Seeing a real-life 3 meter Alien or Predator sculpture is an experience you are unlikely to ever forget. I'll always remember the moment when I came face to face with a 3 meter tall predator which wielded an axe that could have chopped down an entire forest in one swoop! The attention to detail needed to create such spectacular works of art consume up to a month of full-time work for as many as 12 artists who are trained as experts in welding, design and construction. Unless you are a regular visitor to discreet countryside workshops in Thailand, it is likely that you'll get to see such works of art only in nightclubs, museums or restaurants where they might have been made to order. Smaller alien, predator and star wars statues are sold infrequently online by tourists who've brought back a case of scrap metal art souvenirs from their travels here, but owning any junk metal statue over one meter in height puts you in the rare and exclusive list of collectors.
If you ever want a novel way of deterring burglaries and door-to-door salesmen than consider the benefits of using a 3 meter tall Alien statue in your hallway. This might not be so practical though if you've got the vicar visiting for dinner. Each hand crafted metal sculpture can contain over 2,000 unique parts. Materials are usually obtained from many manufacturing plants in Thailand and from scrap metal dealers. A typical large alien predator or star wars statue may have spent its previous life as perhaps a car, a boat, a dishwasher and a television and it can be fun trying to guess what certain parts might once have been.
All scrap metal models are joined by welding. The smaller scrap metal models may use nuts, bolts and screws, which have been expertly crafted into limbs or other body parts. All models are expertly polished on completion to remove any sharp edges. They are coated with a strong lacquer to protect them from weathering and the balance of the freestanding models are vigorously checked. Statues are rarely painted because they look most impressive in their natural state although exceptions have been made in the past.
Certainly robots such as the star wars Battle Droid, C-3P0 and Robocop have that extra degree of authenticity when the are unpainted and monsters such as the Alien or Predator movie characters look truly dangerous with the metallic and robust sheen.
Martin Pavion is the owner of ArtFromSteel.com - the most prominent exporter of life size (and miniature) scrap metal Alien, Predator and Star Wars statues in Asia. Martin have traveled through Thailand to work with some of the country's most prestigious artists. For you information he has a life-sized Star Wars Battle Droid in the entrance of his apartment to welcome his guests. His website can be found at http://www.artfromsteel.com with a full catalogue of Sci-fi metal statues.
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