Buffalo Gal

 I figured it was time to get started on my "pledge model" for my local modeling club. Earlier in the year, I had chosen Buffalo Gal. This is a scene from It's a Wonderful Life, starring Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart. I enjoy it, and watch it a few times each Christmas season.  Since it's been around since 1946, I'm sure everyone has seen it at some time.

The model is a well made 3D printed kit by Nostalgic Resin, and depicts the walk home after George and Mary fell into the school's swimming pool (BTW the pool's real and still exists at Beverly Hills High School). This is the first real scene where they start their romance.  

 

 The first problem I had was whether to do it in color or B&W. Due to the size I thought it was too large for it to be all in B&W, and soon after found a nice colorized image of what I needed - the clothes. 

 

The only problem I had with it was the sidewalk was warped, and no amount of heating kept it flat. So I quickly tossed it aside and got out a piece of sheet styrene. I also had a decent sized wooden base and tested fitted all the basing materials. Besides the sidewalk, it come with a section of hedge, a picket fence, and a pillar.

Getting started, the pillar was painted gray, the fence white, and the hedge a green. It looked a little too plain so the hedge got flocked, I painted the picket fence and added some miniature rose bushes to fill the void, and the  pillar was fine so it just got a coat of paint with a little dark wash. seems I never took a WIP of the base so we'll see it at the end. 

Now I know what's to be done with the figures it was just a matter of filling in the colors. 

 

Getting to the faces, Stewart's likeness was good, Donna's barely came close, but not being able to sculpt a likeness, I'll just add paint to this as well.

 My next decision was Mary's robe. I know it's white, but that's an awful lot of white and I didn't want to make her look like a ghost with a sheet. So being George's clothes were warm earthy colors, I tried making the shadows in the robe a similar earthy colors. No good... That just made her look like she rolled around in some dirt. So the robe was repainted and this time I took the palest blue to fill in the shadows. This looked better. and I was done. Thanks for looking. 

Sadly my roses were mostly hidden

 

Toyland"s Bogeyman Finale

 With the seam filling pretty successful, I gave the piece a coat of primer.  And then looking at the images - and surprisingly there's not that many good ones - and even with the B&W images you can tell the body color and the face are different shades and the loin cloth is yet another color.  For the colorized images the body is a green brown and the face is close to skin color. So that what I tried to replicate.

 

While that was drying I turned my attention to the base. It's from their cave lair which in my memory was a wet dark place - hence making a "good" place to banish people - Sorry Tom Tom... So after the black priming I added different grays, and then took V's Light Slime to get a green hue to the rocks.  To finish things off I added some UV resin in a few of the deepest depressions. 

The final step was to get the Bogeyman on his base. and as it would turn out, he didn't fit well. At first I thought it was the peg that was in the bottom of the foot, but that was only a partial answer. So I ended up super gluing what foot parts me the base, and after that had time to cure I added Aves underneath and near the foot. I made sure that he wasn't standing on two pedestals. And with that I was finished, and he can be added to the rest of my Christmas related models. Thanks for looking - and Merry Christmas! 

 

Toyland's Bogeyman

 I just discovered this one buried in the stack, and since it looks fairly simple (famous last words) I decided to see if I could knock it out before Christmas. 

"March of the Wooden Soldiers" is an alternative title for the 1934 film "Babes in Toyland," featuring the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. The film is a musical Christmas story about their adventures in Toyland, where they help save Little Bo-Peep from the villain Silas Barnaby and his Bogeymen.

 The kit, is a caricature style kit sculpted by Tony Cipriano from his name etched into the back of the base, and was available by (IIRC) Monsters in the Woods. The figure is 6 parts and another 2 for the base.

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This was an old school kit meaning there are some seams showing, a little flash and some filling needed for the parts. The below pic is after some filling with Aves.

Ready to get started, I primed the whole thing in black Stynylrez primer. There are enough colorized versions of the film that painting Mr. Bogeyman should be no problem. But that's for next time. Check back.

Ghost of Christmas Present Finale

 Picking up where I left off, I started making the base look a little more busy my painting varied lines on each stone. hen that was in place I painted a blaz of blue to help tone that down, and to create the idea of cold.

I then added more color details to the beard. Haven been given a digital copy of the story, I read this ghost's description. All was ok, except it said his hair was a dark brown. Having done all that work, I couldn't just change it all, so I darkened it just a little. 

Finally, back to the base I added a little snow to complete the picture, and I was done. Thanks for looking. 

 

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. 

 

Ghost Christmas Yet To Come

 This winter John Dennett's MoonDevil Studio released to "ghosts" from the series - Present and Yet to Come.
I figured Yet to Come would be a little easier to complete. So I started out with a black primer. Then I looked up the ghosts to see what the details were.
Upon seeing the image - 

 


I was essentially done. But how could I call a model finished with just one coat of primer. So I decided to give it a purple highlight - just enuff to not make it black anymore. Then I just built up the purple for the base. Thanks for looking.

Ghost of Christmas Past (additional)

 It was weighing on my mind. After having another look at the image of the Ghost  from the movie, I couldn't get past that the Ghost was too colorful - lively looking.

To remedy this I too some watered down V. Ivory, and with everything masked off, including his eyes I gave the face a mist coat to make him a little paler and more ghost-like. Thanks for looking. 

 

Before

 

 

The Ghost of Christmas Past (1951)

 This bust was actually purchased last year, but I waiting too long to buy and couldn't get him done by last Christmas. So I wanted to make sure he was finished by this one. 

He is the Ghost of Christmas Past, played by Michael Dolan,  from the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol.  Sculptor John Dennett has a number of bust in his Christmas Carol series.  The kit is a two piece 1/5 scale bust in nearly flawless resin. There was a very fine seam line in his hair that was quickly dispatched.  

My "problem" with these type of characters is do I paint it as the character, a ghost? Or do I paint it as the actor playing a ghost? (Thinking too much?)  My idea was for the former, and so I primed it blue. Thinking about it, my last ghost in this series was painted as a ghost, so I changed my mind and this one would be the actor.

 

As with others in this series color is always a problem with the film being in B&W.  But not in the case. Even with the lack of color you can see white on white one white. Which presents it's own problems...

 

As with most busts I start with the face and this was no exception.

 

Hi hair and gown were apparently white, so I tried a triad of grays, figuring I'd end up with almost white. I guess I have a problems with "almost whites" as they never seem bright enough to me. So I ended up giving up and painted the gown just white, and then backed into the shadow colors. I was also having troubles with the skin color. I would end up with the skin too healthy looking or too pale - again the white on white on white problem.

I followed an idea a you Tuber had (Groundeffected)  where he just mushes three colors together and roughly mixes them up for the base.  I sort of liked it but I think it looks better with larger models and this 1/5 scale needed to be a little more dainty. So I kept mixing the wet colors to blend them a little more.

The flower wreath was started in purple and then highlighted with two shades of pink. Finally washed it in Citadels Carrosburg Crimson. The text in the base was painted with one of the reds from the Nocturna set - which coincidentally matched the flowers in the wreath.

In the end I left the face a little more lively, and then called it done.   Thanks for looking.

 

Yukon Cornelius

 It's been a while... I know :(

Years ago there was a sculptor/producer that was selling kits of the characters from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. At the time I bought and painted the Burl Ives Snowman. After a little while I went to look for a few more only to find the guy disappeared.

I Would remember it  every Christmas time, but never went any further than to look for the kits. Then suddenly I remembered I had all this polymer clay around, why don't I try my own.

One of the characters that stood out to be besides Santa and Rudolph was the Abominable monster and the prospector, Yukon Cornelius.  So I decided to go with Yukon.

First I found a picture. Then there looked like there was something on his back. an even harder job was to find a pic of him from the back. But I did. It's a 3 pocket backpack with a sleep roll across the top -

 

I got out the Sculpey Medium and started in with the wire armature. I wanted Yukon the same size or a little bigger than the Snowman. 

I didn't plan out the connection of the head and body well enough, so the red in the next images is Aves and my attempt to fill on gaps. Another difference was that I didn't notice all the items in his belt. Then I found out that he originally had a gun, but somewhere that faded away. The other mistake I made was to sculpt the mustache out of regular clay. After snapping a piece I cut it all off and replaced it with Cosclay. This stuff is great. After it's baked it acts as if it rubbery. Now it can get bumped and not break off.

Next was the painting.  It was here that I found that some of the pics had him in a blue suit, but others in a green. I always remembered blue so that's what I went with. The finale pics show him on my work base. But since then I created an ice flow for him to stand on. Thanks for looking. 

Moondevil's Tiny Tim

 Never too early for Christmas time. I received the lil guy from John Dennett right around Christmas but didn't get him done in time. Rather than to forget and rediscover him next Dec., I decided to get him done now, so he'll be ready to join the others on display for the Holiday. The bust is an exactly likeness of the actor Glyn Dearman, and while nearly all of the images I saw were B&W, the only one in color was one I didn't care for. So this time I just went for it. 

The kit is in 2 parts - the bust and the base as is usual with a lot of John's kits. Since Tim was a sickly boy I decided against the rosy skin and gave him more of a pale look. Adding to the effect, I added some darker flesh around his eyes.

I have him a brown coat and cap. The cap I wanted to mix with a little leather brim. Maybe I pulled it off? As usual for me I started with the darker blue and then stippled 2 or 3 levels of highlights.  I gave the hat and coat the same technique with their colors, and as mentioned try to give the brim a leather look. 

There was no mention anywhere of Dearman's eye color, so I just went with a rather neutral azure/gray. 

The base was done with a green gray and a heavy dry brush of some blue around the name. The letters were done in white, and with that I was done. Thanks for looking.

Christmas Carol's Bob Crachit Finale

 I started out this session by painting the hair. On TV it shows up very dark. I hit it with the darkest brown I had, Then highlighted it when dry. Ugh. Too light. Then 3 coast of Citadel's Nuln Oil got it back to a decently dark color. 

For the clothes, I had the colors I wanted picked out - White shirt, red tie, green vest with brass button, and black piping, and then a brown jacket. It went along well. for the vest I added a little design in a light green and ten went a little lighter for the 2n'd highlight. The jacket I decided to make a tweed jacket. A dark brown was the base coat. A lighter brown stippled with one of my ruined brushes started the tweed look. Finally, I used V's English Uniform, which is a lighter brown but with a lot of green in it was stippled on and this gave me the tweed color I was used to seeing. Only problem was that it dried a satin. I found a bottle of Anti Shine that The Army Painter put out and it dulled the jacket down quite a bit. 

I'm still trying to get my clear coats straight. When I spray gloss, I want gloss. When I was matte - I want completely flat - not almost satin, not even egg shell. I want flat. Any discoveries will be reported. 

A simple gray stone base was painted with a white cut out and Bob's name in red. To finish it off, A let it snow on the base. Thanks for looking. 

 

Christmas Carol's Bob Crachit

 I'm calling it close for this year's Christmas model. It's Bob Crachit from Christmas Carol sculpted by John Dennett's MoonDevil Studio.  A typically nice kit in 1/5 scale. It's 2 parts of purplish resin - the bust and the base.  As with the Scrooge bust from a few years ago, it's based on the 1951 film. 

 

Since the film was done in B&W, I had to look fro movies posters to see how the characters were imagined. I found two images of Bob - one with a blue tie/scarf, and one with red.  Thinking there's nothing Christmas-sy about blue, I went with the red one. Plus the red tie sort of ties in with Scrooge's red scarf.

 

As usual I started off with the face. All images show him fair skinned with dark hair so here we go. Besides the red tie, I'm planning for a white shirt, green vest and a brown jacket, with hopefully some texture on it to make it look tweed. We'll see about that. But that's for next time.