Paleocast's Lepidoderma mazonense

This is probably my last aquatic "dinosaur" kit for a while. It's the Lepidoderma mazonense, commonly known as a Sea Scorpion. 
I don't remember how I found it on Etsy, but it's from an artist called Paleocast. The kit comes with just the animal. 

The base is a re-purposed aquarium decoration I got from Pet Smart. Pet Smart has a lot of terrific looking resin decorations - rocks, corals, trees, branches, etc... The very bottom is a simple pine base topped with sand my my nearby beach.

The model is one piece - the animal. Despite being well packed, one of it's legs was snapped off. It snapped cleanly and was super glued back on with no problems.

The only thing that looked odd to me was that the legs seemed to be connected to nothing as well as that appendage hanging out the back. I didn't research the anatomy figuring that it really wouldn't be seen, so I just connected everything with some Aves Apoxie Sculpt. 

The next thing was to paint the animal brown, and then with a piece of sponge, dabbed an orange brown of the model. Then washed it in Citadel's Agrax Earthshade. He's standing on his head while he dries, as I look at what pine base will fit the animal and little resin decoration (in the background).

Finally I carefully drilled a hole in the thin body and one on the coral. A clear acrylic rod put him in place.  I added my beach sand and then toss on a few tiny shells from the beach to finish off the front. For the back (which was pretty empty) a created a trilobite with some Aves. 
To finish it off I mist coated the whole thing in a thinned down Turquoise and gloss clear coat to make believe it's all underwater.  
Thanks for looking. 

AWIL Jack

One the bench was Jack, from American Werewolf in London.  Poor Jack was cursed to walk the Earth as one of the undead until his pal David, ends the wolf's blood line.

The kit is just two pieces of resin - the bust and the base.

It's a very good likeness of Griffin Dunne. After doing so many busts, I think the sculptor or producer could be a little more imaginative with the facial features. This one like others make it look like Jack was posing for a Founding Fathers marble sculpture. Since the undead Jack was the comic relief, even this screen grab would have been a little better IMHO - 

Anyway, here's the screen grab I used for my paint up - 

 As uaual I started with the two tone primer and then got the skin base coated -

Then I take a side step by dropping it and the pin for the base goes flying across the room. So a brass replacement was installed - 

 From there is was a matter of base coating the rest of the figure. His hair was done in a brown black, with a leather brown highlights. While many give him a green jacket, to me it was a little more tan than green. So I mixed Vallejo's Olive Green with Iraqi Sand and IMHO it looks a little closer to the screen grab. You can also see in the grab that Jack is in need of a shave. So I added some day old grown under the nose and on the chin- 

From there it's on to the blood. I've always had the opinion that less is more when modeling blood. This was going to test me, as Jack's neck wound was very well sculpted.  I mixed several brown, black and red washes to get the look of dried blood. Then a little purple wash was added to what I see as bruises in the screen grab. Finally some Vallejo Red to add to the fresh ooze.

Turning my attention to the base. there's a moon with some clouds and the words "Beware the moon"  which is what Jack tells David at the end of his first visit. I painted the rock base a light gray, then washed it with Nuln Oil. Then I took various light color grays and splattered with low PSI to create tiny dots of color. 
I then glossed the eyes and gave the wounds a coat of gloss to make it all squishy looking, and I was calling it done. Thanks for looking.

Hasslefree's Alice

Needing a bit of a break, I turned to another model I've had hanging around for a long time - Hasslefree's Alice. Modeled after Alice in Wonderland, she is shown with the Cheshire Cat. 

I wanted the painting to be simple and so it moved right along. The image is a little washed out, but she has a pink dress with a white apron, and the Cheshire is purple.

I still have to come up with a base.  Apologizes for the images, I only have my phone and can only get so close. 
Thanks for looking.

What's New

This time around the mailman has delivered a number of goodies. In no particular order, the first kit is a Harry bust from Harry and the Hendersons sculpted by Mark Van Tine and casted by Gillman Productions. The movie has been out quite a while so everyone should know who Harry is.

Next is another original creation from Skink Haunt. He calls it Stalk Eyed Flies! Below is the box art and the parts - 

I was reading an issue of SAMI when I saw they reviewed decals for a NASA version of a C-47. As a builder of NASA aircraft, I had to investigate, and found them on eBay - 

Having C-47 decals, I now need a C-47. So when Mega Hobby sent me their newest email newsletter I took a look. They had a number of 1:72 C-47 models but I chose the Italeri version. After building these tiny 1:72 models I was shocked to see how big it really is while in the same scale - 

While at Mega Hobby, they had Mobius' Death Dealer in their new kit section. Based on a Frank Frazetta painting, I just had to have this one - 

While there I had to pick up some new Vallejo clear coats. I don't know if the old ones I had just went bad, or there was something wrong. Either way they were leaving a sort of streaky, milky film on the kits. So I tossed them and bought new ones. Seems they changed the bottles, maybe the formula changed as well. 

Thanks for looking.

New Aquisitions

edit: This post somehow never got published and is out of order from where it should be.
This time around I have 3 busts for you to see. The first, which is primed, is Jack from American Werewolf in London (AWIL). As you can't miss, this is post attack, and I've already primed him.  Next is David again from AWIL. This is when he's already been bitten and has that wacky dream while still in the hospital.  Finally we have a little alien bust. Why? Because you can never have enuff aliens! 
Remember when you think it's not aliens... it's aliens. ;)
Til next time.  

Marooned XRV

A third of my "I'm not at WonderFest" builds is Fantastic Plastic's  XRV from From the 1969 sci-fi drama Marooned.  IMDb says :  

Three American astronauts are stranded in space when their retros won't fire. Can they be rescued before their oxygen runs out?

There are many images of the XRV from both movie screen grabs, and behind the scenes photos - 

We start out giving all the parts a once over -

 

It's a fairly simple build. The parts went together easily- 

Really the only parts that needed attention was the two part canopy - 

 Taking care, parts of the front wind screen need be shaved away and if you go a little at a time and keep testing the fit, it makes a nice connection to the fuselage-

You get two sets of windows. Below is the "before"; top is the corrected.

 The only mistake I made was that I wanted to try making an inflight model - there's is no landing gear - and have the clear acrylic rod exit thru the engine bell.  I used a drill bit that was a hair to big and despite going very slowly, managed to knock off the part of the bell that connects to the ship.
The part was large and I was able to put the engine bell back together, but now it has a slight list. :-/  
The inside of the engine itself is empty, so for it to accept the clear rod, I packed it with Aves - 

When cured I drilled into the engine/Aves and this part of the build is complete.

I thought I had more images but the build was so easy I apparently just moved along. Here it is about 99% done. I tried to pour my own base, but something went wrong with the mold so it's now used as a practice base to get the curve of the acrylic rod  - 

Thanks for looking. Check back for the finished spacecraft.

Zombo and the Hedge Lion - The Not at Wfest Builds

For those in the know, Wonder Fest went off last weekend. Wonder Fest is a scale model show and competition more dedicated to the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres. If you'd like to know more check the link or for a better flavor search "Wonder Fest" in YouTube. There will be a ton of video.
One of these years I'll get there, but this time around I have two completed builds and one that's getting ready for paint, MFTW Vampira (will be seen in it's own post), that were done during the WF weekend time frame. Being these were easy builds, I have no WIPs as once I started I just got in a groove and moved along.

The first is Zombo. Zombo was a character that appeared in an episode of the Munsters (1966).  
 

This has been colorized. Cannot find an actual color image.

Eddie, the son, wins a contest to meet Zombo, and appear on the Zombo show. Like many kids, Eddie thought Zombo was real, and when he got to meet the man behind the Zombo - Louis Nye - he was hugely disappointed to where he ruins Zombo. I'm sure the episode is on You Tube. 

The kit is about 6 inches tall, and was gotten from a guy on eBay. As a bonus he also threw in Gran'pa Munster. Nice! But anyway, the kit came in 3 parts - the head/body arms are all one piece and then the two claw hands were separate.

The sculpt was ok. There are parts especially close to the deep folds of the costume where it get a little rough. 

I didn't want to just maks another B&W model. So I took the colored image for the face but did the symbols on his robe and cape in Vallejo Silver and Gold. The robe was done in German Gray, and the cape in Gray Black. His face was done in a Blue Gray. To change things up I made his pants and shoes two colors of brown.
I'll have to come up with a base for him as none came with the figure. As of right now, Zombo is just stuck in a piece of foam primed black.  

The next build is another simple one. It's the Hedge Lion that appears in the book and made for TV version of The Shining. As you prolly all know the book/TV mini series and movie are very different stories. 

The Lion was obtained from Gillman Prod., when you bought their Jack Torrance with an axe bust. 
The Lion came in two parts - the body and then the tail. I painted a base coat of Vallejo green with lighter green highlights, and the shadows were done in Citadel Green wash. The eyes were painted black, then a dot of white, to lighten the area knowing I was going to end it with yellow. Vallejo yellows are rather weak pigment wise.  Thanks for looking.