A boyhood fascination with monsters and creatures from fantasy films has developed into one Kent man\u2019s extraordinary craft.<\/p>\n
Armed with just everyday materials, Steve Niles creates amazingly lifelike models of some of the movie world\u2019s most famous characters.<\/p>\n
King Kong towers over his maker Steve Niles<\/p>\n
Starting with figures just a few inches tall, his creations have now morphed into huge, towering works, culminating in his finest piece – a 13ft King Kong.<\/p>\n
It stands alongside a similar-sized Iron Giant alien robot and an 8ft Darkness from the film Legend.<\/p>\n
The trio are showstoppers at a Kent antiques and collectables centre which also features movie memorabilia.<\/p>\n
They all come from Steve\u2019s workshop in Studd Hill, Herne Bay, where he toils away meticulously creating his characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it all started when I was a boy and had a fascination for the Star Wars films and especially how the characters looked and were made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Darkness from Legend and The Iron Giant
A cyborg is one Steve Niles’s creations<\/p>\n
\u201cI started out making small models, and it developed from there, when I began creating costumes and latex masks for things like carnivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s never been a job, just a hobby that I get a huge amount of pleasure from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among his many creations are the Alien Queen, a werewolf, Predator, a cyborg, a goblin knight from Labyrinth and a Gamorrean guard from Star Wars.<\/p>\n
The scary-looking Alien Queen is one of Steve Niles’s creations<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the earlier days of film-making there was no CGI and the costumes and figures were handmade, which is what fascinated me,\u201d said Steve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m self-taught, and it\u2019s just been trial and error with different materials, some of which I source from Amazon.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut friends also offer me materials to build with, which also comes in handy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, I make what I like and strive for perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work in progress in Steve Niles’s garage on Darkness
Skeletor from Heman Masters of the Universe is another of Steve Niles creations<\/p>\n
That attention to detail has resulted in his finest work to date, the mighty King Kong, which draws people to Briggsy\u2019s Emporium in Herne Bay.<\/p>\n
Created in his garage over a period of six months, Steve used a metal frame, timber and shaped polystyrene for the body, which he covered with fur-like material bought from Amazon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a different colour so I had to dye it and the face, hands and feet were made using a special compound.<\/p>\n
Model maker Steve Niles with some of his large scale work<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the way it\u2019s turned out, but we only really saw how it looked when it was erected in Briggsy\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real talking point and actually attracts people to the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve, 56, says he is always looking into new characters to make, but does it for his own enjoyment rather than as a commercial enterprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I\u2019m quite interested in making the Terror Dog and Slimer from Ghostbusters, which could be fun,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boyhood fascination with monsters and creatures from fantasy films has developed into one Kent man\u2019s extraordinary craft.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2759,192,2839,649,194,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-769091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-herne-bay","tag-human-interest","tag-movies","tag-quirky","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}