“I have to make abstract sculptures and live-model sculptures at college, but to me, that just seems so boring,” says artist Tom Kollmer. But give the 18-year-old New Jersey native a few Xbox icons — such as Sam Fisher, Marcus Fenix, and both incarnations of Master Chief — and inspiration’s not a problem. 

Tom starts with foil-covered wire armatures, then applies Super Sculpey and carves all the intricate details with a humble screwdriver. “I don’t think art should be complicated,” he explains. “A good artist can use the simplest tools to get the job done.” From there, it’s a matter of baking, sanding, and a painstaking amount of detail-oriented painting. “I used glow-inthe- dark acrylic paint on Sam Fisher’s goggles, so they look real in low light. He took around 15 hours, but even after I’m done with a piece, I’ll look at it a month later and decide to change it.”

Tom says he never sketches a sculpture ahead of time "because I always change what I have in mind for it anyway."

In addition to creating a clay replica of his 1994 Chevy Blazer and launching a website, Tom tells us he’s “planning a Dead Rising sculpture with a horde of zombies swarming around a desperate Frank West. And I want to get into more life-sized sculptures. You will see more from me — I’m just getting started.”

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See Tom's Halo 1 Master Chief and Halo 2 Arbiter on the next page!

"I've been making sculptures from videogames since Halo came out," says Tom. Most of his work stands between 8 and 16 inches high.

“I originally sculpted the Halo Master Chief when I was 16,” Tom reports, “but I didn’t think it was looking good enough, so I gave up on it. I only recently picked it back up and finished it."