"The only good human is a dead human!"

I have no idea why I'm suddenly on a Planet of the Apes kick. Sometimes this happens to me...I'll be going on my merry way and I'm hit by this intense desire to watch a movie. I think this was spurned on by Michael Crawford's review of Hot Toys amazing Gorilla Soldier figure. Since I don't currently have a couple of hundred dollars to spend on plastic apes, I thought I'd take a crack at sculpting some simian myself. I really didn't have any vision or idea in mind...I just sort of started sculpting the head, and followed from there. The base figure is a bunch of Marvel Legends junk thrown together (mainly a series 4 Punisher that was used as a previous custom many years ago). I bulked up the shoulders, chest, and gut with plumbers epoxy, sculpted the head with Aves Apoxie Sculpt, and made the uniform from fabric, leather, and vinyl squares. The rifle is styrene all the way. I've only ever seen the first POTA movie, though I know the quote above is General Ursus from Beneath the Planet of the Apes...I really want to check out the rest of them someday. I'm working on a Dr. Zaius at the moment, so keep your eyes peeled for that soon.

Spacehunter 3D!!!!

Spacehunter 3D: Into the Forbidden Zone is the ultimate sci-fi cheesefest. It also has some nifty hardware...among which is the main character's salvage ship. Someone requested that I make this...I accepted, and it proved to be a very challenging project. Styrene, PVC pipe, and some other odds and ends were cobbled together. My favorite part is the claw arm.

Gollum: 2006

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit don't really require me to preface or explain anything. They're pretty well established as masterpieces of 20th century fantasy literature, and there aren't too many people who haven't at least heard of Peter Jackson's films. I sculpted this bust from Super Sculpey about three years ago, and I consider it one of my better attempts at sculpture. Sure the pose leaves a question mark as to what Smeagol's intentions are, which is never a good thing when it comes to developing a pose for a static work like this...but I'm proud of the expression, the work on the hands, and the fish. The anatomy is probably iffy as well, but as an early attempt at this sort of thing, I'm still pleased with the result (which signals to me that I need to practice more). He's really small...about 2 1/2 inches tall...and I really enjoyed incorporating the thread for his hair.

Flash Gordon: 2007

Flash Gordon is the prototype for modern science fantasy. Buck Rogers came before him, but Alex Raymond's classically trained artwork and tight, cliffhanger endings made his Flash Gordon strip a cut above, and laid the groundwork for so much of what we consider to be conventional in sci fi and comic book storytelling. The inspiration of Edgar Rice Burroughs is certainly obvious in Flash's story (earthman finds himself stranded on a strange planet (in this case, Mongo), finds that he is an exceptional individual among the natives, and travels the whole planet and encounters exotic people, places, and beasts. The fact that Flash Gordon was also translated into one of the better movie serials doesn't hurt either...Buster Crabbe made the perfect bland hero, and Charles Middleton was fantastic as the devilish Emperor Ming. Michael Hodges' 1980 cheesefest was not without it's charm (Max Von Sydow was awesome as Ming), but wasn't quite as fun as it should have been, obviously making fun of the source material.

These customs were made two years ago. Ming is my favorite out of the bunch, and the rocketship was sort of my first full fledged foray into making a vehicle...it's made from two huge juice bottles, a funnel, and some styrene. In the last picture, you can see that I painted the fins red to jazz it up a bit. Unfortunately, the rocket did not survive my cross-country move. Not my best customs, but I enjoyed making them, and I wanted to include them here for completeness sake.