This is my blog for my scale model building, and sculpting. Other hobby posts could include my fossil collecting, my herps or arachnids. I hope you find it interesting enuff to read. Enjoy.
This was probably the easiest session I did. All that was left was to paint in her eyes, add highlights to the gown, and glue her to the base. I also glued in a few grass tufts to make model a little different that everyone elses. Thanks for looking.
Yep, I know this Valentines Day looking mini should be done the end of Jan. or the beginning of Feb., But this was one of my multiple figs that I do at one time. I took this one b/c I figured it was easy to do. and it mostly was. I must have seen it announced somewhere on FB, and me liking the work of Gautier Giroud, the sculptor, I picked it up. Only when it arrived did I realize it was only 35mm!
The kit came in 4 resin parts and was limited to 250 copies. I got #13. As of this date, there was still 26 left in case you want one.
This time around, I have Gina, from The Hammer Film's Brides of Dracula. As per the usual it's a 1/4 scale 2 part kit - the bust and the base. Sculptor Jeff Yagher once again nailed the likeness of Andree Melly, who by the way just passed away in early 2020 at 87.
Here the base coat is going on - dark hair, a light skin tone, and an almost white gown. Looking through lots of images, I saw she had light brown eye, bordering on green. I think the V paint English Uniform fits that bill, and will be what I'm using. Until then the eyes got their usual coat of black.
With this kit, I tried a new technique of trying to get a more realistic skin tone. On other model builds on You TUbe, I saw other's when they want to weather, to apply a layer of thinner to an area, and then when they come back with some paint, it runs, spreads and dilutes, creating this uniform but uneven look. Why couldn't this be done with skin? Vallejo paints won't respond well to thinner, so I took a brushful of V's Flow Improver. A heavy application of the improver resulted in the same look as the thinner - the paint spread and ran. Where the Improver was a little less, the paint spread a bit, but it could easily be manipulated with a ruined brush and some stippling. Perfect? Nope. But I like the result and it was my first try. I'll be using that technique more as I go thru my figure stash.
I sprayed a clear coat on the skin, and while that's drying I turned my attention to the base. It looks like the usual castle blacks of stone, but there are cutouts where someone was storing skulls. ;)
Going back to the bust I finished applying V's German Black Brown to her hair, and then gave the deepest areas a wash of Nuln Oil. All the pics have her with really dark hair, so I'll limit my applications of highlighting.
This is another excellent kit from John Dennett's Hammerheads line. It's the werewolf Leon from the 1961 movie Curse of the Werewolf. I think I've only seen this movie once, but being a werewolf fan I had to have it.
Back to the fur I gave a heavy dry brush of V's London Gray, which is just the same as Tamiya's Euro Gray.
One further highlighting of the fur with Light Gray, and then blue eyes and a lot of blood in the mouth (but not too much) and I was done. Thanks for looking.
Images appear lighter than in real life. Gonna have to get a regular camera...
I think this is the first kit where I got it about 90% done, set it aside - for like 2 years - and now just finished it. Its about a 1/6th scale kit from Monsters from the Woods. It was rough in a few spots, but for the most part it was pretty good.
The majority of the figure was in good shape, and the portrait was a pretty good likeness of Maila Nurmi.
The hands were the first sign of trouble...
These were supposed to be the sleeve ends. I couldn't make out where they were supposed to go exactly, so I tossed them and made new ones out of Aves.
Portrait done.
It wasn't until this Halloween season that my wife took it out of "wherever" and set it up as a display. Huh? Here it is still with the white base. I quickly snatched it off out table and from it to my hobby desk. I painted the tombstones, and the ground and then added grass. When that was dry I was finally done, and now it's back on display for Halloween. The only problem that continues is that the sleeve strips keeps breaking off. One cant help but to grab and hold it like an "Oscar," breaking the sleeves. I think I'll just leave well enough alone. Thanks for looking.
This neat one part model was done by John Dennett and MoonDevil Studios. The kit was very well done in orange resin - no pin holes or any real seam lines. There was a hint of one, and that cleaned up in minutes.
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| White primer added giving the pink look |
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| Citadel washes added |
I left the citadel washes to dry overnight, and then started my highlighting. Following the techniques of a new mini painters I admire, when washed, the model darkened (naturally) so the first highlight is the original base color - Hull Red. Then I added Flesh to the Hull Red to lightened it - covering a smaller area. More flesh was added and a lighter again 3rd highlight finished the skin off. Same was done for the pants and shirt, except I added a heavier drybrush to the pants to give them some texture. When all was finished I added some brown pigment to the pants to dirty them up. The pumpkin was given a similar treat, except I used Citadel orange. Vallejo's orange and yellows are sadly weakly pigmented.
The ground was painted washed and highlighted, using brown for the earth, and gray for the rocks. I then added some 12mm grass tufts to complete the scene. Painted the very bottom a glass black and I was done.
Thanks for looking.
To see the previous entry, go here: http://kevtk.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2020-08-13T21:59:00-04:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false
I had nothing but bad luck with the paint job on this model. Yes, it's simply white on top and black on the bottom, but I would paint the bottom the black. Let it dry. Turn it over and paint the white top. Let that dry. And when I went to move on there would be some scratch or nick in the bottom's paint. Re-paint the black and then there would be something wrong with the white paint. I must have at least 1000 layers of each color on this model! Grrr. So I just left it for nearly 2 months!
When I looked at it again, all looked OK. So I proceeded with decals. Hoping I didn't have the same results as the Nuclear Wing, I started working the decals. These went on like a dream. I guess the model gods were giving me a break after their paint fiasco. There weren't may decals - just 4, and in no time, I was done. Thanks for looking.
To see part 2 look here: http://kevtk.blogspot.com/2020/08/small-updates-nuclear-powered-bomber.html
When I left off all I had left was to add the decals, smoke the canopy (so you couldn't see there was nothing inside) and I was done. Easier said than done. The smoking of the canopy was no problem, but the decals were a nightmare. No matter how much water I flooded over the area, as soon as the decal hit the model, it stuck on, and could not be moved. After ruining one decal that goes along the cockpit, I left well enough alone and didn't bother with any markings on the bottom.
But all in all it was a very nice model to build.
The last task for this model was to insert the canopy into the fuselage. The canopy is shaped to fit the fuselage (naturally) so with the top being narrower, it was a nail biter getting the wider bottom thru the narrower top part. I was on the lookout for the "glass" to pop out of it's spot.
BTW it was the first time I used MIG's Ultra Acrylic Glue. It was supposed to have immediate hold and dry clear in 6 hrs. I didn't sit around for the 6 hours but glue it up and left it over night. Yes, it was clear the next day. And yes it did hold thru the squeeze.
And with that, I was done. Thanks for looking. Another BTW is the stand comes from Flight Pose.
Another beauty of a kit, Multi-Verses 1:72 scale Howlrunner is a work of art. First seen in the Dark Empire novel. First used by the Empire, it was subsequently used by the New Republic.
Being simple it only has a few (13) parts. But the parts have nicely done panels and details.
First step is to glue the bottom front of the vehicle to the fuselage. But first it'll need to be painted. I don't know where the instrument panel came from, but there's lots of detail. A pilot is included that looks pretty much like a Jedi!
Once the cockpit was installed, the rest of the build went fairly quickly. I did goof a part where the fins attached to the fuselage, but some putty helped out. Painting here and there have been started.
Taking a break from the build, I turned my attention to the canopy. At first I was a bit confused on what to do. I could take the casting and just install it - hiding all the detail inside. So I chose to carefully cut the windows from the frame. I then cut the vac-form to expose the windows. They give you two copies of the windows, as well as a buck in case you need to make another.
The vac windows got a dip in Future, and then the canopy got painted.
Time to paint. Instructions said to use a tan color, but instead I used Vs White Gray. The bottom , I painted a Neutral Gray. As it's the bottom it was painted rather roughly. There's was some metallics added to the engine and exhaust parts. I also tried out to make the discoloration of the exhausts. The panels were filled in with Tamiya's Panel Liner, and I also had a little wear and tear in places.
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| The canopy is just sitting in place. |
Check back for the finale.
