Wah Chang

While looking around for reference pics for the Romulan Bird Of Prey, I dug out this book, a book i'd not looked at in a LONG while:



Wow - had totally forgotten what a great book it is - devoted to the initial sketches and designs for ships, props and costumes of the original series, with tons of excellently clear colour photos of all.
There's also sections devoted to creative folk who worked on the show, and the favourite person there for me is the creator of the Bird Of Prey, Wah Chang.
A terribly over-looked artistic genius, the gentleman was responsible of some of the most creative and imaginative designs seen in fantasy films and TV shows of the 50's & 60's.
His film work alone makes him God-like: Disneys Pinocchio & Bambi, Tarantula, The Black Scorpion, The Time Machine, Jack The Giant Killer, Cleopatra and one of my favourite films from that time, The Seven Faces Of Dr Lao:



If that wasn't fantastic enough, he was also the driving force behind tellys Outer Limits:



And, to me, THE most memorable creations for Star Trek:



An incredible man.

Romulan Bird Of Prey - assembled

Well, that was... brief.
I know its a kit from the 60's, but parts and assemble is very basic, even for an oldie like this - two halves for the hull, ditto the two wings, the two propulsion tubes and tail fins. And that's it:



Part fit was pretty good on these, just a bit of P38 for a few gaps on the underside, along with the hole in the middle for a rod base or if you wish to suspend it from the ceiling by a thread (does anyone do that anymore?) and a bit more where the tail fin meets the body:



So that's it ready for primer now. As I say, i'm making this solely from out of the box - no lighting it up, no drilling out the windows, no making it more accurate like others have done - adding windows all around the centre band, along with an extra row of windows on the upper hull.
The only variation i'm going for is the adding of the clear domes at the front of the propulsion tubes. Its odd they're given as an optional choice, when its clear from this studio shot that they're, er, clear:

Hornethopter - cockpit

Don't know why, but I've really lost interest in this build.
Odd.
Anyway, i'm doing a little bit here and there, so I've not totally abandoned the project.
Here we have the lovely brass etch dials in place:



And, with that in, the pilot can be sat in:

Romulan Bird Of Prey

Really wasn't expecting to do an out of the box kit build anytime soon, but:
(A) I was in Modelzone yesterday to pick up some paint
(B) And this kit was there for less than half price
(C) I've always liked the design
(D) This is the kicker - know i built one back in the late 70's, but have no recollection of the build at all.
So, i got one.
The box says "first time available in over 30 years" which sure does become apparent when opening the box and looking at the parts - little more than the hull halves and wings.
Don't think this will take long.
The box also boasts that it contains the bird of prey decal, which is nothing to boast about as so did the original.
Where it does differ is that we now get a stand and a "optional new clear nacelle caps and plasma weapon". Which seems kind of odd. I don't remember if the original did have a plasma weapon but, seeing as that was what used in the TV episode where this ship was first seen, i'm guessing it did. Don't understand why would that be optional. Ditto the clear pieces - if they're on the studio model, they should be on the kit.
I'll look into it.

Ma.K Tank - barrel

Common decency has made me hold off posting anything about this part till now, as the first part of putting the blue piece on a bit of plumbing pipe made it look like something from the Ann Summers catalogue:



Looks better with stuff on though. Plumbing pipe is notorious for not letting any glue stick to it. Except Hot Glue, which I used to attach the blue piece. That a pretty messy, unsubtle way of attaching things to it, so for all the details, I've wrapped 4 strips of Plasticard around it and attached various kitbits and plastic rod to that. I've also added more strips of Plasticard onto the existing one's, but with holes drilled into them just to break things up a bit and have a bit more interest.
I've quickly squirted on some Primer, just to make things a bit more clearer:

Lovely 501st photos.

Thought you might like to see some of Naomi Talbot's really rather excellent photos she's been doing for the UK side of the 501st. Stunning stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=362366677197131&set=a.350809111686221.1073741828.314980418602424&type=3&theater

From the back of the cabinet - Zeiram

Been having a sort out, looking for things to put up on the 'Bay.
I thought i'd sell this vinyl figure and figured i'd show you it before it goes.
Made it years and years ago and i'm still happy with the paintjob. At the same time, I scratchbuilt the final, very "John Carpenters The Thing" version of the baddie, but gawd knows where that's gone.

Ma.K Tank - getting ready for the barrel

Wee bit more progress here, mainly adding a skirt around the edge of the round red part, to invoke a kind of hovercraft vibe.
Onto the skirt i'll be putting on some of my trusty sticky jewels to make for nice bumpy, rivitty detail.
The blue part to the right is something I picked up from in the plumbing section of B&Q years back solely for its lovely shape, and have never got round to using until now.
It'll be the end of the whacking great barrel i'll be putting up on top there.

Bile Trolls & Colossal Squig all finished

That's a heck of Forge World resin and no mistake.
Had a blast doing them all, the Trolls especially.
Had a change of plan with the Squigs eyes - I was going to do them black, but when I did that and viewed the fella from a distance, he just looked like he had a row of extra nostrils each side. So, back to red then.

My first troop

Been away from here for a while as I went down to LEGOLAND for my first ever Troop in the Sandtrooper armour you may recall me building long time back?
Anyway, had a total blast. All the apprehension about overheating in that bodysuit/neck seal/rubber gloves, back ache from the backpack, and feet ache from those Elvis boots proved to be totally unfounded - yeah, I was pretty hot but not uncomfortably so and I didn't notice any other pains as I was having such a great time.
The public were fantastic, my fellow members of the 501st totally brilliant, and I loved every minute of it.
Once you've had your Induction and undertaken your first Troop, you're "branded" in a ceremony amongst much clapping and cheering and the branding involves having this logo put on your left shoulder bell.
What that means is I can now troop at any event now.
Roll on the next one.

Jabba's Palace - Gamorrean Guard & Elom

So we all know the Gamorrean Guards - frankly rubbish men in suits, with "comedy" facial movements:




The figure though for the set is just about the best so far, with nice sculpted detail aided by the bulk of the original:



Elom is a far better example of Jabba's court - still patently a man in a suit, but the face is much more alien:



The figure's not too bad. Pretty accurate actually:

Ma.K tank - starting the turret

Two pieces to start this section off - the dark green part is from a 1/24th helicopter kit, whose hole fitted just right over the bolt that's sat on the Plasticard. To that I've glued a cutdown top section of a 1/35th tank. That'll be the rear end of the turret and I've used it 'cause of all that lovely detail.

Colossal Squig - built

So, here's what he's supposed to look like:



But I don't like the silly running pose and the head so low down that you can't see his face or all that lovely teeth detail.
First of all, I was going to repose the legs so that he'd be in a more standing position. Found that that would work with little effort on the left leg, but the right would need hacksawing quite a bit, the leg cut into two at the knee and rebuilt, plus the toes reposed.
Didn't fancy all that, so instead what I've done is build him as he's supposed to be, but stuck him to the base at an angle:






And I did that by pinning him to the base with Araldite and used tons of it, wedging some rocks in there too, to help take the weight. After leaving a day for the stuff to set properly I then filled the gaps between the rocks with P38 and stuck small rocks onto that:



Very happy with this new, leaping over a rocky hurdle pose, which allows his lovely face to be seen a LOT better:

Ma.K Tank - bits going on

So, here we go then with adding stuff on.
Figure there's two ways i can go - the smooth, bumpy look a lot of Ma.K craft have, or the masses of machinery all over the place.
Because the legs are all hard angles, i decided that to do the bumpy route wouldn't work so have gone for clunky machinery instead, randomly placed throughout, with no sense of real order.
Except for the three globes on the legs, which i figure are some sort of "anti-gravity repulsor units" to keep the hover tank in the air, and are a tip i picked up from Martin Bower - yo-yos are IP plastic, very cheap, and can be snapped apart to give you hemispheres.
The other details i've been adding are a mixture of kitbits, corrugated Plasticard and cut down tank pieces.
I've found these are much more effective than plain Plasticard on Ma.K projects, as they instantly give far more detail with very little effort, plus they keep with the Ma.K design ideal of WW2 technology.