Zygon - the curse of studio lighting

Its Hellraiser all over again.
Look at any still from Terror Of The Zygon's and it'll have it that they're shades of orange.
Watch the show and, away from the amber studio lighting, its obvious they're actually a sickly skin tone with brown and orange detailing.
These two pics here show the effect i'm going to try and go for.
Studying them, the paintjob can be broken down thus:
Base of Bleached Bone,
darker wash put over that,
an orange over all the sucker areas and ribs,
a mid brown over that,
a very dark brown in the suckers and in some specific places.
So that's what i'm up to right now. Still looking a bit garish at the mo' but the browns'll take that back.

Plague Ogryn - blocking in

Here we go with the rather appropriate "Rotting Flesh" as the basecoat and i'm just starting to block in the luvverly detail with colours.
His spines's exposed and there's some other boneage on show, but therre's tons of sores and pustles along with strange rounded shapes bursting out of his blade arm. Also starting to put washes on his intestines that he's vainly trying to hold in.
As i say: luvverly.

Why's a jar of marmalade here?

Clue is where i've put it:

http://thewarsoftheworlds.blogspot.com/

What's happened to me Flag Counter?

It vanished this morning, then came back at lunchtime - but all the flags have been reset to zero.
What's going on? Techofear or what?
Bugger - liked wathing them slowly climbing.

Cinefantastique Vol 5 No 4

If you're a fan of the George Pal version of War Of the Worlds, i do urge you to track this brilliant issue down.
Most of it is devoted to the making of the film, very indepth articles and stunning shots of the modelwork and preproduction artwork.
Best for me is the early version design for the War Machine, clearly showing the "rays for legs" effect briefly mentioned and seeen in the final film and Art Director Al Nozaki working on an early version of the craft - as witnessed by the Cobra Neck being set right back and 3 legs. Although whether they were meant to be actual legs attached to the underside, 3 temporary legs to simulate the force beams, or just a temporary stand, is not made clear.
Worth tracking down. Got mine years ago off eBay pretty cheaply although dunno what it fetches now.

New Poll - Best Third Apperance by a Doctor Who Villain

Been a while since the last poll so here we go with another. Got a feeling i know what the outcome'll be...

Simple enough - which Who villain's third outing was the best? (oh, and i know Sea Devils aren't Silurians but they are distant cousins)
	Daleks: "The Chase"
	Cybermen: "Tomb Of The Cybermen"
	Yeti: "The Five Doctors"
	Ice Warriors: "The Curse Of Peladon"
	Autons: "Rose"
	Master: "Claws Of Axos"
	Sontarans: "The Invasion Of Time"
	Davros: "Resurrection Of The Daleks"
	Silurians: "Warriors Of The Deep"
pollcode.com free polls

Louie - putting on the red

Plague Ogryn - primed

Dead simple to build him - Superglue on the head and arm. And that's it. No flash, no gaps to fill.
Primed up, the detail pops out even more. Very pleased i picked this up.

The new Silurians

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
After all the care and trouble that has been taken to re-invent old foes for the new series such as the Dalek's, Cybermen and Sontarans, here they come up with some old tosh that'd not look out of place on Deep Space Nine.
Lazy folks, just lazy.
Look what someone not in the industry did on their home computer as a reaction to Saturdays episode just to illustrate the point on a Forum.
Like i say - lazy. If they can do it...

Nottingham Booty

So here's what i came back with:
A Zygon action figure from FP that i plan on puttying the joins on and repainting (the Giant Robot head comes with it, a cunning ploy to make you buy all the figures in that range and build him up out of the seperate pieces that come with it).
A Plague Ogryn from Games Workshop. The store there is slightly better now in that they actually have Forge World kits behind the counter so you can have a look at something before deciding whether you wnat it or not.
Its something they really should do more of - so many pics in their catalogues or on their Site really don't do the figures justice and its not till you see them that you realise how could they are.
Case in point here - would never have bought this chap just from the photo.

Off to Nottingham today

to meet up with a bunch of friends at Warhammer World.
Its always the venue of choice, even though most aren't gamers - its central to most folk, has plenty of modelling supplies and kits on hand and the food and drink are ok priced.
If you're lucky there'll be something brought back to cover here.
If you're unlucky there'll be photos of us.

Lunadiver - all done

Even though its a moon based fighter, and therefore shouldn't have any rust at all, it wouldn't be Ma.K without it so have bunged a load on.
Which i'm glad i did as its warmed up the sterile grey tones quite a bit.
Never covered the stand which i should have done as its taken the form of a launch arm thingy and is a nicely detailed bit of kit in itself.

German Satellite winging its way

What with the Vulcan Shuttle and Luna Diver nearing completion, a real simple paintjob on Louie about to start and me being stumped for parts for the Dragonfly, been looking around for my next project.
Just finished reading 3001 and tonight 2001 will be going on the Blu Ray.
Anticpating getting all fired up on the film, have gone ahead and ordered one of these babies.
As you probabaly know, it's from the sequence that introduces us to 2001 Earth, a montage of orbiting satellite's circling the planet just before we see the Orion.
Its never made clear - although its heavily hinted at in the book - but popular opinion is that they're bombs or weapon platforms.
Although they're barely seen on-screen, that fact has made them rather enigmatic and has proven a real detective case for folk trying to work out just what they look like, what they were made from and what countries they're supposed to be from.
So far, info is:
Kubrick ordered 11 to be built by the model shop and 10 are known to exist in photographic form. 5 made it to the Directors cut, 4 made it to the final cut:
01 - American
02 - unknown
03 - Chinese
04 - German
05 - French
06 - Russian
07 - US Telescope
08 - UK
09 - US Communication array
10 - US Deep Space Probe
11 - unknown.

Louie - assembled.

Can handle things now so off we go with some gentle model making.
Here he is pinned and assembled and you can see just what a multi-media kit it is.
Leaving off the arm till after painting as it'd be a right bastige to do if attached.
Also doing away with the film nameplate - figure anyone i'd show this to will know what its from.

1979 Starburst Convention.

Ahhhh, those were the days - when you mixed with the guests, exhibits weren't roped off and you could actually HANDLE them.
This was a good one, with a huge mix of film and TV SF on show.
Abiding memory is being sat directly behind the Blakes 7 cast during the awards ceremony and and watching the peevness when some of them didn't win.
Should dig out the issue that covered the event as thee's a shot of the embryonic me there.

Top Five Craft - #4

Number 4 for this classic.
Thought it appropriate to let this excellent video (scroll down to the bottom for the full version) of the recently restored original to show why its there.
'Nuff said.

http://www.propstore.com/nostromo.htm

Off The Shelf - 7 - Taybor's Emporium

I'm not going to rant over Season 2 of Space: 1999 as the Doc told me to take it easy. I'll just leave it as the only episodes i watch are the effects heavy one's as they, mercifully, didn't suffer the rot that the rest of the show did.
One of the most unusual craft from that season, that show, or any show/film for that matter is the Taybor's ship.
If you take it that the Earth ships had a similar look in design and colours and the alien had to be radically different from them, then this one is that taken to the ultimate degree.
Gawd knows what was going through Martin Bower's head when he built it. Hopefully we'll know in an upcoming Bowerhouse...
Anyway, this is a lovely kit from the much missed minimodelmadness, which went together dead easy.
The challenge was painting on those darn glyphs and the flame effects top and bottom, most of which had to have a white outline to each.
Had a migrane for weeks after

Vulcan Shuttle - matt

All decaled up now and a coat of Matt Varnish applied.
Now for the beating up (and oh how i want to beat this kit up)

A Pictorial History Of Science Fiction

Guessing if you're a SF fan from childhood and were born in the early-mid 60's, you'd have been buying up the same books as me.
This is one i've kept on various bookshelves since getting it back in '76.
It's, oddly, not one of the endless tomes that were released on the back of Star Wars, as the most up to date thing in it is Space: 1999.
So its dated badly.
But still view it fondly. And that's because, as you most probably will recall, back in those pre video, pre Star Wars days, SF was pretty hard to come by.
So to have a book with all these fabulous images in was pretty darn special.
I've included here my favourites that i can remember from back then: Garth and Jeff Hawk together on one page, an excellent, clear shot of the Enterprise along with some brilliant paperback covers, still the best shot of a Zygon i've ever come across - and stunningly atmospheric b/w images from Jules Verne.
How i poured over all of them.

Off the shelf - Sky1

The Imai kits have come in for an awful lot of ribbing over the years, what a lot of them being mis-shapen, inaccurate build your own toys basically, with many parts replaced by wholly inappropriate devices.
But some aren't actually too bad.
Sky1 here's main crime is that its rather squat compared to the original. And some detail is rather clunky.
But, painted up, it gives a nice, cheap, good-sized craft. Altough i did away with the lowering ramp at the rear that lets Straker's car out...

Dragonfly Ship - adding detail

Have realised that, if i use parts already removed from their sprue or don't need tidying up, i can actually continue building things.
Just a matter of squirting out some Superglue onto a plastic surface then dip a cocktail stick into it and use that as an applicator to the model.
Going front to back you can see i've added one of the "eyes" of the ship. I was worried that no glue would stick but found if i packed the inner rim with Araldite it makes a nice snug gripping fit.
I've also added a parts to the midriff. You may or may not recognise tha flanged things as being parts from the old Airfix SR4 Hovercraft.
The green piece on the underside is a trimmed down part from that staple of Anderson modelwork, the Airfix Girder Bridge.
Minds turned now as to what to do with the top area of the main body. I want to leave a lot blank but thought a long detail piece on the highest point might be nice.
But can't put that on till i've come up with something for the "wings".
I already have those, but i need something that they'll attach to which then attaches to the body. That way i don't need to put them on till all the painting and weathering is done (can see meself getting an eye poke from the rotorblades).
But, right now, coming up blank for the attachment point.

Whatever happened to the Sulaco?

Now you can find out via this rather nice fan film.
Looks far more than the $500 the guy says it cost to make:

http://vimeo.com/11569380

Off The Shelf - 5 - Alien3

This is the Halcyon IP version, bought the day it was released. Made it staight from the box but i tried something different to detail the skin.
It was a LONG time ago that i did it, so don't remember actual names or brands of paint used, but it was a case of a standard flesh or tan basecoat, then lots of sloppy ink washes applied then randomly blotched off.
Did that a few times to build up the layers and then lots of coats of gloss varnish to try and add even more depth.
Still pleased with it, although i wish i'd misted something onto the inside of the dome as it just looks like what it is - a bit of clear plastic.

Louie - the only parts that need effort

You should be able to see here the only cleanup that needs doing - at the bottom of the "shoulder" there's a couple of very small airholes that need filling.
The other thing is working out what goes where with the arm. As you can see, there's quite a few pieces which'll look nice and busy when done.

Off The Shelf - 4 - Balrog

Had another dusting and its turned up this chap.
He's actually part of a toy diorama set which i've puttied the joins of and repainted but kept the neato clear orange parts - just put a wash of Tamiya Clear Red over them.