Snubnose - engine

Here it is with the blanking plate on.

Before i put the cowls on, i want to really detail the engine area and this is the start.

Veteran modellers will recognise the engines as those from the Buck Rogers Starfighter kit - this is one of the goodies from my mums attic.

Decided not to strip the paint as, for once, i hadn't smothered the paint on too thick.

The plasticard strip on top is to disguise that its actually an open box affair.

Hellboy - skin done

Rotten pic this, but it gives you an idea.

He was interesting to do, in that his skin has a very plastic apperance in the film and the shading to it is very theatrical and obvious.

Very pleased with how the eyes have come out but the pic doesn't do it justice. Next one will be better.

Snub-nose Starfighter

Really shouldn't take another project on right now, but i came across this clear container in my big bits box and really like the shape.

So, have it in mind that this'll be the hull of a snubby Starfighter, the shorter end on the left being either a weapons or intstrument cluster and the larger end on the right be the engine area.

As you can see, i've already cut out a blanking plate to attach the engines onto, along with top and bottom cowls for that area, keeping the curves going.

Hellboy - base underway

I've used the grey primer as a basecoat, washed it with black then drybrushed the heck out of it with purpose made greys, varying the amounts of black, white and flesh tones each time.

The gunbelt looks like real beat-up leather in the film so i've used Games Workshops new Calthan Brown for the base, then washed it with Scorched Brown then black.

The metal parts are based in Gunmetal.

Fergee and Anderson - more "oh dear"

Something else i come across were two of the 60mm 2000AD figures that were sold through Forbidden Planet in the early 80's.Didn't know about acrylics then, so they're all Humbrol Enamels.

But the thing is, i don't remember buying them, painting them or owning them.Galling as i bought the Anderson one at Salute thinking how much i'd always wanted one...

Oh dear...

So, i'm up in my mums attic today looking for things to flog on eBay.Wells nearly dry there so i'm getting to the bottom of boxes and opening plastic bags - and what do i find?Loads of sprues and kit parts (especially Saturn V), which i'm chuffed about as my bits box is running seriously low and i can't justify buying a kit just for a few greeblies.The reason they're up there is that around the time of Empire Strikes Back being released i got into kit bashing big-time.Trouble was, i didn't just use "virgin" parts and would break apart a model to cannabilse them for parts.So i was sticking already painted parts onto already painted parts, most of the time with no thought as to scale, or whether it fitted in.I might've just covered a shell with glue and thrown bits at it.

Roy Batty - close-up

Blade Runners Roy Batty

Wanted one of these since i first saw it in the UKGK book back in '98 or so.

Luckily, it - and a lot of other classic Killer Kits models - are having a strictly limited re-release.

Got him from Frontier Models for £55.00, which is FAR more than i'd usually spend on a kit, but i'm fired up the mo with all things Blade Runner and i bunged it on my credit card, which makes it easier to live with.

Anyway, he's 1'6th scale, cast in cold cast porcelean and sculpted by Mike Hill.

The resemblance is uncanny, especially from the side and the sculpting on the hands is a work of art.

Also, there's not one air bubble or seam line.

It falls down in a few places though.

The crotch. Its almost cartoony - far too prominent and quite crudely sculpted compared to the rest of it.

The join between arms is not too good, ditton at the waist.

Finally, there's some sort of muck on one leg and an arm. Its a sticky residue, which i'm hoping will clean off, rather than it being a case of the material weeping.

Still, well pleased with it.

Tripod - finished

Used pretty bright natural light for this, so the base is much brighter and more garish than it is.

Pleased how its come out but, boy, am i nervous about moving it.

Don't think i'll be taking it to any shows.

Hellboy - in the red

Basecoated in Volkswagon Mars Red.

This is a very bright red, too bright fo the fella - but i need to start bright as it'll be toned down in later stages.

Far too glossy though, so i need to put a coat of Matt Varnish on before i can start pastelling.

TIE Fighter - finished

Real pleased how this came out. But the solar panels look a bit short to me.

Hellboy - primed

In Halfords grey and white

Hellboy - all ready

Puttied and glued and ready for primer.

Hellboy - what a whopper

Another shot to show off the likeness - and my arm to give it scale.

That's one heavy bit of resin - gonna have big biceps when this is done.

Hellboy bust

Here we go with the next project, the latest kit from Dr One's Lab - and offshoot of the FTVMC.

Of course its Hellboy, the film version, and sculptor Andy Brown has totally nailed the likeness.

Lovely bit of casting too by Jason Andrews - a few tiny airholes and that's it.

Dilemma is what to do with that right arm. Jason's cast it in clear red so it'd be possible to light it from within and copy the scene from the film where the glyphs glow red.

But, how to light it?

What to do?

This here is a project i started about 3 years ago.

Its the back half of a Space 1999 Probe Ship, the front half being an Eagle nose cone and other bits and pieces.

I gave up because i realised that the roundness of this section was clashing with the angles of the Eagle section and the two just weren't gelling.

Still like this bit so i've dusted it off and decided to finish it.

But what to do with the left hand end?

Do i have it as the engines, so the right hand side is the crew area? Or make the keft the crew bit?

If so, what will it look like? Was toying with a 2001 Discovery-type ball but don't think that's look right.

And the bits box is turning up blanks...

Tripod - catching basket

Sunlights really made this stand out. Excelent bit of sculpting/casting.

Tripod - Heat Ray

A bit blurry this (my Macro ain't very Macro) but here's the Heat Ray. I want it distinct from the Tripod's tentacles to try and get over more that its actually holding it.

So, i've basecoated it in the much brighter Mithril Silver and intend to use ink washes to give a different effect to the rest.

Tripod - nearly done

Hmmm... paint job seems too dark to accurately get it across with an indoor shot, so here he is in me back garden.

I'm highlighting with the same colour - Boltgun Metal - which is slightly lighter than its spray counterpart.

Judge Death - finished

Another neglected project.

Here he is all painted up. Really love that pose.

Drop Pod - progress

Been far, far too long away from this, what with the other kits on the go.

Anyway, here we are with more bits added. The left hand is some sort of docking clamp i've decided and the right end - which is the top of a toothbrush holder - is the engine area. Good cheat that - the engines will be recessed in that part of the hull, so i don't need to build them!

Tripod - basecoated

What i used was Games Workshops "Boltgun Metal", which is deleted now in spray form and incredibly hard to find.

The manager of my local store though lent me a can he had and so here he is (the Tripod i mean - not the Manager)

Tripod - what colour?

This has been on my mind since starting.

The book has the tripods as being "glittering metal" or "'luminum".

The illustrations this is based on though has it FAR darker (left).

Whether he meant it that way, or was just trying to create mood i dunno but i decided to go with a dark metal, mainly to make a change from the brightness of the Jeff Wayne and George Pal versions.

Tripod - all primed

Ready to go

Tripod - starting to paint

Here it is all assembled.

What i've done is to lay him on his side and spray black primer on the underside.

Then stood him up and glued in place.

A word about the base - this is the tried and tested way of mine of:

buy an el cheapo picture frame (49p from Wilkensons), take the glass out and replace with the backing card.

Put in an uneven layer of Das Pronto and move it around until happy (can't stand dead flat ground in dioramas). Once dry, its lifted out then glued down. It has a tendancy to shrink so the edges around the frame need filling before putting the grass down.

Tripod - poo, damn and blast it

So, go to bend the tentacles round to shape then trim - and half of them promptly fall out their holes.

Figured using Zap-a-gap suoper glue would hold them tight but guess not.

Had to out 'em all back, but with far more than i did before.

Tripod - body on

Hard to make out here but i've glued the body on.

The rear tentacles are incredibly long and i need to trim them soon.

Its also now incredibly unstable - and will be more so with the "hat" on.

Gonna need to glue it to the base, which i didn't want to do

Tripod - standing

This is how i did the next stage - plonk the lower legs into a bit of Blu Tac, position them under the upper section and play around until they could support it.

Lift off the upper section, put Araldite in the hollows of the knees and replace.

The left leg looks a bit wonky, which i was a bit concerned about, but after looking at some of the illustrations, its pretty much in keeping with it.

Seems more fragile this way.

Tripod - getting the legs together

Here we are then. The brass tubes have been attached to the stumps of the resin versions.

I've pinned and glued it to the "hip" section, leaving the glue to harden overnight.

For the glue i used Araldite Rapid for the place where the ball joint touches the hip and then superglue all round the outside.

Baykok - closeup

"You're one ugly MF"

Baykok the zombie

Thought i'd show one of my rare excursions into the realm of the horror kit.

Got him because the sculpt is soooo good. And how many zombie American Indians do you come across?

TIE Fighter finished

Real pleased how this came out - theere's a bit more to the shading than the pic makes it out to be.

Ta again to Ian Ward for supplying it.

Tripod - getting the legs ready

So, i've a real concern that the supplied legs over time will either bow with the weight of the body, or the joins will snap.

Hedging my bets by going this way.

I've cut some same diameter brass rod to the right lengths.

And i've shaved down the resin legs at the knees, hips and feet so that i can cut them down and slide them into the brass tube.

Ta to CFX for that one.

Tripod - sticking tentacles to the nose

Figured out a safe way to do it. Buuuutttt...

Looking at the illustrations, they're far too thick. So they're coming off.

Tripod - Catching Basket

Here's the rear of the body. Its a real shame my Macro feature can't pick up the tiny detail on the basket. Brilliant stuff.

Tripod - main body done

Here we are then with the arms on. I wanted the Heat Ray to not really be pointed at anything and the other tentacle flailing around as in some of the illustrations.

As i said before, i have something else in mind for the diorama:

One of THE strongest images for me from the book is how you can have a peaceful, sedate, normal English countryside scene with this monstrous aline thing striding across it so matter of factly.

And that's what i'm planning on - the Tripod walking though fields, the cows etc not bothered by the strangeness of the scene.

Tripod - the Heat Ray

Something the artist - and the sculptor of this kit - has got spot on is the Heat Ray - a box-like affair with a funnel.

I've gone against the build-ups way of having it held. In that it was just stuck on the end of one of the two large tentacles.

That looked bloody stupid to me so i used the other tentacle instead. This has a curve to the end, with the very tip cast seperately. Reason being, its designed to hold a poor human.

As i want to go away from the cliche diorama route of Tripod grabbing humans/Tripod by a church/Tripod firing Heat Ray, i instead will have it holding the weapon.

Here's the pieces.

Tripod - starting the face

Thought i'd do the best bit first, so here's the "face". It's incredibly odd that the artist decided to give the Tripods recognisible features, especially back in 1906!

So, here's the two beads for eyes in place. In the illustrations they have definite pupils so i'm using the holes in the beads for them.

I've attached the "nose" too. Again, a strange feature and one not even hinted at in the book. Its a basically a boom that some tentacles hang from - how i'm looking forward to sticking them on...

Tripod 4

Anyway, i don't need the diorama pieces as i've tons of them already so i can focus on the Tripod.

Here's what you get - and most impressive they are too. Flawlessly cast and lovely tight detail - especially the catching basket. You even get seperate beads for the "eyes".

Retrokit have to be commended for this excellent piece of work.

I've decided to be radical though and do my own legs, wanting to get them truer to the illustrations.

Alvim Corrêa's Tripod 3

Anyway, the kit is by Retrokit, just down the road from me and this is what you get:

The Tripod, vac form base, church, people, trees and lots of other bits and pieces

Alvim Corrêa's Tripod 2

I mean, its the boiler plate SF that i love so much - but so quirky.

The body looks like a water tank, the tentacles and Heat Ray are spot on and it has... eyes????

Alvim Corrêa's WOTW Tripod

As soon as i heard there was going to be a kit based on this guys designs, i knew i had to have one.

For those not in the know, he did the illustrations for a 1906 French edition of War Of The Worlds and they're just, well, weird

Tie Fighter 3

This is after going down my tried and tested route:

Pick out all the panel lines in pencil. This looks horrible as the pencil lines look far too shiny against the matt grey.

Then go over a lot of the panels with pastels. I use a mix of black, grey and a small amount of brown to warm it up a bit, always mixing them up before applying and changing the ratios so there's a fair bit of variation.

You might be wondering what the blue sausages up top are. They're rolls of Blu Tac that i used for masking the upper windows before priming. i'd stupidly removed them after,forgetting that i'd have to seal the pastels with Matt Varnish, so had to bung some more on.

The Matt Varnish is also used to get rid of the shiny pencil lines.

Tie Fighter 2

Here it is with a layer of Halfords Grey Primer.

I've decided to go with this for the base coat.

There's loads of different colour buildups on the Net ranging in colour from a dark blue to an almost white, and this seems to be a happy medium.

Ooops

Would help if i posted the blummin' pic

Colour me chuffed

Indeed.
Was well pleased that D'israeli put a coupla pics up on his blogsite a while back.
One was of my Living Axe and the other of my Martian - which i cribbed the eyes and ear for from his excellent design from Scarlet Traces (pictured here).
If you've never read them, his and Ian Livingstons work based on War Of The Worlds are highly recommended.
At the mo they are:

War Of The Worlds - adapatation of the book.

Scarlet Traces - sequel to the book, set in 1908 showing what the humans did with the Martian technology and what the goverment are doing with the last Martian

The Great Game - set in 1938, with Britain taking the War to Mars.

As i say, HIGHLY recommended. As is the fellas site:

http://disraeli-demon.blogspot.com/

TIE Fighter - 1

STILL on a Star Wars hardware trend, i've my good friend Ian Ward to thank for this fella.

Its the ERTL version and here has a completed cockpit and is just prior to masking up ready for the priming.

Escape Pod no more

This is as far as i've got.

Thing is, the more i build, the more i go away from CFX's and the studio models design.

So, decided to go my own way with it.

Figure its now some sort of drop pod - mebbe as in Starship Troopers.

Sandcrawler - 6

All done.

Had a great time doing this and i'm pleased how its come out.

Just need to make a base now - thinking of having it alongside some Moisture Farm buildings to give it scale.