Roktman

Good looking builds in this thread!

Looks terrific!

Thanks for the kind words. I saw a rare film clip in color of Karloff with his face done up and it was *very* green. I didn't want to have it look "that much" so I muted my green with some cream color. For the highlights I just reversed the base coat giving it more cream than green. Lastly I gave it a mist coat with Buff to bring it all together.

FWIW, I think any convention along the I-95 corridor (I'm in NYC) would cause sticker shock with many members across the country. Forget about $100 room rates- $200 room rates went bye bye a long time ago. Add to that up to $40 a day parking and a $15 hamburger... It would have to be in a more rural area to get decent room rates, then who would want to drive hours to side attractions? And is there club(s) that would want to tackle this? I'm afraid prices here are just out of the range of a IPMS Con. Just my 2¢

Thanks Gil. It was really a fun kit to build once I found the right pics. Yep, they made poor ol' Anthoy Hopkins pretty old looking and even one shot of his transformation he was almost snow white. It's a huge pic so I'll just link it: http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/wolfblu/wolfblu_shot3l.jpg But IMHO that look was just to much.

I've been to Las Vegas a couple times (once with my family on the way to seeing relatives in AZ, and once when work was paying for it) and I'm sure it will work. I'm not much of a gambler, so the casinos didn't really excite me (and the shows and restaurants outside of the casinos were not all that cheap). As you said, one of the great things about places like Vegas and Orlando is that there are lots of venues that can hold a convention, and lots of restaurants and attractions, and that competition keeps the prices down. I'm not sure that truly makes for a good convention as the theme-parks and casinos distract people from the show. I've taken my family to Orlando for a Nats twice, and I spent less time at the show or talking models at the hotel bar just because I was spending time with my wife and kids. I get it that combining a Nats with a family vacation is the only way a lot of people can make it, but I have to say I really liked the Loveland show where the hotel (and a small shopping plaza) was all you could see in all directions. Don While I have a old friend in Mission Viejo, CA and relatives in Gilbert AZ., I'm actually hoping that it's in Vegas myself. I was going to take my wife to Vegas for her 40th birthday - Sept. 23, 2001. But unfortunately 9/11 happened and as a surviving firefighter, I wasn't going anywhere but Ground Zero. We cancelled our Bellagio suite (yep I was doing it up) as well as all the shows (we're not gamblers either), and with a son born 1.5 years later, we never made it there. Bit as you said Loveland was nice too. we found the outrageously detailed model train museum a town or two to the east, and even thought we were incredibly lost traveling dirt roads to see the Twin Buttes! we got there and saw them. So I guess I' rooting for any city, town village outside of the NY/NJ metro area where I grew up and live. I'm sure I can find attractions to keep the family happy, besides the Con, anywhere!

Having Ad Blocker too, I just tried it to see what happens. I got the same message as you. When I took off Ad Block for the site and hit reload button, nothing changed. When I clicked their home page link it let me right in. Try that.

Thank you. I really have to get it it's container...

Hehe I didn't notice the jacket or the new tires. I saw the motor cycle and just figured the jacket was a leather jacket. There's a few ways to handle the dirt. You could go and get some pigment in jars from Vallejo, MIG, AK the list goes on and on. You could go to a craft store and they have sets of earth tone pastel sticks (don't get the waxy ones). Or just go outside and pick up a little Tupperware full of dirt. Take the dirt and with a stiff brush, just grind the dirt into the tires, and remember a little goes a long way in telling the story. You could also put some white glue down in spots on the groundwork and sprinkle pinches of dirt on the glue spots. You can then seal it all in with a light dusting of a flat clear coat. HTH Just remember scale. A tiny pebble in your fingers could be a giant boulder on the diorama.

I haven't use Squadron in a long time, they don't have much of what I build. I use Megahobby, and I guess b/c I don't do a lot of shopping I haven't noticed that their prices are higher. I must agree with Dave. Avoid eBay for figures unless you absolutely know the guy who's selling. Way too may recasters ripping ppl off. One way to find legit producers and new releases is to look at Buc Wheat's site. For sci-fi I use the Starship Modeler Store , CultTVMan and the Fantastic-Plastic store. Fantastic Plastic also has a number of concept, and experimental craft. They also handle Unicraft kits. The other "store" I buy from is Hobby Link Japan and yes the kits are coming from Japan so don't expect a box in a day or two.

Nice. I'll be watching. I like seeing builds that aren't "the same ol' thing"

Frequently I do two kits at a time because as I'm waiting for one's paint to dry or glued part to set, I often move to the other. while Sir John was drying (see other post) I worked on The Bride. The Bride was one of these models that while I'm not necessarily into, the kit "spoke" to me in a way where I had to have it. I *think* I picked it up a few years ago at either a JerseyFest or a Resintopia show that was in NJ. The kit, made by Resin Realities, was fairly simply being only 2 parts. There were a few seam issues but I started off quickly. In my fervor to begin I didn't notice that there was a pretty prominent seam running down her face. So I cleaned off the paint and started on the seam and reprimed - - You can see that at this point she has a regular skin coloring. This would change a few times as I progressed. I found I had Vallejo's Game Color - Dead Flesh. Remembering a rare color photo of Karloff's Frankenstein was green. I figured that she should be similarly color, tho not as much. This paint choice hit the bill. However what I did was to add a little white to it to lighten. Also, knowing that Elsa Lanchester had red hair despite not seeing it in the B&W movie, they used her real hair over an armature to create the Bride's special 'do - I painted her hair with a dark brown and then a lighter brown and then Vallejo's Orange Brown as the red highlight. Don't use red. Redheads never have *red* hair! Looking at the face and knowing it needed a highlight the color I chose previously left me no where to go but to add straight white as a highlight; which I did. But the white was too stark. To fix it, I masked the hair and gown off with paper towel and Silly Putty. I then lightly misted her face in V's Buff. I had noticed when I used it previously that it wasn't a substitute for tan because had a bit of green in it. However this only made her have a yellow cast. So I added a drop of white and a drop of the Dead Flesh and that worked out to tone the skin down from the glaring white highlights. Now it was time to create shadows for her gown. I figured the typical blue and gray shadows have been done to death, so I took some Citadel's Bugman's Glow, added white and used that. I figured the rosy color would be a little more feminine- - Having the rosy shadows, and the gray primer, all I needed to do is airbrush different densities of white over the gown to achieve the different highlights and shadows. To finish, all that was left was to add the eyes. A quick search of Fritz's Paint Guide told me Elsa had green eyes, and adding them finished off this long project. Thanks for looking.

2010's Wolfman gave us Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot returning to England after his brother turns up dead. It's also a reuniting with his father, Sir John, played by Anthony Hopkins. But John has a secret ... The kit, sculpted by Mark Van Tine and casted by Gillman Prods., is excellently done in 2 parts (the bust and the base). There's no flash or bubbles to be found. I kinda remembered what Sir John looked like from the movie, but it was rather difficult to find photos that weren't screen grabs where the colors were affected by other lighting on stage. The most popular one had the whole image in a sort of yellow light. This was no good. I finally found "behind the scenes" pics which show a costume in natural light - - With these images it was time to go to work. Firstly there was a light seam hidden in the fur. It took about a half hour to clear that away and make it disappear-- Very cool. MVT signed it for me! I then move fwd with the new way I prime kits - painting them black and then heavily drybrushing in white. The reasoning behind this is when you thinly apply color, it will automatically give you two tones-- First thin coat of brown A wash Agrax Earthshade added (different lighting) In the movie, Sir John is an older man with gray hair so when he turns in to a Wolfman he keep his gray hair. So after painting the highlights and shadows of the fur, the final step was to highlight certain parts of his body with Vallejo's Light Gray. Being a coward I always wait until the end to do the eyes. A quick search told me Anthony Hopkins has blue eyes, and I saw nothing in writing letting me know he was wearing contacts. So blue eyes it is - - It was obvious that the based was on a wooden block. So rather than hiding that, I brought out the wood grain, but kept the block old looking. The pentagram was painted Vallejo's Old Gold and highlighted with Brass. The scratches were painted with Cavalry Brown, which is actually a deep red, and then put some V's Gloss over it to make it stand out a bit. I also created a "shadow in the pentagram with the same Cavalry Brown. That did it. I'm done. :) Thanks for looking.

I've driven from Denver to both Phoenix and Vegas. One more day is all. Loveland is 1542 miles Phoenix is 1707 miles Vegas is 1871 miles Overall, Vegas is only 5 hours more from here than Loveland (2 more for Phoenix) so I guess it really doesn't matter that much. I'd tag-team and cross the desert at night anyway. I don't know that I can stand much more than 20 hours in a car at a time anymore, tho. Omaha is only 16 hours, a long but fairly easy day for me. I just remember it seemed like an eternity from OKC to ABQ on 40, and another on to the grand canyon back in the late 70s I gotta hand it to you guys that drive. I'm made exceptions but my limit is ~4 hours. Anymore than that and I fly. I have a sis in Pittsburgh, and I have no problem flying in rather than that 6 hr's in the car... BUt I don't wanna hijack the '18-19 convention thread to a driving thread...

Another in Fantastic Plastic's line of "classic" space ships, the model was based on Robert Heinlein's book. The model, which was retired a while ago, comes in 9 pieces of blue resin. There are no bubbles or odor and very little flash. Putting it together is pretty straight forward and the parts meet up nicely, tho there is room for a little putty work. All images show the space ship as white - and by now you know I hate white. To me, white never looks white, and I'm always looking for the "brighter than Sun" white. No such thing. So the paint went on over a gray primer - Of course there's always little divots that need to be addressed. The added work was done when I dropped the model and snapped off the vertical fin :-P - You have two choices for the engine exhaust - a nuclear exhaust (which is what I used) and a chemical exhaust. The landing gear are made up of two skids. A length of styrene rod is included and you must cut the struts to the provided length, then glue to the skids, then to the rocket. All in all it was an easy kit to put together. The window and door was simply score marks on the fuselage. I tried the mini painting technique for doing windows/gems - I'll leave it to you whether it worked out (I didn't think so). The exhaust was painted Vallejo Glossy Black and then I used V's new Aluminum metallic paint. That stuff is awesome! Anyway there it is. Keep watch of Fantastic Plastic's site as he brings back certain retired kits for a limited time. So it may be possible to see it available again one day. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Thanks Gil. I was just being too lazy to go and look up who did what. Phoenix would be nice as I could also visit a bunch of cousins, but since I use the Nats as a family vacation, and the IPMS pick places near "other sights", I'm pretty much good to go anywhere.

Nice choices. I've been to and liked PHX and CO shows, but not the first 3.

Based on the creature seen in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. This was a quick little model I've been tinkering with for a while now and decided to finish it up and get if off the bench and onto the shelf. I received the kit thru Gillman Prod.. It came in 4 parts - the body, two "leg claws", and the tip of the tail. It was cast in a cream color resin, and had only 4 or 5 tiny bubbles. On an intricate surface like this, that is excellent. After washing the parts, I primed them all in black. Then I went about assembling the kit. The legs fit fairly well, and used some Vallejo Putty to fill the voids. Turning to the tail, I drilled both parts and pinned the tail to the body. There was a bit of a gap between the two parts and this too was fixed with V's putty. Next I painted the entire top pf the model Vallejo's Cork brown. I then washed the segment spaces with Citadel's Nuln Oil. Once that was dry, I washed the rest of the plates with V's Agrax Earthshade. Later on I hit the highest parts of the plates with V's Sand Yellow. Along the lines I added Citadels Sepia wash around the eye, and finally used V's Glossy Black for the eye slit. Next up will be it's enclosure. Check back for that. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Mark, The pic doesn't show it well, but that's supposed to be a drip of "goop" thats dripping out of his eye and onto his shoulder. But basically it's just a clear rod, embedded on both ends with 2 part clear epoxy. That wasn't part of the kit, I added it in. Usually guy's being gross, have the drip of saliva coming out of the mouth. I was going for something different. Maybe the clear rod is too wide...

VERY nice! Love the weather to the metallic colors. I like the way the heat discolorations were done by the exhaust. Bravo!

I just posted two of the mini busts here - http://forum.ipmsusa3.org/index.php?/topic/16801-moondevil-studios-mini-busts/

For the melting man, I used the same black primer and white drybrush. You can see all the variations with the first application of color - Then I went back and forth between too red and too brown. - Finally I came to a happy medium and decided to add a little gooey gore - A problem arose here when I added the two part epoxy it was too clear and disappeared. When I added red ink, it was to cartoonish red. But when I added a deep red paint, it cause the epoxy to start setting up right away. So I had to rush. Then I added ink over the drips, but as the ink dried I guess the epoxy wasn't fully cured and cracked. It's since been fixed. Thanks for looking.

Hey all, I just wrapped up two more of John Dennett's mini busts. This time around there's Croaker King, and Cosmic Corruption or my working title The Melting Man. I started these two bust by trying a "new" technique of priming them both black. Then comeing back (when dry) and heavily drybrushing with white. This was when you apply the color thinly you will have two shades of it rather than one. Good theory and works very well. For the Croaker I stared out with a thought of a regular green frog with yellow eyes - Then I saw a pic of a red eyed tree frog and switched gears a little - Then the dot pupils didn't do it for me and I went with the picture and redid it with slits - Then I decided I didn';t like the all over green color so I went out on a limb and used purple on it's back and around the eyes - For the wacky base, that was a failed experiment. I tried to use fern leaves as stencils. But I couldn't adhere them down and keep the lacy pattern and without, they flopped in the breeze from the airbrush and made the image look blurry. Oh well, live and learn.

Nice score! The FineMolds kits has awesome detail - and to be in The Scale of Kings? Excellent. ;) I'd like to see what you do with the fire truck. Despite being a firefighter for a long time, I never found myself drawn to building the rigs. But I like lookin' at 'em. ;)