New

With my creativity level low this month, I have been lurking around the Net finding some new subjects to spark my mood. 

My first offering is from CGS Military Figures out of the UK and it's the companion to my recent Doc Holiday bust. It's Wyatt Earp. The kit is 200mm and comes in 10 parts: body, head, 2 arms, gun w/ hands, 2 hats, 2 flintlocks, and a pedestal.  The likeness to Kurt Russell is not as good as the likeness of Doc was to Val Kilmer. But I guess with the low slung hat and the giant mustache, there's not a lot of room for facial recognition points.

Next is from my friend John Dennett at MoonDevil Studios. It's an aquatic monster John calls The Deep One. It's part of a series he has in relation to JP Lovecraft. This is a 6 part kit in a bubble free, nearly seam free resin. The parts fit together very nicely and only a minimum amount of putty will be needed to make the seams completely disappear.

The third one was a kit I was able to see in the making at the modeling/sculpting forum The Clubhouse. "Pat Morea" created The Rock show WIP on this forum as he went along. It looks to be 1/5 or more likely 1/4 full figure. The likeness is very good. but it looks like the mold slipped, and separated a bit below the waste. A bit of work will be needed to correct this.

My final offering for this installment is a kit from a miniatures Co., called Terrible Kids Stuff  (TKS). The kit is a 75mm (1:24) kit called The Birth of Dracula. The scene depicts Vlad holding the lifeless body of Elisabeta, with his free hand up to his face in grief. I found it a very powerful scene. 
The kit is a limited edition of 75 castings. On the site they guesstimated that it would be sold out in Aug., but when I ordered in October, and the kit came it had a certificate of authenticity numbered 70 of 75. So there is a small chance to get one. 
It comes in 7 parts - Vlad's head/body/legs, Elisabeta's head/body, Vlad's upraised arm, his cape, Elisabeta's 2 dangling arms and a block base. The base also has a "base" in that extra material was used to lift the block floor off the ground. Nice touch.  The model is exquisitely sculpted and cast; no bubbles and no apparent seam lines. The resin is the type you some time run across in Europe and SE Asia where there is a pretty strong petroleum smell, especially when one cuts or sands the resin. That aside, this is going to be a pleasure to build.

Thanks for looking.

I'm Your Hucklberry

This time I have the legendary Doc Holiday, as portrayed by Val Kilmer in the movie Tombstone. I personally think this is one of the best modern day westerns.
The bust is from CGS Miniatures, and is listed as 1/9 scale. IIRC it came in 5 parts to the figure and a "stone" stand for the base. But I traded that out for a brass rod and a rustic looking wood plinth. There are no bubbles in the resin and any seam lines are fine and hard to find. 

Next was to see what colors Doc was wearing during this scene. Looking at the film, he made quite a few wardrobe changes. But the bust seems to be from the end when he meets up with Ringo for the last time.  I made a little collage to bring to the hobby desk. Seems like the top center image is the exact pose that the sculptor used for the bust.

 As usual I start out with a black primer and then give it zenithal light with white primer. From there I base coated the skin and take a look at where it's at - 

In the film Doc has an illness (TB?) so he never really looks rosy. So I tried to match the skin tone with Vallejo Air "Flesh Tone". From there it was a simple highlight of Pale Flesh on the cheeks, chin, and the bit of jowls that he has.
Then I base coated the rest of the bust. His kerchief, hat and vest were all black in the film, but I didn't want it to be to monotonous, so the hat was done in black and ultimately highlighted in areas.  The vest was done in Black Gray then washed and highlighted. Finally the kerchief was done in German gray and then washed in Citadel's Black.

Then I noticed the duster seemed too light. So I mixed up some darker gray with a light brown (some angles in the movie it looks more brown than gray). But it was never dirty looking so I had to avoid that -

From there all that was left was to add the little details. The silver to the badge, and the the buttons on the duster. The buttons on the vest were shiny black, so a dot of gloss worked there. His gun was also silver with a white handle. There was a line of metal thru the handle so that was done with V's Steel. I added the white dots to the kerchief, and the final bit was adding individual dots of gloss to his face, as thru out the film he was constantly sweating - from the AZ heat, or the fact he was sick - I don't know, maybe both...
Here's the final shots on the rustic plinth, thanks for looking.

New Aquisitions

A number of kits arrived these past few weeks. The first package arrived from Megahobby. I ordered the Vallejo Face paint set, and also the newly re-released Retriever Rocket.  Looking at the Rocket there's is one piece that was broken, but it's a clean break and will be a simple fix. The rest of the kit is very nicely done. There's a little flash, but nothing to worry about. One thing I will have to think about is unless I missed it, there's no flight deck. So I can either cobble one together out of another kit, or paint over the windows so no one can see in. As of now, I'm leaning towards build a flight deck.

Next was a pre painted statue of Medusa. Medusa is one of my favorite characters in mythology, and whenever I can pick a Medusa up I will  (I have a few waiting to be built). ;)

This one came from Dellamorte Co., doing business on Etsy.  They actually have a number of interesting prepaints. Unless I'm thinking about a different Co., I thought one of the options besides prepaint was a plain resin cast. No more if they ever did. The one I picked up was the larger of two versions and it's in a nice art deco type faux bronze. I've yet to make up my mind if I will leave it as is or paint it up differently.

Next up is another favorite movie character. It's Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday from Tombstone. This bust comes from CGS Military Figures and it a 1/9th bust. The title is aptly called "I'm Your Huckleberry."

I was so interested in seeing it, and I put it together even tho I'm not ready to paint it up. I left his gun(in holster) off so I could make painting easier. But he is depicted tapping on the gun handle.
I can only hope they also produce a Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and a Powers Boothe as Curly Bill. My wife is also in love with Sam Elliott, so a Virgil Earp would be a treasure on her desk. ;)

Lastly, I received the Star Duster from Fantastic Plastic. I have a separate review of that one.   Thanks for looking.