The title of this thread is taken from the respective chapter title in the
Bride of Frankenstein DVD. What I hope to be able to do is kit-bash the Moebius (M) and Aurora (A) kits of the Monster, and using
Dark Horse's (DH) kit of the Bride, create the iconic scene when the Bride is first touched by the anxious groom for whom she was created.
The in-progress work on the Bride has already been covered on this site (see link above). Little new progress to report save that the elimination of the textured surface continues to go well, albeit slowly; and the new head is now in the final tweaking stage. The next major item to be tackled is the trademark hair.
I began working on the Monster earlier this week in anticipation of picking-up a the M kit this weekend. I've had an assembled OOB original A Frankenstein in my work drawers since I can't remember when. When I decided I would like to bring this scene to [miniature] life (hmmm. . . does that make me Pretorius or Frankenstein?), the first thing I did was carefully disassemble the A kit. All in all, the exercise was a qualified success; and I was able to recover all-but-intact the jacket halves, shirt, arms and hands. There will be some restoration required, but given what I am considering, it is nothing to fret over.
Most of you are familiar with my feelings about M's original release of the Monster--what was in the sizable box has given me no reason to reconsider. Having said that, the potential of this "monstrosity" was immediately apparent. To date, I have assembled the legs, boots, and head (
nb: the head will be used as the core for a complete resculpt). The legs have been filled with PUR
and separated at the pubis, so that I now have 2 separate legs. Once the legs have been cleaned, I can then provisionally peg the boots and begin repositioning the lower limbs.
This will obviously be a l-o-n-g term project. You can check on the progress by clicking on "Rebuffed" in the subject index.
Stay tuned!
FOLLOW-UPThe boots have been filled (with PUR, as has the head), pegged, and provisionally positioned. This revealed a major flaw in the sculpture: the left knee is unnaturally pointing inward (NOTE: actually
both knees, but the right knee can be corrected without surgery)! To correct this, I bisected the left leg about 20mm above the boot-top crease (2-3 mm above the bulge of the kneecap), and pegged the two leg halves. Save for reducing excess plastic and resin that will get in the way of repositioning, the major surgery on the legs--save for scale adjustments--should be behind me.
FOLLOW-UP (2)The legs have now been re-scaled. I ended-up taking ~16mm off the distal portion of the legs, and lowered the waistline by some 3-4mm: I arrived at these measurements using 8-head proportions based on a 24mm head. The difference is quite striking. . .
Finally, I began work on the head. . . the problematic head. It is admittedly a poor likeness, but I have to wonder what the master looked like? If only because with very little work, the semblance of Karloff emerges quite readily. . . but more on this in due course. In the meantime, I've reduced most of the hair, and removed both ears: the latter will be re-attached in their proper position 2-3mm higher than the original location.
UPDATE--23.02.10The A arms have now been filled and scaled: I removed ~5mm from the elbow joint (2-3mm on either side). I am as yet undecided as to which set of hands I will use, but the A hands have a definite edge.
UPDATE--24.02.10I fully intended to work on the head this evening, but I decided to begin some finishing work on the sweater front (for those unfamiliar with the A kit, the torso is a 3-piece assembly: 2 jacket halves and the sweater front), and re-animating the hand: I decided to use the A hands.
The hands will require a considerable amount of work to get "right". To date, I have removed the right hand at the wrist and pegged it. I've also begun to reposition and finish the fingers: so far I've removed 2 fingers and the thumb.
UPDATE--25.02.10Before I can go much further, I will have to assemble the upper torso, and arrive at--the very least--a tentative pose for the Monster. To this end, I began reducing the excess drapery at the feet of the Bride. These were crude clips with some wire cutters to allow me to position her closer to the Monster: before I begin to finalize the staging, I will remove approximately 6-7mm from the bottom of the gown to bring her in line with the proportions dictated by her head. Finally, I have pinned and repositioned the Bride's left arm, moving it horizontally ~90°. I will post a close-up of the scene that inspired this project shortly.
