Creating A Metal Sculpture Predator
Entirely From Scrap

Meeting a life like 2 meter Alien or Predator metal sculpture face to face, for the first time, is an experience you are unlikely to ever forget. And unless you are a regular visitor to Thailand, it's unlikely that you'll ever get to see such metal art.

I'll always remember the moment I came face to face with my first 2 meter Predator in a Bangkok bazaar. I thought to myself; 'I just got to get me one of those!'

And that's, where it all began.

Creating a 2 meter, 400kg Predator is by no means easy, the stock of scrap metal you need to have on hand at any one time runs into tens of tons.



Because Thailand is still a developing country, this isn't a major problem. There are many of the locals only too happy to go out and help us find it. And one of the great attributes of the Thai people is that they are most certainly not work shy, and no matter what it is they do, they always take great pride in doing it well.

It always reminds me of the 70's T.V. Series Steptoe and Son. They'll turn up on their motorbike sidecar with a huge smile armed with an incredible assortment of junk ranging anywhere from car parts to television components. We'll haggle on price for a while, Thai's love to barter, we'll then agree on a price, and off they'll go again in search of another thrilling assortment.

Now the work begins.

The artists normally work in 2 man teams. As well as being extremely creative artists, they must also be very experienced welders.

It usually takes around 1 month to build the metal sculpture at hand, and they build it in it's individual parts, one working on the arms, the other the legs, and so on. Then they'll begin to piece it all together.

Once the metal sculpture is finished and perfectly balanced, it is vigorously cleaned and polished, coated in strong protective lacquer to prevent rusting and packaged ready for delivery to the customer.

It's a tedious process, and their attention to fine detail never wains, they can spend several hours looking for just the right parts. In some cases more than 2,000 of them, and it can be quite fun trying to guess what on earth they could have been in their previous life.

I still continue to be constantly amazed. You only need to look at the photos to realize how talented these guys really are. It is after all a very new metal art form, which they have most gracefully mastered in only a few short years.


'Return From Metal Sculpture To Scrap Metal Art Sculptures Home Page'