MONGROL

Strictly speaking this is an action figure. But its SO huge, SO detailed, SO well painted, that i thought i'd show you it here.
SO expensive too. But, when you see just how good the packaging is, it kinda justifies it.
Strange though, i thought he was going to be 1/6th. But as you can see, he towers over my other two ABC Warriors who're in that scale.
Thought i might have a little painting job in that all the pics i'd seen up to now made me not too convinced about the eyes.
But they're a lot better in the flesh/steel, just needing multiple coats of Gloss Varnish to make them look like lenses, rather than the pieces of matt white and black plastic that they are.

The Brampton show & Jonathan Dewar

On Sunday, me and my good Friend Alun took a trip up to St Ives for the Brampton model show. Its pretty much all military but the SFMUK were having a table so up we went to add our efforts.
It wasn't a bad show, great if you're into the military, but there was nowt i wanted to buy and the public turnout was rather poor.
Still, it was good to put faces to names on the SFMUK Forum and have a nice natter.
This pic by Alun gives an idea of some of our stuff:

A REAL surprise though was to find Jonathan Dewar sat upstairs at a table.
A genuine legend of the early UK Garage Kit scene, he produced some stunning original and film sculpts and his pages in the excellent UKGC book i used to pour over endlessly.
My respect for him leapt even higher when i realised from that book that he was the creator of the STUNNING Thing diorama that was a magnificent feature of Forbidden Planet's display case showcasing the hobby.
He was also the creator of the brilliant, and really rather disturbing, enormous Rawhead Rex figure with the enormous todger.
Anyway, had a good natter with the guy - and what a great bloke. Friendly, intellegent, enthusiastic and great company. There were a whole bunch of his works on the table:

including an awe-inspiring Peresus, part of a huge diorame which will capture the moment of him decapitating Medusa.
Stunning stuff, and the highlight of my day.
Sadly, i've only one kit by Jonathan, his excellent Mad Max:

Unfortunately, i built it at the start of my large figure builds, so the skin tones and work on the eyes i kinda wince at now, but they don't detract from what a brillaint, mixed-media kit it was and i still rate it as one of my favourite ever builds.

Sebulba's Podracer - ressurected

Having a sort through the shoeboxes holding all my junk, i was real surprised to come across this project tucked away that i'd totally forgotten about.
Having a search through this here Blog, i see i started it waaaay back in 2007 and i guess, as usual, something else came along that took my attention and it was shelved.
Looking through it now, i can see i'd almost finished the Sebulba figure, had drawn on panel lines on the open blank orange areas and pasteled them.
I can see i'd also started to add kitbits to busy up the engine areas.
And something i dimly remember is to use the really rather crude stickers that passed as decals as (A) there's no way i can duplicate them with paint, (B) the one's for inside the engines etc are really rather nice.

BOWERHOUSE 5 out now!!!!!!

Its been a long, long slog to get here, with a last minute cock-up at the printers delaying a tad more, but happy to say the latest issue is in stock and shipping now.
Of interest to you scratchbuilders out there, there's going to be a chance soon to have a go at a build challenge and end up winning a Martin Bower original.
Not the craft above though. Can't believe he made that when he was just 16...

Link:

http://www.scifimodels.org.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=1&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=28&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=8

Sandtrooper helmet - done. Almost.

Okay, here it is with more accurate, MUCH darker green lenses fitted and black mesh installed behind the frown.
Next step is to weather it and dirty it down, but i'm holding off until i get the armour as i want to do it all at once so that everything blends together properly.

From the back of the cabinet - ED209

This was my very first vinyl kit, and i got it when it was first released, about a year os so after Robocop came out, and i think i picked it up in FP.
Can't remember the maker but it was Japanese and my most expensive kit up to that point and i remember really taking my time, picking out all those little rivety details things, amking sure i did it justice.

Star Wars Escape Pod - done.

Real pleased ho well this has turned out, for just agimmicky part of an action figure set.

From the back of the cabinet - Pred and Dark

Thought i'd show you my second ever resin garage kit, with one of my latest.
The Darkness figure was bought and built still in the time when i didn't know that the norm for such kits was resin as brittle as slab toffee, with more holes then an Aero bar and packing being last weeks newspaper.
Fast forward 20-odd years to this Female Predator - a much bigger, much better project entirely.

Nurgle Titan - body done

Just the weapons to do now, but thought i'd put the body and legs together to show how she's coming along.
The only thing to finish in this part are the severed heads and details up top.

Star Wars Attack Shuttle - finished

All done, and even with the weathering looks still too garish.
Guess i could've beaten it up more and darkened it down more with washes, but i'm leaving as is.
Maybe i'll get a Tyridiam Shuttle to put alongside it as a contrast.

Star Wars Escape Pod - getting rusty

Okay, over the pastels i've put on a thin wash of Games Workshops "Snakebite Leather", my colour of choice for rust.
I've then gone in with a stronger, less diluted version on a small bruch and laid that into cracks and crevices.
And i've put a wash of black into the ribbed section that goes around, to make it pop a bit more.
Next up is more of the same and then onto the REALLY rusty colour

Star Wars Escape Pod - greys

Something i always find with grey craft is that, in most cases, Grey Primer just won't do as a basecoat - its far darker with too much blue in it than most studio models have.
And there's not an awful lot of range of greys in car spray paints.
So here i've done what i did with the Star Fury: dust White Primer over the Grey to lighten it up a tad.
In this top pic, its not too clear but over that i've put on a thin wash of black then a drybrush of a light grey to make the details pop a bit.
Then it was on with the Drak Grey panels where needed.
Then it was time to think all things dusty.
This Pod is a classic case of Rebel craft being down and dirty and rusty as hell, no more so than around the engine area and along the sides.
Looking at the photo a few posts below, it at first seems that those areas are in a contrasting tan tone to the rest of the ship.
Further studying, i don't think its the case - think its a heavy, HEAVY dusting of sand.
Which raises the question, where has the Tantive IV been before to get its Escape Pods in such a state and why not clean them before putting them back in service?
Or it could be this model shot is after filming, after its been burried to its neck in sand...
Anyway, after that, first step in the rusty process is to put on some brown pastel in the places indicated in Lorne Peterson's excellent Sculpting A Galaxy book:

Star Wars Blu Ray

Well, got it - and had to go straight to THE scene didn't i? Not as buttock-clentchingly bad as i thought it'd be, it still is totally unnecessary and totally pisses on all that pathos and torment that Vader gets across by a couple of simple head turns. Didn't realise there's actually two "No"'s. The first sounds like its lifted from the "No, I am your father" line and the second is the hideous "Noooooo" from Revenge. An utterance sure to be repeated round the world when folks get their copies.

Star Wars Escape Pod - starting

First up then was to hack off the hinges and cover the gouged areas with Plasticard:

Once assembled, i was kinda stunned at how accurate the toy is - comparing it with the pic in the Archives book, many of the details are replicated (not 100%, but they're there), a lot of the panels are spot on and things like the top manouvering jets are in exactly the right places:


So, next step is a coat of Grey Plastic Primer, which it looks like was the top coat for the engine bells and other panels:

Bowerhouse Vol 5

Very VERY happy that, after a maddingly frustrating delay, the next issue is at the printers and will be on sale soon.
Inside you'll find articles on Supercar, Martins own SNOCAT and a what if? private commission of UFO's SID if the series was remade now.
Also, there's the start of a gallery section, featuring some of Martins early work, many of which have never seen print before and an ad for an upcoming feature that i'm very excited about, seeing as i thought of it.
Over a couple of issues, Martin will be making a craft, using readily available materials. The idea is that folk follow it, make thier own variation, and stand to win an original Martin Bower creation.
Exciting stuff indeed.
Linky is below - just scroll down and its on the left:

http://www.scifimodels.org.uk/

Star Wars Escape Pod

Went up to London today and found this rather old toy in Orbital.
Reason i noticed it is that C3PO comes with an Escape Pod from A New Hope.
Always loved the design and the fact that the basis of it was two paint buckets stuck together.
I'd tried making one a few years back using an Ovaltine jar, but that didn't come out too well so eventually morphed into the Nurgle Drop Pod featured here earlier.
Looking through the packing, it looked pretty accurate what with the correct engine bells and very detailed hatch, so thought i'd get it, accurise it if needed, and repaint it.
Opening it up, i'm presented with:

Even more impressed that it has the manouvering thrusters too.
First jobs: back the small rectangular viewport with some clear plastic, hacksaw off the hinge and rebuild that area.

Millenium Falcon - colour probs

A little while back i mentioned how the Star Wars craft often sport a distinct white/cream/grey shade that's quite difficult to replicate.
I seem to have stumbled on a good match for my Attack Shuttle, but didn't have much luck years back when i did this Falcon.
It was a nightmare to try and match, not helped by quite a colour variation when comparing the different versions of the studio models in my Art Of books.
This is what i came up with in the end and i'm still not happy with it. But at least the various panels and the weathering break it up quite a bit.
Incidently, this was a project i undertook to accurise the old MPC/Airfix kit.
I bought a side wall kit to replace the far too chunky originals,
an engine area kit, comprising decal and brass sheet detail:

a Gun Turret interior,
a top rear section detailing kit,
a cockpit decal set,
and a top of the ramp decal set.
Then set about lighting it.
Oh dear oh, dear - BIG mistake.
The landing lights were okay:

but the trouble was, i used superbright LED's and chose to backlight everything.
Meaning it washed out the cockpit:

and the turret:

Wished i'd not bothered.
Especially as Fine Molds had released their far, far more accurate version at the same time which, once i added up the price of all the extra bits for mine, would've worked out cheaper...

Nurgle Titan - weaponry

Something i've been putting off is making the two whacking great big guns that form the arms of the beast.
I could carry on using the templates, but reckon they'd look far too blocky and simple compared to the actual one's from the GW universe.
So, decided to make a couple using just the basic design elements as a springboard and go from there.
Here's the first built and sloppily coated in Mr Surfacer. I've used the template for the box shaped rear section but then covered it with kit bits, many of them deliberatly curved to break up all the hard lines.
The barrels are two pieces of tubing cut to size, with Plastruct ducting on top, cable ties on the sides and two interesting looking parts from a Gundam kit for the very ends of the barrels. Keen modellers will, of course, spot the Saturn V engine bell that i'm using for the joining piece between the gun and the body.

Star Wars changes waaay out of hand now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USwTolALBM0&feature=youtu.be

And even more Star War changes

Why? Why? Why?
It doesn't even make sense - how did he get in there then?

Tarkin the mickey

If i had a fantastic life-size bust of the Grand Moff, driving with it on me lap wouldn't really occur to me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp2Xu9xOzzg