February 1st, 2010
Words from another Clubhouse co-founder: The one person I credit for the existence of the Clubhouse is Mark. He was the person that put in the hard work and dedication to create this community that survived these long nine years. He set the standards that allowed the Clubhouse to stand the test of time. He fought the battles and the Clubhouse stands as a testament to his determination. Everyone in the community owes a debt of thanks to this man. There would be a lot less styrene and resin in the world if not for Mark Mitchell. He is a generous soul. He has been and always shall be my friend.
— Harry “Spock”
“Friend” has taken on a new, sometimes peculiar meaning in the 21st century. How many of those people sharing game scores through their Facebook pages do you really know? Some of them, yes, and maybe all of them strike you as folks who’d be interesting if you could just take a little time to acquaint yourselves … which is probably never gonna happen.
Lots of people who call Mark Mitchell “friend” have never seen his face in person, never heard his voice, might not know him if they passed each other on the street. But they’re friends just the same, and they share more of their lives with each other than many of us do with our next-door neighbors.
I consider Mark my friend, part of a special group of people with whom I’ve…
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Filed under Painters | Tags: clubhouse, model citizens, washington | 7 Comments » |
September 3rd, 2009
The impression I get is that Fritz Frising,
“The Headless Hearseman”, could happily start his day watching his 4-year-old son, Andi, put Band-Aids on his monster models’ ouchies, move on to a comfortable tea-time chat with a WWII veteran’s 88-year-old widow, then finish up late discussing deathrock icons in the heart of a group most men in their early 40s would go out of their way to avoid.
A blend of past and present, courtesy and peril, elegance and roughness, plus a healthy dose of talent, that’s how Fritz strikes me … much like
Monstrology Models, which Fritz has resurrected.
Monstrology originally rose in the 1990s under founder Jon Wang. “I was a huge horror movie fan and Aurora monster model builder since I was a little kid,” Jon said in an e-mail interview. “At the Fangoria and Chiller shows of the late ’80s and early ’90s I saw incredible sculptures by guys like John Dennett, Thomas Kuntz, Yagher and Bowen and of course the Billiken stuff — and was inspired to start sculpting.
“I hadn’t really planned on starting a company, but things just spiraled and eventually Monstrology was born — the idea being the ‘study’ of these horror characters through sculpture.”
The company produced more than its share of early garage-kit classics, particularly a handful of figures sculpted by William Paquet, “who did what I consider to be some of his best work for Monstrology,” Fritz said via e-mail.
Those figures include a John Barrymore Mr.…
Read the rest Filed under Monsters, Painters, Producers, Resin, Sculptors | Tags: fritz frising, jon wang, monster, monstrology, silent, william paquet | 5 Comments » |
July 11th, 2009
Originally published Sept. 27, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.
Some guys just seem to be particularly in love with this hobby of ours. Mike Rutherford, 38, of New England has long struck me as one of them. Check out his
Web site, which is stuffed not only with pictures of his own kit buildups, but with information about model kits both past and present and plenty of other genre subjects of interest to hobbyists.
Mike’s also a family man; his wife is Melanie, his kids are Michael and Madison.
MIKE RUTHERFORD AND MODEL KITS
Resin the Barbarian: You strike me as someone who truly loves this hobby and has for a long time. How long have you been involved in building kits, and what got you started?
Mike: Hello Todd, and thank you for this opportunity.
What got me started was my
Uncle Jonathan, in 1971.
When I was 4 years old and he about 10, he had both the Victim and the Frankenstein “Monster Scenes” kits. We would play with these as toys.
My grandmother had an old birdcage that we would use as a cage for the Monster to put the Victim inside of.
However, I didn’t get a model kit of my very own until a few months later. It was a glow in the dark kit called “Fiend” that was made by a company called Lindberg.
My first
Aurora monster kit was the glow version of the
“Forgotten Prisoner.”
Between the two of us, my…
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Filed under 2006 archive, Monsters, Painters, Resin | Tags: Monsters in Motion, Retro Resin | Comments Off |
July 11th, 2009
Originally published July 26, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.
Imagine you’ve got a kit that looks wonderful before you even start working on it. Something created by Jeff Yagher, a sculptor who is so talented and well-respected by garage-kit fans that the kit is named after him instead of the character it depicts. A kit that would look great if you just set the unpainted piece on a shelf.
Something like this:
If you’re like me, you might get intimidated and let the thing sit in its box, gathering dust until you feel you’ve gotten “good enough” to subject it to your talents. Or maybe you’d go ahead and slap some paint on it and figure, who cares that it’ll look worse when I’m finished than it did when I started? I’m doing this for fun.
If you’re Steve Riojas, paints are the tools you use to bring out the details and reveal the sculpture in a new light.
Take another look, side by side:
“YAGHER CLASSICS VOLS. 1-12″
Sculpted by Jeff Yagher.
All 1/6 scale, resin.
Produced in limited numbers by Tower of London.
Available from
X-O Facto.
Prices range from $150 to $250 plus shipping; check the X-O Facto Web site for specifics.
You know what I did when I first saw
“Yagher Classics Vol. 1″? I cursed Tower of London. It was getting close to Christmas and I needed to spend my money on things other…
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Filed under 2006 archive, Monsters, Painters, Resin | Tags: Tower of London | Comments Off |
