Joe Laudati

Looking at your average Star Trek or Anime figures, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the sculptors, whilst not completely uninformed, hadn't actually been allowed to watch the movies or TV shows that their characters were featured in. You'd possibly be hard pressed to even guess who half of them were, if you didn't recognize the costume or see the label on the display card. That doesn't mean the art of model making is dead, though; take a look at the work of Joe Laudati and you'll see what I mean. Joe's models are cast in resin, and are remarkable likenesses of the original characters. I think his Edward Scissorhands is particularly impressive, though Marilyn is pretty neat, too. Of course, there are monsters of the silver screen here as well and a whole range of models devoted to Harry Harryhausen, the first and greatest cinema special effects creator (who I think is 90 this year). Where a human figure is required, this guy is awesome - look at his model of Ankh-so-namun from The Mummy movie. It doesn't get better than this. There's little original work for sale by the artist himself, but if you look around the speciality sites you'll find his models for sale there. Prices vary, I saw models from $60 up to more than $300. And they all look like they're worth it, too. If this gives you a taste for resin modelling and you'd like to see some more, also check out the work of Chris Elizardo at www.sculptorforhire.com, and a whole range of great models at www.resinbarbarian.com. Google images and Youtube also have visuals of one sort or another if you search with appropriate key phrases. It's hard to believe that this guy makes the bulk of his money from making prototype models for mass-production. I guess that by the time they make it to the stores, much of the original style and accuracy has been lost.