll place my order for all 3

 

[Darren Carnall]

Thanks guys

I can't stay on here long, as I'm right in the middle of painting 8 heads, and we've got a friend coming round later to stay for the weekend (great timing )

Your comments mean so much, I wasn't expecting this much of a reaction. (but obviously I love it )

To answer some repeated questions (both in here and in pm's ... and emails... lol)

1) "Can I buy this from you?"

No, you can't... this is mine!

But yes, I will be having this custom molded.... so a few will be available. Not sure when though, I've got so much on... I'll get to it as soon as I can is the best I can say. But yes... You lot will all be covered and you can have it painted for those who want that. Not sure if I'll be making full figures yet though.

2) "Will you be making xxxx and xxxx and xxxx?"

Yes, I'll be making a few different versions of this (a few T1's.... a few different T2's) not to mention any other Arnie films I feel warrant attention

3) "What did you use to make this?"

I'll go digging through my eBay purchases, to make a complete list of parts used to make this fella when i get some time, bus basically the only part of this that is original Sideshow is the shotgun.

The head was resculpted (obviously), I bought a cheapish body, that seemed to me to be the closest to Arnie's shape (not excessively big), I got the leather jacket, trousers and t-shirt set from Saturday Toys is it? something like that.... I'll get the proper info when i go through my receipts. And the boots are World War 2 German boots I think... for which I took the metal stirrup off, and made them match (pretty damn closely) the boots arnie wore)

but again... I'll post a full list of parts and (hopefully) where I got them (and then what i did to customise them) once I get a little time
​

right..... now I've got some Anakins and Aragorns to get painted, so leave me alone! (I'm joking.... I could spend all day writing on here and on my blog how and why I do these things.... but sadly there are some things I just have to get done today)

Thanks folks!!!

 

[sandman1]

Absolutly fantastic.....You nailed Arnie's character on that one.
Take a bow sir, you deserve it!

 

[Darren Carnall]

thanks sandman

another thing I forgot to say, if anyone knows where you can get good 1/6 T2 sunglasses please let me know. The ones that come with the SS figure are too big and the wrong shape... and from all of my searching (and I have been for months 'cause I knew I'd be making this custom) I've only ever managed to find sunglasses that either closer to the T3 ones.... or not close at all.

If I can't find any then I guess I'll have to sculpt my own. Not looking forward to that, lol. (and I'd much rather they had thranslucent lenses, rather than a solid cast resin piece)

If anyone has any ideas please.... let me know

 

[Customikey]

My God, Darren! That's an awesome job! Well done!