Meet The Maker:   Mark Telfer aka tMark Custom!station.

 

Home is Edinburgh, Scotland, with my forgiving wife Susan, my 7 year old daughter, Hannah 

who likes to join in some painting activities and my 4 year old puppy like Golden Retriever

Molly.

 

Although imaginative as a kid, I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

At 42 I can safely say I still don’t, in fact if you could see my collection and starry eyes,

it’s hard to argue that I have ever really grown up. 

 

I had found a path towards a career in football with a local Edinburgh club Hibernian,

unfortunately I experienced several injuries, which still trouble me today, and I had to forgo

this dream.  I found myself working in Banking, 20 years now, which was more through

necessity than design.  I can’t really complain, it affords a happy life with my family.

 

As a ’72 kid, I have spent more of my life with Star Wars than without, something many generations since will thankfully also share including my two young nephews Hamish and Angus.  Thanks for your pioneering cinematic vision and merchandising acumen Mr Lucas.  I attended each of the 6 films with much anticipation and was lucky enough to attend local 1st day releases for each.  I can’t wait until The Force Awakens later this year to continue the story, see the original heroes back in action and to see how JJ Abrams imagines this tale. 

 

The magic of queueing as a 5 year old in Glasgow for A New Hope and the arrival of my Early Bird mail away figures remain a happy memory.  A feeling which grew into a massive 3 ¾ collection (which when packing for the move even caused me to hold my breath, don’t know how my wife puts up with me) and blossomed into a new hobby customising. 

 

I've collected 3 3/4 figures since childhood, from Episode IV to date, encompassing Vintage, POTF, Prequels, Clones, Rebels and (sorry Susan) definately onwards. I have managed to hold onto most, although I sold a near mint Vintage Blue Snaggletooth and carded Lando General as I needed the funds, I almost succumbed to selling all.  However survived this period holding on to the rest of my Vintage figures, altough I still harbour regret regards the two figures sold, to the extent that I can’t even bring myself to replace them.  Maybe one day?

 

Balancing full time work, raising a young family and coping with periods of illness.  I wanted to find something for myself to tune out and tune into.  With my love for collecting Star Wars figures, I decided I could take this on creatively as a new pastime.  So for the past year, I've been visiting and reading websites dedicated to customising.  There are many fantastic sites out there and I am glad to see that what I once thought was a small pastime, through more searching have discovered a thriving community and conversed with interesting people.  

 

Customs For The Kid is my favourite destination, particularly enjoy the links of customised figures and the Star Wars Celebration customising panel presentation, I also loved Rot-Gut Spaceport photo slides, being of a certain vintage appreciated the Easter Eggs of Commander Adama, Mork, Robbie Robot, E.T.  I also admire the relationship Brian and Elias enjoy through their love of Star Wars, Art and the time they take to share this experience with others through their blog.  It also holds affinity with me as my daughter also likes to get involved with some aspects of the process which is good fun, though I always hold onto the paint jar, well, just in case.

 

I’ve been stockpiling fodder, fabrics, epoxy putty, molding kits, paints and tools etc for the past year.  Roughly one year into this new hobby, with mixed success, beginning with painting then moving to part swaps, cutting/chopping, gluing, hard sculpting (e.g. Ahsoka Tano face) a dabble of sculpting and combination of all, although not very bravely.  I think this is just because it's early days, I don't find I am particularly good in any discipline, but I'll persevere, learn and improve.  I think my biggest hurdle at the moment is paint washing, dry brushing or highlighting.  As I am not comfortable enough with my basic painting, when I do achieve a passible painted model, I get a cold shudder down my spine at the thought of gambling the effort it took to get me there.

 

I prefer to work with fodder or damaged figures, I don’t have the heart to dismantle a perfectly good figure. Although I have amassed a Roan Fel Imperial Knight force of approx. 57 Knights with head swaps and cast heads painted.  I have had to rebuild some figures missing hands and feet which included a Vintage Luke Stormtrooper which had been chewed, missing a hand, had a shave from front of his head and lost a fight with a feltpen.  Using a combination of hard sculpts, epoxy and painting to create a passable Vintage Luke ‘Shadow’ Stormtrooper. 

 

I don’t tend to plan figures out too much, not just now anyway, I just rake through my fodder and use my imagination and things seem to come together organically.  I had a POTF Bossk body and a Jar Jar with no ears and thought could I turn this into something resembling a half creditable Jar Jar ‘Action’ figure.  Well, it turned out not too bad, looks a bit rough and took a lot of time with the sculpting.  I happy to an extent with the figure as whilst it’s not too beautiful and not sure if it helps Jar Jar be taken any more seriously, it provided an opportunity to experiment.  One aspect the figure afforded was to merge creativity and re-cycling.  Jar Jar or let’s call him a Gungan Pilot, visor is made from cuttings of a Shampoo bottle.  I try to look out for things within the home which can be re-cycled and repurposed into this new hobby.  I never throw any figure cuttings away either, it’s surprising when you’re working away and wish you had something that could fit a piece and then find it in your scrap of scraps supply.  I have a Gamorrean head which is pretty much just the front of face, snout and eyes, doesn't even have his tasks.

 

In March this year, along with a Rebel Legion UK member Keith Armour, who lives up to his name building Clone Trooper armour, I was invited onto Edinburgh local FM radio ‘CastleFM’ for a show dedicated to Star Wars movies and collecting.  We are currently discussing continuing this programme through podcasts, which will be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please see Meet My Customs for my unprofessionally taken photos for some flavour of my novice work.  I have completed other custom figures which have been packed away pending a house move.  I will add these to my gallery when things settle at the new house and I will add new figures as they are created.  If anyone would like to feature any of my customs please get in touch, also if anyone would like to show their work within my webpage please contact me.