Thursday 16 September 2010

What colour a Pal Martian?



So, the problem of studio lighting strikes again. Watching the very brief scenes the fellas in, its hard to make out just what colours are going on there.
All you've got really is the glimpse Anne sees as she spies him outside - which appears to be VERY salmon pink in the harsh lighting - and this when he's indoors.
You can just about see the pinky tone on the highlights here, the rest appears to be dark brown washes, especially over all the veins.
So, am going that route and here he is in Games Workshops "Dwarf Flesh" for the salmon basis.

Monday 13 September 2010

WOTW Martian - assembly





(1) Right, first thing to address was lighting the fella up. A trip to the el cheapo store got me a single LED torch for a quid. Broke it open to get to the bulb, then soldered a long lead to it.
(2) Next was clean up and wash. Clean up was a simple case of removing the pour lugs., no seam lines, no filling needed. LOVE this kit.
Guessing Pegasus knew folk might want to light up the eye judging by the recess here behind the lens. As you can see, i've drilled right through. Also had to drill a hole through the middle of the body.
(3) The part fit is so good that i could assemble everything together without glue ready for priming.
(4) Here's the head with primer on, the eye socket area painted black to prevent light bleeding though (although the things so thick, don't think that'll be a prob) and the LED fitted. Looks like its a tad too bright but that's ok - its powered by three tiny watch batteries and, by removing one, i can reduce the light by a third. We'll see how it looks when the lens is painted and in.

Friday 10 September 2010

Pegasus' Martian kit




Blimey, i only went into Modelzone for some glue and filler...
Been awaiting this kit since it was announced as the George Pal version of War Of The Worlds was my number one film until Blade Runner knocked it off the top spot, and the Martian has always had a lot of charm, even if its nothing like Wells' original.
What was putting me off was the £34 price tag for a 1/8th figure.
So i figured i'd wait a while and see if i could pick it up cheaper. But there i was in the shop yesterday and there sat the fella looking at me.
And it took about 2 seconds before i gave in and bought him.
And was i glad too.
Open the box and you're presented with these here parts.
First thing to note is the hideous orange vinyl, which makes it look like something from the toy section of Poundland. Look beyond that though and there's a ton of luvverly skin detail and veins all over the place.
Next thing that's apparent is the clear base. Why? Still trying to figure it out but for the life of me i can't see why its done that way. It can't be to allow for some sort of uplighting as the base represents the floor of the ruined house, and there's so much junk on it that there's no way you could do it, even if such a thing happened in the film. Which it doesn't.
Then we have four arms. Its a nice choice - you choose to have them as on the box art, or them held together to cover up the eye as in the film when Gene Barry shines his torch at it. I'm going with the first one but will be using the spares to try out different colour schemes.
Next are the detailing parts. You get the shattered spy device, its neck, and a couple of books - one of which is The War Of The Worlds.
Finally, you get the eyes for both Martian and Spy. These are clear IP and, as the Martians eye is lit in the film, i can't really not light this fella up.
Might be a tad difficult though...
The vinyl is very heavy and thick, meaning drilling through the eye orbit into the head cavity will take some doing. Ditto running the cable down through the body.
The vinyl was a suprise - no heating up and triming of parts here. The don't have anything else other than small pouring stubs to remove and all sections fot together without glue as the peg system is so good.
Well done Pegasus.
Final thing to say is the size of the thing. I'd always figured, as it was 1/8th, it'd be pretty small. But, as you can see here, alongside my Iria kit in the same scale, he's a big fella.