Alpha Omega Doomsday Missile

 This latest kit is an offering from Fantastic Plastic. It is the Alpha & Omega Doomsday Missile seen at the end of the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes. 

In the first "Planet of the Apes" sequel, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970), the stranded human astronauts find a community of mutant humans living in the ruined subway system of the former New York City. Their ancestors having survived the nuclear apocalypse that destroyed the surface world, they reverently worship one of the last remaining artifacts of that bygone time -- a "Doomsday Bomb" bearing the ominous "Alpha-Omega" symbol.

 

The kit is 12 parts in 1:24th scale. It looks much taller than it's 12" height. It is all 3D printed with all the attachment points cleaned off, but I gave it a light sanding anyway. 

 It's not often that you get a garage kit. Leave all the parts in the box, shake it and it builds itself. This IS one of those kits. 

According to FP, it's a simple mock-ICBM (albeit it scaled down for filming purposes) with added fuselage texture and a pair of fins, the missile also has a weird hook on its upper body, its only function that of an easy point where the invading ape army can latch their ropes and bring the doomsday weapon crashing to the ground.  Looking at the missile and the hook, there's no way it would last 10 minutes before I accidentally break it off, so into the parts box it went. 

 And in one day the model was done. Next I started looking at the painting. The instructions says it's a golden color. But looking at the screen grabs of the movie (image above), it looked more to me like a silver or chrome with some orange tarnish on it. Since it's my model that's the way I'm going. I got out my trusted Rustoleum Chrome paint and gave it a shot. Looks great. 

 I left it for a few days for the chrome to cure, and then hit with with a thinned sepia wash. That did little to nothing, So I decided to give in a little and added a mist coat of a gold from Vallejo. Adding a little more at the bottom I was happy with the result. while I was letting this last paint coat cure, I had to address the decals. FP uses an excellent printer, but being so thin, it needs a coat of Microscale's Decal Film. While the decal film is drying, I decided it's a good time to take break and think about the base.  The kit comes with a small 4in. diameter 3D printed base, but I was thinking more of something like the set in the film.  check back for that soon.