"I'm Rhino. I knock things down. That's what I do. . .that's who I am!"

Save for a few loose ends in the texturing phase; the final once-over; and--of course--the groundwork, the Rhino is, at long last, DONE!!!

I will hopefully have him primed and on the paint-bench within the fortnight. . .

UPDATE 06.12.2013. . . Did I say fortnight? The figure should be primed and on the painting bench sometime over the weekend. In the meantime, the groundwork is primed, and the black edging and foundation shadows applied.

FOLLOW-UP. . . THE RHINO IS PRIMED!!! Time to go shake-up some acrylics. . . And the groundwork has been permanently attached to the display base!

The Rhino--Back on the front burner. . . AGAIN!

By way of prologue, this project has been something of a poster-child for "false-finishes"! Just when you think there is nothing left to be done, one or the other thing pops up, which then forces a reappraisal of all the work done in the immediate area.

Having said that, I can say with utmost certainty that the end is in sight: all that is left to do is detailing the left foot, and adding the tubercles to the shoulders, etc. I will also revisit the left eye to make sure all is as it should be.

And that is it! Save for the groundwork, but that is another story altogether. . .

PS--In case you are wondering, yes, the news about the supposed depiction of the Rhino in ASM 2 was a primary motivator in seeing this project through to completion in the immediate future. I hope they don't decide to go totally "Ultimate" with Aleksei's 'suit'--he is, after all, Aleksei Sytsevich, not Alexander O'Hirn!

The Rhino--Back on the front burner. . .

It has been a while, and while I'm still in "thick brush", things are starting to assume a semblance of normalcy. . . Or, it could just be that I'm getting used to the "madness". . .

In any event, with Fall right around the corner, it's time to start paring down the project list to the finalists. One of these will be the Rhino, so he was moved to front & center on the bench yester- day. The left arm/hand is now finished and permanently attached. I still have to rework the deltoid and trapezius, but once that is done (this week?), all that remains is the right hand, skin textur- ing, and final finishing.

Close. . . 

UPDATE 12.09.2013. . . Work continues. . . The left arm and shoulder are now done. The right hand has been repositioned, and it makes all the difference in the world! I continue to work on the feet, attempting to get the right "pose" and a convincing "drape" of skin. . . almost there. Assuming nothing unexpected breaks cover this weekend, I will hopefully be well into the skin texturing by Sunday! 

Stay tuned. . .  

Catching up. . .

It has been extremely hectic/busy, so bench time has not been what I had anticipated going into the Dog Days. . . then again, expectations have rarely been met this year.

The good news is that the bench has seen a fair degree of activity in the last fortnight, and this posting will serve as a catch-up summary. . .

The Rhino -- Getting ever closer, the hands are just about ready for finishing. Once that is done, final finishing and skin texturing are all that stand between the bench and the painting table.

Zombie SS-Panzeroffizier -- Tons of work on this bad boy. . . First thing I did was reduce the height of the bust: I just couldn't get my head around the gear that very effectively (and esthetic- ally!) filled the dead-space on the left side of the bust. Once that was done, the planning/plotting began in earnest, and to date I have removed the tie, and started reworking the Feldmütze. Spoiler: my rendition will be promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer. . . you can well begin to imagine the work that lies ahead. 

The Red Skull #4 -- Most of the work has concentrated on the right arm: it has been pegged, fitted, and reanimated; finishing is well underway. The right hand has been fitted; and reanimation is underway. The Cosmic Cube has been cut and finished, and awaiting polishing. Finally the base of the RK is now undergoing final clean-up before commencing enhancement.

K. Yoshiaki -- A remarkably fine bust. I've already discussed the warpage on the crest--I had to repeat the process a few times under higher heat for it to "stick"; but it looks great and no nega- tive side-effects whatsoever. The choice of location of some of the sprues might cause some concern, but I assure you it is nothing to fret over--just proceed slowly and carefully, and you will be done in no time. I've got a bit more to go before finishing the shikoro and the ushirodate; but other than that, this pup is just about ready for priming!

That's it in a nutshell! I hope to start clearing some additional space on the workbench soon so that I can begin working on "Frank" again!

The Rhino #2 - Prepwork last lap. . . HOME STRETCH!

While there are still a few points of detail to address, clean-up, etc., the prepwork for this project is essentially done! All that remains is the texturing of the rhino skin, and that is progressing at a surprising rate!!

Which means that barring any pennies on the track, this piece is pretty much on schedule to be primed over the 4th of July holiday weekend. . . 

Back to the bench!

The Rhino #2 - Prepwork last lap. . . Final turn

The right eye is now finished, as is the remaining putty-work on the head. 

I also added the fourth fingers to the respective hands. Kifaro had but four digits on each hand: while I deliberated long and hard whether to add  the fifth humanizing digit, I originally opted not to--in spite of the canon dictating five digits/hand. Bottom line, it just didn't look right with a truncated hand, so the the roughed-in "little finger"s are now curing in the oven.

Almost there!

The Rhino #2 - Prepwork last lap. . .

The Rhino is coming together quite nicely. . . 

Today, I received its display base, and I spent most of the afternoon fitting the groundwork to it. While there is still a considerable amount of "surface texture" to apply and the like, I am quite pleased with the direction it is taking. And it's a GREAT looking base!

The rest of the time was spent with the remaining points-of-detail of the face. Most importantly, I fitted the orbs in their sockets--and finished the left eye. This underscored some imbalances in the features of the left side of the face that were promptly addressed. If the mood strikes tomorrow, I will finish the right eye, and commence final clean-up of the head.

Movin' right along. . .

The weekend after. . .

Month-end was BRUTAL!!! No other way to describe it. And "the fun" continues, so there will be precious little in the way of progress this weekend.

Having said that, I did spend about an hour at the bench today, concentrating on The Rhino. It is coming together quite nicely, and the putty work is almost done. Most notably, the Rhino is now armed! I finished the main horn this evening, and I think one more session of detailing and finishing will wrap-up the head [02.06.13--DONE!].  The remaining work will primarily involve texturing the skin. . . I am shooting for a priming session over the 4th of July weekend.

As an aside, I've begun to gather the raw materials for a major project in 2014: Angrir, The Breaker of Souls. This will be a conversion of a 1/6th scale figure (~300mm), and it will mark my first venture with vinyl in well over a decade! More to follow. . . 

Jean Vingeanne - Prep & Assembly (1-C)

I am happy to report another busy day. . . Had to squeeze 'em in while the getting was good, 'cause the rest of the week looks pretty dismal, what with month-end, etc.

The day was once again spent with the Rhino, and my favorite Martian of the moment. Not much to report on the former, more at touching-up and cleaning-up before moving on to the next phase. And I did put out feelers for the display base. . .

Re: the latter, most of the prep putty-work is now completed. I built-up several areas that were paper-thin--literally: these will not be seen (mostly), and it was primarily done for peace of mind during painting and mounting. Once safely in a display cabinet, it would not have been an issue; but, they were so thin that even a glancing blow could have disastrous consequences. In short, better safe than sorry.

As a brief aside, I regularly hold cast pieces up to my worklight before commencing the Prep phase to make sure that the piece is sufficiently dense throughout. If it is, just a few seconds lost. If it isn't, this is the time to do something about it! 

And, finally, the right arm is shimmed and located. As I indicated, this concludes most of the fitting putty work on this piece. All that remains to be done is final assembly of the subassemblies and finishing, and the one or two scratchbuilt items I have planned. . . 

Until next time. . .

Monday wrap-up. . .

A productive day. . .

Jean Vingeanne

• Left arm shimmed and located
• Prepwork begun on forearms and gauntlets

The Rhino

• Face all-but-done save for eyes
• Work continued on groundwork

Sunday night wrap-up. . .

Progress continued to be made well into the night. . .

Jean Vingeanne

• Scaphocephalic head shape roughed-in.

The Rhino

• Secondary horn completed in situ
• Feet completed
• Left hooves added
• Groundwork tapped to accept foot pegs

The Rhino #2 - Preliminaries underway. . .

Hardly news, but with a long weekend coming up, thought I'd bring the readership up to date. . .

In my initial posting I mentioned that the new face was already roughed-in in SSF. Well, I have just finished baking the core face! I would say the face is about 60% done, with the detail work and final "landscaping" still before me.

I have also removed the legs at the hips, and am in the process of reposing the figure.

Finally, I spent some time with the groundwork this evening, using a section of Secret Weapon's 120mm (size, not scale!) round-lipped Urban Street. This company has some top-notch products, and their prices are more than competitive!!! If I had known about the scope of their groundwork selection, US$5.00 would have saved me about a week's worth of work on a recent project!

That's about it for now. Rest assured, more to follow!

Studio McVey's Kifaro (SMM22)

I was able to pick this miniature up at the CMON Expo this weekend (thanks to Josh!!!), and it is stellar! The casting quality is superb, and the design. . . well, it was sculpted by Allan Carrasco, so 'nuff said.

While it is a marvelous mini based on and/or inspired by an arsinoithere, I have other plans for this. This will be the first of three (that I know of) projects depicting Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich, better known as The Rhino. You might recall my initial dalliances with Rhino #1, and while this project has been shelved (but not forgotten!), it is time to start getting serious about one of my favorite Spidey villains. Especially as Paul Giamatti has been cast to play the Rhino in The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

Enter M. Carrasco's anthropomorphic arsiniothere, Kifaro. This piece is just about the perfect core figure for a conversion to a standing Rhino. Once you carefully remove the snout/horns, the skull girdle, and separate the hands from the wicked hafted "cleaver", you are over half way to the finish line! Of course, a new face will have to be sculpted (already roughed-in in SSF!) and the hooves reworked. . .

Stay tuned!