New Ship - shades of green

From the top:
(1) Here she is based in the yellowest green i could find. Nice and shiny for the decals - but rather toy-like.
(2) Here i've added a few decals and yellow Go-Fasta stripes to break the green up a bit and a definete nod to Thunderbird 2.
(3) Had trouble with the nose as it seems the primer and main colour just didn't take at all, meaning that when i trimmed this panel to size it lifted paint each end. No matter - will cover the blemishes up with metallic paint and just have it more beat up than i intended.
(4) All done and ready for a coat of Matt Varnish to dull it all down.
(5) Dulled down - but STILL too toy-like. Right, heavy dirtying is in order then.

Vampire Batman - nearly time for clothing

So, festivities are winding down (hope your's were fab) and i've time to get back to me den.
Here we have the teeth all finished and i've sprayed a coat of white over the eyes and shield areas as (A) Games Workshops white these days is so thin its like milk, (B) yellow is notorious for being translucent no matter what brand you use, so thought i'd help both with a coating.

Merry Christmas readers

Okay, that's it, no more computer malarky while i go off and enjoy the festivities. Hope y'all have a great time and receive all you wished for.

Vampire Batman - skin and mouth done

Pretty happy with his undead skin-tone, so i've done the inside of his mouth. I've kept it quite dark in there as i want the teeth to be nice and bright and stand out as, once i've done them, i can go to town on the gore, which needs a light base to be put on to work properly.

Galactica Viper - base.

The base for my ship arrived yesterday and mighty fine it is too.
You might recall that there's a whole bunch of us making a squadron that'll be displayed at a model show next year?
To have cohesion, we're all being supplied by these bases which will all be joined together at the show to represent a hanger bay.
So they all work together, the bases are supplied already painted and we're not allowed to repaint them.
we can however dirty them down, put posters up, add flight crew, workbenches etc.
Not got a clue yet as to what i'll do.
You can also see i've started on the metallics on the ship and you may be able to spot some rust there between some panels.

New Ship - all together

Here we have one of the pods all finished. Other than the red stripes, all detailing came from the 88mm kit. I had to put a couple of pieces in the "mouths" as these front sections were hollow, so i had to fill them with P38 to give enough purchase to glue with. And of course that meant, if you looked into the maw, you saw a blob of the stuff.
Second pic shows everything attached ready to prime.
Then we have her this evening in her lovely grey scheme. After this will be a coat of white as i've decided the final colour will be a bright green - and i don't wnat the grey bleeding through and dulling everything down.

Music to model by

Only saw a chunk of Tron Legacy on a run through the other day, so can't have an opinion yet.
Can on the soundtrack though - BRILLIANT work by Daft Punk, that's on the CD player non-stop right now. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of John Carpenter's own scores such as Escape From New York and Prince Of Darkness.
Word of advice - buy the actual CD rather than a download as you then get the bonus material of music video, photo gallery and trailers.

Galactica Viper - pastelled

All beat up now by adding black pastels, along with a dark brown one for warming them up a bit and not making it look too stark.
Before removing the masking tape from the canopy, i picked it out in Vallejo "Oily Steel".

Vampire Batman - put back together

So, ears on, filled, rubbed down and everything primed.

Galactica Viper - off we go again

Can get back on track now with this build as i've hust received the excellent replacement decal sheet - cheers Mark.
As you may recall, a group build is going on over on the SFMUK site where we all build one of these new Viper kits, with new markings and all will be displayed as a squadron at a model show next year.
The decal sheet to enable that is for ships in the Spitfire Squadron, out of the Battlestar Excalibur.
Mark's done a brilliant job with these new decals, which work in conjunction with the existing sheet. All that's changed is the striping, the name of the mother ship and the pilots name - in my case i get my own plus my most used Net ID as my call sign. And some neat kill marks.
Looking forward to sealing all these in so i can crack on with the dirtying down.

Victorian Lunar Lander - done

Okay, filled in the centre of each washer with Gloss Black to convey portholes and darkend some arears down while i was at it.
Might now Photoshop it and put it in a lunar setting.

New Ship - starting on the pods

So, been around every shop in town looking at pens and clutching this interesting grey thing that Andrew supplied me.
I'd already decided that two of them would be the front of the pods that will be slung on the underside. I'd figured a pen would be about the right length for the pods themselves and, looking at the diameter of the rear of the grey things, thought a marker pen would be about right.
So got these two from Wilkensons for £1.00 and went with them as the cap is nicely detailed and there's further detail on the body itself.
Next step is to use P38 to blend them grey and the pen together.

New Ship - top and bottom

Thinking this is about how far i want to go with the detailing, just a few more panels and details and i'm done.
Up top you can see a long ribbed section, which from the B-52 kit. On the underneath i've got part from the always useful Airfix Refueling kit and i thought i'd bung a gun on so have used the barrel from the 88mm kit.
I've also added some small parts all over, mainly, again, from the 88mm kit - a rich source of fabulous, intricate detailed parts. No wonder it was used so much on SF models.

A new ship

Deliberately kept back the start of this project - as things looked decidedly dodgy for a while there...
I'd used up this here deodorant spray and thought the slanted top would make for a nice front to a regular rocket shape ship.
Fool that i was.
It wasn't until i added plasticard around parts of it and, especially, the ribbed card around the base that it dawned on me that i was making something that looked an awful lot like *ahem* an "adult toy"...
To take the curse off of it i decided to change tack and have loads more on there to break up the shape as much as i could, making it into a Foss-style ship in an unfeasable design and paintjob. Hopefully then folk won't ask what sort of "thrust factor" it might have.
First up was to add loads of red Go-Fasta stripes for panelling.
I'd decided to have a couple of weapon pods either side - a la 1999's Hawk - using those nifty pieces Andrew gave me as the centre piece of them. To attach them to the main body you can see i've put on half of the feet from the R2D2 kit either side.
And the other thing i've put on are these "wings" up top, which are actually a couple of stands from a telephone that was being chucked out.

BBC VFX book

REALLY enjoying this mighty tome. Just got past the really rather comprehensive history of the Beeb's Effects unit and the broad overview of just what effect entails what (could be a tad dull for anyone who already knows, but Mat Irvine has an alaways engaging style that always makes him readable) and am just starting on the shows listed alphabetically.
It going to have to be a given that, to jam in that many shows with almost equal coverage, some shows will suffer at the expense of others - would rather have more Who and Blakes 7 than Are You Being Served and Tomorrows World.
But that's a small, fan niggle - its set out to be a history of what the Effects Dept did in their time and it looks to have done that admirably, with tons of rare and never before stills to boot.
Recommended.

Victorian Lunar Lander - almost there

Okay, i've put the rusty washes on - even though it doesn't make any sense to have it on there.
Also managed to find a Union Jack decal, which was out of the Airfix SR4 Hovercraft kit.

Off The Shelf - 8 - Dracula as bat

Didn't really like Coppola's version, to me it was only noteworthy for its excellent design work (oh, and Sadie Frost).
Best of which was Drac in his bat form. Which why i bought this here kit.

B7 Hairdryer Ship - putting on a prong

Thanks to Andrew i've now attached the X Wing weapon prong up on top. Looking at the original, Mat put some sort of sphere on the end of it, so i've followed suit and bunged on a bead that's the right size.

Vampire Batman

Was having a good sort out and, at the very back of the top of one of the cabinets was this fella, very dusty and neglected.
I built him years and years ago and had long ago forgotten about him. He was in a right sorry state so thought i'd spruce him up. But the paintjob for his skin was pretty basic - Games Workshop "Rotting Flesh" just washed with black - so thought i'd strip him and start again.
So here he is. The stripper has oddly dissolved the glue holding his ears on but not the paint on his tongue. Odd.

First shot of the new Dredd

Coming courtesy of the 2000AD site, here we are with Karl as the main man.
Its just the first pic but, from what we have, it looks like they're going with a 70's version of ol' Chinface, what with the rounded shoulder pad.
Which is a bold, unexpected, though nice move.
Of course its very early days yet but, from a purely visual point of view, must say i prefer some of the fan made costumes, as seen in Pic 2.

Victorian Lunar Lander - pastelled

All dirtied down. Now to put rusty washes, grime and soot on. Am looking round for a Union Jack decal too to finish it off.

Stormtrooper Helmet - dealing with the inside.

You can see quite clearly here what i have to deal with.
Replace the far too light and really rather flimsy eye lenses.
Put mesh behind the teeth.
And cut down the bolts that hold the thing together - they're far too long at the moment and really gouge into me when i put the thing on.
I was also going to put some foam padding in the top for my head to rest on, but the eyeline when i wear it now is just right and, if i do put some in, i won't see a thing. Might put some on the sides though to stop any wobble.

Blake's 7 Ore Ship - replacing the domes

So, there's two EMA endcaps either side of the X-Wing part. Can't find any domes of a similar size, so have gone a bit further down the more detailed route and put a couple of nifty circular pieces from the 88mm kit, capped with a couple of chrome domes from a motorbike model.

E-11 Blaster - all done

Sunlights given it a golden hue that's just not there - but here you go with the finished thing.
Dunno where i'll put it.

The Lost Continent vs Jaws

Almost through my "Hammer Films The Unsung Heroes" book, which is a great work by Wayne Kingsley, but its SO indepth that at times its a bit of a plod. Especially when you're at the anecdotes from the tea ladies.
Just part that i sat up and took real notice when Wayne started on Robert Mattey.
Must confess that i'd never heard of this model maker before.
Sure know his work though - and am stunned that he connects them.
Not only is he the guy responsable for the bizarro creatures making "The Lost Continent" one of my favourite Hammer films, he made the giant squid for Disney's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" and was part of the team who made Bruce for "Jaws".
Why the heck have i never seen articles on this guy?

T.I.E. Fighter - gantry & Stormtroopers

A real nice touch to have this launch gantry included along with a couple of guards to give everything scale. Makes a nice change from having the ship resting on its wings, which i guess would buckle and collapse on the real thing.
Going to have the gantry in dark metallics as i don't want to detract from the ship itself.

An early Christmas present

At the risk of this turing into a Star Wars Blog, here we have probably the biggest thing i'll be getting this Crimbo.
I've had it made for me as, when i tried doing one myself, i lost interest in it REAL fast. Andy's done a great job and its lovely and sturdy.
He's made it to my specifications, ie a Sandtrooper.
Looking forward to dirtying it down but, in the meantime, i need to put mesh behind the teeth, remove the flimsy green lenses for much darker welding types and put in the ROM/FX soundboard, which'll be arriving soon (though how i'm gonna fit it in there...)

Black Park

If you're a fan of Hammer films or the ITC TV shows, might want to slip sideways across to my movie Blog, where there's a piece on our visit to a staple location of such productions:

http://mangamax-outofthebox.blogspot.com/

Image Animation's Joker

Thought i'd dust something else off to show you and this one has a bit of an interesting history.
Back in the mid 80's there used to be a fantasy bookshop down at the bottom of Charing Cross Road, right by Leicester Square.
Used to buy all my comics up at FP and my books in this shop, and they always used to have knick-knacks on the shelf behind the till.
Go in there one time and there's this fella sat there grinning at me.
Really taken with it, so ask the chap about it.
Seems some of the guys at the Image Animation studios used to sculpt stuff in their dinner breaks and flog them via that shop.
Now, this was about 1987 and i knew the company from their work on "Hellraiser" and "Lair Of The White Worm" by that time. Couple that with me being a Bat-fan and i had to have it.
Looking at it now, i still love the realistic skin tones (not at all apparent in the pics) and the dead fish eyes.
After all this time though, the main thing is whoever made and painted it prempted by quite a few years the Joker's re-invention in "The Killing Zoke" and, especially, "Arkham Asylum".
Top work, whoever you were.