FAQ page
Here are the answers to the
most common questions. I need some stuff built for
a short film, but I don't have any money; would you
help? I used to do a lot of this,
but I spend most of my time on paid work now. If your idea
is very original or I like it a lot, I might still find the
time to help - get in touch! Where do you build
stuff? In my workshop - a
converted garage. It's well equipped and stocked and has
adequate health and safety provision. Do you work on
site? I can, if the circumstances
suit everyone, but I prefer my own workshop. I can also
prefabricate and flatpack. What kind of make-up do you
do? Whatever pays! Mostly blood
and guts, but Borg implants, Elf ears and witches noses are
very popular these days - all blended perfectly with your
skin, of course. I use Dinair and SuDo makeup. How long do l.e.d.'s
last? I can't give a definate
answer, as even the manufacturers don't know. But, I can say
that they will last many years, and each year that they
last, we'll all know more about how long they last! I've had
some burn more or less continuously (about 18 hours a day)
for about 8 years, and they're still going strong. I've just
updated this to 11 years (July 2008). How do I change the light
bulbs? I never use light bulbs -
only l.e.d.'s. I last used a fluorescent tube in 1997, I
think. Why is your stuff so
expensive? There are two main reasons:
we hand-build alm0st everything and meticulously research
each model, and we use led's for light sources, and these
range in price from 40p to £13 for a 5W Luxeon emitter.
If you need a brightly lit spaceship with lots of functions,
for instance, it could be £100's for the components
before any work even starts. Our customers come to us
because the results are stunning, in both visual impact and
realism. There is simply no comparison between a commercial
screen-printed Bandai (sorry guys) kit with a standard
15-l.e.d. lighting pack installed, and one of our airbrushed
builds with 10 times that number of colour-matched high
intensity l.e.d.'s. Our models are in a different league
altogether. If you don't agree, you will be refunded
immediately and the model will be collected. That guarantee
has never been actioned. Check out my two sample
itemised price examples here. Do you sell
kits? No. I refuse to make profit
on parts, including kits. You pay only for our skill. I'd
make no money selling kits. What's the biggest thing
you've made? A 6 foot high
prisoner-of-war camp guard tower. What's the wierdest thing
you've made? It used to be a
Ghost-Busters ectoblaster back pack, but now it's a real
wheel chair converted to a time machine. How much do you
earn? The model making just about
pays it's way, but only after 5 years of slogging on low/no
paying jobs and throwing about 8 thousand pounds at the
workshop to get it off the ground. I'd have to upscale,
relocate, and take on any and all art department jobs going
if I was to survive doing this full time. Do you do this
full-time? No, I still work as an
engineering researcher at a university with very flexible
hours, and we still sell art items and models to retail
customers. Do you ever ruin
anything? Oh, yes. Have you ever made anything
you can't let go of? Not yet! The buzz from this
is giving your creation to an audience - if you hang on to
your stuff, you might as well not bother! Do you use a
computer? Yup. It's the first thing I
turn to. Everything is roughed out, assemblies sequenced,
volumes of resin estimated, wiring schematics produced,
parts lists, cutting lists, templates and scaling are all
prepared in advance. This all helps, and sometimes it throws
up an unseen hitch, but there isn't any substitute for the
self-leveling, gyro stabilised, auto focussing, auto
tracking, light adapting Mk1 engineering eyeball. How did you get
started? I sent some pictures to a
special
effects magazine,
who were advertising for articles, and they took me on.
Eventually the articles were good enough to start hunting
for unpaid work making models for lo/no short films. The
magazine folded in 1999, but by then I had a start. The
magazine
is back on the go again, and I was happy to be able to do
another couple of articles for them again. I'll do more in
the future too, if they want them - great fun. Why don't you update your
website more frequently? When I'm not building
anything, there's nothing to add - and when I am building
anything it's usually for a film, and there's no time! Most
people wouldn't be interested in what goes on for a film
anyway - scratchbuilding a car with a full electrics pack
would only interest about 10 people in the UK - and I know
most of them. Most questions I get are about lighting the
Polar Lights Enterprise, so that's where I spend most of my
website time. Do you run
workshops? I would if it was viable.
To be economical, I'd need several customers who could
commit to many evenings or weekends, and that hasn't
happened yet. Another factor is that every model has unique
challenges and solutions, and to equip customers with a
workable set of skills, I'd need months of
weekends. I could do this myself....
why pay you? Yes, you probably could,
but only if you have a workshop with several thousand pounds
worth of equipment, materials and consumables and health and
safety gear, which can be safely left overnight to allow you
to lead a life. For instance, we keep 500 pounds worth of
assorted resins in stock, have a selection of mixed airbrush
heads, keep over 100 Dremel burr bits, and import l.e.d.'s
and power supplies in hundreds from Germany to shave a few
percent off the price. I spent a hundred pounds on resins
and pigments a few years ago to make a doping chart that
told me how much pigment to use, for any given ammount of
resin, to achieve a desired effect. Check out the itemised
samples to see what I would consider minimum equipment in a
workshop. Will you show or tell me
how to build something? Yes, I'd be happy to. For
nothing. Almost all articles on my website are a detailed
record of how I built whatever the article is about,
explaining all the steps and showing lots of detailed
photos. If you have something I haven't tackled, I'll do my
best to help. There are no secrets - if you hire me, you get
guaranteed results cheaper, easier and faster than most
people could do it themselves, that's all. Do you ever take on
trainees? Not trainees, but I may
well have to look at subcontracting out some model making
work for films from time to time. Anyone who has ever worked
in that industry though knows that this is highly sporadic
work, characterised by a few weeks of panic separated by
months of waiting! The days of retained special effects
staff passed in the 1970's for all but the biggest
operations that work nationally. If I was a mainstream art
shop or set decorators I'd get more work, but I have the
luxury of being able to stay in the SFX field. Do people haggle over
price? I don't start anything
without a firm agreement in place. That always involves an
itemised quote, so that people can see exactly where all the
costs are incurred. Sometimes people want to reduce the
price just because they think we are too expensive, and I
don't negotiate on those grounds. If you know what's
involved, our prices are clearly not just good value: they
are cheaper than the customer could do themselves for parts,
and about the same as they'd pay for any good tradesman per
hour. Sometimes people want to have a reduced price because
an item is for a good cause, or gets me good publicity, or
is for a low budget film, and I'm happy to look at each case
like that on an individual basis.
If they don't answer your questions, just e-mail
us.
I've tried it the other way: it cost a fortune in wasted
materials, extortionate rates for tiny quantities, wasted
weeks because of inefficiencies, and trashed a sitting room
and kitchen. These are some of the resons that people pay me
t build things for them. It really is cheaper and quicker
than doing it yourself - and it's guaranteed.