BYEEEEEE!!!!!

Off now for two weeks of adventures - see you soon.

Gonk Droid - Part 2 now up

Speilberg Tripod - a rethink and progress

Okay, nixed the idea of lighting the fella - that's too darn fiddly to gouge out holes for the LED's, dunno if those legs will be able to support the weight of the battery pack conclealed in the hood over a long time, and i never turn on my models that i've lit previously. So, i'm cracking on. BIG surprise straight away is the poor fit on the hip section. You can see here that the "skirt" things that go round the hips are secured by two lugs in to two holes - but the lugs are too big and, if you thin one down and put it into a hole, the other one doesn't line up at all:

No way round it but to ignore that second hole and glue straight on to the hull. Should be okay as there's not much weight to it. I'll be filling in the unused hole. You can also see here the other two sub-assemblies i've finished:

They were a much better fit, the only pain being the four spine stripes that go on the back. The spines are SO thin and delicate that cutting the strips from the sprue was real tricky without snapping them. And then it was a pain to get them all lined up so they'd go into their holes on the hull, not helped by the hull being clear plastic in case i did want to light it, making it almsot impossible to see what i was doing. Got there without mishaps though:

The Devourer - real progress now.

Okay, this is him all done:

Next up, after priming in Grey, is to choose the colour choices as the prelim i'm working from is B&W:

Who better than to go to for advice than his creator, Leigh Gallgaher? Leigh suggested standard crocodile skin for his body - fair enough - but his mouth and tongue is expelling bright light. How to do that then? Had a good think and in the end deided to go: white, washed with light blue, drybrushed with white, a coat of Gloss Varnish, and while that was still wet, a sprinkling of very fine glitter material from the art shop. Think it came out ok-ish:

And here he is this morning, with a base coat of dark green blocked in on his skin:

Spielberg Tripod - what to do?

Am a massive, MASSIVE fan of War Of The Worlds so, really, i should've snapped up this kit long ago. But was kinda skint when it was available for pre-order and certainly can't afford it now. But i got a lot of dosh for my birthday, so thought i'd splash out. Now its here though, what do i do with it? Light it? That's an idea. But a lighting kit is only available in the States - and i don't want to wait long for it. But, looking at it, all i need is 3 LED's and a lighting strip, things readily available from Maplins for way under half the price. But do i want to light it? My other Tripod kits aren't lighted, so why should this one be? But its got clear parts ready for lighting, so i should do so. But how many of my lighted kits do i actually switch on? What to do? Also, do i make it as the Spielberg film version, or do i try and adapt it more into Wells' version? My brain hurts.

Gonk Power Droid

Yet another BIG project, this one too big to really get across in pictures only, so i'll be detailing it just on Youtube:

Under The Influence - 9

Being an occasional series while the paint is drying, the glue is hardening or waiting for enthusiasm to come back, where i have a waffle on the things, films, books and whatnot that had a direct influence on me, getting me into this hobby or the whole SF/fantasy malarky. Picture the scene: Its about 1972, you're 10 years-old and you and a few of your friends have cottoned on to the fact that the paper mill down the road has deliveries of old magazines that are piled up outside, ready to be pulped. And that fence isn't that hard to climb over. And on Sundays there's no-one in there at all. Which is how come we ended up rifling through stacks of magazines, some like Womens Realm and such which held no appeal, some *ahem* "adult" one's, which we found strange and unsettling. But, what we were after were the likes of these - horror magazines, filled with info on past creature flicks. Don't think we actually read the text - it was the glorious B&W stills of monsters from films we didn't have a chance of seeing that held all the appeal, morbidly gross and fascinating at the same time. And the ads. Rubber masks and Aurora kits, things i longed for like you wouldn't believe. Very pleased to pick up this issue in my comic shop yesterday - the owner had bought a job lot of 60's and 70's comics and this gem was buried deep down and i got for only a quid!

The Devourer - back again.

VERY unfairly been overlooking this guy. You may have seen the last post, where i'd realised that he was far, far too wide and had hacked a lot of the inner area out. Since then, as you can see, i've covered up the hack-job and i've made a start of the strange, flowery things that are in his gullet. I've also put in his gum area with Green Stuff and the two halves of his original face. They're pretty basic, and i'll be adding detail to them. And i've pushed the teeth into the still soft Green Stuff, counting on its notorious stickiness to hold them in place. You can see i've used cocktail sticks for them and i've found if you buy the cheapest, crappiest one's you can find, they work a lot better as each one is a slighly different shape.

Carnifex - all done

Here he is then, all parts finished and the mouth area glossed - wepaons too, just to distinguish them from the rest of him. And i've included a shot of the other Tyrandis i have to show how i'm keeping the colour scheme sort of seperate. There's a bit of variation, as each time i have to relearn what i did last. Also, figure far left is the original "Screamer-Killer" from the 80's - the distant ancestor of the Carnifex.

Dice Ibegon finished

Here she is then. I've tried to replicate something that was tried when shooting but abandonded as it was far too messy and could make the rating of the film go up - she spews red muck up.

X-Wing - getting there

Build on this was breeze, and i'm still amazed how some things so tiny can be so detailed:

Once the sub-assemblies were done, it was time to join everything together. Its built so that the wings can be opened up any time and the landing gear can be removed, but i've chosen to glue the wings together and the undercarriage permantely lowered:

Once done:

It was given a coat of Halfords Grey Primer:

Carnifex - inked

Had a great fun the last couple of days putting the ink washes on the beastie: I'm trying to keep a sense of continuity with all my Tyranids, with them all having the same colour scheme as my very first one of them, the Malanthrope: Trouble is each time to remember just how i did that one. But i've stumbled on it - mixes of Tamiya Clear Green and Red, with some Games Workshop inks thrown in too. Trouble with all that is that you're left with a VERY glossy model - sort of approaching Danbury Mint in shininess. So a coat of Matt Varnish is needed. After that, you can see i've finished the tongue, blocked in the armour areas with "Catacan Green", based the teeth, and done the eyes in the same way for all of my figures of this race - "Hawk Turquoise":

Dice Ibegon - flesh

Quite a bit of progress since last time with this lady. Once i was happy with her shape, i covered her with a couple of layers of plaster bandage. Once that was done, i sculpted a maw area out of Das Pronto and, when dry, peeled it off, bunged a load of E6000 glue on the reverse, and glued it back in place. Then the already sculpted teeth were hot glued in. With that done, i had to figure what to do with the patches of the plaster bandage that still had the gauze of it showing. That wasn't a prob with the Dianoga, as it just added to the detail of the beast, but this girl is kinda smooth - if you ignore the veins and warts and bumps that is. I did first consider putting on a coat of exterior textured paint, but that'd be expensive for something that i didn't know would work or not. I next considered wallpaper paste, which is certainly cheap. So tried it and it was a disaster - it just clumped up in balls on the surfarce. In the end, i went with one of my original ideas - covering her with latex. Figured it'd not only cover things up and blend everything together, it'd also give a rubbery, fleshy feel to her. So that's what i did, using the latex used for making moulds of stuff. Once that was on, i had to put the veins on. First of all i tried sticking on elasticated cord and some wire, then cover them with latex. That looked rubbish, just like a bunch of cord and wire covered with latex. So in the end went with simply creating them by dragging the hot glue gun around while pressing on the trigger. Once all was set, she got a coat of primer: And then i had to start to think about skin tones. In the film she looks quite a realistic flesh tone, but the actual prop was far more of an orange: So i decided to compromise. Off i went to The Range and got a large tub of "Flesh" paint, which is far, far too pink to be realistic. But, mixed with "Yellow Ochre", i sort of got to a halfway mark. By the way, this painting is on a far bigger scale than i'm used to - here's the two paints i'm using on my palette, the lid of a Jacobs Cracker box: And i'm also mixing in a different way - dip my 1/2 inch brush in one colour, then the other, mix on the palette and apply. If the shades a bit too much of one colour, dip into the other and blend it onto the skin. This is her drying at the moment:

X-Wing

Okay, if i'm going to be part of the SFMUK's Star Wars Hanger Build... http://www.scifimodels.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:group-build-star-wars-hanger&catid=11:groupbuilds&Itemid=19 ... Guess i'd better pull me finger out and get a ship for the Hanger. I've decided to go with a Fine Molds X-Wing, as i had a great time making their Y-Wing: Same thing again with this kit - loads of incredibly fine detailed parts, a very comprehensive decal sheet, plus deailed instructions, both for the kit and application of the decals: In no time at all, i had the cockpit done, and i've chosen to go with a green/grey to the interior for a bit of a chane and i've deliberately not picked out various sections in black as i want the detail to be really apparent: The consol part is a work of art, VERY small, VERY detailed, with like-wise decal for it. There actually should be extra decals on the diagonal surfaces next to the display, but this one is so big, its enough:

Carnifex

Boy, i've got a great family. In the bunch of Fathers Day pressies yesterday was this kit: . You may remember me going on about the Screamer Killer that Games Workshop put out in the 80's as a white metal figure? This is the modern, IP version of the critter, a sort of living tank for the Tyranid army. Very pleased to have got it it and i struck straight on, being confronted by all these sprues in the box: There's so many as you're given a number of options: To choose from six heads - i went with this six eyed, dual horn option, a choice of carapace - went with this spike launching version, and a whole bunch of arms. I was going to go with the four scythe-like arms to match the original Screamer Killer but, as i've one of those, decided to go with scythes for the rear arms, and small weapons for the front one's. With those options chosen, it was no time before i had him assembled: Once primed in Grey, i've given him a sloppy coat of Bleached Bone: This is 'cause i plan on having all my 'nids the same colour scheme

Hutt Pod Racer - more engine work.

So, i've a huge area of Plasticard to detail and cover up. But, lets use some logic here. As you can from this in-scale figure, the engine is chuffin' massive: Logically, it would make no sense to have controls/devices on the upper area as the support team would need scaffolding to get to them. So i've decided to have all the real busy stuff below the middle wing, at eye level and below for humans. What to do up top then? I've decided to try and envoke Jabba's Sail Barge and emulate the panelling on the sides of that, so have cut and stuck on Plasticard shapes that are kinda similar: To them, you can see i've added my trusty sticky gems at their fronts and, in places at the back, chairs from the old Airfix Hovercraft kit. I will be adding details up here for sensors etc, but will be clumping them together and you can see i've made a start at the rear of the top wing, which are parts froma 1/44th helicopter kit.

Dice Ibegon - bulked out

Here she is, with layers of Bubble-Warp to give her her basic shape. I've started to cover all that with Duct Tape and then will be trimming her to shape.

B-Wing - all done