C-3PO and R2-D2

Here's a look at my new C-3PO and R2-D2 figures on a beautiful November day in Prince Edward Island. Both are styled after their look in the Droids animated TV series from the 1980's.

Minor Hockey Player

Here is a figure the I made for my brother's birthday on October 11. I thought it would be fun to make a figure based on him as a boy in one of his minor hockey uniforms. From start to finish this figure took about a day to complete. For this one I am including some pictures of what the figure looked like before it was painted so that it's easier to see how many pieces were used in it's construction. While at first glance it doesn't look like it, this figure is actually built out of 19 separate pieces, some of them actually functioning a little like a skeleton. What I mean by this is that some parts, such as the arms and the gloves, have a separate internal piece of wood connecting them. What I did was drill out a hole in the lower portion of the arm as well as through most of the glove, and then insert and glue in place a smaller rounded piece of wood. I did the same thing with the hips. For the lower legs, skates and base I did pretty much the same thing except this time I had the internal piece coming from the lower legs go down through the skates and deep into the base. This should make the figure far more secure than if I had just glued the skates to the base for instance. Like most of my more recent figures the head is able to turn and is also removable so it can be placed on another body. The figure is about three inches tall, including the base.

Back in business!

After going for months without being able to use a wood lathe, I'm happy to report that things are finally looking up. At my new (actually 110 years old) house, I have an old pig barn that will eventually be at least partly converted into my woodworking shop. It smells in there, it's dirty and there is still a long way to go till I have everything cleaned up and set up the way I want it, but at least I now have the lathe and some of my other tools set up and ready to use. I have actually been able to use the lathe a few times in the past week and begin work on a few new figures. A new Elmo figure is now complete and will be looking for a new home soon and four more figures are currently in the works. I should be able to get some more work done on these four tomorrow after I get back from a nice morning at church in Charlottetown. It's fun to be back at it!

Ernie and Bert

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here, and with good reason! My wood lathe bit the dust months ago, so I had to go out and purchace another one. My bench was too small to hold the new (actually antique) lathe that I had just bought, plus I was going to be moving in the summer, so I just had to put off my woodworking until I moved to the new place. Now that I'm at the new house, I have a barn that will make great place for a workshop, but no bench or electricity available in the barn. Once those are in place, I will finally get to try out the new lathe! In the meantime, here are some pictures of two figures that I haven't posted before.

Andrew's Wii character

If you are familiar with the Nintendo Wii system then you may recognize this character as resembling some of the Mii characters that you can create for games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. This little guy is a character designed by my son Andrew. When Andrew first added him to the game, he was intended to be a character who was terrible at every sport (notice how miserable he looks?). Since then, Andrew has allowed him to get a lot better, but he will still always have the same miserable, but kind of cute, face.
For this figure, I thought I would try something new: legs! It makes the figure a little taller than others that I've made, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. I like how he turned out, and my kids think he's great!

Maurice 'Rocket' Richard

I had been thinking about making some hockey hero figurines for a while, and recently I completed my first one. This figure is of one of the greatest players ever: Maurice 'Rocket' Richard from the Montreal Canadiens.
I am very pleased with how he turned out. It took a few tries to make a stick that would work, but I finally came up with something that I think does the job. For a while I thought that maybe he would have to go without a stick, but a hockey player just wouldn't look right without it. As you can see in the last picture, the stick is removable and the head can be turned.
Painting took about 6 hours. When you look at the figure now, it seems hard to figure how it could take that long, but details such as straight lines take time! They very first thing that I painted was the logo. First the white background, then the red 'C' and finally the blue. The last part of the uniform to be painted was all the red. The figure is 6.5 cm tall (2.5 inches)
This is yet another figurine (head and body) to be made from a set of old table legs that my neighbor was throwing out with the trash a couple years age. Absolutely excellent wood. Recycling at work!

Ichabod and the Headless Horseman

Here are some brand new versions of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A few interesting features on these: The pumpkins face glows in the dark and Ichabod's head can turn and be removed.