Gollum: The Wellington Airport 2013

One of those rare times when a project is proposed that initially just sounds too ambitious to really happen.
Well I learned not to underestimate this team.

Radagast Collectable 2013

My second attempt at a 1/6th scale figure for Weta. 

Radagast as portrayed by Sylvester McCoy in the Hobbit films. This figure was very tricky to portray with his complex and lopsided costume. I recall showing this to Mr McCoy. He was fairly complimentary in his own quirky way.

Bombur Barrel Rider Collectable 2012

Aragorn and Arwen collectables 2012

Conceived by Art Director Daniel Falconer as a matching set. These small figures were very enjoyable to research. Each was portrayed from a specific scene in the films. Aragon where we first see him at The Prancing Pony and Arwen from a scene in Return Of The King. To keep production costs low these were intentionally sculpted with minimal parts and undercuts to simplify the molding and casting process.

Gandalf Life size sculpture 2012

Straight after finishing the 1:6 collectable sculpture of Gandalf, Weta asked me to make a full sized figure of the same design.
We started off by scanning the collectable figure and converting it into a digital asset. The scaled up version was then milled out in polystyrene. I make this process sound simple only because I was hardly involved.
Once milled out I replaced The staff and sword hilt with  casts taken from the film props. I also used a life cast of Sir Ian McKellen's face instead of the scan of my little sculpt.

All the polystyrene was then covered in a wax based clay to be sculpted textured and detailed.

A bronze version was later installed outside the Roxy Cinema in Miramar Wellington.

Hobbit Gandalf Collectable 2012

Having had my Gandalf miniature collectable received moderately well the year before, I had the opportunity to try my hand at a 1:6 scale figure of Sir Ian McKellen's character in the Hobbit range.

I had always loved this classic Painting of Gandalf by John Howe I used it as a heavy influence.

You can view it here on John Howe's website

Sculpted in Chavant Hard NSP over roughly six weeks.

Prelude to the Supernova: Art Project 2011

In between working on the Hobbit films and collectables, I would occasionally turn to this little sculpture for a bit of variety. Originally intended as a little anatomy study, this eventually turned into a full diorama.