Lost Boys' Star Finale

 To see part 1, go HERE. I didn't realize she was sitting off to the side for so long!

The idea for the base was to be one of those mini-vignettes that you see on so many miniatures these days. star at 1/12 scale isn't quite a miniature, But I think small enough to pull off the look without taking up so much of my dwindling space. 

I was looking for a background, amongst the various Lost Boys wall paper. I was looking for something in regards to the demolished hotel. But there was nothing that showed up that I liked. There was a nice outside of the cave, but that really could have been anywhere. Then I found a scene of vampire David taking to Michael. And decided that's the one I'd use.  

Despite how it was fixed up it was still supposed to be a broken abandoned place. So I started with some sheet styrene scored to look like tile. I chewed away at it here and there and even partially lifted up one section. Then I used some Aves to crate a mound of stuff between the back of the flooring and the "wallpaper." Then it was just a matter of adding bits and bobs to fill it up to look busy. Another bit of stuff that I thought appropriate was the containers of Chinese food that was used in the scene. Knowing one could find card models of nearly everything I quickly found a container to cut out and glue together. 

 

 

The image has a red hue and I figured I'd need to bring that onto the base as well for a sort of OSL. Then the image was way too wide for the background and that needed to be cut down. I was just glue on with some LIQUITEX MATTE MEDIUM. The next thing to do was add some noodles to the container which I did with some COSCLAY.

 

Finally, Star was epoxied into her spot and I was finally done. Thanks for looking. 

 

 

Lost Boys' Star

 Boy, seems I'm constantly playing catch-up lately. Earliest images of the Star kit I took come from February...  :P

In case you don't know, Star is  is Michael's love interest and a member of David's gang, though she is only half-vampire, having resisted her thirst for human blood. She helps Michael, Sam and the Frog Brothers to battle the gang, seeing it as a way out of her and Laddie's nightmarish existence. After the head vampire Max is killed, Star becomes fully human again and apparently enters a relationship with Michael.  s love interest and a member of David's gang, though she is only half-vampire, having resisted her thirst for human blood. She helps Michael, Sam and the Frog brothers to battle the gang, seeing it as a way out of her and Laddie's nightmarish existence. After the head vampire Max is killed, Star becomes fully human again and apparently enters a relationship with Michael.  She is played by actress Jami Gertz.

 I kind of forget the scale I had the 3D file printed, but I think it's 1/10 or 1/12th.  The printing was done by a friend over at Gillusions, from a file by Diklich Arts.  

The kit came in 6 parts including two heads, body, two arms, two feet and a base-

Getting it together was no problem, tho - my fault - I did line up one of the arms crooked. 

The next was getting the info for the painting, and while looking at the example paint job, she was wearing a white shirt, and a pink/magenta long skirt. However looking at a screen grab of the skirt I was in for an interesting time. The designs was "interesting", not to mention the multi-color shawl she was wearing and that's featured in the kit. 

 

There's a lot of designs there, not to mention that waist belt she has. Plus looking at the screen grab, she has about 20 bracelets on, and I see a lot of different colors. I'm going to have to get my number 0 brush out along with my opti-visors...

I started with a simple flesh tone, brunette hair, and a belt with a lot of purple in it.  And the skirt base coat - 

 

 

Now to start the designs on the skirt - 

 

 

And that's where I'm, leaving it for now. I was seeing those square plinths with the high backs. So I was thinking of using one of those for star. I found a screen grab of the abandoned hotel lair the vampires use, and that may be my background. But that's next time. Thanks for looking. 

 

 

Barnabas Collins

 This all started out when I re-discovered the 60's series Dark Shadows on Amazon Prime TV.  I remember seeing some of it as a kid, but I also remember my Mom telling me it was a monster show. So after seeing a few shows and not seeing any monsters, off I went to Magilla Gorilla or some other show...

I was probably into the series about 5 or 6 episodes when all of a sudden I see that Jeff Yagher had just released a Barnabas Collins in 1/4 scale. There was nothing else I could do except pick one up. 

The kit comes in 5 parts - the bust the coffin base his arm/hand, and two pieces for the cane; the stick part in wooden dowel and the wolf's head topper in resin. All cast flawlessly by Gillman.  

 

 

Starting off the usual way, primed in black and then sponged on the white highlight. After that I was at the point in the series where the show switched over from B&W to color.  I also noticed for most of the time, even when he was biting necks (tho you never see it - oops spoilers) he remained a regular skin color. Only well into the seasons did someone think that he could be made creepier with fancy lighting. So since his fangs aren't shoeing in the kit, I'll give him a normal flesh tone. 

 

Next I had seen on YT that guys were painting texture to mimic clothing by reducing the psi of the air brush to almost nothing and have the paint "spit" out of the brush. So I lowered mine to 9 or 10 psi and then tried it on my cloth. I learned that when you first hit the trigger the "spit" comes out in dots too large for the scale. So the thing to do is open the air over the rag and you can with nearly no mess move the a/b over the part you want to paint.  Any too big dots can be eliminated right away with a wet paintbrush at the ready. After covering the face paint with Silly Putty I just spit away...

I noticed after the fact as see in the kit image that his arm can go a few ways into the socket. Looking at so many episodes where his portrait is hanging in Collinswood's foyer, I placed his arm where the ring is front and center. 

 

  

 While the figure was drying I turned my attention to the coffin and cover. I wanted it very simply, so I mimicked wood, with a bronze handle and then just used gloss black for the covering. The pic shows midway thru the painting. 

 The last things was a similar spitting technique - I thought I'd press my luck - to do his outer coat, and to paint his cane. For that, believe it or not, the best chrome I've found is Rustoleum's Brite Metallic. Another vampire put to bed for the day... ;)

Sidebar- I also discovered that Collinswood is a real place in Newport RI. It's a private mansion so if you searching out filming locations like I do - remember their privacy 

 

MFTW Vampira

 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.

Next it was on to the base. This thing is/was HUGE. It looks like the ground and some tombstones were set on a large frame.  Way to big - with lots of empty space.  The model had a separation from about the ankles down, and that all was attached to the base.  I cut the dress loose from the base and tossed the base. From there I glue two pieces of foam, one on another. When that was dry I added some Sculpt-A-Mould to make the ground.  It was here that I put it aside to dry, and somehow it went outta sight - outta mind.

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. 

 

Nosfer-Galactu

This kit was sculpted and cast by Ken Kidwell, and is approx. 1/4 scale. There was no real seam lines, or flash and just a few pinholes to address.

First thing when I have a head with no hair is do the squiggle pattern all over. In this case I had just bought a new airbrush and just couldn't get my little tight lines. Needless to say after this session, I went and ordered the same one I used to have, and when that came, this one went in the bottom drawer.

The next session I added some light skin tone to a white Gray, and added his sickly skin. After that purple, and sepia wash was added to the creases. His eyes were totally filled in with the Game Color Hexed Lichen.

While the head was drying, I tried another experiment. Here I painted gloss black over the costume, and when that was dry I over painted with Vallejo Metallics Chrome.  When that dried the next step was shooting some Army Painter Purple Tone and then some Red Tone down the center.  Turned out well if I do say so myself. 

A few touch ups here and there including trying once again to paint a gem on his suit. Came out just ok...
After that I called it done. Thanks for looking. 

 

Lost Boys David - part 3

Part 1
Part 2
 We start off this final session with paint to his leather jacket. As soon as I put the first bit of it down I realized it was the wrong color. But decided lets see what happens - Bob Ross' Happy accidents and all...

While I'm thinking about it, I turn once again to the base. I add a variety of colors to what looks like 2 broken logs some dirt and rocks. Then decided for whatever reason (?) it needed a little purple on the rocks -

Nope. After a few coats of Citadel's Nuln Oil, I decide the Vallejo Orange Brown base for the leather jacket isn't going to work. So I go back to my old standby V's Leather Brown (Doh).
A coat of Nuln Oil later and it looks like what I want - dark - but not black or gray - 

 

A little hard to see but the scratch built earring is in place

 Jumping back to the base, I added some clumps of grass to the dirt areas. Then I get a brainstorm and decided to create the Chinese food carton of worms/noodles. Unless provided, none of my models have title cards. So I decided to try and make one. Since the model is from a movie I decided to somehow try to incorporate into clap board to the title card. I print out a few sizes of the logo, and spray them with a Satin Poly to seal the ink. I pick what I think is the best size, and then start cutting styrene. Nothing super accurate, just so people will recognize what it is. What a pain in the you know what to do the stripes simply with just the Tamiya tape I had on hand.  IMHO it turned out ok - 

Looking it over, I think I'm done. As always, I could tinker with it forever, but at some point I have to abandon it. ;)  Thanks for looking.

A little hard to see but I added 0.01 solder to mimic the threads from the missing button

Lost Boys David - part 2

Getting into the kit, the first thing I tackled was to add pant legs to cover up the boots. I have no idea how to sculpt fabric, or leather in this case, so I just went for it  - 

Next was to shave off the extra buttons and the feather earring - 

After a quick priming, it was time to move on to accurizing the coat. I worked on one side by taking the second button off, and converting the top most one to some sort of silver badge. It looks like one of those pins that was popular  in the 80s, but with the image peeled off - 

The other side I also took off a button and converted another to a watch body. As mentioned, the medal was wrong, but close enough. 
Then in a detail crazy moment, I noticed there was no holes in the button for the thread. Not having a drill bit small enough to drill in 4 holes per button, I managed to get 2 holes per button - 

Then I decided it was time to put a little paint to the face. I started with a mid tone, knowing that it needs to be more pale. Keifer in the movie, with the help of the lighting was very pale. I also started painting his outfit. David looks to be dressed completely in black. But I know whats not the right thing to do. Straight black leaves you no where to go. So his shirt was done in Vallejo's Black Gray. You can't see it yet, but the overcoat will be done in V's German Gray - 

If you look closely at the knee from the above image, you can see it's still very rough. So it was time to get the Tamiya putty and try to level off some of the rough areas - 

This is where we will leave it for today.  Thanks for looking.