Here is my latest finished and built-up model kit--Green Lantern! This swell new 2011 kit comes from the fine folks at Moebius Models, a firm that's released great new figure kits, and exacting re-issues of the older Aurora ones, too! Their "GL" kit is in the manner of those other mid-60s DC Comics offerings, in scale, attitude, and overall look! Let's get started, as I take you on the step-by-step building process!
Below: The unassembled kit, in it's original green plastic, ready for building! Dig that nice transparent green "power-ringed" hand! The figure (tho overall well-designed and sculpted by the talented Joe Laudati) was a bit over-muscular and "cut," so I sanded away (and flattened) some of the ab muscles on the figure...
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Below: The finished base, with silver and gold paint carefully applied to the robot! Some
details were filled in using inking/technical pens, more added rubble, and
overcoats of gloss (on the robot), and matte sprays (on the ground surface)!
Let's move on to the GL figure!
Below: After sanding a few seams, and applying a nice hi-gloss "metallic black" to the finished figure, I used Silly Putty (!) to mask off those areas, then came in with a nice "metallic lacquer green," for those portions of the famous costume! Once dry, the Putty comes right off!
Below: The head detailing begins!
Below: The finished figure, with translucent "power-ringed" hand, ready for attachment to the base!
I did a bit of "dry-brushing" to the hair and face of the figure, creating
subtle light and dark areas...A bit of brushed-on gloss for the hair and mask...
I wanted the figure to "hover" much closer to the base than the kit suggests...The two figures just seemed too distant and disassociated (as if they belonged to separate kits), so I angled the joining portion of GL's right hand and power-ring effect in such a way so the figure could be nearer the base...
I hand-painted the chest insignia (what a pain), altho I almost went with a computer-generated sticker! I kept the white gloves a flat matte, to contrast with the other parts of the more reflective and bright costume! I kept the name-plate in its original green, using technical pens to fill in the black background...
Overall, a very well-done kit, by a company that recalls and loves the original Aurora superhero kits of the 60s and 70s! The designers (including comics fan and artist Terry Beatty) really went for (and succeeded in) re-creating the feel of a Silver Age GREEN LANTERN comics cover as drawn by Gil Kane! I hope they make many more such model kits, featuring those characters who never got a shot at all-plastic stardom!
Superb, sir. Just superb.
ReplyDeleteI also have to agree with you on a point of comic character aesthetics when you mention the Hal Jordan figure being overmuscled. The bodybuilder proportions that are the norm today have spoiled a lot of otherwise well-designed toys and models. It's a strange twist of comics history that we're talking about a character best known for being drawn by Gil Kane -- whose figures used to stand out for their sculpted and super-defined musculature, but now they all look lithe and slender by modern standards.
Beg differ on one point, though: I look at that scene and see a friendly alien robot being rescued by GL after defeat by some other foe. (Yes, this sort of thing bothers me.)
Richard-
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Yes, I've passed up on buying SO many busts, figures, and statues, because the sculptor over-worked the musculature, much like the rendering on the characters in comics today. I recall looking at the dreadful Mark Bagley-drawn SPIDER-MAN issues of the 90s, and thinking the character had been "skinned!"
I also too, thought of the idea that maybe GL was protecting the robot from harm...!
Thanks again!
Al Bigley