Studio Scale Imperial Shuttle Tydirium

In 2008, whilst in the third year of my degree course, I spent some of my spare time making a replica of the filming miniature of the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium from The Return of the Jedi. This was to be a prototype for a set of patterns I wanted to produce so that I could make a garage kit for collectors. Eventually I ended up scratch building three of these, with each one being more accurate than the last. This is my V1.

Work in Progress photos

Lasercutting the fuselage interior and wing mechanism supports

Piecing together the fuselage interior

The fuselage in primer

The wing mechanism 

Test-fitting the wings to the lower fuselage

Vac-forming the upper fuselage

Fitting the dorsal wing

Guns

The finished rear end in primer

Almost completed

WALL•E

Using drawings from ‘The WALL•E Builder’s Club’ I built this replica for a collector in Japan. The body is made from MDF and styrene. The eyes are built from acrylic and ABS with real camera lenses. The arms are made from ABS and acrylic tube and chemiwood. The finished piece is painted in acrylics and weathered with iron powder and vinegar which was then sealed with a cellulose lacquer.

Work-in-progress photos

The laser-cut acrylic eyes, with real camera lenses

The body finished and in primer

Detailing the eyes

Building the arms

Rusting the rear end

Darth Maul's Lightsaber

Commissioned by Dorling Kindersley and Lucasfilm, I built this cut-away Darth Maul lightsaber for The Phantom Menace Expanded Visual Dictionary, published to celebrate the release of Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D. 

It was quite a nice little job and I had 5 days to design, build and deliver the prop, with some very loose art direction from the author of the book. The guts were made with mainly stainless steel found parts, that were sourced from the same company that provided the original Phantom Menace prop makers with parts. Some parts were custom made in aluminium. These were fitted into a Master Replicas saber.

'The Doctor'

This project was part of the final year of my degree programme. The Doctor was designed and made for a movie called ‘The Children of Cradle Grave.’ I pitched to supervise the creature fx on the movie by running through the script, identifying the shots and calculating a top-end and low budget solution for them. I had the sequences storyboarded first to check that the producer, director and I were clear on what I was quoting for. The fx head pictured was created from a life cast of the producer, Mark Pegg. It was cast in a Platinum Silicone and finished in oil paints.

Storyboard for the proposed scene

Work-in-progress photos

Starting to work on the plasterline life cast

Sculpting the wound and adding texture

More texture and claying up for moulding

Fibreglass mould and claying up the core

Painting in silicone for the would and injecting for the skin

Demoulding the silicone bust and painting with oils

Halo CQB Armour

This project was part of the final year of my degree programme. The patterns for the armour were sculpted by hand in polyurethane foam and then vac-formed in ABS and styrene. The helmet was sculpted in oil based clay, in 2 halves over a real crash helmet. It was then moulded and cast in fibreglass to create vac-forming patterns. The undersuit is made from customised biker leathers and BMX armour. The boots are dressed ski-boots. 

The armour was designed for a background character and once the patterns were complete could be produced quite quickly. It was fitted to a 6’3” mannequin, but ideally it would be worn by someone who was 6’5” or taller.

Work-in-progress photos

Dressing the ski-boots

Sculpting the helmet to made fibreglass vac-forming patterns

Drawing up the thighs

Sculpting the thighs

Sculpting the cod piece

Vac-formed belt detail

Sculpting the forearms

Detailing the helmet

Sculpting the chest

Detailing the vac-formed back piece

All the parts completed