Graduation Done!

Well, my graduation ceremony is all done and dusted, I am officially... actually I'm not quite sure what! There is a video in existence of the event, but uploading it here, the quality is just too dire to bother, Let me just tell you that, as well as my First Class Degree, the prize for longest, awkward (and unexpected) chat with the Chancellor goes to yours truly.

 

And OK, let's get the official portrait out of the way while we are at it!

 

Slight lag in posting = frenzied catch-up

Hmmm where should I start?
Meh, let's just pretend I am still up to date with my posting and give you the next instalment.

Recently I have just completed a little commission for a wargaming club  run by the school that my eldest attends.  A fairly open brief of some scenery for the club that was rock-solid and something to use as a centrepiece for open-day displays. It was one of those  where I did my best to involve the children in the initial designs and teach them some of the techniques, but you know what they say about working with children....
Anyhooo, I did get it finished and they are over the moon with the results. The end result? There might be a few workshops being arranged for future projects.

The final piece: a modular crashed and burnt-out ICBM. Plenty of battle-damage and scavenging to add to the effect. I threw in points of interest all over, so, no matter where you are standing, there is an eye-catcher.

Painted Prototypes

Well, here are a few fun shots of my first complete prototypes which have been painted to see how they look in the flesh. Not great quality shots, just a quick photoshop of my phone pictures...

Rogue Trooper

Johhny Alpha

Aliens Colonial Marines

And there are more to come......

The proof is in the paper?

Well, here it is! The final marks and paperwork of my degree have arrived - the wait is over....

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, you are reading that correctly. I am now the (very) proud owner of a Ba (hons) First Class Degree. All the blood, sweat, tears, tantrums, sore back from sleeping on understanding friends' floors/sofas (without whom none of this would have been possible) and the ball-busting dedication and effort I put in have finally paid off (and crippled me financially/emotionally/physically/mentally). Now I just have to make a living out of it!

And there's more!

Just been tinkering with my next batch - really upped the detail on these, so it will be interesting to see just what the 3D printing can handle! Meet my Lego Jaffa..

 

Top to bottom: Plain, Serpent, Horus, Jackal

Production Frenzy

Since the exhibitions, while I look for work, I have been creating my next generation of Lego designs.
The Aliens set is now complete - flamers, facehuggers, eggs all in there now. I have also started my 2000AD set with the just completed Johnny Alpha and Rogue Trooper (Calrlos Ezquerra - you made my childhood!).

 

Now for the decision of who to do next.... the list is fairly long!

Exhibition Season (fin)

Still waiting for the complete and correct feeling to return to my legs and feet after being vertical for what felt like forever. A full day and night of standing and talking, discussing my work with the public and industry alike. Now to pack it all up again and hope that I have impressed someone out there into wanting to hire my skills...

Exhibition season (part 2)

Well, a busy day at Holborn Studios but I now have a complete set up for New Blades tomorrow.
Now for some rest, epic sized day ahead!

Exhibition Season (part 1)

Well the University of Hertfordshire's "Headlines" Graduate Exhibition is done and dusted, the private viewing evening has to go down as one of the most horrendously tense evenings of my life.
Why? I was afraid to leave my work unattended, it would appear that common sense has left the building. Not only did I have to fend off "physical curiosity" but also blind ignorance as passers by would poke, prod and pull at my work. I was forced to defend it all night - but the prizes for the most memorable spectators go to the bloke who turned to his mates and shouted "look! it's the Avenger's cube innit" and the grandmother who nearly didn't leave in one piece as she decided to SHAKE the puzzlecube display like it was a snowglobe!!!
Now to pack it all up and head off to New Blades!!

Hell of a night light

And here it is, the final finished Perspex Hellraiser Puzzle Cube - the culmination of 2 years side-project tinkering. It is stunning both in natural light, and eerily enticing in the dark thanks to the lighting system in the base.
Hopefully the phrase "build it and they will come" does not apply here!

Early Christmas

Today, I got a greatly anticipated batch of 3D prints - Lego scale versions of my designs, ready to paint... fun times ahead!

Alien evolution

Marine development

Oh so pretty

And after the etching on the laser-cutter, time to bring it all together...

Drawing with Lasers

Just a quick retrospective on the last couple of days, while the Ornithopter model is being marked the cogs keep turning. After a long time of tinkering and prototyping, this week saw the final leap of faith and the commitment of my perspex cube into the the laser-cutter...

Finito!

Well, that appears to be that! My final final hand-in for my degree was today - the culmination of 3 eroding but lightspeed years. Now just the anxious waiting for results and the even more daunting preparations for, not one but two exhibitions. But I shall reward myself with a night off and a steak dinner. Monday sees business as usual! Until then, here are some shots of the final piece.

Fremen detail

rear detailing

The Ron Cobb concept and my realisation

A week in advance

Well, all the work is done - all the final bits and pieces finished, and I even built it a packing case. Now for the more mundane stuff like paperwork and presentation for next week's hand-in.

Got a studio shoot of the completed project tomorrow, looking for some tasty close-ups for the portfolio.

 

Until then, I leave you with my attempt at recreating the scene of the concept art that inspired this build.

 

Days away

So close to completion, I can almost smell it... or is that the smell of an approaching deadline? Actually, both myself and the model are in a really great place at the moment - the stress has gone and I'm enjoying these final stages. So much so in fact, that I decided to go balls-out and risk the uber-detailing, and aie carumba the difference to the feel of the model is mahusive!
To illustrate what I mean, here are a couple of pictures of the extra hydraulic cable detailing to the wing-mech and engines.

The quickening

With only a few weeks left on this project, it all appears to be coming together. Fingers crossed there are no major upsets left to deal with...

Such delights to show you

Wow, what a last couple of weeks! Dissertation madness over (handed it over yesterday) and now I can give everything to the models again.
Time for some pictures....
The Ornithopter comes along with increasing momentum, now that the final components are finally arriving, .



My Fremen sculpt

Engine pod metal layers

Wing mechanism





Yummy yummy brass etching

......and the Puzzlecube is mind-blowing

 

The brass panels are here and are stunning, cube is polished up and a suitable display dome is being created, holding my breath until the laser etching of the cube is done and those panels pop right in... after extensive testing!!!!

 

Goin' thru changes

As regular visitors may have noticed, the blog (and everything else me-related) is undergoing a bit of a face-lift as I work on updating my professional image.
Doing some re-branding and logo work at the moment which will appear here, for test runs etc.
Bear with me, it will all be alright in the end...more or less.

Ornithopter Progress

Starting work on the 3d print tidy-up and fitting, now all the pieces have arrived... and yes it is sitting on a padlock - that's how small it is!

 

And that is the basic scenic base taken care of after a two day flurry of work..

And away we go

As the last of my 3d prints come back from the printers, I'm beginning to get an idea of how the ornithopter is going to take shape. Still much to finalise and make, but it is now out of the computer and on its way to the real world!

 A quick scenery mock up for the design of the presentation base and a scale test of the cockpit.

Oh and thanks to my machining maestro Chewie, I now have the completed perspex cube - now for much polishing before moving on to the etching...

Next

Lego masterpiece out of the way, and onto the next one...
I sometimes wonder why I think that my ideas are
1 - practical
2 - do-able
3 - anything other than totally, mind-bogglingly insane!

But that aside, here is my progress on my degree model based on Ron Cobb's ornithopter concept art.
Watch this space to keep up on developments and nervous breakdowns....

Pretty, but ooooh so complicated!

The moment of glory is here!

The wonderment of my Lego project is now complete - gaze upon it while I go home to rest and recuperate!