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This is only
the third styrene figure kit that I have made, the others
being PL's Headless Horseman and the TB Rhino. Styrene is
not my favorite medium for figures, it needs a lot of prep work
and the detail can be a bit "soft" IMO. |
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However, after
seeing a few build ups of this kit, I thought I'd give it a go,
but only if I could find one of Ed Diceman's replacement resin
heads. Eventually The Commish came to my rescue with a
replacement head and so I took the dive.
I first completed the
base, this consists of a flag stone bottom, organ and
accessories and the Phantoms mask. The stone base was easy, Matt
Black with various shades of grey to give it that stone look.
Next the organ, this has to be painted before assembly
to get into all the nooks and crannies, it also helps when
painting the keyboard. I chose to go with a very dark Brown with
NO grain effect, I remembered my Gran had an old piano years ago
and tried to copy what I remembered that was like. Assembling
the organ is straight forward and is actually a very good fit,
mainly because most of the edges are square/flat.
The props that
sit on top of the organ were a pleasure to paint,
especially the candles and
the holder, again no real problems there so
onto the figure. |
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Figure assembly
is straight forward and the fit was very good, I puttied
the joins but ended up sanding nearly all the putty off as the
seams just disappeared once rubbed down with wet & dry
paper. I looked at the figure and something just looked
"wrong", it was the bow tie, it looked a bit naff and
sat far to low, almost on his chest.......it had to go! I
remembered that I had a spare bow tie from my Billiken Joker kit
that I hadn't used which would be just about the right scale,
plus it was vinyl which would allow me to heat it up and get a
good fit under his chin where it should have been put by PL.
The shirt was Matt
White, the waist coat a Medium Yellow with a few drops of
Orange, again pastels for shading. The bow tie was painted a
mixture of Burgundy/Red and drybrushed by adding a few
drops of White to the mix. The suit was given a few coats
of Matt Black drybrushed with Codex Grey
(my favorite Grey for going over Black with). |
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With
the figure completed, except for attaching the bow
tie, I moved onto the cloak which came in 4 parts. The
cloak had to have the inside painted before
attaching it to the figure, for this I used Dark Red paint
followed by Dark Grey pastels for the folds. Once
dry the back of the cloak is attached first to the
figure, then the left and right sides, these are pretty
simple and straight forward. However the fourth part of
the cloak is not, it fits onto the lower front and has
the worst seam ever. Dremmel, putty, Dremmel, sand,
putty, Dremmel......you get the picture, once you over
come this plastic nightmare the rest is simple. More
Matt Black and a very light drybrush of Grey and the
cloak is finished, all that was left was to heat the bow
tie and position it. |
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The Diceman
head is so much better than the original and was great to paint.
I used Matt Flat Flesh as a base coat and added shading with a
variety of pastels,
until I achieved the look I wanted, same went for the hands.
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