Darren Carnall's creative corner

[Platty]

Yeah sorry to hear about your cat, Darren!

That indy is glowing! Fantastic paint!

 

[Mooncat]

I realise its not the best sculpt m8 but youve done a decent job with what you had . . many thx

 

[abake]

Who is it supposed to be?
Looks familiar. And I agree, the paint is very nice!

 

[JustinLuck]

Is that a 1980's Jay Leno?

Sorry to hear about your cat, Darren. I lost my cat to kidney failure a couple months ago. She would have been 17 this past October. Let me know if you have any questions about symptoms and treatments.

 

[Darren Carnall]

Thanks Justin. Sorry to hear that about yours... always horrible losing a pet. They really do become part of the family.

Ollie is 15 now. He's eating special Renal (low protein) food, and is on both thyroid and kidney medications. We seem to be fairly well covered in terms of having things explained to us by the vet, but I appreciate the offer anyway. If I ever want to compare notes I'll give you a shout!

Sadly I heard a ton of banging outside my studio door yesterday, and went out to find ollie on the floor in the throws of a really violent seizure. Was really quite scary. So that's something else new we have to watch out for as well. (makes it hard to paint, as I have to lock him out of the room when I'm painting so airborne hairs dont land on my work... but I'm also trying to constantly watch over him and give him company. Talk about a guilt trip. We've made him his own special area on the landing though.. padded basket, food, drink, heater.... so he's alright. I just prefer to give him as many hugs as possible in what could be his last days/weeks/months. )

The vet said it could be happening because of the condition his kidneys are in, or it could be because of the treatment and his changing blood pressure.

What is it with people in this house and epilepsy?? You'd think me having epilepsy would be enough.

Oh, that sculpt above that I was sent is Dr Carson Beckett from Stargate Atlantis. You can actually see the likeness a bit better from different angles. That shot does kinda look like Jay Leno lol

As always guys thanks for the nice comments Helps with the stressful times

 

[Darren Carnall]

ok, operation pay-vets-bills is underway! ... sad to sell these, but hope they go to a good home!

click the pics for the auctions....

 

[uscmhicks]

My cat's 19 now I think. Older than me actually.
Vet Bills are ridiculous , my cat needs it's teeth out and I've still not had it done.
Hope you can sell everything Darren , great new paint ups !. The Deniro is my favorite.

 

[sparkstron73]

I would love to buy that mj figure, have been after one for a while.

Have to sell some stuff myself first as christmas is an expensive time but if your interested in a private sale let me know

 

[Darren Carnall]

My cat's 19 now I think. Older than me actually.
Vet Bills are ridiculous , my cat needs it's teeth out and I've still not had it done.
Hope you can sell everything Darren , great new paint ups !. The Deniro is my favorite.

Thanks! Ollie is 15, and he's already had a ton of teeth out lol. Couldn't eat properly until he had them done, it was well worth it. Vets are quite expensive, but for what they do they're not too bad I suppose. (would be the same if we had to pay for doctors/hospitals here I guess)

I would love to buy that mj figure, have been after one for a while.

Have to sell some stuff myself first as christmas is an expensive time but if your interested in a private sale let me know

Yeah it's not cheap around this time, I've already put the auction up and I could do with the money sooner rather than later so I'm going to let the auction play out and see how it goes. Can't really be waiting too long unfortunately. Wish I could wait for you though.

 

[sparkstron73]

Thats fair enough mate hope it goes well for you

 

[JustinLuck]

Hey Darren, I highly recommend reading this website for information on CRF: https://www.felinecrf.org/ It has been created by one person, but when she says it is 'comprehensive', she isn't kidding. Very informative! I read it through and through and the information helped me a lot when trying to give the best care for Cuddles. I would definitely get Ollie's blood pressure checked as that could certainly be causing seizures if it gets high enough. Also, have you re-measured his T4 concentration while on the hyperthyroid medication?

 

[Darren Carnall]

Urgh... I just had typed out this huge massive reply to you that was like 8 paragraphs long or something, and i pressed a wrong button on my keyboard and it changed page on the browser, losing what i'd typed. ARGHHHH

ok here goes again... basically the short version I said was... lol

Thanks for that website, TheWife™ had already found and read that site back a couple of weeks ago when Ollie was properly dying before his miraculous turn around. I appreciate the thought behind it though.. thanks!

We're taking him back in in a couple of weeks so they can check how he's doing after his turn around from wasting away (not eating more than a mouthful every 3 or 4 days, not paying attentino to the world, hardly moving out of his corner basket... literally and mentally wasting away) ..to how he is now, where within 24 hours he was suddenly eating again, and now after 4 or 5 days he's eating around 3 pouches of Renal food per day, and is basically acting like he was 5 years ago. Inquisitive, playful, demanding, ...basically HIMSELF. And nobody knows why he suddenly picked up.

Once he did though we agreed with the vet we might as well try the treatments, which is what he's on now, and what they'll be checking in 2 weeks. They'll be checking his blood pressure, his T4 count, and how he's doing in general. We need to make sure that the mix of havng more energy, eating low protein renal food, having phosphate binder kidney meds, and teh T4 meds hasnt made TOO MUCH of a difference. And whether anything needs toning down or whatever.

basically we're just happy for every day where he's comfy at the moment! We were literally 12 hours away from taking him in to be put to sleep (if it was up to me it would have been done days earlier) when he snapped out of it and started eating...

we dont really care about the 'why' though... he's eating, he's comfy, he's getting tons of cuddles and love and attention... so if he went now, we'd be much happier than if he went two weeks ago after so much discomfort and wasting away.

It's gonna be harder though I know because now he doesn't LOOK ill... (I mean really he didnt before, but with the not eating you KNEW he wasnt right) ...but there's literally no visible sign now, so it's gonna feel massively mnore unfair this time. Ah well... it's what you have to go through when you take on the responsibility of caring for animals.

Wouldn't have it any other way

 

[keysta75]

Awesome Darren I have one of these being painted by Customikey. I can't wait until I see what it looks like.

 

[Darren Carnall]

Thanks Keysta! It's a great head sculpt!

Small update... Ollie is still with us, and still eating/alert. It's incredible... he was literally 12 hours away from us taking him in to be put to sleep as he was just sitting in his basket all day wasting away into nothing. And now hes walking around, shouting at us, climbing on the bed, and eating lots.

Now we know his kidneys are still bad (they dont repair themselves) but HE has improved... so if that a) gives him more time being comfortable and happy, and b) allows us to have more time with him ...then I'm happy with that!

We'll take every day/week/month we can get. (and hes loving it the amount of attention and hugs n kisses he's getting lately)

A big thanks to anyone who's sent well wishes over this way

Couple more items up on ebay to help pay for vets fees & bills and stuff. First up is the Joker machine gun, you all know the one.. perfect for that "Come on! Hit me!!!!" scene... I hate selling this as I planned to resculpt the cop joker into that scene and give it real hair etc... alas, too much work, and the joker figure is gone now anyway lol.

CLICK THE PICS TO GO THE THE AUCTIONS (lots more pics/videos there)



And here's the one thing I really, REALLY didn't want to sell. (the 1/6 figures were hard to let go of, this is horrible)

I'd wanted a tricorder since I first saw The Next Generation all those years ago (not even gonna think about actually how long ago it was lol) but there was no way I could ever get one. Then I grew up, got the internet, and started to see on prop forums that people were making their own, some were making kits you could buy... and they even had electronics! but to get one of these made was EXPENSIVE. Way beyond what I would ever have

And then EFX came along with their Mark IX Science Tricorder as seen in the film First Contact. And it was affordable. (well, relatively lol).

I snapped up a pre order, and was SO HAPPY when it turned up.. finally I had one, made of metal, with lights, and sounds, and it was heavy in the hand!! I was over the moon. But I had nowhere to display it.. nowhere good enough anyway. SO it put it back in the box until I could get myself some better space sorted out.

That day hasn't come yet... and now I have to sell the damn thing. Grrrr lol.

Anyway... i hope it goes to a good home, its an amazing looking piece (check out the video I filmed on my phone on the ebay auction!).

Oh, and it comes with a plaque signed by Brent Spiner too.

Good luck everyone!!!

 

[Platty]

Awesome to hear about your cat buddy. I hope the auctions end well for ya' !!

 

[Darren Carnall]

I've just managed to drag myself out of the bedroom and crawl into my studio onto the computer to type this. For the last week/longer both myself and my wife have been totally incapacitated in bed with the worse life-draining flu I've ever had. (note: NOT just 'man flu' as we've BOTH had it). We've both been unable to move/no energy, coughing our stomachs up/throwing up, unable to eat, unable to drink...

‎...unable to sleep, having the shakes, feeling too hot, feeling too cold, every muscle aching, even your SKIN hurts, and with the worst feeling head ever. Every slight move of your head results in the whole world spinning making you nauseous. Literally all we could do was try to lie there sweating in our own shivers... but we were unable to do even that.

It has been truly terrible (and isn't over yet... but i HAVE been able to get myself to the computer to type this message to you all)

I know many of you have been waiting for either emails or statues/heads from me.... and annoyingly I was doing them before I got struck down with this. They're all on my desk/computer still... and I promise that as soon as I'm able to concentrate on them without having any shakes I'll get back onto them and get them finished and sent out to you.

I know it seems I've dropped off the face of the earth lately, but... well that's pretty much what has happened! I'll be back with you all soon I hope. (and I hope my wife will too... poor thing) Darren x

 

[King Darkness]

I hope you're not turning into a zombie. I have heard this is how it starts. By chance were you recently bitten by a zombie? Or perhaps have come into contact with a carrier of a zombie virus?

Best of luck Darren. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[eighthsamurai]

crappy thing to happen this week of all weeks too. hope you and jane get better very soon, darren. unisex flu isn't as bad as man flu i hear, so keep your fingers crossed...

 

[Platty]

Being one of the people waiting on something, let me just say no worries whatsoever Darren! What a ____ter of a week for this to happen to you and your wife as well. Hope you get better soon and all is well for Christmas!

 

[abake]

Damn dude, sounds terrible...
All the best, hope the two of you get well soon.