Joe Simon's 1/8 scale Nosferatu, painted by Charlie Coleman and produced by Dedham Pond Designs. The resin model kit is now available.

For about two years, I fairly often caught myself shaking my head and wishing I had more guts. I came to realize that I had entertained a small dream — really, a small one — and just assumed it was out of my reach so I didn’t check it out. Several other guys weren’t so afraid, and now they’re living my dream.

My dream was to make a business of manufacturing model kits. Specifically, plastic model kits like the classic monsters, heroes, swashbucklers and the like Aurora used to make and which I loved so much when I was little. Polar Lights, the company whose reissues and repops of Aurora kits enticed me back into the model-building hobby in 2001, had been purchased by Round 2 and was quickly all but shut down. Round 2, it seemed, wasn’t interested in making figure kits because the market for them had gotten so small that they weren’t worth the effort.

I was dismayed. Yeah, OK, so there were only thousands of people building those models instead of millions. Thousands of people wouldn’t pony up enough money to make the effort worthwhile? Sure they would. I knew it, but instead of at least considering whether that was a market I could hope to serve myself, I just accepted that plastic figure kits were pretty much gone.

Then I found out about Monarch and, through emails, got to know its founder, Scott McKillop. Then Frank Winspur let hobbyists know what he was up to with Moebius and started making all kinds of figure kits. A few years later, the Megahobby boys introduced us to Atlantis. Thanks to all of them, plus a revived Polar Lights and more reissues from Revell-Monogram, plastic figure kits are all over the place. And how did it happen? Some people not so different from me, but also not so afraid, checked out a few things and decided to go for it.

The story of Graf Orlok, played by Max Schreck, was largely swiped from Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula". This kit was painted by Charlie Coleman, who also provided the photos.

Could I have been a “player” in this market? Eh, who knows. It’s expensive to make plastic model kits and there’s a steep learning curve. I just wish I’d at least done a little research.

Roughly a year and a half ago, when I was again shaking my head, I got to thinking about vinyl model kits. Plastic kits are what I built when I was a kid and they’re what drew me back to the hobby as an adult. But in 2001, it took me only a few weeks of involvement to move from mass-produced plastic kits to the less common garage kits. Of the garage-kit companies I started learning about, GEOmetric Design was one of my favorites, because GEO offered great-looking kits of characters I enjoyed at prices I could afford.

Many of those kits were made of vinyl, which is sort of a step between styrene plastic and resin. Vinyl kits are made from electroformed metal molds which last much longer than the silicone molds of resin kits. Molds for vinyl kits are much more expensive than silicone, but much less than the steel molds plastic kits require.

GEO was sold in 2003 and remains a great company, but it doesn’t do vinyl anymore. In fact, until fairly recently, very few companies doing business in the United States offered vinyl models. Lots of hobbyists, including myself, wanted to see them make a comeback but few people on the production side of things seemed interested.

I thought, “Oh!” I was sure a market still existed, although smaller than it used to be. And I enjoy vinyl kits. Why not try to produce some?

I started throwing out questions to everyone I could think of, particularly George Stephenson, founder of the original GEO who launched Black Heart in 2009. How much would it cost? What considerations should I take into account? How much would it cost? Where could I get it done? How much would it cost? Could I make my own vinyl casting facility? How much would it cost? Where would the molds be made? And most importantly, how much would it cost?

The figure and base for this kit are inspired by a scene in "Nosferatu" in which the character Hutter cuts his finger while dining with Orlok late on the night he arrives at the vampire's castle. Seeing his visitor's blood awakens Orlok's thirst.

I kept asking questions, kept trying to come up with the cash I’d need. In the meantime, I started up Dedham Pond Designs and stared working on my skills as a resin mold-maker and caster, figuring that it was smart to make resin kits available as well, and also much less expensive to get rolling. I started trading messages with sculptor Joe Simon, who lives in Thailand where I might be able to connect with a factory that could manufacture my kits for me.

See, I figured on having the first kit or two manufactured for me, and hope to make enough off that to build my own vinyl casting facility. Joe started getting in touch with people, asking questions for me and passing on the answers.

Weeks passed and I made plans. I decided that my first vinyl kit would be Graf Orlok from Nosferatu, figuring that it was a reliably popular character that might help take some of the edge off the risks I planned to take. However, since answers were so slow to come, I went ahead and commissioned Joe to sculpt Mr. Hyde, based on John Barrymore’s silent-era Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I was thrilled with the job he did on that one.

Anyway, blah blah blah. Through all kinds of twists and turns, Joe got connected with a Thai factory that said it would do the work, quoting a price that I figured was acceptable. Extremely chancy for me given that it would cost many times what it takes to produce a kit in resin, but I thought I could at least make back my investment and probably pad it a little.

So, Nosferatu was a go. The pose Joe and I went with was designed for vinyl, to keep the number of expensive molds to a minimum. The small base and probably the hands would be cast in resin, by me. The sculpture was complete around early November 2010 and Joe got back in touch with the factory.

And the factory gave me an unpleasant lesson by more than doubling its price to mold and cast the piece.

Dedham Pond's Mr. Hyde and Graf Orlok side by side. Both were sculpted by Joe Simon and painted by Charlie Coleman.

The factory’s price estimate for producing a 1/8 scale vinyl monster model was based on photos of Joe’s Barrymore Hyde. The factory representative told Joe that the Nosferatu was more complicated and would require more molds to manufacture.

Really? Well, look at the photo and judge for yourself. To be kindly blunt, I think the guy fibbed. I suspect they either decided my project was too small to be worth their time and so they set a price they knew would scare me away, or they just took a chance at finding out if I was stupid enough to spend that much. No matter what the truth, there’s no way I believed it could cost more than twice as much.

I also knew that my little project that had a chance of making a little money, was now a project that stood to lose thousands of dollars. No way.

So, now Nosferatu is available in resin and even though he’s not in vinyl, it’s a neat kit. I’m very pleased with it, and hope I can continue working with Joe for a long time. Look for the next Dedham Pond offering from Joe before too long.

As for vinyl models, I still have it in my sights but it’s much farther away than it seemed late last year. All it took was a few unexpected expenses to deplete the fund to pretty much nothing. However, my work on Dedham Pond led to a job last summer molding and casting dinosaur fossils, so my skills in that area have grown dramatically.

Nosferatu has six parts, sculpted, molded and cast by Joe Simon.

My little dream hasn’t taken exactly the road I thought I was steering toward, but it’s definitely going somewhere.

The gray-vinyl kit at left is the later issue of the Michael Keaton Batman from "Batman Returns".

Darkened and contrasted this photo to help show the details.

Horizon Original’s Michael Keaton Batman from “Batman Returns” may be my favorite superhero kit. Sculpted by Steve Wang, it is a wonderfully dynamic portrayal of the Dark Knight produced by a great company. Plus, it’s vinyl, and despite my “Resin” blog name, vinyl is generally my preferred medium for garage kits.

This kit was made available twice, first in a nice large box, plenty of room for the kit, with some neat images from the movie (and by the way, despite my fondness for the costume, I didn’t think much of “Batman Returns”). The second issue was in a much smaller box and the parts are stuffed in.

I heard some time back that the second issue of the kit had a somewhat better likeness of Keaton, possibly because someone, somewhere, decided to soften some of Mr. Wang’s detail before releasing the kit first time around. I glanced at them to see if I could figure out what was different, but never really examined them until today.

Here’s my conclusion: It’s true, the second version of the kit does look better. It’s hard to tell because the first one is cast in a creamy vinyl that makes it difficult to see some of the detail, while the second is in a nice primer-colored gray. But the first one does look a little softer. There’s more of a sneer to the second one, possibly because the lips are a bit more full. Some details to the jowls are more defined as well.

The curve to the bat-ears, by the way, is not a difference between the two versions. It just reflects how much the second kit was stuffed into its box. I’ll have to heat those and straighten them up when I finally get around to building the kit.

Both versions are terrific, but the second looks a little better. Given the change in parts breakdown, though, I think it will also be harder to build.

Every now and then, model-kit nuts like me see or buy a kit and think it looks fine, but it could be better. That’s probably why a healthy aftermarket has sprung up, with garage-kit producers making replacement heads and other parts to improve on the original without making it too expensive. A case in point is the GEOmetric Design Wolf Man. GEO has long been one of the best garage-kit companies around, offering wonderful Universal Studios monster kits cast in either vinyl with some resin parts or all resin. The Wolf Man is among them, and he’s OK … but he’s the only near dud of the bunch. Here’s the box art:

My problem with this sculpture (if you could call it a problem) is that it seems sort of narrow up top. The shoulders are rounded, the head a tad small. Plus, the facial expression is kind of bland and the hair at the top of his head looks sort of like some 1970s Shaun Cassidy ‘do. I’m not condemning the sculptor of this kit; his name is Mike Hill and he’s an astoundingly talented artist, particularly when it comes to werewolves. This just isn’t one of his best and he told me in an Internet chat room about three years ago that part of the reason for the kit’s understated impact is that it’s what GEOmetric wanted.

Even if none of this stuff bothered you, the feet probably would. This kit’s Wolf Man is standing way up on his tiptoes, making balancing the figure a challenge. I built one and he wobbles every time someone steps too heavily near the shelf.

Fortunately, Tom Parker of Cult of Personality Productions (cultofpersonality@peoplepc.com), working with sculptor Jim Maddox, recently stepped up with a new head and feet for the vinyl version of the GEO Wolf Man. Here’s a buildup by Germany’s Bernd Slominski (sometimes known online as “Classic Monsters”):

Cult of Personality’s Wolf Man replacement parts are made of resin and fit the 1/8 scale vinyl version of the GEOmetric kit. The replacement parts are sold separately from the kit, or you can buy both directly from Tom Parker for a great price. Price of the parts set alone is $25 postpaid, or $50 postpaid will also get you a bagged GEO kit (by “bagged”, I mean no box, no art, just the kit and you won’t need instructions to know what goes where). Just to make sure it’s clear, the kit doesn’t include a base. Bernd used one available from Resin Realities.

Here’s a comparison between the replacement parts and the originals; sorry, the photo is mine and I’m not the best photographer:

If you’re inter- ested, send him an e-mail at cultof- personal- ity@peo- plepc. com. Tom describes himself as “compu- ter illiterate” and says he depends heavily on Clubhouse administrators Spock and Mark M. to help him get pictures online and other technical issues, but I know he’s comfortable enough with computers to answer e-mails quickly. He’s never kept me waiting long for a reply, and he’s never treated me poorly in … what? Probably 10 transactions in the last four years or so.

Tom is one of the more interesting people I’ve encountered since getting back into this hobby in late 2001, and it was my pleasure to finally meet him in person last year at WonderFest in Louisville, Ky. Instead of skeletons in his closets, he apparently fills them with model kits and does a pretty good business with kit lovers around the world. We traded a few e-mails recently; what follows is what Tom had to say about the Wolf Man replacement parts, other replacement parts he’s marketed, and himself:

Like pretty much everyone else, I first got involved with kits back in the mid-’60s (first kit was an Aurora Batmobile purchased through the mail for 35 cents and two cookie wrappers, if memory serves).

I started selling ERTL “Star Trek” kits at conventions in the early ’80s, graduated to selling Billiken figures in the early ’90s at the Fangoria shows in NYC, then along came Chiller Theatre, which I did sporadically for the next eight or nine years until Ed Bowkley (of Diceman Creations) hooked me up at the Fall 2000 show with a table of my own, and I’ve been in the same spot ever since. Also from ’96 to 2001 I was a sales rep for a kit distributor with 45 MJ Designs and Michaels stores on my sales route (roughly 40 feet of display space in each one). This put me directly in touch with manufacturers and (more importantly) with liquidation. And in ’99 I released my first Aurora replacement head, which was Carrie Kelly (the female Robin from “Dark Knight Returns”) for the Revell Robin reissue. That was soon followed by a recast of the original Aurora Batman head and owl and a Space Ghost head for the Aurora Superman. I might as well just list them in order:

1999

• Carrie Kelly (with lasercut sunglasses and lenses) sculpted by myself, with Henry Frickel.

• Batman head and owl (recast off Aurora).

• Space Ghost sculpted by Jay Harless.

2000

• Godzilla train-car head and hand sculpted by Henry Frickel, to fit the Aurora Godzilla.

2001

• Adam West head and belt parts (portrait sculpt and belt pouches by myself, cowl by Henry Frickel). Fits the Aurora Batman.

2003

• King Kong face by Mark VanTine. Fits the Aurora Kong.

• General Urko head w/ammo cartridges and gun in holster (face sculpt by myself, gun, ammo cartridges and helmet by Henry Frickel). Fits the Addar General Ursus.

2003

• Burt Ward head by Jim Maddox. Fits the Aurora Robin.

• Rodan head by myself. Fits the Aurora Rodan.

• Wolf Man head and feet by Jim Maddox. Fits the GEOmetric Design kit.

Most of the replacement heads we did based on opportunity. If Revell or Polar Lights rereleased a kit and you could get it for $10 at Toys R Us, our goal was to put out a part (or parts) to improve that kit for not much more than the cost of the plastic kit. The choices were purely what we wanted to see, hoping that others would like them too. Sometimes we got lucky. We were able to get Aurora Kong kits from PL cheap, which prompted me to pursue Mark VanTine to do the Kong sculpt for us. Fortunately for us, Mark wasn’t super busy, he liked the project and did a fantastic sculpt for a very reasonable fee. Three years later we are getting ready to pull a fourth mold on this; it is creeping up on Godzilla as our best seller ever!

The Wolf Man was also a matter of timing. I was able to get a fairly large supply of these from George Stephenson when he was selling GEOmetric, and then from out of the blue, a talented sculptor named Jim Maddox contacted me about a ’60s Batman project (which became the Burt Ward head). In the course of talking to him, I found out he was a huge fan of the Universal Monsters, but more importantly, around that same time he had posted pics in the Clubhouse of a Planet of the Apes head he had done. Within a day from the time I saw the picture, I had worked out a deal with him to do a portrait head and feet. The head I chose to have him do is an iconic image from an old Famous Monsters of Filmland cover (which was based on a publicity still from “House of Dracula”).

THE FM COVER

CULT OF PERSONALITY’S WOLF MAN

The feet were actually from the first movie, and the main reason I even bothered with them at all is the kit feet were solid vinyl on “tiptoes” and even if you fill the vinyl parts and pin them, the figure tends to wobble on its base. Now would be a good time to add that our parts are designed for the VINYL version. Because the head features the open collar version of the make-up, you will need to cut away the collar and the front of the shirt (much easier on hollow vinyl, than solid resin, although a couple folks have done it).

…By the way, I recommend leaving about a quarter-inch of the vinyl flashing in place on each bicep before gluing it to the torso, then filling the gaps with epoxy putty to effectively broaden the shoulders. You will need to sculpt in a few folds and seams to match the kit parts, but it should be no big deal.