Darren Carnall's creative corner

[uscmhicks]

I sent you a pm back Darren .
Its hard to lose a loved one , don't let it get you down mate. I'm sure hes looking down on you and Jane now smiling !.
As for the secretary I have always wondered how you and the other customizers cope with so many orders , I can't even send off 3 things when I sell them on ebay , never mind make em and add another 100 on !.
Thats why I never bother someone doing a commission .
Keep up the good work mate , post up some pics when you can !

 

[Malice]

Hope you pull thru brother!

Loosing a love one is hard but at least to have the satisfaction that you know his in a better place.

 

[Darren Carnall]

(This was posted on my blog yesterday)

'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

 

[Darren Carnall]

(this was posted on my blog yesterday)

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

 

[uscmhicks]

not sure what the date was to be honest ( too many orders ) but I ordered a battle damaged terminator head from you , painted up and ready to go/
I paid.

 

[Rogue Trooper]

Got that late payment to you Darren, i really am sorry about that.

Very interesting to see you use the tile method, its the same thing i do as it perfect for going in the oven but no 1/6 yet. Always liked how clean it is to use when scuplting. Got the idea after seeing some of Tony Bartons tutorials, he also scuplts hands, arms and legs onto tiles that might interest you?

 

[Darren Carnall]

not sure what the date was to be honest ( too many orders ) but I ordered a battle damaged terminator head from you , painted up and ready to go/
I paid.

yup, you're on there Tay

Got that late payment to you Darren, i really am sorry about that.

Very interesting to see you use the tile method, its the same thing i do as it perfect for going in the oven but no 1/6 yet. Always liked how clean it is to use when scuplting. Got the idea after seeing some of Tony Bartons tutorials, he also scuplts hands, arms and legs onto tiles that might interest you?

shades posted off this afternoon Ian. Yeah I think it was a Tony Barton tutorial that first brought the tile method to my attention.

 

[Dark_Spidey]

I ordered a T2 painted head+sunglasses a few months ago (paid) and just sent you my Old Snake head (not paid yet)

 

[icruise]

Darren -- You might want to consider using an IMAP email service or even something like Gmail. Either one would store your email on an external server as well as your computer, so you wouldn't lose anything if your computer dies.

 

[Darren Carnall]

I ordered a T2 painted head+sunglasses a few months ago (paid) and just sent you my Old Snake head (not paid yet)

Thanks for the check. Yours are ok though, I've got those on my list still

Darren -- You might want to consider using an IMAP email service or even something like Gmail. Either one would store your email on an external server as well as your computer, so you wouldn't lose anything if your computer dies.

Well for my emails I store those on a seperate hard drive here, and make backups each week... the stuff I lost was actually a few Word documents. My waiting list in 12 pages long and has the names of everybody I'm working for, plus what I'm doing for them... including and personal requests, and who has paid and how much etc... considering this changes and gets added to daily, losing a few weeks of this is a bit of an "aarghhh!!" moment . This is what caused me the trouble.

Thanks for the advice though, that's a sensible way to work with your emails.

 

[Darren Carnall]

...just a couple of 'in progress' pics. still looking rough here, but you get the general direction (there are teeth in the mouth but you can't really see them in the shadows)

 

[Les Walker]

...just a couple of 'in progress' pics. still looking rough here, but you get the general direction (there are teeth in the mouth but you can't really see them in the shadows)

ME WANTS! ME WANTS!
I may keep my HT powerloader (I have been considering selling it) if I can get a head on my Rip like that!
Consider mine ordered bro!
Where do I pay???



And where's ALIEN Rip? PPPlease Mr. Darren???

 

[Dark_Spidey]

You know you can count me in Darren! Most impressive resculpt!

 

[uscmhicks]

Count me in for one of the ripley sculpts Darren , looks fantastic.

 

[pjam]

Looking good Darren! Yes, any updates on ALIEN Nos Rip?

 

[abake]

Fantastic Darren!
And I, too, am looking forward to Nostromo Ripley!

 

[Wanderer]

Powerloader arrived yesterday...Darren, that stunning Ripley sculpt cant come quickly enough

 

[Darren Carnall]

lol guys, guys.... let me get it finished first and a test cast done and painted up. That's when I'll know if it's good enough or not.

THEN we can talk about details. I'm having a potential issue with the neck socket. Let me show you a couple of photos and you can see what I'm talking about.

ok, here's the head as it was this morning before I carried on with it...

and for those of you who have the Ripley figure and have taken the head off... this is what's in the neck. It's a softish plastic insert that the body/neck plugs into

I managed to take the plug out which was glued in. Here's what's inside.

My choices are, I ignore the insert... and sculpt the inside of the head so it will sit over the neck comfortably. And the rubber skin will hold it in place. You'd be able to turn it left and right, and you'd have the lower neck articulation... but not the top joint. Now Ripley isn't an acrobat or anything, so for most of you that might not matter... but I can already think of a couple of 'cricking her neck' poses that would require that top joint.

My second choice, is to sculpt the head with the hollow inside, and have that cast in the usual resin. And then to have the insert cast in a softer mid strength rubber, which I would epoxy inside. This in theory would give a pretty much exact copy of how the original head works.

I've just been talking to my mold making fella (Moldy Man me and Jane call him).... and basically Moldy Man says this is completely doable, but there is extra cost in making an extra mold for the insert, and the fact that he'd have to buy in whatever strength rubber would be needed to make the insert.

The long and the short of it is... if you want the full articulation, the heads are going to cost a little more. How much more I'm not sure yet, i wont find out prices for about a week, so I'll have to work it out. But I'll go with popular opinion on what is the best course of action.

...back to work

 

[Wanderer]

I think i'd be prepared to pay extra for the full articulation. It wont make much difference to me in fairness, as Ripley will always be in the PL, however, i'd like to know that, if needed, the head is poseable.

Darren, put me down for two!

 

[DarkArtist81]

Keep pushing Darren! Your stuff just gets better and better bro. I can't wait to see the completed Ripley!