Wow...I'm jealous guys.  Nice work, everyone!

Tim - it looks like you have some mighty big boots to fill there, huh?  Nyuk nyuk

Hey Jack, looks great! I'm a big fan of the nothing looks more like wood than wood and nothing looks more like metal than metal ideal. Lot easier than trying to get the look with plastic. Seems odd to me that they'd use the flat disks for weight than round ball bearing type weights but I guess there was some reason there.

Tim: Looks good too, hard to be a hero when you'd got a big hole in your boots!

Jack - Lookin' good!

Bish - Impressive. Most impressive.

Quick update on Conan:

He had plugs on his feet corresponding to depressions on the base. Because I'm making a solid wood deck on the base, those plugs aren't needed any more. So, out came the Dremel tool ...

... and in went the Apoxie Sculpt. After this dries 24 hours, I'll shape the bottom of the feet and add pins.

Gamera, Bish - thanks!

Yes, the armour discs are actual metal.  Plan is to leave them unpainted, hoping it won't end up looking too tacky.

As pictured above, I got the idea when I remembered one of my ankle weights had torn open.  The inside is filled with little round bits, about four or five different sizes.  So they are hand picked, and individually placed in position.   Vallejo flat base was used as an adhesive, brushing on a section at a time.

regards,

Jack

Bish: Good to see Vader up and on his feet!

Jack: Wow, can't even see where you made the plastic surgery there. And great job there replicating the comic art!

Nice idea jack, hadn't thought of that. The cape covers it so it doesn't need to be 100% precise around the back.

That's looking really nice. Is that armour detail metal.

Bish, great to see Darth here.  If the material is pliable, and the heat treatment doesn't work out for the tunic bottom, drilling in some pins and forcing it to fit might work?

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Three sessions of primer and sanding, not perfect, but I'm ready to throw paint on this one.  I've also added the armour detail to the front section.  Dry fit for now to see how it looks...

regards,

Jack

Finally got round to getting some pics of Darth. Not much in the way of construction, especially when compared to what some of you guys are doing. But it is what it is. The legs where filled with plaster of paris, after getting the legs to the right position. It went together pretty well so far.

And these parts have been trimmed and will be painted separately.

But now I have a tricky bit. The bottom of the tunic doesn't line up very well to the rest. I think I need to soften it up to get it the right shape and maybe do a bit of trimming.

Some major work there Tim, the chest looks great.

Tim - good use of the green stuff.  He does have a massive chest, could almost double for the Hulk.  The wood chest also looks right on, nothing beats the look of wood than actual wood itself.

Shiv - glad to see things are working out on the putty filler front, looks like you got it handled quite well.

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Red had her first primer coat last night.  Quite pleased with how the surgery turned out on the torso.  There are some rough spots in other areas requiring some further TLC - will post a few more pics soon.

regards,

Jack

instead of weighing the base I actually though of replacing it with a piece of hard wood. A friend of mine always has small pieces of oak or something lying around after one of his carpenter projects. Have to wait and see how it sits when all is said and done.

Shiv - Nice work on Spidey. It looks like the Mr. Surfacer has done the job for you. Are you planning on weighting the base?

Regarding the chest: Thanks! I'm going to have the lid closed--already glued it on. Just got the plastic for the iron straps I intend to put on it. Who knows, maybe this weekend I can put the box behind me.

Hair dresser? Hmmmm ... If people wanted their wives to look like this, then yes, I missed my calling.   

Tim- looking good there. are you going to have the chest open or closed? Really nice work on the hair. I am starting to think you missed your call as a hairdresser.

Jgeratic- went to my LHS looking for Kneadatite but didn't have any so they suggested using Mr. Surfacer 500. Just have to build it up and it seems to have done the job.

Have one leg on and seam filled than did some test fitting to see how he would sit on the statue.

going to start on the other leg next.

Tim: Weeeelllllll, was going to do the pants for both figures last weekend and then the airbrush kept gumming up. I work as the lab guy at a water treatment plant and the cold snap Monday burst so many piles and damaged so much equipment I've been too frazzled to do anything but take a nap upon getting home. Hopefully I'll get something done this weekend.

Gamera

Looks good Tim, great work on the chest and when painted I'd never know his hair was chipped like that.

Thanks! I hope so.

How are Capt. Picard and the Romulan coming along?

Well, now that Aaron and I are emerging from a particularly busy time here at the office, we'll get back on the vlogs. We've got plenty to talk about, with two builds done, and ours now starting to pick up. 

How about the rest of you? How are the builds coming along?

Looks good Tim, great work on the chest and when painted I'd never know his hair was chipped like that.

Heck of a chest!

I like that wood box too...

You may laugh, but a trick I learned from my model railroad days.

When scratch building an object like this, or the quad turret on a bomber, or a station building;

build three or four at the same time. That amortizes all the time spent, and you get a good one out of it. The labor cost far outstrips the materials cost. Plus you never know it may be good to have a few stashed away.

PROGRESS!

The local hobby shop has seen more of me for this chest than I think they've seen of any other customer in the last two weeks. Mostly because I suck at putting together a bill of materials ... oh, and wastage. Measure once, cut 13 times. One more strip of basswood for this sucker to complete the top.

Working on the hair with Green Stuff.

And the neck. This is roughed in and hasn't been sanded yet.

Test-fit, test-fit, test-fit ...

I've cut the ends to the treasure-chest lid from 2mm birch plywood and roughed them down with a 100-grit sanding block. That's as far as I can go on these bad boys until I get home.

Part 1 of Conan's two-part hair piece. You can see a spot where the resin chipped away. This is the first time the part has been out of the bag, so, for once, I didn't do it.

Parts 1 and 2 together ... 

And the test-fit. Now for some planning, application of Green Stuff, and sculpting hair.

Oooooooo, looks cool Tim!

Welcome back, Shiv!

Some more planning on my part.

Here's the sword I've chosen as a template to replace the kit's sword. I'm going to make it out of 2mm sheet styrene--or that's the plan at least.

This is Mr. Grumpy with his face on.

There's some work to do in the neck area.

The fur kilt in the back will need some help too. The sword belt will disappear and be replaced. 

Shiv - from my experience on this currant figure build, I'd highly recommend the green stuff, or more technically known as Kneadatite.  it has a minimum 2 hours working time, and you can easily spread it with your finger tip, just have a cup of water beside you.  It can be  spread out, smearing it thin to keep sanding, afterwards, down  to a minimum.

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Tim - thanks for those links, interesting read about the new writer at the helm of the Red Sonja series.

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Gamera -  that's likely my fault.  Presently, the way I have her loin cloth could be considered as underwear, but it will be painted to look like leather, and afterwards it will be covered with metal  studs.

regards,

Jack

finally back from my vacation so I can now get some work done. I can not say enough how truly impressed I am with all the work going on.

I started putting Spidey's limbs on starting with the legs. Have some gaps to fill. What is a good product to use that will fill the gaps but dry slow enough so that I can shape it to the figures contours?

Ahhh, sorry I really don't know anything about the character- just seemed odd to me she's wearing two sets of panties. But as you point out it is more G-rated!

Thanks for the tips, Jack.

I think you should keep it. Even though Gamera points out the classic (or neo-classic as it were) comic version of Sonja, I don't think it deviates too much.

As an aside, when Gail Simone took over Red Sonja for Dynamite in 2013, she gave a great interview for ICV2. At one point, she was asked:

Why do you want to write a comic about a scantily-clad, sword-wielding female “She-Devil” who has historically attracted an almost entirely male readership?

If that was all Red Sonja was, I wouldn’t want to write about her at all. She’s a lot more than that to me, and to her fans, I’m sure. A thousand imitators showing more flesh have come and gone, and Sonja is still here. [...] But I also think it does a bit of a disservice to lump all male readers together like that, as well. I have found the male readership to be remarkably supportive of great female characters again and again, with Birds of Prey, with Wonder Woman, with Batgirl. I want a Red Sonja that isn’t just a cult title, with every character I love, when I take them over, I want to preach their gospel, I want people to know why I love them so much. Red Sonja kicks a megatonnage of [butt], that’s what she does.

Read the whole interview here.

Conan update ...

The bottom of the treasure chest is built. I've moved on to the lid, but have found sticking with shape as presented in the kit problematic. So, I've been researching "treasure chests". Yeah, you can imagine all the stuff I've had to wade through. Then it dawned on me that it's really a trunk--a domed trunk to be exact. Now, I have a plan. It won't be an exact duplicate of the chest from the kit, but I think it will look nice.

It looks like I'm going with 1" planks for the deck to get a scale 6". I'm toying with using thread for oakum since the scale is so large. However, for ease, I'm also considering using 1/16" thick black plastic strip. Full-sized tree nails ranged from 3/4"-2" in diameter, thus I figure 1/8" should be fine for my purposes.

Pics soon ... 

Tim and Gamera, thanks!

There is no punch and die work on the figure.

The loops were made from Evergreen rod.  Simply wrapped around a drill bit, like creating a spring.  A proper segment is then snipped and glued together.  The rod is pretty resilient, even coaxing it around a sewing pin is doable, but i think .020 is the smallest diameter available.   That's why I went to metal twist tie for the smaller loops.

No heat on the armlet.  This was .010 sheet, super gluing about half into position.  After a few minutes drying, other half is glued in place.

Plan is to leave the molded g-string in place, to keep this family rated?  I also thought it will provide some extra colour to the figure, probably a green shade to somewhat match her eyes.  It's pretty much the only item I've deviated from, even cosplayers seem to have done a good job of hiding their undies, or are they going commando style?

Do you guys think it should be removed?

regards,

Jack

Yeah, that's awesome work Jack!!!

Only question is are you going to file off the loincloth/bikini bottoms that were molded on the figure since you're replacing them?

Hi Jack,

Both filling and creating detail ...

DEAR GOD! You're killing me with the blaze of Red Sonja's AWESOMENESS! I'm tossing Conan in Lake Michigan. Forget it. I'm through. It's basket weaving for me from now on.

Beautifully done, sir! You made the hoops where the photoetched-metal belt attach to the chain-mail bra in back with a punch-and-die set?Did you heat the sheet styrene to shape the armlet on her right upper arm?

Tim, is it just joints to fill in or you have to recreate detail too?

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The past week finished up detailing Red Sonja.  Not too much putty work, mostly Evergreen sheet styrene and little bits found around the house.

I had a 1/35 PE vehicle buckle set from Aber that scaled well as a strap for her top, the rest being made from sheet plastic and rod.  For the smaller size eyelets, metal wire from a twist tie came in handy. 

For the solid round detail bits I had bought a punch set from Waldron (miniature set), but while trying it out I realized the end result was something I've seen around the house.  One of my ankle weights had a slight tare, inside of which are tiny round (lead or iron?) pieces of various sizes - so ended up using that.

The large sword was scavenged from an unbuilt Imai knight, while the dagger was completely scratch built.  The pommel is shaped putty from Tamiya, as is the sheath, which was wrapped around plastic for some initial strength.   These will be added after the figure is painted, and in the meantime will look for some scale chain as the attachment point to the belt, which also will be added at the end.

regards,

Jack

Just finished some test-fitting of Conan and Belit. I believe I am going to need more Green Stuff and a quick enrollment in Sculpting 201.