Jack O'Lantern--DETOUR!!!

I can hear the chorus of, "I KNEW IT!!!" echoing in my ears. . .

What can I say. . . ? I must be true to myself, and the aesthetics of the bust were driving me nuts! Some of you in the readership can pretty much guess what is about to follow, so please, no spoiling it for the rest.

Here goes. My issue was with the right arm. . .




[Images courtesy of KitKong Model Mansion]
IMHO, the bust was not only "flattened" by the 'third point' in the 180° plane; but once I reposed the bust, the right arm was effectively dissociated from the body.

There were two options: 1) crop the right arm to the triceps, following the line of the lats; or, remove the arm, section it, extend/straighten it, and relocate it on the torso. The minimalist in me immediately gravitated towards option #1; but it just didn't work. Or, rather, it created ambiguities in the subject of the work. Furthermore, whereas the arm gave the bust a "lopsided" appearance, the absence of an arm created a spatial void.

So option #2 it was. . . is! The arm is now sectioned, tentatively reassembled, and pegged to the torso. The arm opening of the scaled jerkin will have to be reconstructed around the repositioned arm. As to how I've repositioned the arm. . . pictures to follow.

Jack O'Lantern--Prepwork

As I mentioned in the lead post, I have already executed some mods on the bust. The most significant mod is lopping off the pedestal and reducing the height of the actual bust. Those of you who have known me for a while are well aware of my sensitivity to proportional aesthetics when it comes to busts. Add to this the fact that the pedestal was moderately distorted (common on busts with en suite pedestals!), and the dice were cast!

Since I would have to resculpt a pedestal, and the proportions of the torso would be altered, it was time to reconsider the posing of the bust as well.

Finally, the proportions of the flaming head simply didn't work for me. They were not bad, just not a "full" pumpkin. I wrestled with this one a bit, as I was strongly leaning toward resculpting the head and casting the flames separately in tinted translucent resin. But once the bust was reposed and the head repositioned, the head was a much better "fit". I am in the process of tweaking the proportions, but just so, effecting a minor enhancement along the lower "jaw".

Images to follow as soon as I get a moment. . .

FOLLOW-UP
The bulk of the work is now done. Next up:

• fitting the head (DONE!)
• cleaning up the scales; re-scribing or resculpting where necessary (already begun)
  
• attaching the arms and filling the joins
• fitting the pumpkin grenades--the fit is good, but the attachment shallow: I want to peg these to eliminate any surprises down the road. . . it will also give me something to put in the hand-vise during painting.
  

KitKong's Model Mansion's Jack O'Lantern bust

I was recently referred to KitKong's Model Mansion and while browsing through their Villains section, I stumbled upon "Jack" (KKMM12). "Jack" is none other than Jason Philip Macendale, Jr., bka as Jack O'Lantern, but at one time or another also the Hobgoblin and Demogoblin.

The 1/6th scale "mini-bust" is sculpted by Chris Elizardo. It is produced in China in an interestingly tinted--lavender--cold-cast/ bonded porcelain, cast in 10 pcs. The piece is ably reviewed here on Monster Model Review #65. All I would add is that the castings are pre-prepped at the factory, thus eliminating a significant portion of the preparatory clean-up.

As I told James, the man behind KKMM, I am delighted with this kit, especially as I received considerably more than one might expect from the US$19.95 srp (yes. . . US$19.95!!!!). I have already executed some mods, with possibly more to come; but these are to satisfy my particular vision of the piece and the aesthetics of a bust, and not corrective measures demanded by sub-standard design or production. Quite the contrary!

I am now doing some general work on the piece. If I decide to throw this one in the ring at Atlanta, I will soon open a dedicated thread. But for now. . .

Back to the bench!

Knight Models' Green Goblin (KMV016)

I must have stared at the box, surfed the web, scratched my head. . . well, you get the idea. . . for nearly an hour before taking a deep breath and finally opening my third Knight Models kit.

As I mentioned way back when, I have a select few must-have characters on my list. One of these is our friendly, neighborhood web-slinger's arch-nemesis, Norman Osborn, bka The Green Goblin. So when KM finally announced their release of this character, I was ready to let bygones be bygones, and throw my money in the ring one . . . more. . . time. . . Speaking of money, this is a very reasonably priced offering relative to what we've had to date, especially if you consider that you get a mixed media kit of the GG on his bat glider...

So, what do we get? I received issue #151/500, and if what was in the collectible tin is any indication, then ordering asap after the kit is released is key to avoiding any major disappointment/s! While not bowled over with the quality, this is a significant (!) improvement over my past experiences. The glider is cast in 7 pieces, with the major structures (4, including exhaust plume) cast in light-grey PUR. Going over it with a fine toothed comb, I found about 10 air holes, which are now filled and curing. More disconcerting was the rough, uneven surface of the glider body: KM needs to pay more attention to the surface finish of their masters and prototypes.

The figure itself--7 pcs., white metal--is not bad at all. It appears that a harder alloy has been used, and surface texture, though a little rough and crystalline, should buff out nicely. No significant pitting discerned as of yet, though there are indications of super-cooling and/or short pours--again nothing significant, though the locating pegs, feet-to-glider, will require some work.

All in all, after a moderately in-depth examination, I would have to give this one a solid B, maybe a B1/2+. KM is not going to rock the world with their castings, but you have to applaud their creativity and their passion.

PS--As I mentioned earlier, this is not your "classical" GG. This is the GG from the Marvel Knights' Spider-man arc. . .


While it might not appeal to the purists, I applaud KM's decision to offer this variant--especially as Moebius has pretty-much sewn-up the classic version.

Yedharo Models' "King of Destruction" (fka "The Green Giant")

Yedharo Models is one of the "New Wave" manufacturers that are quickly taking root in the 21st c. hob- by. Probably best know for their series of Zodiac-centric busts and figures ("War of Zodiac"), they can hardly be pegged to a particular scale, or even genre--though they have ably evinced a preference for "fantasy".

The talent behind Yedharo is one Fausto Gutiérrez López. To those of us who value the byline, Fausto is no stranger: his ample skills can be found under the Andrea and Pegaso brands. I can also say that he is eminently approachable, as it was my pleasure to discover recently. . .

While the "Incredible Hulk" has never been one of my favourite Marvel personalities, I am very much taken with the character in the Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, and Hulk 2099 storylines/ series. Which brings us to this posting. . .

While browsing through various on-line retailers, I stumbled across a figure titled "The Green Giant", produced by Yedharo. "A rose by any other name" being what it is, this piece was obvi- ously inspired by the gladiatorial Hulk in Planet Hulk! It was listed as TBR. So I went to the Yedharo site (their website under construction), and saw that their "King of Destruction" had been released in October 2009 (to see a painted sample, click here). Was "The Green Giant" a deriva- tion of this piece? Had the former been discontinued in favor of the latter?

Well, the only way to find out would be to go straight to the source. And within the hour, I had a response from Fausto! He was very forthcoming and candid, and explained that it was "The Green Giant" that had been 'retired' in favor of "King of Destruction", to mitigate the overwhelming similarities to the "Green Scar". Fair enough. The changes would be easy enough to reverse if I were so inclined.

The figure is now before me. Marketed as 54mm, this is a "hulking" brute of a piece. Cast in 7 pieces (no groundwork) in a soft-ish grey polyvinyl resin, the casting quality is VG+++ (I cannot bring myself to give it an EXCELLENT because of the presence of stray shallow surface bub- bles/divots; BUT I must emphasize that these are relatively few in number and quickly dealt with.).

I'm very much looking forward to diving into this piece, but it will have to wait 'til next year. Let the ideas simmer for a while. . .

FOLLOW-UP
I must say that I really do like this kit! I filled all of the air holes(no more than 10, all shallow) on the body and leg prior to writing the above: the pieces were curing in the oven as I wrote. Perhaps not surprisingly, the casting  was noticeably harder and felt "heftier" once it had cooled down. I then dry-fitted the pieces that came with a locating peg, and the fit was EXCELLENT! Finally, I reduced some of the pouring sprue nubs, and the resin ground like a dream! Arguably the best kit I have purchased this year!!!

Ragin' Cajun -- The Coattails

As I mentioned in my follow-ups below, all joins save the head have been fitted for seamless assembly, and, perhaps more importantly, a tight fit. In the interim, the figure has been completely and perma- nently pegged for mounting. This is not as straightforward as it might sound, as the left ankle is particularly thin; and I had to drill through the connecting copper tubing in the left knee/thigh. The name of the game is a steady hand, sharp bits, and staged, incremental widening of the opening.

On to the coattails! I'm perhaps jumping the gun here a bit, but this is the crux of the project--in every respect. While I could certainly finish clean-up and detailing, this all amounts to naught without the tails.

First step was transferring the figure to a spacious 3.5" round work base. This gave me the opportunity to align and secure the mounting pegs. Once securely mounted, I began to pack clay around the lower half of the figure, finger modeling as I went along to keep the amount to be removed at a manageable level. Once the clay was applied and allowed to "cool" from the kneading and handling, I began to model in earnest. . .

The purpose of the clay is to create a male molding surface, a negative impression, and a support for the epoxy putty that will be draped over it to make the coattails. The negative impression must be bold and deep enough to accommodate the thickness of the putty. There is decent amount of "guesswork"/speculation involved, but it should be constrained and logical. . .

The left half of the tails is now ~75% done. A bit more tweaking followed by clean-up, and it is a fait accompli. The right half is a bit more challenging, as it is collapsed, and anchors the flowing garment. I am about 60% done with this as I write.

More to follow. . .

UPDATE 25.09.10--The coattails are now in epoxy-putty! The pattern approach worked much better than I had anticipated, though there is still a considerable amounting of underfilling and surface finishing to be done. The figure is now in the oven, the first stage of mating the tails to the torso curing. . .

FOLLOW-UP
The coattails are now permanently attached to the torso, and the long building-out process has begun in earnest. This is where the undersurface irregularities are smoothed-out to ensure a strong x-sectional taper to the progressively thinner sections of the fabric as we approach the edges, as well as enhancing the surface drapery. As I said, this is usually a fairly drawn-out process , but there is no room for haste here.

FOLLOW-UP (2)
Save for final finishing and touch-ups, the coattails are now done! Most of you who know me know that there is still a lion's share of work to be done, but I can now 'zoom-out' and think in terms of the overall piece rather than just a portion of the same.

Knight Models' next Marvel releases???

If the banners that appear throughout the KM site are at all indicative of what we might expect in the relatively near future, then these are my projections for what is to come:

• Juggernaut
• Dr. Doom
• Abomination
• Carnage
• Thanos

AFAIC, only the favourite son of Latveria warrants any serious consideration. Your thoughts? Comments??

Ragin' Cajun -- Phase 1 mods

Those of you the have been following this thread know that I intend to have Gambit kneeling, discharging his bō on the pavement, while charging his cards. To date, I have:

• Removed the trench-coat tails. As I mentioned earlier, the unit is horribly cast, and if I had intended on the doing the kit straight OOB, I would have returned it. Needless to say, sculpting dynamic, flowing coat-tails, swooshing around the subject, will be the most challenging aspect of this reanima- tion. Also, I will have to sculpt the drapery and detail of the right arm where it was molded to the coat-tails. As a sidebar note, I found a sizable air hole where the arm joined to the coat. . .
  
• Re-animated right leg. This is a little more involved than one would think largely due to the proportions of the figure. I thought I could retain the poleyn (knee guard) attached to the leg, but the variability in thickness between the two guards demanded that I remove the right one, and refit it to the knee. The right leg is now posed; pinned; the flattened calf muscles reworked; and awaiting the rescribing of the boots and the attachment of the knee guard.
• Reworked attachment block of torso to legs. This is a bad fit. And if you look closely at the painted boxart, you will see that little or no filling was done on the join seam of the legs, and the rolled edge of the breastplate does not line-up.

• Slightly repositioned and pinned the left arm, and replaced the too-short and anything-but-straight bō (the image of the boxart shows the best KM could come up with?) with a brass rod. This required careful surgery to avoid damaging the fingers, but it is one instance where the softness of the alloy actually helped.
  

• Finally, the left leg was pegged for mounting and the figure (well, the legs) now sits on its work base.

A good start to what will be a long, and challenging project. . .

FOLLOW-UP
All the joins save for the head have now been pegged and fitted for seamless assembly. Work on the coat-tails will be underway in less than a fortnight. . .

FOLLOW-UP (2)
Just completed fitting and attaching the right knee-guard. All subassemblies are now ready for final clean-up and detailing. . .

ATLANTA 2011--FANTASY CATEGORY: Update

Good afternoon!

Received this latest update from Mark McGinnis, the AMFS 2011 Show Chairman, on Friday:

"As of right now, the plan is to have the Fantasy Open in a group together and the Fantasy Painters in a group together, like we have done with the Military/Historical Open and Painters.

We plan to have a someone dedicated to being on the display floor during the peak registration and set up hours to help direct everyone to the correct location and make changes as needed to the space for each grouping. We planned this initially because we were in a new location after being in the same venue for over a decade. Now with the added categories, it becomes even more necessary."

They are also working hard on the Specialty and Sponsored awards. The Show Committee has obviously embraced the newly-added category, and they are working hard to do it justice. BRAVO!!!

Finally, I have added a new subject category: "ATLANTA 2011--FANTASY CATEGORY" to make referencing news, updates, etc. easier.

Stay tuned!

Knight Models' Gambit (KMV007)--epilogue

I know I underscored the softness of the metal in my review of this kit, but after working on this piece for a couple of hours, all I can say to the folks at KM is, "Upgrade your casting alloy--or switch to resin!"

I accidentally dropped the left arm while working on repositioning it, and when I recovered it, it was obvious it landed hand-first. How do I know? The hand was bent 30° off-line! We're talking about a less- than-a-metre drop onto vinyl flooring!!

So. . . whereas earlier I advocated special care in handling, now I would emphatically recommend it! That or plan to add 20-30% work-time to cleaning-up the miniature after you've cleaned it up!

CAVE!

Knight Models' Gambit (KMV007)

I've just received my second Knight Models offering, and I regret to say they are 2 for 2--and not in a good way.

As a former resident of the "Big Easy" and an X-Men fan, how could I not add "Le Diable Blanc", Remy LeBeau, better known as Gambit, to my collection. It is masterfully sculpted by Jérôme Renaud--unfortu- nately, the production values continue to disappoint, perhaps even decline.

I received issue #496/500. Inside the sealed, collectible tin box were 7 pieces, two comprising the base. Comparing the casting quality to what is available in the marketplace, I would grade it as a C/C- -- a slight drop from the earlier reviewed Iron Man. Needless to say, I am less than thrilled.

This go round, the metal is noticeably softer than what we might expect. In fact, I would advocate special care while handling the figure during clean-up and assembly--it is that soft! There is an inordinate amount of medium-deep pitting and rough texture throughout the casting--mostly due to inadvertent contact with other pieces. Seam lines are minimal, yes; but overall fit is F+/G-. And in spite of the seemingly spacious box, the fact that they include a useless, 2-pcs., black plastic pedestal with "MARVEL Universe" screened on it in white, along with the relative softness of the metal, means that the pieces are cramped and thus invariably dinged.

The one-piece torso and trench-coat provides amble evidence that the molds are being pushed beyond their viable life. Not only was there burn-out along the waist-belt, but the trailing edges were virtually devoid of any detail: as much due to casting woes, as feeble attempts to salvage a sub-par casting. If the mold were holding-up, it would have been a no-brainer to throw this piece back in the pot, and pour another one. But if it wasn't. . .

Fortunately, the detail pieces once again give us a peek at the casting capabilities of KM. In spite of minor bumps and dings, these are solid A/A- castings, and given that these are the smaller items, spare us a considerable amount of pain and aggravation.

As before, one of the reasons I am not outright vitriolic in this review is that I had my own notions for Monsieur LeBeau prior to purchase. I intend to have Gambit kneeling, so that takes care of the wonky trench-coat tails. And the softer metal makes cutting and the reanimation of the right leg infinitely easier. Both of these major steps have already been accomplished. . . Laissez les bons temps rouler, cher!

Before closing. . . will the third time--and an early casting!--be the charm?! I sure do hope so, 'cause KM has just released one of my Marvel must haves: the Green Goblin! This might not appeal to the purists as it is based on the Marvel Knights' Spider-man, an edgier rethinking of one of the Marvel mainstays and his supporting cast, but it is just what I was hoping for! Stay tuned. . .

ATLANTA 2011--NEW CATEGORY!!!!!

The 34th Annual AMFS Show has added a new category with both Painter's and Open divisions: FANTASY!

Details are a bit on the thin side for now (e.g., will they be segregated and displayed in their own section?), but this is good news indeed! Check back often at: http://www.atlantafigures.com/show.htm for the latest developments.

Less than 6 months to go!

FOLLOW-UP
Just received a most welcome letter from Mark McGinnis, the 2011 Show Chairman.

He affirmed that it is more than likely that the Fantasy Category will have its own area/tables in the Exhibit Hall. . . at least he would prefer it that way. Also, they already have received an expression of interest to sponsor an award, pending confirmation. Finally, be on the look out for ads in the next two issues of AFM.

Sounds good to me! More to follow. . .

Red Skull--Graphic Update (1)

This took a bit longer than I had anticipated, for which I apologize; but I had not anticipated an broken water main, and all that such an occurrence entails. . .

In any case, I needed a sanity break, so here we go. . .






Everything should be fairly self-explanatory, but should you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. The head/skull is just about done, but I need to sharpen-up some details and "distress" some areas. Also, rank patches, decorations, etc., will be suitably modified in the future.