Roktman

NICE! Love the blue metallic!

Every time I finish the last project for December, and take a break for the Holidays, I always have trouble starting up again. My breakout is to always start out with something simple. I was able to do that with Not Mickey from Escape Hatch Hobbies. For those that don't recognize it but think it's that other famous mouse, this guy appeared in Hal Roach's 1934 March of the Wooden Soldiers starring Laurel and Hardy. The lore is that Hal Roach at the time was one the top dog directors in Hollywood. A newbie to the business, Walt Disney, was trying to get his name out when he and Roach spoke. Roach told of his "Soldiers" movie and then asked could he use his little mouse character. Walt said "Yes" but asked that he just not call him Mickey. A colorized version made him look a little more like that other mouse. In the mouse costume was actually a trained monkey, which accounts for all the "odd" movements. The kit comes in 6 white resin parts - the head, two arms the body, tail and base. Assembling the kit not no problem, and painting like the colorized image I was finished in no time. I also added a little static grass to the base. Thanks for looking. Here he is on the table at my local model club meeting.

Excellent paint up!

Nice job!

We had the meeting, and there were quite a few 11 year old builds on the table. Some were just general builds. Images here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.621625676879500&type=3 There were even a few that have survived from when the modelers were kids!

This is one I never heard of, but because I'm a "Classic Rocketship series" completist, I picked up a relatively new kit from Fantastic Plastic. The kit is honestly the easiest kit I've come across, and recommend it to anyone who's never delved in resin GKs before... From FPs site;

The first image is Vanguard? Terrific work!

Excellent job!

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words.

Just in time for Christmas, I was able to get done John Dennett's (https://www.facebook.com/john.dennett.545 ) Christmas Carol offering from last year - Ghost of Christmas Present. A lot of the color references were close, some not, but the description in the story (for those wanting to do one) is Green robe, white fur, and dark brown hair. I originally copied a reference that had auburn hair and after 4 layers of color I couldn't bring myself to paint it over... Thanks for looking.

This time around we're taking a look at throwing paint on the Norton Head spider from The Thing. This is another Yagher sculpt, with Gillman producing. The way I got is was you buy a Thing kit, you get a few parts, the more kits you get from the series the more spider parts you get until you get all the parts - if you wanted. The next step was to find a reference. something besides the movie since once the Spider is mobile you really don't get a good look at it color-wise. Then I found this pic at the RPF.com - Before finding this awesome pic, I was planning on starting him off with some flesh color skin. So I begin with that "pinkle" undercoating. I do give a base coat of Flesh, and then add a bit of Pale Flesh on top. I wanted the legs to be a bit more mottled than the face, so I added various colors both washed and spattered on. This is another model where I could fiddle with it until the end of time. so at one point I have to push myself away from the workbench and say I'm done. Thanks for looking.

Thanks. Yes, the teeth were a bit tough to sit in the mouth properly. But as with a lot of GKs, it’s built in that you may need to do some re-sculpting. 😉

I liked it. New editors come with new ideas. In the issue the editors say they will be trying new stuff. Some may work, some won’t. it also mentions that as it’s been forever, they print the articles they get from the members. Wanna see a more exciting story, sit down and write one, then send it in Wanna be of more help, volunteer your time to help out.

Haha, agreed. I had a hard time ignoring a lot of things. 53 years of learning and doing things the right way was hard to set aside. 😂 The bare seams drove my crazy the most. Fireworks? If you mean the build results, it happens in Dec. at our club's meeting. We have a guy who's "job" it is to take pics. I'll publish the link for those who wish to see, and maybe arrange it for their own clubs. 😉

Oh, yes I did. I forgot to write that in. some parts I did cut - forgetting the theme. But most parts were barely hanging on the sprue and a little shaking knocked them off. I did the twist on the red parts leaving that round stress mark in the plastic. Which of course is right on the top of the model. Thanks for the reminder. Hehe

I begin with the same ol' similar story. Yes, this kit is yet another that's been in the stash a long time. Well done in a white resin, it only has a few thin seam lines. Cleanup should be no problem. I plan to match it to the movie the best I can. The only good shot I remember is the ending in the alley. Let's go. As mentioned, only a thin line from the mold needed to be cleaned up. Also a little putty is needed where the legs met the body. The teeth have to be added later. The teeth were my first real challenge. They really didn't fit into the mouth properly. The thickness of the "dentures" needed to be thinned, and they seemed to be offset, and bit's taken off the ends to get them to sit straight. But after a little work, they looked good. Paint next. I primed in black, and then lots of grays, whites, and a little light blue to fill in the fur. The victim was a bit different. He got the same deal as any other skin tone, except a added a bit of V's white Gray to make him look dead. Some UV resin mixed with some Transparent Red gave be the blood stain. A few more tweaks and I was done. Thanks for looking.

Late last year at one of my Model Club's Zoom meetings there was mention how expensive kits were when all the aftermarket parts were obtained. someone else wished we could go back and just build a kit without worrying about anything. It was thought up early this year that the Club would have a group build entitled "Build Like An 11 Year Old." Being one of the sponsors of the build I was now on the lookout for a kit that I either built or could have built as a kid in the late '60's - early '70's. Not long after, I saw in an email blast from CultTVMan, that the Atlantis had the Willy Ley Orbital Rocket available. According to Scalemates, the original kit was released by Monogram in 1959, and then Atlantis re-popped it in 2024 in the same 1:193 (?) box scale size. It arrived at the house not a week after ordering and upon opening the box I was brought back to being a kid again with red, white and blue colors of the plastic. All the flash also brought back memories. The back of the box also had a surprise in that the photos were those of Allen Ury of Fantastic Plastic. Now, how was I going to build like an 11 year old? First thing I thought of was that with the colored plastic, I wouldn't paint it. Remembering back, not having an older brother or dad who built models, I probably wouldn't have known how to fill seams- so I would leave this out too. An early problem was that one of the astronauts appeared to be missing. I figured that was fine as what's the chance a little kid would lose a part - pretty good- I thought. So in the main ship I had just one pilot. Bust as you would know it, after the fuselage was glued together, I found the 3rd astronaut on a different sprue covered in flash. Perfect, I thought, as I was prying the fuselage open to get the second pilot into the main vehicle. Thinking of the 50s and how the real spacesuits were silver, both pilots were brushed with silver and just a dot of black where their face shields would be. An 11 year old would be aiming, but I just quickly made two dots... While I had the silver out I also painted the engines with the color. The rest of the model went together fairly painlessly. With the interior of the second ship more visible and smaller, I smeared around some gray paint in there. I was also at this time I saw where the painting instructions were hiding and discovered that the astronauts were supposed to be in a light green uniform. It was too late for the first two guys, but the 3 pilot was painted with a lime green, a silver helmet, and the black dot. Now it was time for the decals. I remembered that I wouldn't have know about Micro Set/Micro Sol, so I wouldn't use those either. Here it was discovered an error on the decal sheet. On the wings of the main ship was two yellow, triangular stripes, one for each wing. I cut them out, dipped them in the water and then realized that they were both for the same side. An 11 year old would have known he couldn't use them, but probably wouldn't have figured that they could be used as stencils and paint the stripes on - at least I wouldn't have thought of it. So I just left them off. After all the decals were on, many stood proudly above the plastic because of all the rivets. So in an effort of trying not to lose them with handling, I gave in and Micro-Sol'd them down ~ -1 point for me. With that I glued the two ships together and then to the stand. I came as close as I could to being that 11 year old. My other point loss would be that I wasn't going to search out the Testor's Tube Glue I remember. So I just used the Tamiya Thin that I had. With that, I was done. Thanks for looking.

Finale - I did a long winded story of how I created it. Look here if you want to read - http://kevtk.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-origin-of-lowbrow.html The pics -

Thanks. Agreed. My young teenage thoughts never really centered on Wilma. LOL Things may have been different if this model was around in the late 60's 😉

AKA, the hip Flintstones... This kit I first saw on You Tube or the Net, and since the Flintstones were a big part of my childhood as a kid, I had to have. The kit is from Iceman Collections and parts are all 3D printed.All the parts are very well done, and the grow lines have all been well hidden - except for Wilma. But her sculpt is so dainty that I didn't want to mess with her too much. I started out with the vehicles, and since it's made up of stone and wood, grays were used for the stone and a light brown was sprayed on first, then streaked with a darker brown for the grain was added with a thin brush. Finally a was of Citadel's Agrax was put over the top. While I had the brown out, I also painted the frame for the top. While that was drying, I turned to Fred. Having seen Fred a zillion times, I was well aware of his dark hair skin color and orange suit. The only thing I had to search for was the color of his tie. I this version he got a little soul patch which needed to be painted, and the weird part was he has no eyes - he'll be wearing shades later. He also has a stub of a cigar. So that will need some paint too. While that's all drying, I turned my attention to Wilma. As a size comparison, she stands about 75mm tall. This version is showing a lot of skin, so I started out with my usual deep pink to start the skin tone. From there I used Vallejo's Game Air Flesh for the skin tone. Then followed up with her white dress, shoes and necklace. Then the red hair was done, starting with the darkest color. Coming back later, I gave her a face with lashes, blush, and eye shadow. Glad I had my Opti-visors! :) With the figures more or less done, it was time to try and put everything together. This model, like all 3D designed models I've dealt with so far, have tolerances so tight that unless things are put together in such a way, things won't fit. The parts I saw that I noticed Fred, the steering wheel and the seat. Fred and the seat was fairly fiddle-y and it took a little negotiating to get the steering wheel into his hand and into the spot for it. But he was in there. Also as seen below I got the glasses on. They were VERY fragile. I wanted some of that changing iridescent paint from Green Stuff World for the lenses, so a glass black went down first, then two dots of the green to blue changing paint. Wilma is only attached to Fred/the car by her tiny hands, so so sort of base was needed. I took one of my ovals and adhered it to some foam and then used the hot wire cutter to get the shape. From there I mixed up some of my black Mod Podge with some saw dust for texture. I added a little water to make it a bit thinner, and then with a palette knife to add it like icing on a cake. Being very wet it's time to dry it. That's where we will stop for now. Check back for the finale.

Always looking to add to my Medusa collection. This time we have one that was sitting in the stash for so long that I no longer remember the producer or any other info. I tried doing a search but - no joy. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know... It came in 3 parts - the bust, the snakes, and the base. It was a nearly flawless casting - a few faint seam lines but nothing really worth noting. The one little downside of the sculpt, is that she's sorta looking down, and with so many snakes, the face is almost completely hidden. Started off with adding some flesh tones, and decided her outfit would be red. While that was drying I drybrushed white over the black painted base and then added some green tint. Finally I addressed the elephant in the room and tackled the snakes. With so many of them, I didn't want them all to be the same color. I was afraid it would look like one big blob. After getting them all colored in, they seemed too bright. So out came the Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash (brown) and dulled them down a bit. I added the black wash to the deepest recesses for that effect. Finally, I tidied up a few areas, and added a little more color to the base, and I was done. And my obligatory size comparison pic. Thanks for looking.

Welcome to the darkside! 😁😆

Thank you! 🙂

This bust is from Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula film from 1992. The likeness is that of Sadie Frost who played Lucy Westerna, Dracula's victim in London. The pose shows Lucy has already been killed by Dracula and Van Helsing and the others confront her as she returns to her crypt. In the film she was just about to be married, so when she died she was buried in her wedding dress - hence all the frills... The model comes in 9 parts - 4 headdress frills, her head, arm, collar, body and base. It was a white resin casting and only 1 or 2 seam lines remained. As usual I started with paint the portrait. Since she's dead, she's very pale, but high rez images show blush was applied to her cheeks. So I had to remember that but not make it too obvious. she also looked to have gray eyes, but this round I picked paint that was too light. Putting that aside to dry I tackled the next most obvious part, the frilly collar. Naturally the part is one solid piece of resin, but again looking at detailed pics, the real thing was mostly open lace where you could see thru it. How to do that? What I did was give the whole part a wash of gray, and then came back with a makeup brush doubling as a dry brush and carefully brought back the highlights. Then I added some pearlizing paint to give it a shine. The pearls around her neck were also pearlized to give them a similar shine. The ornament was painted a chrome. Since everything was overwhelmingly white, I decided to add some purple to the shadows of the ruffled headdress and her gown. The actual cap she wore showed up as a different white color, so that was painted Ivory. Similar was done for her arm. I painted the base a simple black and then drybrushed some white to brig out the texture in the stone. At the end I added some "blood" drips and I was done.

Nice job! Velma has gotten very popular lately. 😉