Ghost of Christmas Present

 I received this kit from John Dennett so close to Christmas last year, that I didn't have time to get it painted. He's been staring at me all year and now it's time to get him finished and with the other characters. 

The Ghost of Christmas Present from the 1951 Christmas Carol comes in 2 parts - the bust and the base, in nearly flawless resin. There was the faintest seam line in one spot that scraped away in in a minute.  

 As always I started in right away.not looking at any images. And right away I got things wrong. With the beard I thought Santa, but I wanted a non-Santa look. So the idea was the white beard, and a green robe. When I decided to check an image I got it half right. All the images show a green robe, but he had a reddish brown beard. So time to change. Here was the pic I decided on using (even tho it's not the 1951 version). 

I started with the "pinkle" face color and then green for the robes and garland. Then I got out the Hull Red for the hair. I followed that out with some fair skin tone to lighten it up. I blacked out the eyes and when dry hit it Deck Tan.  Forgetting to take pics, this is where I'm up to. Thanks for looking and check back for the finale. 

 

The Thing - Norton Head Spider

 This time around we're taking a look at throwing paint on the Norton Head spider from The Thing. This is another Yagher sculpt, with Gillman producing. 

The way I got is was you buy a Thing kit, you get a few parts, the more kits you get from the series the more spider parts you get until you get all the parts - if you wanted.  

 The next step was to find a reference. something besides the movie since once the Spider is mobile you really don't get a good look at it color-wise.  Then I found this pic at the RPF.com - 

 

Before finding this awesome pic, I was planning on starting him off with some flesh color skin. So I begin with that "pinkle" undercoating. 

 

 

I do give a base coat of Flesh, and then add a bit of Pale Flesh on top. 

I wanted the legs to be a bit more mottled than the face, so I added various colors both washed and spattered on. 

This is another model where I could fiddle with it until the end of time. so at one point I have to push myself away from the workbench and say I'm done.  Thanks for looking.

 

 

Tsiolkovsky Moon Rocket Part 2

This session will be a short one.

It took a few rounds of filling and sanding, so now it was time to hit it with some primer to test the  fix. One line doesn't really matter as one of the 3 fins covers it. But the other needs to be as perfect as possible since the final finish with me a metal one. 

Then it was time to install the fins. I've been dealing with resin garage kits long enough so the idea of the fins fitting perfectly first time around would require a miracle.  And I was right. Running our of gel superglue, I was stuck with the fin stuff, and that meant that I had to go nice and slow to prevent runs.

They sort of fit together but there will again be a lot of filling. But nothing I couldn't handle. Once they were all on. I did a quick filling with the Vallejo putty. They spread pretty easily, but there will be a lot of cleaning taking the putty our of the grooves on the fins.  That will be for next time. Thanks for looking and check back.

 

Edmund Fitzgerald

I've been fascinated by the lore of the Fitz ever since I read that Gordon Lightfoot was compelled to write the ballad when he saw the local newspaper "Couldn't even have the courtesy to spell the name of the ship correctly."  From there I saw as many of the documentaries as I could, read as many of the books as I good to get a feeling for what really happened.  The I saw this ad for Iron Shipwrights. There I saw the 1/700 Edmund Fitzgerald. 

 

I started cleaning up the resin, and ran across one of the reasons why I dislike when companies try to clean things up for the buyer. After a while the get sloppy and thats when accidents happen. Here we have them using the grinder to take off the pour stub and oops whoever hit the side of the hull3 times with the edge of the grinder.

 So that will have to be fixed. A few layers of Tamiya putty did the trick. While that was drying I was feeling especially ambitious, and check to the accuracy of the portholes on the hull. The other thing was that after cutting the decks from the stub, they started to warp. I needed the very hot water treatment for that. Thankfully the decks were thin and straightened out just from the hot water dip.

The next step was painting the ship. Looking at the real ship we're looking at mostly 2 colors~ white and Hull Red.

 

So that's where I started.

 And that where we're leaving it for now. Check back...

Willy Ley Orbital Rocket

Late last year at one of my Model Club's Zoom meetings there was mention how expensive kits were when all the aftermarket parts were obtained. someone else wished we could go back and just build a kit without worrying about anything. It was thought up early this year that the Club would have a group build entitled "Build Like An 11 Year Old." Being one of the sponsors of the build I was now on the lookout for a kit that I either built or could have built as a kid in the late '60's - early '70's.  Not long after, I saw in an email blast from CultTVMan, that the Atlantis had the Willy Ley Orbital Rocket available.   According to Scalemates, the original kit was released by Monogram in 1959, and then Atlantis re-popped it in 2024 in the same 1:193 (?) box scale size. 

It arrived at the house not a week after ordering and upon opening the box I was brought back to being a kid again with red, white and blue colors of the plastic. All the flash also brought back memories. 

 The back of the box also had a surprised in that the photos were those of Allen Ury of Fantastic Plastic. 

Now, how was I going to build like an 11 year old? First thing I thought of was that with the colored plastic, I wouldn't paint it. Remembering back, not having an older brother or dad who built models, I probably wouldn't have known how to fill seams- so I would leave this out too. 

An early problem was that one of the astronauts appeared to be missing. I figured that was fine as what's the chance a little kid would lose a part - pretty good- I thought. So in the main ship I had just one pilot. Bust as you would know it, after the fuselage was glued together, I found the 3rd astronaut on a different sprue covered in flash. Perfect, I thought, as I was prying the fuselage open to get the second pilot into the main vehicle. 

Thinking of the 50s and how the real spacesuits were silver, both pilots were brushed with silver and just a dot of black where their face shields would be. An 11 year old would be aiming, but I just quickly made two dots...
 

While I had the silver out I also painted the engines with the color.

The rest of the model went together fairly painlessly. With the interior of the second ship more visible and smaller, I smeared around some gray paint in there. I was also at this time I saw where the painting instructions were hiding and discovered that the astronauts were supposed to be in a light green uniform. It was too late for the first two guys, but the 3 pilot was painted with a lime green, a silver helmet, and the black dot.

Now it was time for the decals. I remembered that I wouldn't have know about Micro Set/Micro Sol, so I wouldn't use those either.  Here it was discovered an error on the decal sheet. On the wings of the main ship was two yellow, triangular stripes, one for each wing. I cut them out, dipped them in the water and then realized that they were both for the same side. An 11 year old would have known he couldn't use them, but probably wouldn't have figured that they could be used as stencils and paint the stripes on - at least I wouldn't have thought of it. So I just left them off. After all the decals were on, many stood proudly above the plastic because of all the rivets. So in an effort of trying not to lose them with handling, I gave in and Micro-Sol'd them down ~ -1 point for me. 

With that I glued the two ships together and then to the stand. I came as close as I could to being that 11 year old. My other point loss would be that I wasn't going to search out the Testor's Tube Glue I remember. So I just used the Tamiya Thin that I had. With that, I was done. Thanks for looking. 

 

AWIL Werewolf

  I begin with the same ol' similar story. Yes, this kit is yet another kit that's been in the stash a long time. well done in a white resin, it only has a few thing seam lines. Cleanup should be no problem. I plan to match it to the movie the best I can. The only good shot I remember is the ending in the alley. Let's go. 

As mentioned, only a thin line from the mold needed to be cleaned up. Also a little putty is needed where the legs met the body. The teeth have to be added later.
 

 

The teeth were my first real challenge. They really didn't fit into the mouth properly. The thickness of the "dentures" needed to be thinned, and they seemed to be offset, and bit's taken off the ends to get them to sit straight. But after a little work, they looked good. 

Paint next. I primed in black, and then lots of grays, whites, and a little light blue to fill in the fur. The victim was a bit different. He got the same deal as any other skin tone, except a added a bit of V's white Gray to make him look dead. Some UV resin mixed with some Transparent Red gave be the blood stain. 

A few more tweaks and I was done. Thanks for looking. 

The Origin of Lowbrow

 Starting the base I needed some foam, and something solid. I had a few oval MDF flats pre-made for bases. I took 2, and glued them together and then glued them to a piece of foam.

Once the glue was dry, I used my hot wire foam cutter to cut the oval shape into the foam using the MDF as a guide.

From there Is aw a YouTube video where they mixed Mod Podge together with paint and some sawdust to get a textured surface. Little did I know that everything is for sale on Amazon; even sawdust! I was able to buy two containers - rough and fine sawdust, and it was delivered in 2 days!  I mixed all the ingredients, including some black paint together, and because of the sawdust, had to add water. Unfortunately I mixed in too much and ended with a soupy mix. But I still thought I could use it. Taking a palette knife I was able to add my mixture like icing on a cake. I added a few pebbles, and bark chips to recreate rocks. I also temporarily pushed the car into the wet mix so it would have a spot for it to sit when this all dried.

This took a few days to dry, but while I waiting I took some folded over Frog tape and created leaves for a plant I was going to add. Then I mixed up a little ball of Aves and created what will be a cycad type plant. 

When the mix dried I added a few different shades of tan and yellow beige to the soil, and a reddish to the plant. I added the cycad and a big rock carved out of foam. Fred and the car were glued in next, and the final step was adding Wilma. She was glued to the back wheel and her feet to the ground. Thanks for looking. 

 

The Tsiolkovsky Moon Rocket

 Years ago Fantastic Plastic started started a new genre in their store of the classic rockets from the movies, etc...  A number of kits from the line were produced and he manages to release new ones.

But this one I picked up from CultTVMan from Adam Johnson and AJAmodels. From their info sheet: In 1935, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky  was asked by Boris Shumyatsky to assist in writing and designing a moon rocket for a film called "Cosmic Voyage." The films depicts ut's (fromIMDB):  

... 1946, the Soviet space program is undergoing turmoil. Professor Sedikh, who is planning to lead the first manned exploration to the moon, is denounced by his rival Professor Karin as being too old and too mentally unstable for the mission. Professor Sedikh, aided by his assistant Marina and a youth named Andryusha, disregard Prof. Karin's authority and make a successful landing on the moon. Although a few problems occur at the moon, including the discovery of a damaged oxygen tank and Professor Sedikh's becoming trapped under a fallen boulder, the expedition is a success and the cosmonauts return to Moscow.  

\Tsiolkovsky died during the film's production, marking it as his last achievement in life, and his goal of the promise of manned space travel.

The kit is made up of 6 gray resin parts, plus a number (they are still wrapped up) clear acetate pices to make a display stand. Decals are also included.

Starting the build I noticed the first problem. The fuselage parts are well done, but they are mismatched. They are both the same length, but if you line up end to end the 4 circular windows don't match. So the thing to do here is make sure the windows are circles and worry about sanding both ends of the ship later.

With the fuselage fully super glued. It was now time to tackle the seam-line along the length of the craft. To keep things neat I laid down two rows of Tamiya tape and then applied Tamiya Putty to the seam. 

That's all the time I had for this session. Check back when the 3 fins get installed. Thanks for looking. 

The Origin of Lowbrow - Flintstones

 This kit I first saw on You Tube or the Net, and since the Flintstones were a big part of my childhood as a kid, I had to have.  The kit is from Iceman Collections and parts are all 3D printed.All the parts are very well done, and the grow lines have all been well hidden - except for Wilma. But her sculpt is so dainty that I didn't want to mess with her too much.

I started out with the vehicles, and since it's made up of stone and wood, grays were used for the stone and a light brown was sprayed on first, then streaked with a darker brown for the grain was added with a thin brush. Finally a was of Citadel's Agrax was put over the top. While I had the brown out, I also painted the frame for the top.

 While that was drying, I turned to Fred. Having seen Fred a zillion times, I was well aware of his dark hair skin color and orange suit. The only thing I had to search for was the color of his tie. I this version he got a little soul patch which needed to be painted, and the weird part was he has no eyes - he'll be wearing shades later. He also has a stub of a cigar. So that will need some paint too.

 

While that's all drying, I turned my attention to Wilma. This version is showing a lot of skin, so I started out with my usual deep pink to start the skin tone. 

 From there I used Vallejo's Game Air Flesh for the skin tone. Then followed up with her white dress, shoes and necklace. Then the red hair was done, starting with the darkest color.

 

Coming back later, I gave her a face with lashes, blush, and eye shadow. Glad I had my Opti-visors! :) 

 With the figures more or less done, it was time to try and put everything together. This model, like all 3D designed models I've dealt with so far, have tolerances so tight that unless things are put together in such a way, things won't fit. The parts I saw that I noticed Fred, the steering wheel and the seat. Fred and the seat was fairly fiddle-y and it took a little negotiating to get the steering wheel into his hand and into the spot for it. But he was in there. Also as seen below I got the glasses on. They were VERY fragile. I wanted some of that changing iridescents from Green Stuff World for the lenses, so a glass black went down first, then two dots of the green to blue changing paint.

 

Wilma is only attached to Fred/the car by her tiny hands, so so sort of base was needed. I took one of my ovals and adhered it to some foam and then used the hot wire cutter to get the shape. From there I mixed up some of my black Mod Podge with some saw dust for texture. I added a little water to make it a bit thinner, and then with a palette knife to add it like icing on a cake. Being very wet it's time to dry it. That's where we will stop for now. Check back for the finale.