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I
picked this kit up on Ebay UK for £10, it had been built
and painted but very badly. The seller said it was an
original Billiken, although he didn't have the box, he had
the instructions and extra head, and so I took a chance. I
already built this kit and so knew
the original should be made of Black vinyl and the
optional head of a dark flesh vinyl. When
the kit arrived it was 10 times worse than it looked in
the photos on Ebay, but I hurriedly got to work on
stripping the kit with Acetone. Underneath was the Black
vinyl
I had been hoping for....Excellent! |
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Once
stripped of the paint I decided to use the optional
head. To use this you need to cut away the Keaton face
from the cowl that is already there. The second
head in my opinion looks a touch better, simply for the
fact that the cowl fits over it as it would in real
life.
The whole
kit was filled with Plaster Of Paris, I like my vinyl
kits to "feel" solid, also this solves
the problem of the kit "sinking" when the
temperature changes.
Onto
the painting, Grey primer gave me a good base to start
on. Over this the Batsuit and cape had 4 coats of
Horizon Matt Black, this is the flattest Black I've
found. To get the leather shine I used a Matt sealant (Humbrol),
sprayed over the Horizon Black it gives a perfect
finish.
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The face was
painted in the usual Tamiya Flesh and pastels for shading, only
thing I would point out with the head is the eyes. The black
make up around the eyes needs to be touched in once everything
is sealed and finished, with the Matt Black again. This small, subtle
touch really stands out on the finished kit.......and there I
had an original Billiken for not a lot of money but a lot of
prep work which was very much worth it.
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