From the Andyman Archives...(lots o pics)

Way before Todd gave rock & roll to ya...there was a bored lad named Andyman. He lived his rock & roll fantasy through little plastic cowboys & indians. Despite all the psycho babble we could cover here, I wanted to share with you one of my first customs ever...a band called "Black Ace"*.

<font size="1">*I think the name evolved from a tribute to Ace Frehley or a homage to the card of death...not totally sure right now.</font>

This actually started out as a joke between me and this girl I knew who found a little green plastic cowboy on a sidewalk and gave it to me. Eventually I made a little cardboard guitar for him. Ove time I started to raid my younger brother's little plastic dudes to make a whole band.


http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...3723%3B8nu0mrj

Drawn on cardboard for guitars, painted wood blocks for amps and pill bottles and rubber tires for drums.

I was in photography classes at the time and I was trying to mimic crowd shots.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...3747%3B6nu0mrj
<font size="1">"Hello San Fransisco! I'd like to give a warm welcome to friends of mine in the audience tonight...Luke Skywalker and the Fisher Price Adventure People! Let's give it up!"</font>

Realism? Yeah right, the guy's green.

My brother and I started to play around with stage design at this point. This drumset would spin with lights shining from below. We had a hair dryer coil in there that we would rub candle wax on to make it smoke. It's amzing we never burned the house down!

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...37242%3Bnu0mrj

Stay tuned! More pyrotechics and a guest appearance by Gene Simmons!

That's so cool! Andyman!

Great that you still have the pics............

but why am I now hungry for Wagon Wheels? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Over the course of a year or so, I started to take the band seriously. I thought the idea of rock band figures would be cool. I painted the figures and cut out their arms so they could hold their guitars. I didn't know much about rock gear at the time so I just made my own designs.

I had this picture blown up and hanging in my dorm room at college. You wouldn't believe how many people thought it was real.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...3747%3B9nu0mrj

My brother was into pyro at the time so we rigged up flash pots for photo ops.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...A6372436nu0mrj

These made for some cool explosions.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...A6374823nu0mrj

And there he is! The only record of a custom Gene Simmons I made. I made a Paul Stanley one too. Both in their Love Gun costumes. Both were made from Indian figs. Gene's Indian fig already had a ponytail sculpted on top of his head. He was originally shooting a bow. I cut the bow out, cut out the right arm and repositioned it to hold his bass. I fabricated cardboard pieces for the front of his boots and indvidually glued every single little square of glitter into place. His "bat cape" was made out of paper. Paul's was an Indian holding a tomahawk up. I cut off the tomahawk and it looked like he was thrusting his fist in the air. For hair I glued a piece of a cotton ball to his head. I then used black paint to "paint down" the cotton. The results were very convincing. I even had actual chains on his boots. To this day I have no idea what happened to them. [img]frown.gif[/img]

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...A6374828nu0mrj

man...
that is too fuckin' cool, Andy.
great stuff! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

the pyro's pretty crazy, too.

you're a fucking lunatic. cool pics [img]smile.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

I never would have guessed what the bases for Paul and Gene were, but since you mentioned it, I can definitely see - I remember having some of them around when I was younger.

Those are f'n amazing !!

that's too damn cool [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

LOL that rocks Andy! (pun intended [img]wink.gif[/img] )
great stuff man! [img]smile.gif[/img]

what a ride! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Holy shit Andyman, those are great! Love the Gene, too bad you don't have a closer shot of him. The mini guitars are amazing!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Joranthalus:
you're a fucking lunatic. cool pics [img]smile.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I second that! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

And with that cotton hair,this drummer can only be one person...Eric Carr
http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...A6372445nu0mrj

http://www.kissfaq.com/albumcovers/c...logy_large.jpg

After the Paul Stanley hair experiment, I decided to replace the entire band with new figs, new hairdos and new paint jobs. I started playing with fiber optics too. You can't see it too well but each amp and each keyboard had a red pilot light. Cool at the time but impractical. I later ditched the fiber optics.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B953...37243%3Anu0mrj

I also played around with the idea of a flashing fiber optic sign. After wiring about three letters I abandoned the idea as too time comsuming.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...3623%3A6nu0mrj

It was at about this time that I started making guitars out of balsa wood. Yes, those are actual guitar strings on them! (Even when I broke a guitar string, nothing went to waste.)They were still basically custom designs.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...23%3A%3Anu0mrj


Her you can get a pretty good idea how the "cotton" hair worked on the drummer. The drums are still pill bottles & tires but repainted.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...A6372445nu0mrj

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ January 31, 2006 12:11 PM: Message edited by: Andyman ]</font>

you should really make another one of these....killer stuff. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

I'd like to see a BOT band!!!!

It would look like a cross between Kiss and the Star Wars Cantina! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

I used various wood blocks for the keyboards. One was a domino with an embossed dragon on it. You can see I painted the dragon gold.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...A6362398nu0mrj

The band undergoes another transition. At this point I'm a little more knowledgeable about guitars and start building actual models. Left to right: a white Fender Telecaster, a Gibson ES335 and a Carvin style bass. This photo was a double exposure done in the camera...the stars were a separate shot.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...36239%3Anu0mrj

A new drumset was built out of cardboard rocket tubes covered with mylar. Cymbals are cut and hammered brass. The gong, which was an Erector set piece, is the only original part of the kit. It's still being used.


http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...A6372424nu0mrj

Repainted once again! I forgot to mention before but now the figures have their arms cut off and "pinned" back into place to add articulation. The guitars have velcro patches on them to hold them into place. I never made straps for them...go figure. Check out those custom gitboxes! L to R: Gibson SG doubleneck, Gibson Sunburst Les Paul and an Ampeg bass.
I'm now using thread for strings as they proved a little more practical.


http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...23%3B%3Anu0mrj

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ January 31, 2006 02:46 PM: Message edited by: Andyman ]</font>

The Fender lineup: Stained Telecaster, Sunburst Stratocaster and a blue P Bass.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...3623%3A3nu0mrj


My favorite: Sunburst Gibson Explorer! You can see the "slide guitar" in the foreground.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...23%3B%3Cnu0mrj

This is the last pic of the band before I pack it away some ten years ago. Although you can't see it too well in the background, I built a custom Yamaha drumset with double kickers, brass hardware and a blue metallic finish. And it still has that same damn gong! [img]wink.gif[/img] I even made a wah pedal and a multi effect pedal for the guitarists.

http://images.snapfish.com/345%3B962...A6372427nu0mrj

Black Ace has been packed away in my crawl space for sometime now. Someday soon I'll dig them out and have another photo shoot with them. I'm not too sure what kind of condition they're in....probably a bit more paint chipped...we'll see. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Thanks for looking!

that is fucking awesome.
i love it when an inside joke grows to massive proportions. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Oh, the things I've been missing...

Bravo!

There's an imbalance in the unreal board! Welcome back, Nostro!

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ February 01, 2006 07:23 AM: Message edited by: Andyman ]</font>

"The Black Ace Rockumentary"

Nigel Tuffnell: " ...this one goes up to Eleven!"

Grand Blanc Fire Dept: "Those weren't pyrotecnics, it was the drummer exploding."

Mother Andyman: "Where the F$*# are my Rx bottles!!!"

Little Girl: "I only gave Andyman that plastic figure in hopes he'd stop bothering me. Now I'm sueing for my share of the royalties."

LOL, Drau! What's 10% of nothing? [img]wink.gif[/img]

$40...?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Peeker:
$40...?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You are so easy prey for some record company! [img]wink.gif[/img]

ROCK ON! *holds lighter in the air while banging head*

Quote:

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Originally posted by Andyman:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Peeker:
$40...?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You are so easy prey for some record company! [img]wink.gif[/img] </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">been there, done that, believe...