A New Retro Future Space Suit + Robot

There have been many promises to the Real Space/Concept Space modelers that the Bottle Suit would be released. The Grumman Moon Suit was tested in 1960's.  From astronautix.com :

A favorite of Life magazine in the 1960's, this Grumman / Space General design for extended lunar surface operations allowed the astronaut to withdraw his arms from the flexible manipulators and work within the pressurized 'cabin' of the can enclosing his upper torso and head.

The Suit appeared in Life magazine in April, 1962, and was immediately copied by Mattel for their Major Matt Mason toy line. 

But as a real scale model either in styrene or resin, there has been none. Until now. ECWID has a number of retro futuristic suits and robots. And they actually have two versions of the Grumman Moon Suit. One of the astronaut standing, the other where he's running.  I picked up the one where the guy is running.

Most of the kit comes in ordorless gray resin, with a few clear resin parts.  There is no flash or bubbles, and the only negative is that the pour plugs are pretty large. But happily they are on the inside of the suit, and once build not easily seen if at all.  It also comes with a set of decals with the number 38 - 

 As you can see by the parts, it should be very easy to build. I can't wait.
While the kit ships from Japan, I added one of the Robots. I picked up the "Prototype Vincent." I didn't open that package so the following pic is from their website.  As the image indicates, the scale is 1:20 - 

Thanks for looking. 




 

I bought a Piece of my Childhood Back

All my toys and other childhood memories are long gone. Long story too. So every now and then I think about or see something that reminds me of the old days. This latest go round was was I was goofing around on You Tube, and ran across a guy that restores old beat up Matchbox cars. Hey, I had Matchbox cars! So I watched a few, and then on one, I was lead to this other guy, and his CHANNEL and PAGE. 

Watching one of his vids featuring cars from 1968, I saw the Land Rover. As I was also fascinated about animals and had a good number of the little plastic ones, the Land Rover seemed a natural. 

Well, long story short he had the Land Rover in it's box, So I couldn't resist - 

Do I need to start collecting these too? No. This gives me enough nice memories of when I was little. 
Thanks for looking.

Arena Rex Ywain and Dextarius

This next entry is a mini shop I actually found on Kickstarter. From their site - 

Arena Rex is a game of gladiatorial combat.  Battles of 3 to 6 combatants per side are recommended, and take approximately 30 to 40 minutes to play. Simple, intuitive rules offer myriad tactical possibilities.  Maneuver and arena terrain play key roles in the game along with a fatigue-based activation system that twists a traditional round structure in new and exciting ways.   

Arena Rex has a number of terrifically sculpted minis all in the gladiator mode. With my poor eyesight I'm limited to only a few larger figures, but boy are they worth it. 

As usual I get anxious to start and don't start taking pics until I'm well under way. This is no exception. Ywain is done in a lot of leather colors with some metal here and there. I had to think about making his skin like it's been out in the sun training a lot. I also suspect that he was always on the dusty side from his training.  Here I have the base coat done and started doing the washes - 

As is usual I usually find spots I missed and will address them as I go. 
While Ywain was drying I turned my attention to his horse Dextarius. Here I just kept things simple, painting it brown with a darker mane and tail. Figuring the saddle was just a gladiators towel, I also did simple colors. Again, it's just base coated and washed  - 

More soon. Thanks for looking.

Caveman Dinosaur

Feeling a lot better now, I got back to my little attic lair or is it studio. :-P
I was looking for something easy to whet my appetite for building again, so I pulled out the T-Rex from the 1981 slap stick comedy Caveman. It starred Ringo Starr and a number of other recognizable names as Barbara Bach, John Matuszak, and Dennis Quaid. 
At one point the groups runs into a large T-Rex and more comedy ensues - 

The model is very well done and looks just like the model in the movie.It comes in 6 white resin parts plus a base.

It only took me an hour to get all the parts pinned. The only problem I had was there was a gigantic bubble where the tail joins the body -

But once pinned it was nothing to pack the gap with Aves. I then spent a little bit of time matching up the skin texture to the repair. I think I did an ok job. I then spent another hour adding the little scutes and skin folds to the rest of the join spots. 

Next up is priming and painting. What I'll have to think abut is that some images have the T-Rex gray, while others have it a gray green color.  If anyone actually reads these posts, what do you think? Gray or green gray? 
Thanks for looking.

Another new mini

This time  we have a mini by Hangar 18. Among their model offerings is a series in a tasteful pinups  style reminiscent of the WW2 nose art on the bombers.  They come in either a 32mm or a 54 mm size. The 54mm collection is the larger collection of the two. 
Being a space fan I was drawn to the Cosmonaut model. This is a female cosmonaut riding on Sputnik. 

Both the sculpting and casting, is terrific. There is no apparent seam lines and the parts go together in natural separation point so very little (if any) putty work needs to be done. 
My typical complaint is that I only wish this came in a 90-120 mm size. But I can't wait to build this. I'm thing about getting out the new Vallejo Metallics Chrome for the Sputnik. Thanks for looking.

Something New

I don't know how long ago it was that I first ran across the ships from the Star Wars X-Wing game at a local B&N. So I picked up a few.
Talking on the forums it seems they are more or less about 1/270 scale, which is a bit small small but still a respectable size for the larger ships. 
Soon after, if you look at Shapeways, enterprising guys have created ships not already done in the same 1/270 scale (I have no financial stake in this guy's store, I just like his models). Of course these aren't painted but that's no problem for the average modeler.
Recently I just saw a new ship, The Shadow Caster, which I just had to have. Turns out that this and other new craft are from the Star Wars cartoon Rebels - 

In real life the colors are a bit bright, but a simple misting of a light gray should tone it down. 

Then I noticed that a similar game appeared called Armada. The ships appear to be all capital ships. They are approximately the same size, so that really changes the scale. But once again, they are highly detailed - 

So if you don't mind the smallish sizes, have a look at these ships whether you play the game, or like me, just like collecting star ships.

Back from the dead...

"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
Whoo boy, I've never been so sick in quite a long while. It started with simple cold/flu symptoms. It then morphed in a wicked sinus infection. From there it moved into my chest and became bronchitis. When I finally went to the local "Doc in a Box" they said I was lucky I came in when I did. I was on the verge of pneumonia! So 4 additional meds in hand, I'm hoping to feel a bit better. It's only been a month and a 1/2... :-P

But that didn't stop my from buying.  The first package that showed up on my door was from Squadron and was the new Haunnebu II. This is the Luft '46 Nazi flying saucer.  Let me tell you even at 1/72 scale this thing will be HUGE -

Next up is a kit from Skink Haunt and it's The Gecko.  Skink was mostly known for his natural history models of the fauna from Taiwan. But not so recently moved into taking the local animals and turning them on their heads Godzilla style. The kit I ordered is probably in the 8 to 10in. tall size. I originally had a pice of bark that I was going to mount him on. But then I noticed Skink listed the scale at 1/35. This makes the Gecko approx 45 ft. tall  So now I want to find a building to hang him on! 

 He has unbelievable models, but sadly some are pretty expensive.  What I did was get on his email list and he will send you a notice for upcoming products. This announcement usually comes with a reduced preorder price. At least you can save $20-30 that way. 
The previous Skink model I spoke of was the Octopus-- here.  

Finally, is a concept space ship from Pegasus Models. It's the Von Braun Moon Lander -

The box states that the model is 1/350 scale and stands 10" high. There was some debate over at the Yahoo Space Modelers Group, in that the scale is more likely 1/200. But since it's a concept and was never built - what's the difference. ;) 
That's about all for now. Thanks for looking in.