Faking Vigo the Carpathian (aka Vigo the Butch)

I'd been seeing a lot of inspirational prop work by extremely skilled people and it made me wonder: what can I recreate that showcases the skills I have? Most of my experience is as an illustrator, but the prop community is pretty sharp when it comes to making items that require only a high resolution JPEG and an inkjet, which meant I had to find an item that relied on a hand painted finish for its authenticity. Basically I needed a famous movie painting, something immediately recognisable and unique...

Which led me to Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf, Scourge of Carpathia, Sorrow of Moldavia... and star of Ghostbusters 2!

Mini Groot

As I may have mentioned in a previous blog post I was lucky enough to catch Guardians of the Galaxy at the cinema. Along with the overwhelming urge to steal false legs I was left feeling there was a Groot shaped hole in my life. I decided to fill this hole with clay and paint :D

Colonial Marines Nerf Pistol

So I saw Guardians of the Galaxy and absolutely loved it. As a surprise for my girlfriend I thought I would get her the Awesome Mix (yes, like most guys I buy my girlfriend things I secretly want) so had a quick Google for Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise, only to discover that they make a Starlord Nerf Gun! It’s lucky she didn’t get one of these instead of the CD I eventually bought! Anyway, I got to thinking, a little modification and a coat of paint and that toy could look pretty close to the gun from the movie… so I started looking into Nerf gun modification, one thing lead to another and before you know it I’m down the shops looking for cheap Nerf guns to try ideas on… Hello Nerf Mega Magnus!

The unadulterated Mega Magnus

The Perfect Hogwarts Acceptance Letter…

I’ve been on a bit of a Harry Potter bender of late, making everything from wands and snitches to chocolate frog boxes and even a Fawkes puppet. One of the first things I made was a Hogwarts Acceptance letter, a project which I recently decided to revisit for a blog entry. It only took a little research to realised how far short my first attempt had fallen, and how much work was still ahead of me…

How to make a Ministry of Magic Memo

I visited the WB Studio Tour recently and was inspired to have a go at recreating some Harry Potter props. The graphic designers who worked on the movie did a fantastic job populating the world with beautiful, believable designs. Working in print myself I was immediately drawn to these items. For my first project I thought I would look at the flying memos from the Ministry of Magic. 

I was rather surprised given the general enthusiasm of the fan base that the resources to recreate one were not already available, but not to worry, I picked up some excellent reference on my visit to the Studios. 

The Interdepartmental Memos on display at the Warner Bros Studio Tour