Friday, June 15, 2012

Let's Not Forget MacReady!

While listing my new acquisitions I neglected to include a very nice kit.  It's MacReady from John Carpenter's The Thing! sculpted by Chris Elizardo it's a 1/4 scale (8in. tall) bust. I've included a still from the movie and this kit is dead on to  Kurt Russell-

And here's the back showing that giant hat he wore ;-)   - 





Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Friede again

One final update for today is the latest image I have for my Friede.  The base which comes with the kit isn't done, and all I have to do is give the craft a shot of semi-gloss and I'm calling this one finished. 
Apologies that the lighting isn't very good - 

In the Mean Time...

They just keep producing models I can't seem to live without. One of my newer kits is Joan of Arc, sculpted by Marcus DeLeo.
Looking online there are a number of images of St. Joan, with all types of hair color, etc... But I think I will do my best to mimic Mila Jojovich's characterization of her - 
 But more on that as I get to the kit. I have to be honest with you. While I really love the sci-fi, real space and x-plane vehicle kits. I getting a real affinity for figure kits. They can easily leave you speechless with their detail! If you want to have a look check out The Clubhouse. I'm a regular in the Tar Pit.  ;-) Yeah, I'm a huge dinosaur fan.


Next kit is a continuation of the Friede theme of classic spaceships in the form of Luna from the movie Destination Moon. As with Friede, Luna was produced by Fantastic Plastic.  Here it is at the same scale as The Friede (1:288) -
Another I picked up is the shuttle Bruce Willis flew in the movie Armageddon. Once again by Fantastic Plastic. The kit actually comes with decals for both shuttles. I think I will build it as the Independence, in memory of those who "died" when the Shuttle went "flat line." This model is in 1:144 -
The last two models I have is from the Australian sculptor producer Wayne Pugh of Scale Solutions. His car died so he was offering his kits at a discount to raise money for a repair. I picked up the Star Wars TIE D Bomber a 1:72 scale (the scale of Kngs) :-)  automated bomber. I have no pics of mine so here's one from Wayne - 
I also picked up a rather ingenious  kit of the Mars rover (speaking of real space) still in it's landing airbags - 
The kit hasn't been cleaned of a little bit of flash yet, so it doesn't look perfect, but it's a nice little 4 piece kit that looks to be a very easy build. It doesn't come with a base but you imagination can go wild as you create your own Mars landing area!  His sale is still in effect for a few more days if you hurry! I plan for an out of box review in the next day or two. So check back.




Friede: another step fwd.

Well, it's been a while. I've been working away on a few kits, but seemed to have forgotten to post. Firstly I mentioned a few failures, and said I would post pics. well, here they are -
This was the primer!  I washed the kit with Purple Power cleaner. The rinsed really well and let it dry. when I shot it with some Tamiya primer it ran like you see as if I just poured milk on it. Also, when I got some thinner and a rag and tried to get the drips off - I found that it was completely dry! WTF! So I then had to get out the sanding sticks to try and smooth it all out again. 
After ward I *was* able to get the primer on, and a nice coat of white. Next step was to paint the capsule. The capsule is split and half is black and the other half is silver. In some images of other Friede models the windows are yellow. So I wanted to mask the windows for a later painting. So anyway, I got the Masking done to split the cockpit and got the silver painted. I waited a few days and then to the masking off and reapplied to to the otherside to get the black. Here it is with a another kit of Luna -


While re-masking I put a little blue tape on just to make sure there was no over-spray on my white. The black went on great. while taking the tape off I see a bit of the blue tape had stuck itself to one of the legs. I ever so gently pulled the tape and it came off with a bit of the white!!!    Arrgggghhhh %^*&^%!!
So out came the sandpaper again, but while wet sanding the white paint kept coming off and coming off. In the end almost all of that leg was back to bare resin.  More primer and more white went on .... Stay tuned.