Category — Models

Creating chess sets out of film tie-ins is nothing new, but this set featuring Aliens vs Predators still sends shivers down my spine.

Its a pretty neat looking set with the themed design working its way down to the base of either the Aliens vs Predator set, or the Ripley vs Aliens set further down.

I’d get one if I wasn’t trying to minimise what I own…

Via IO9.com

Technorati Tags: Alien, Alien vs Predator, film, models, Predator

Christopher Conte creates these amazing, polished sculptures depicting insectoid lifeforms and human parts.

After earning a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, he entered the prosthetics field and began making artificial limbs for amputees in New York. Combining an abiding love for sculpture, medical science and biomechanics, the field enables Chris to apply his natural talents to help others in less fortunate situations, which he still does to this day.

In 2007, Chris began offering these unique sculpture pieces for sale to the public for the first time. They are each made from a combination of different materials such as Cast Polyurethane, Glass-filled Nylon, Carbon Fiber, Stainless Steel and antique metals.

His work has been recently covered in Wired, Popular Science, Make Magazine, and used by The Discovery Channel and MTV Networks.

More on his website Microbotic.org

Technorati Tags: Christopher Conte, insect sculptures, insects with mechanical parts, metal design, metal sculpture, sculpture

Brazil’s Rita de Cássia Baduy Pires of Ana Beatriz Miniatures, creates amazing little miniature scenes set on a ratio of 1:7.8 inches.

She has been working on her art for 20 years, conceiving her own scale to differentiate her work from regular dollhouse dimensions.

Pires actually makes every single piece in her artistic dioramas—violins, copper pots in a kitchen, Japanese teapot—which are created from wood, paper, clay and scrap metal in her atelier in Curitiba.

She comes up with different scenes under their respective themes, with film and music the most requested and are those that happen to require the most detail.

Custom orders always float in from clients who want miniature recreations of real-life places.

Ana Beatriz Miniatures

Via CoolHunting

Technorati Tags: Ana Beatriz Miniatures, dioramas, model making, models, Rita de Cássia Baduy Pires

Ann Smith spends her days making little robotic like figurines from broken electronics and machine parts.  There are a couple of artists whose work I’ve seen online, who also create similar things, but Ann’s look quite elegant and actually work as kinetic sculptures!

They’re sold in stores and galleries throughout the US and have been published as illustrations in magazines and brochures.

On her website you can view a couple of animations of some pieces and you can also buy both the sculptures and prints of them from her Etsy store.

Ann P. Smith’s Burrow Burrow website

Via DesignBoom

Technorati Tags: Ann P. Smith, electronic parts, figurines, kinetic sculptures, models, Robotic Sculptures, sculpture

Muddy Mountain Pottery creates all kinds of ceramic products, but most quirky of all are these antique-style retro ray guns.

Well, why not? They look great, and encourage creative thoughts that hark back to (my) childhoods of retro sci-fi movies and space age technology!

This here is the Harrisaurian. It features glass elements as part of the gun barrel and the sighting scope.

Each Raku Ray Gun comes with a ceramic moon crater plaque wall mount.

Check out more on Muddy Mountain Pottery’s website

Via RetroThing

Technorati Tags: design, film, models, ray guns, sci-fi, TV

Joining the previously posted Bennett Robot Works sculptures are these fine creations from Guys Robots.

Guy Robots are unique pieces of handcrafted art, meant to be enjoyed visually and displayed prominently.

The piece parts that go into each Guy Robot come from a range of industrial segments, including aerospace and avionics surplus suppliers, automotive salvage yards, long-haul microwave equipment recyclers, decommissioned plumbing and refrigeration remnants, vintage hand-tool swap-meet winnings.

Many processes like slide rule calculations to metallurgical alloying transform the pieces of industrial junk to these absolutely wild and wacky living room adornments.

Read more on BornRich

Technorati Tags: art, Bennett Robot Works sculptures, Guy Robots, industrial junk, models, robots, sculpture

I saw Cédric Delsaux Star Wars series of photographs awhile ago and just came across his link again in my notes.

Cédric has a really nice landscape style. Quite stark yet sometimes with lots of geometry, features and urban grit. His Star Wars series is no different except (I think) he incorporates Star Wars toys to create real life scenarios in our world, for the Star Wars characters.

I think he could make a killing selling prints of these.

Cédric Delsaux Photography

Technorati Tags: Cédric Delsaux, photo manipulation, photography, Star Wars

I try not to post too many models here where there isn’t a clear connection with design, yet I couldn’t keep away from this new collectible statue from Sideshow Collectibles.

It features a Predator on what appears to be an Alien spawned from a horse. Its a slightly new take on the relationship between these two warring cultures and reminds me a little of old warfare such as the Roman times, before ballistics existed.

I’m a fan of both these characters and the fact that this statue stands at 14 inches sounds like it would incorporate lots of stunning detail. But at a price. $250 or in the UK, it will be available for £160.99 from Forbidden Planet. And it won’t be available until early 2009.

Via io9.com

ForbiddenPlanet.com

Technorati Tags: Alien, models, Predator, Predator on Horse, Sideshow Collectibles

I’m not one for board games but I do like checking out models and am tempted by this deluxe combination of the two…

Clue Premier Edition ups the game’s realism with nine sunken, three-dimensional rooms, each with precise details including the appropriate furnishings.

A non-removable tempered glass lid lets the board function as a display piece between games and keeps curious little hands off the goods inside, while the familiarity of the classic characters lets the grown-ups feel like kids again.

Clue Premier Edition $150

Via Uncrate

Technorati Tags: board games, Clue Premier Edition, models

Lego enthusiast Brian Kescenovitz created a Lego mecha with a hatch mechanism that reveals a pilot in the cockpit.

Called the UM-5 War Doll, it’s inspired by the VS suits from the game Lost Planet. I’m inspired. Its custom jobs like this that take it that step further from being too lego-like!

Via Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: Lego, mecha, models