Best Moments In Film # 3 - Goosebumps 3

Bad enough that Freeman Lowell's gone and along with him the last chance of the Earth ever to see vegetation again, but the thought of this lil' fella tending to the last remaining forest all by himself, never to see anyone ever again, along with the brilliant Joan Baez vocal, brings a lump to me throat and a tear to me eye EVERY flaming time.
Such a great film, so ahead of its time and so much more relevant than ever.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - starting the sensors

Following Andrew's suggestion, i've started putting on hanging down sensors a la the Nostromo.
From right to left: an Airfix Lunar Module dish and leg with some sort of engine block between them - don't remember more than that as its something i pulled off a scartchbuild yonks ago, some gun turrets from the 1/72nd Superfortress and, far left, the very noticible but very excellent refueling arm from the 1/24th Harrier. Just had to stick that on, problem is that it hangs down lower than the base of the ship.
Had intended to not have anything more on the bottom as there is as i like the look of it just squatting there rather than stand on legs, but now have to come up with something to extend it downwards an inch or so.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - basecoated

Here she is with the primer on. I was going to put a grey auto spray on top as i've decided on an Alien style grim and realistic finish. But i've used "Halfords Grey Plastic Primer", which is a bit lighter and more of a satin finish than the bog-standard primers, and i'm happy with how it looks.
Next step, a couple of horizontal bands of colour to break up the grey a bit, and these'll be in reddy brown as a nod to the the other colour option i was considering - the Scorpio from Blakes 7.

The Thing From Another World - skin detail

You can see here i've picked out the mouth area, along with some open areas of flesh. When i sculpted it, i decided to have him in mid transformation so here he is splitting open. I'm leaving the skin in matt tones to try and convey parchment-like flesh. But the open areas are going to be nice and glossy for contrast.
If you look at the middle eye, you get an idea of how they're going to turn out.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - a lightbulb moment

There i was this morning, having a shave and being frustrated that i haven't found a suitable cockpit window for this craft.
So i'm shaving going "i need a rectangular slotted shape, what to use?, i need a rectangular slotted shape, what to use?" when it dawns on me that my razor has disposable heads - rectangular with a nice fine mesh detail.
So, off its come and on its gone.
Hurrah!
You can't make it out in this shot but the parcel tape there is holding a cable tie in place while it sets. Love these little fellas - cheap but with lovely detail and stick very well.

The Thing From Another World - skin

Starting to lay down various grey tones as, if its going to have blue snakes for hair, i don't want anything too jarring. Bunging some flesh in the mix though as grey by itself is far too stark.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - completed

All done bar replacing the rods holding up the Fighting Machines with clear rod. Its odd - they made the eyepiece, wing bits and flame in clear so why not the rods? Speaking of the green/red parts of the craft, i've really pleased with how they came out and think they make it for me.

The Thing From Another World

REAL blast from the past here - just uncovered it from an old box.
I love the short story "Who Goes There?" that was the inspiration for the "The Thing From Another World" in the 50's (albiet very loosely) and "The Thing" in the 80's (more faithful, and most of the characters names used) and, ages ago, thought i'd have a go at making my version based on the description - and what a description!:

"The room stiffened abruptly. It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood. from a face ringed with a writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow"

Pretty crap at sculpting and what you can see here is a combination of having various goes at it then giving up in depression. Materials varied with each abortive attempt, mainly Das Pronto, Green Stuff and Milliput.
Decided to finsih it though and paint it.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - base done

Have added some vegetation to try and make it look less like the moons surface. I've painted the Fighting Machines poles black, but will be changing them for clear rod when i get some.

Dinky lil' Star trek craft

When my firend Ian came round, he also gave me these two ships. Used to have them back in the 80's and they're from the old Games Workshop range of craft that went with their game of the time. Lovely pieces of work, with lovely detail. The Deep Space Frieghter is all ready to go as Ian's stripped it, but the Romulan Bird Of Pry i'm gonna strip as i prefer them in the green combos.

Possible future project is a go

Remember a few posts down how i said i fancied making something along the lines of this ship from a graphic novel. Well, my good friend Ian Ward saw that post (and it was his graphic novel too) and supplied me with this lovely shape to get started.
Thanks Ian.
Its a bizarro snack holder where you upturn it, put your food in, then turn upright and the gimble inside closes the container up.
Not too bothered by the gimble so you can see in the bottom pic i've cut it apart. May leave the large open hole to have it as either an engine or a scoop device. First thought for the horizontal sections was to built them up from a basis of a piece of Foamboard but changed that now to try and find something from my bits box that'll be nice and sturdy and detailed.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - dinky Fighting Machine

Here's one all done. SO cute. And such lovely detail for such a small scale.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - the clear bits

That's them all done. VERY impressed with this Pegasus company as everything just pushes into place without glue, the fits that good. You can see i've done the clear wing tips and fron thingy in Tamiya Clear Green and one of the Cobra Head eye pieces in Tamiya Clear Red. Not sure about the flame part. I coated it with Tamiya Clear Orange then the Red at the top feathering it down towards the blast area. But, dunno. Flame effects are really difficult to pull off and i've no idea how this'll end up. Trouble is, you have to use it - you're not given the option of a spare lens in case you didn't want to. Which'd have been nice.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - progress

Here we are with the base a much more accurate (though dull) colour. Tanks pop a bit more now they're lighter. And you can see i've started to drybrush the three dead men turned to ash laying there.
Name plaque was a bugger to do.

Crashed Cylinder

Come across this in a box this morning and thought i'd show it to you. Its supposed to be the Martian Cylinder on Horsell Common, of course from "The War Of The Worlds". I made it for the UK SF Build Challenge over on the SFMUK site but,alas, that was cancelled due to lack of entries.
So, shelved this. Its not quite finished as i wanted a LOT more people - but at this scale, they're pretty expensive and i was going to get them bit by bit. Still might do that, but for now the diorama shows the first few folk on the scene.
Oh, and the cylinder is a Ferro Roche egg container cut at a 45 degree angle, plopped into a mass of Das Pronto then Games Workshop scatter material sprinkled over.

Doctor Who rips off Dredd

C'MON!!!!! I know the production team are fans of the comic, but to rip off the Dune Sharks from Judge Dredd SO blatently tonight without any sort of nod to John Wagner, Henry Flint and Trevor Hairsine is just not on. *rant mode off*

Klingon Bird Of Prey - dirtying done

Here we are with the regular washes etc affair process of dirtying down. Still a bit too matt so am going in with ink washes in a few places to simulate oil/propellant leaks to add a bit of gloss.
Then gonna go to town with the M.a.K rust washes

Possible future project?

Just finished the "Bullet Points" graphic novel, an alternative tale of the Marvel superhero universe. An okay tale, but was quite struck by the design for the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier - a large ball dropped below lots of horizontal, angular shapes.
Might use it as a jump-off point.

War Of The Worlds - changing colours

So here's the base in Red Oxide Primer and the tanks in the suggested Olive Drab. Had a look at the battle scene in the film (oh, what a hardship) to get an idea what shade of brown the ground should be - and i've got to change ideas.
The ground isn't anything like brown, more just shades of grey, and that's before the Martians start burning things up. So will have to change that.
And the tanks are much more of a lighter green than the Olive Drab, so that's got to change.
I had initially thought any sort of grass would be out as the seperate shards of the stuff i've got would be waaaay out of scale to this 1/44th. But in the film there's quite tall grass there, so thinking i'll put it on after all.

Blakes 7 Liberator article

Bit of an exclusive heads-up for my modelling chums here (especially you Andrew).
Just got last night Martin Bowers article and photos for his Liberator piece for Bowerhouse #3.
Cor!!!!!!!!!
Its the most indepth he's written yet (and if you've got the last two, you know thats going to be quite something) and has taken him SIX days to write. That's because its SUCH a complex thing to build from scratch, so has taken a LOT of text and a LOT of photos too.
Its a great read and a remarkable insight how the guy's not put off by complex challenge's.
A little while yet before the issue is reay, but the wait will be worth it.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - primed

Blimey, that was fast. Cleaned all the pices last night and this morning assembled the kit. Seems i need do nothing more than glue the tracks on the tanks. And their turrets just puch into place - handy as i think i'm gonna need a bit of poseability when it comes to lining everything up.
The War Machines look like a very good snap-fit, with no visible joins so you can see here i've primed them still in their halves. The Cobra Necks also snugly fit into a space that then fits into the hull - again a snug fit. So, taking a gamble and keeping everything apart for the main painting.

War Of The Worlds Diorama

Been getting a bit stir crazy this week, so headed up to Comet Minatures, partly to try and find some donor kits, but also to see if Tony had anything that'd float my boat.
Was quite suprised to see he'd got so much new stuff in - a lot of Trek resins i guess ready for the new film, but this is what i went for: the new diorama from Pegasus Models.
I'd seen it up on sites such as Culttvman and Starship Modeller and the $17.00 price tag was very appealing. But, with the pound/dollar rate being what it is right now, that'd work out about £12.00, add P&P makes it nearer £16.00, then the inevitable Customs would hike it up to about £30.00.
So to find it for £19.95 made it a must-buy. Dunno if i've mentioned it before here but the Pal version is my 3rd favourite film of all time and the book that spawned it my 1st.
So, what do you get? Very nice, but quite small (1/44th) pieces, and not a lot of them. As you can see from the instructions, parts are small and build will be pretty easy.
Bit worrying is the very soapy feel to the plastic - so a bath before assembly.

Denis Lowe's Alien work

Lovely rare shots here of this fellas work on Alien. VERY rare shots of the Nostromo when it was still yellow:

http://www.zen171398.zen.co.uk/Alien.html

Klingon Bird Of Prey - a muddy mess

Top pic is the craft basecaoted. This took longer than usual as the piant i used is from the Montana range and called "Peperroni Mild". These are excellent paints available from art shops and guess used by "urban artists" and such like. They're a real quality product with the advantages being a huge range of interesting shades, drying time is very fast and they go on very well. Disadvantge is they STINK, and leave a powdery residue that has to be wiped off after drying. The to be on the safe side, sealing in with varnish.
Anyway, here it is top pic with a few panels picked out in other shades. I was going to go overboard on this, trying to emulate the studio model in the 2nd pic (but ignoring the turquoise) but have chickened out as the one's i've put on seem rather jarring.
Not so jarring 3rd pic where i've put a dark green/dark grey/dark brown wash on and wiped off. Trouble with this method is that it tones everything together but blends everything TOO much, resulting in a mucky, messy paintjob.
Pic 4 is the first stage to resolve that. You can see i've gone around every panel on the beak with a 2B pencil to define the panels and make them stand out more.

Battlecruiser - finished

Here you go then, just about done with the beastie. Pretty pleased how its come out, especially as its cost me just the cost of a sheet of Foamboard and a can of yellow paint.

Klingon Bird Of Prey - built

Thing went together very well, with some nice joining of sections. Where it lets itself down though is the neck section, which was pretty blank and hade quite a gap. Got round the problem by adding a few parts. Made the neck a bit thicker but not by much. And here she is primed. Funny how putting that on makes the thing look even better.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - a question of colour

Seeing as i had the Grey Primer out for the BOP, thought i'd squirt some over this ship to see how things are coming together.
Not bad, not bad.
Minds turned to what colour it should end up? Decided one of two: a grey, workman-like finish a la Alien/Outland etc or brown/tans ans rusty a la the Scorpio. We'll see.

Klingon Bird Of Prey - bugger

So here's how i got in about half an hour. Part fits very good and was going together like a dream. Details a bit soft, but there's lots of it.
Just moved onto the next stage of assembling the hull, cutting off parts from the sprue when i notice there's two more of those ribbed "shoulder" things that give the ship its distinctive humpback shape. "Where'd they go?" I think. Check the instructions and there's no sign of them anywhere. That's when it dawns on me - there's two options using two different sized "shoulders", one for the wings up and one for wings down BUT THE INTSTRUCTIONS DON'T TELL YOU THERE'S OPTIONAL PARTS. And i'd inadvertantly used the option i didn't want - wings up.
Bugger.
Hurriedly pulled the "shoulders" off the wings, which was possible as the glue hadn't quite set. Should be ok to put the right ones on, although some of the locating pins have snapped off in their holes.

Klingon Bird Of Prey

REALLY not looking forward to the new movie. Everything about it screams "Thunderbirds Film" to me. Loved the original series when it was on in 60's and 70's. It was telly SF with tons of action and decent effects. Then Next Generation came out and the hype and the fan following and the merchandise and the rivet spotting and all the other crap put me right off - something that's lasted right up till now.
But...
Sci-Fi Channel screens the original series 7.00 in the morning when i'm having breakfast. then someone over on the SFM:UK site posts pics of their 1/2500 ships they'd made.
All of which got me thinking Trek for the first time since about 1988.
Held off on getting the original series on DVD as there's a Blu Ray release soon. But HMV have Star Trek 3 for a tenner. Its my favourite of the films so what the heck? Its No1 for me partly because of Christopher Llyods brillaint portrayl of Kruge, but mainly the effects, especially the Klingon Bird Of Prey.
Like the original and first movie version Enterprise, and the Excelsior but i find pristine white and grey spaceships kinda dull to paint. With the BOP though i could really go to town making it down and dirty and grungy and have a whole lot of fun with it.
So, here we go. Courtesy of eBay for an excellent 4.50 for a mint sealed version. Its got the strange "in flight" display option, which i might use if its not too naff.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - more progress

Hasn't been too much in the way of news with this project. That's because i've had a real shortage of the same sort of fine, intricate detailed pieces that Andrew had used. And, of course, i needed such things if i wanted everything to blend in. But the donor kits for other projects have provided some tasty lil' pieces and you can see i'm slowly getting there.
Also had to replace some panels that were made of paper and had fallen off through age - and for them i used my trusty Go Fasta striping.
Really all that's needed now is to find something for the Bridge window and a way to cover up the long, horizontal section directly below that. Thinking Cable Tie.

Lovely CG Nostromo

Stunning stuff, courtesy of:

http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/2009/04/nice-cg-nostromo.html