Best Moments In Film # 3 - Goosebumps 3

Bad enough that Freeman Lowell's gone and along with him the last chance of the Earth ever to see vegetation again, but the thought of this lil' fella tending to the last remaining forest all by himself, never to see anyone ever again, along with the brilliant Joan Baez vocal, brings a lump to me throat and a tear to me eye EVERY flaming time.
Such a great film, so ahead of its time and so much more relevant than ever.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - starting the sensors

Following Andrew's suggestion, i've started putting on hanging down sensors a la the Nostromo.
From right to left: an Airfix Lunar Module dish and leg with some sort of engine block between them - don't remember more than that as its something i pulled off a scartchbuild yonks ago, some gun turrets from the 1/72nd Superfortress and, far left, the very noticible but very excellent refueling arm from the 1/24th Harrier. Just had to stick that on, problem is that it hangs down lower than the base of the ship.
Had intended to not have anything more on the bottom as there is as i like the look of it just squatting there rather than stand on legs, but now have to come up with something to extend it downwards an inch or so.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - basecoated

Here she is with the primer on. I was going to put a grey auto spray on top as i've decided on an Alien style grim and realistic finish. But i've used "Halfords Grey Plastic Primer", which is a bit lighter and more of a satin finish than the bog-standard primers, and i'm happy with how it looks.
Next step, a couple of horizontal bands of colour to break up the grey a bit, and these'll be in reddy brown as a nod to the the other colour option i was considering - the Scorpio from Blakes 7.

The Thing From Another World - skin detail

You can see here i've picked out the mouth area, along with some open areas of flesh. When i sculpted it, i decided to have him in mid transformation so here he is splitting open. I'm leaving the skin in matt tones to try and convey parchment-like flesh. But the open areas are going to be nice and glossy for contrast.
If you look at the middle eye, you get an idea of how they're going to turn out.

U.S.S. Glazebrook - a lightbulb moment

There i was this morning, having a shave and being frustrated that i haven't found a suitable cockpit window for this craft.
So i'm shaving going "i need a rectangular slotted shape, what to use?, i need a rectangular slotted shape, what to use?" when it dawns on me that my razor has disposable heads - rectangular with a nice fine mesh detail.
So, off its come and on its gone.
Hurrah!
You can't make it out in this shot but the parcel tape there is holding a cable tie in place while it sets. Love these little fellas - cheap but with lovely detail and stick very well.

The Thing From Another World - skin

Starting to lay down various grey tones as, if its going to have blue snakes for hair, i don't want anything too jarring. Bunging some flesh in the mix though as grey by itself is far too stark.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - completed

All done bar replacing the rods holding up the Fighting Machines with clear rod. Its odd - they made the eyepiece, wing bits and flame in clear so why not the rods? Speaking of the green/red parts of the craft, i've really pleased with how they came out and think they make it for me.

The Thing From Another World

REAL blast from the past here - just uncovered it from an old box.
I love the short story "Who Goes There?" that was the inspiration for the "The Thing From Another World" in the 50's (albiet very loosely) and "The Thing" in the 80's (more faithful, and most of the characters names used) and, ages ago, thought i'd have a go at making my version based on the description - and what a description!:

"The room stiffened abruptly. It was face up there on the plain, greasy planks of the table. The broken half of the bronze ice-ax was still buried in the queer skull. Three mad, hate-filled eyes blazed up with a living fire, bright as fresh-spilled blood. from a face ringed with a writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow"

Pretty crap at sculpting and what you can see here is a combination of having various goes at it then giving up in depression. Materials varied with each abortive attempt, mainly Das Pronto, Green Stuff and Milliput.
Decided to finsih it though and paint it.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - base done

Have added some vegetation to try and make it look less like the moons surface. I've painted the Fighting Machines poles black, but will be changing them for clear rod when i get some.

Dinky lil' Star trek craft

When my firend Ian came round, he also gave me these two ships. Used to have them back in the 80's and they're from the old Games Workshop range of craft that went with their game of the time. Lovely pieces of work, with lovely detail. The Deep Space Frieghter is all ready to go as Ian's stripped it, but the Romulan Bird Of Pry i'm gonna strip as i prefer them in the green combos.

Possible future project is a go

Remember a few posts down how i said i fancied making something along the lines of this ship from a graphic novel. Well, my good friend Ian Ward saw that post (and it was his graphic novel too) and supplied me with this lovely shape to get started.
Thanks Ian.
Its a bizarro snack holder where you upturn it, put your food in, then turn upright and the gimble inside closes the container up.
Not too bothered by the gimble so you can see in the bottom pic i've cut it apart. May leave the large open hole to have it as either an engine or a scoop device. First thought for the horizontal sections was to built them up from a basis of a piece of Foamboard but changed that now to try and find something from my bits box that'll be nice and sturdy and detailed.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - dinky Fighting Machine

Here's one all done. SO cute. And such lovely detail for such a small scale.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - the clear bits

That's them all done. VERY impressed with this Pegasus company as everything just pushes into place without glue, the fits that good. You can see i've done the clear wing tips and fron thingy in Tamiya Clear Green and one of the Cobra Head eye pieces in Tamiya Clear Red. Not sure about the flame part. I coated it with Tamiya Clear Orange then the Red at the top feathering it down towards the blast area. But, dunno. Flame effects are really difficult to pull off and i've no idea how this'll end up. Trouble is, you have to use it - you're not given the option of a spare lens in case you didn't want to. Which'd have been nice.

War Of The Worlds Diorama - progress

Here we are with the base a much more accurate (though dull) colour. Tanks pop a bit more now they're lighter. And you can see i've started to drybrush the three dead men turned to ash laying there.
Name plaque was a bugger to do.

Crashed Cylinder

Come across this in a box this morning and thought i'd show it to you. Its supposed to be the Martian Cylinder on Horsell Common, of course from "The War Of The Worlds". I made it for the UK SF Build Challenge over on the SFMUK site but,alas, that was cancelled due to lack of entries.
So, shelved this. Its not quite finished as i wanted a LOT more people - but at this scale, they're pretty expensive and i was going to get them bit by bit. Still might do that, but for now the diorama shows the first few folk on the scene.
Oh, and the cylinder is a Ferro Roche egg container cut at a 45 degree angle, plopped into a mass of Das Pronto then Games Workshop scatter material sprinkled over.

Doctor Who rips off Dredd

C'MON!!!!! I know the production team are fans of the comic, but to rip off the Dune Sharks from Judge Dredd SO blatently tonight without any sort of nod to John Wagner, Henry Flint and Trevor Hairsine is just not on. *rant mode off*

Klingon Bird Of Prey - dirtying done

Here we are with the regular washes etc affair process of dirtying down. Still a bit too matt so am going in with ink washes in a few places to simulate oil/propellant leaks to add a bit of gloss.
Then gonna go to town with the M.a.K rust washes

Possible future project?

Just finished the "Bullet Points" graphic novel, an alternative tale of the Marvel superhero universe. An okay tale, but was quite struck by the design for the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier - a large ball dropped below lots of horizontal, angular shapes.
Might use it as a jump-off point.

War Of The Worlds - changing colours

So here's the base in Red Oxide Primer and the tanks in the suggested Olive Drab. Had a look at the battle scene in the film (oh, what a hardship) to get an idea what shade of brown the ground should be - and i've got to change ideas.
The ground isn't anything like brown, more just shades of grey, and that's before the Martians start burning things up. So will have to change that.
And the tanks are much more of a lighter green than the Olive Drab, so that's got to change.
I had initially thought any sort of grass would be out as the seperate shards of the stuff i've got would be waaaay out of scale to this 1/44th. But in the film there's quite tall grass there, so thinking i'll put it on after all.

Blakes 7 Liberator article

Bit of an exclusive heads-up for my modelling chums here (especially you Andrew).
Just got last night Martin Bowers article and photos for his Liberator piece for Bowerhouse #3.
Cor!!!!!!!!!
Its the most indepth he's written yet (and if you've got the last two, you know thats going to be quite something) and has taken him SIX days to write. That's because its SUCH a complex thing to build from scratch, so has taken a LOT of text and a LOT of photos too.
Its a great read and a remarkable insight how the guy's not put off by complex challenge's.
A little while yet before the issue is reay, but the wait will be worth it.