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Amazing Matchstick Art
Check out these matchstick creations from people who have far too much time on their hands!
Mclaren F1
Michael Arndt is a man of matchsticks. Over the course of six years, using 956,000 matchsticks, 1686 tubes of glue, and at least three different varieties of mustache, he built a full-scale replica of a McLaren 4/14 F1 car, at a cost of around 6000 Euros. The giant model takes up Arndt's entire kitchen and probably his social life. It can be broken down into 45 parts for easy transport to various matchstick-builders conventions.
Minis Tirith – LOTR
Matchstick Marvels will be taking you on another fantastic journey as Acton builds a model of J.R.R. Tolkien's City of Kings from the Lord of the Rings trilogy! Come along for a trip to Middle Earth and its Great White City, Minas Tirith. The fortress city is said to tower 700 feet above the Pelennor Fields in the land of Gondor.
Acton's plans call for one of his biggest and most detailed models yet as he constructs his rendition of the tremendously ancient city that Tolkien says "appears hewn from the rock of Mount Mindolluin" in the White Mountains. Acton's matchstick version of the seven-level city was started in February of 2007 and will soon be completed. The Minas Tirith model contains hundreds of city buildings and will be topped with the Tree of Gondor and the White Tower of Etchelion.
Oil Rig
A former oil rig worker spent 15 years building an exact replica of a North Sea platform - out of more than four million matchsticks.
Harry Potter Hogwarts
Gorilla
Artists like to stick out and show their flair - and none more so than David Mach who creates colourful creatures from tens of thousands of matchsticks.
Mr Mach makes animals such as gorillas, grizzly bears and rhinos by combining an array of matchsticks with different coloured tips.
The 52-year-old immortalises the animals in such detail that his pieces sell for between £20,000 and £35,000 each.
Horse
Buddha
Ukulele
Jack Hall from England, U.K. proved that a ukulele didn't need to be made with conventional tools or from the finest materials to play well, sound good and be beautiful to look at.
This one-of-a- kind 1984 ukulele was made entirely from used wooden matchsticks...10,000 of them painstakingly glued together with 2 lbs of hide glue.
Matchsticks for the curved portions of the ukulele were pre-soaked and bent, and the glued-together sections were weighted into shape with the aid of flat-irons, fire bricks and pans of water. The carving was fashioned with a knife, a file and a straight-edge razor; finishing touches were accomplished with sandpaper, before the varnish seal was applied.
Construction was completed in four hundred hours...working five hours per day.
The main distinguishing feature is the burnt matchstick design on the body, the body sides and the peg head. Jack sorted out and hand-picked from piles of matchsticks only those matchsticks with even-sided square burnt ends. He then ingeniously interlocked the blackened, burnt match-heads to form herring bone designs on the front and back of the body, and soldier columns on the body sides and peg head. The original 1984 white wood has aged nicely to rich golden colour.
To complete the project Jack made a case entirely from 200 cardboard matchBoxes.
The ukulele is in the book of Guinness World Records, 2003 Edition. Abbreviated text says, "Tony Hall (UK) owns 10 playable musical instruments made entirely from 106,000 used wooden matchsticks." It has also been played on BBC television. The professional musician who performed with the ukulele said, " The tone and sound is great and it is a pleasure to handle and play."
Tower Bridge
Michael Williams spent 10 painstaking years designing and building a famous London landmark...out of matchsticks.
The 41-year-old road layer from Shoebury in Essex created a complete replica of London's Tower Bridge out of 1.6million matches.
He spent every evening after work lovingly crafting the 6ft-long structure which twinkles with 156 working lights. But Mr Williams nearly saw his masterpiece go up in smoke when the intricate model began smouldering.
Fairground
Polar Bear
Apache Helicopter
Capitol Building
Elvis
Challenger Shuttle
The 55-year-old from Iowa has also built an out-of-this-world replica of NASA’s space shuttle Challenger.
