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The story of Eva, Dedham Pond’s new Paquet-sculpted bust

June 18th, 2011

Dedham Pond Designs was created in early 2010, shortly after sculptor William Paquet first contacted me with an offer to work together on a project that turned out to be a bust called “Alma”, inspired by the effects work Dick Smith did on the 1981 movie “Ghost Story”. Here’s how I told the story:

We started discussing possible projects. I said in an e-mail that I enjoy the over-the-top ghosts I’ve seen in some movies and attached a few photos, including a collage of Smith’s work on “Ghost Story”. William, a very busy guy, read my message and replied quickly, before looking at the photos.

“Ghosts … funny you mentioned them because one of the things I have always wanted to sculpt and one of the things than came to mind for you was a bust of Alma Mobley/Eva Galli from ‘Ghost Story’. The half-rotten stunning work by Dick Smith. Very creepy, and the kind of thing that’s fun to paint.”

Attached to the e-mail was the exact same collage of Smith’s work. Oh yeah, this project had to happen.

We agreed that William would sculpt a bust inspired by actress Alice Krige’s Alma Mobley, as she appeared in a heart-stopping scene early in “Ghost Story”.

William kept me regularly updated on his progress with the Alma bust. Somewhere along the line, he said he was going to go ahead and do another sculpture inspired by the same film, this one of the ghost of Eva Galli as she appears to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in the moments before his character’s death. That scene has haunted me for years, ever since I first sat in a theater and watched it in 1981.

So, Alma would launch Dedham Pond while William would, eventually, produce Eva himself. However, lucky for me, William Paquet is a busy guy. Very, very busy. Check out some of what he’s doing for Quarantine Studio to get an idea of how busy he is.

A couple of months ago, William unexpectedly offered a deal to make Eva part of the Dedham Pond catalog. Much as she frightens me, I quickly took him up on the offer. After another masterful paint job by Charlie Coleman — whose skills have also introduced Dedham Pond’s Mr. Hyde and Nosferatu — she’s now ready to haunt hobbyists.

ORDERING INFO: Eva and Alma are both 1/4 scale, one-piece resin kits. They sell for $45 apiece plus shipping for a 1.5-pound package. The price for both is $80 plus shipping for a 2-pound package. If interested, please email todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com. Please include your ZIP code so I can figure shipping.… Read the rest

Filed under Dedham Pond Designs, Monsters, Producers, Resin, Sculptors | Tags: , , | Comments Off |

Nosferatu: The story of a vinyl model that almost was

March 30th, 2011

 

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.

NOSFERATU
The kit is 1/8 scale, resin, sculpted, molded and cast by Joe Simon. Price is $65 plus shipping for a 1.5-pound package. Payment by money order, check or PayPal. If interested, please email Todd Powell at todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com.

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.

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.… Read the rest

Filed under Dedham Pond Designs, Monsters, Producers, Resin, Sculptors, Vinyl | Tags: , , | 4 Comments » |

Monster Model Review features Dedham Pond’s Hyde

March 20th, 2011

… Read the rest

Filed under Dedham Pond Designs, Monsters, Producers, Resin | Comments Off |

For Norman Meyers of Artist Proof Studio, sculpting
is an opportunity to tell a story as well as shape a figure

July 5th, 2010

Check out this creepazoid. He (?) is called the S.L.E. Creature, and once I get over being freaked out, I feel really bad for … it. Poor thing, you look at it and just know this is someone who’s had a really serious problem.

The S.L.E. Creature is a new release from Artist Proof Studio, sculpted by Norman Meyers, 32, of Santa Monica, Calif. Here’s how Norm describes the creature’s origin:

“A strange virus takes over its host mutating them into a twisted deformed being.

“During the mutation process, the virus allows the host’s face to appear and look at its new body, the virus being proud of its work.

“When the host/victim inevitably freaks out, the head is re-absorbed and the virus gets to work creating an even more horrifying mutation. It’s an endless cycle.”

What bothers and impresses me when I look at some of Norm’s work is that I can see the person underneath all that weirdness, maybe someone who didn’t deserve to end up how he is.

You can say similar things about some of the pieces by Paul Komoda, Norm’s partner in Artist Proof Studio, who created an Elephant Man bust slated for release soon.

Norm’s mother and sister are established fine artist figure painters who regularly have solo shows throughout Los Angeles and galleries on the East Coast. Check out their work online at www.neilahmeyers.com and www.pattimeyers.com.

His father enjoyed sculpting, mostly figurative, working in water clay, bronze and stone.

“Growing up in a family of artists, it was common to come home and find a nude model in the living room. Needless to say, I had many friends always wanting to come over after school!”

Norm works for Cinemaquette / Toynami, a toy and statue company in Van Nuys, Calif. “I do a large variety of jobs there, from quality control, customer service, shipping and receiving, project managing along with sculpting. It’s a small company so there’s always tons to do.”

SHAPING A MONSTER MAKER, NORM’S OWN WORDS

I’ve always been fascinated/obsessed with horror movies, creatures and special effects. I started sculpting when I was 11 years old and was determined to get into the special effects world. I tracked down every back issue of Fangoria magazine and went to every convention I could find that was horror related.

When I was 15 I put together a portfolio of my sculptures and sent it to Stan Winston with a letter saying I wanted to work for him. Many months later to my surprise, I got a phone call from him, inviting me to work at his studio for free as an intern.

It was an amazing experience! I came into the studio after Jurassic Park, and worked on the resin dinosaur maquettes that would eventually become the Horizon vinyl kits (cleaning up seams, puttying with milliput, etc.).… Read the rest

Filed under Monsters, Producers, Resin, Sculptors | Tags: , | 5 Comments » |

Atlantis rises on a tidal wave of plastic to bring back
more of the model kits from hobbyists’ past and future

May 1st, 2010

This month’s entry comes with a soundtrack. Hit the play button below if you’re up for a little music.

Donovan – Atlantis

What a great time for fans of plastic figure models. Five years ago, it seemed the “big guys” had declared our hobby dead and not worth resuscitating. Polar Lights was at the end of a spectacular run of kits, including a few wonderful originals and many “repops” of classic Aurora monsters and heroes. But Playing Mantis, PL’s owner, was purchased by a larger company that was much more interested in Johnny Lightning cars than model kits.

The message that seemed to come down to figure-kit hobbyists was, “You’re not worth our time anymore.”

Fortunately, a few “little guys” decided not to accept that the hobby was dead and took steps. Moebius emerged and started producing terrific figure kits. Monarch’s Nosferatu was a hit.

Wasn’t long before figure kits started appearing from other companies that had the molds handy. Revell has put a handful of Aurora classics on hobby store shelves for the umpteenth time. Polar Lights is back in the game.

Still there’s plenty of material to mine. Hobbyists throw out wish-list material at every opportunity, hoping for revivals of kits they knew and loved as kids, and for stuff they’ve never owned but always been interested in.

Enter Atlantis Model Co., another small producer ready to make some of those dreams come true. The company has already released three UFO models. It plans to follow up soon with reissues of Aurora’s American Buffalo and Black Bear kits.

A bevy of Aurora figure kit releases are in the works for 2011, including Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Gladiators and more.

The “little guys” behind Atlantis Peter Vetri, 39, and Rick Delfavero, 45, of East Northport, N.Y. They’re the owners of Megahobby.com Inc. and founded Atlantis in April 2009. They’re getting help from hobby expert Andy Yanchus, who serves as a consultant.

The company is named after Donovan’s classic folk-pop song.

Megahobby is about to celebrate its 10th year in business. Peter says he and Rick have “built many models over our lifetimes and continue to do so.”

My introduction to Atlantis Models came courtesy of Scott McKillop of Monarch. “If they can do faithful repops of the aurora kits, I will be a big fan, he wrote in an e-mail. “Looks like a great company.”

Q&A WITH PETER VETRI

Resin the Barbarian: When and how did you decide to start Atlantis?

Peter: Atlantis was started last April. We wanted to grow Megahobby through another sales channel besides retail sales. We love kits and think we can do a good job making them so Atlantis was born.

RtB: So far, the kits available from Atlantis were manufactured by other companies, correct?… Read the rest

Filed under Historical, Producers, Styrene plastic, Swashbucklers and buccaneers | Tags: , , | 5 Comments » |

‘The time has come to tell the tale’

February 28th, 2010

DEDHAM POND DESIGNS: “THE TIME HAS COME TO TELL THE TALE”

Water runs over the tub’s edge and onto the tile, but the man doesn’t care. He wants an answer from the woman lying face-down on the bed. A minute before, he had asked, “Who are you?” But when he put a hand on her back, felt the chill of her flesh, his question changed.

“What are you?”

She allows him to roll her over to face him, showing him what she is. Moments later, he’s hundreds of feet away, dead and wet and cold.

She is Alma Mobley, and thanks to movie makeup and effects pioneer Dick Smith, she’s the kind of woman who stops the heart … forever. Many of us who first saw her on the big screen when “Ghost Story” was released in 1981 recall how Alma, and Eva Galli as well, made our hearts race.

Sculptor William Paquet was one of those people. After seeing it, “I was actually afraid to go into my folks’ dark house, having to go in the back door amid the shadows and loneliness of their cavernous backyard,” he wrote in an e-mail.

“This film, is wonderful. The cast, among the most impressive lineup of heavyweights in their golden years ever seen. The flashbacks are rich in atmosphere and nostalgia, and fully flesh out the characters as young, handsome and ambitious men-about-town. To try and compare this to the book is actually silly; it must be measured on its own scale.”

William is a longtime fan of Dick Smith, famous for his work on movies such as “Amadeus”, “The Godfather” and, of course, “The Exorcist”. Smith did some of his best, scariest effects for “Ghost Story”, creating visions of Alma and Eva that have remained in William’s imagination. He had long intended to translate his own image of Alma to clay.

AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY

Almost 30 years after “Ghost Story” debuted, William happened to browse the Clubhouse modeling community’s sculptors’ forum and saw I was considering my second garage-kit production. My first was a bust of Ben from “Night of the Living Dead”, sculpted in 2006 by a wonderful young artist named Chris Wooten. I wanted to do a more professional job of it this time around and was asking for advice about finding someone to work with.

William suggested the possibility of working with me, an unexpected and, yes, thrilling prospect. I’m a fan, have been a fan since becoming involved in the hobby in 2001.

ALMA

  • Sculpted by William Paquet
  • Produced by Dedham Pond Designs
  • 1/4 scale pressure-cast resin
  • One piece, comes unpainted
  • $55 plus shipping
  • If interested, e-mail todd.powell@resinbarbarian.com

Have you ever been grateful to someone for lighting a fire under your sorry rear end to get you moving on something you say you want to do, but don’t really know if you mean it?

… Read the rest

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The Black Heart of George Stephenson: GEOmetric founder reunites with Earthbound, Simon, returns to GK production

January 1st, 2010

Some people like pro football, so they pay attention to NFL players, and not just when the players are on the field. Same goes for fans of every other sport, or movies, books, daytime television … whatever. If something interests us we study it, and the people involved, with more enthusiasm than anything our social studies teachers could have dragged out of us.

I like model kits and have learned a lot about the people who make them. One fellow I’ve always wondered about is George Stephenson, founder and former owner of GEOmetric Design.

GEO was one of the first big garage-kit companies I became aware of after re-entering the hobby in late 2001 and its models quickly captured my attention. They were wonderful, affordable kits sculpted by some of the most talented people in the hobby, including William Paquet, Mike Hill, Jeff Yagher, Joe Simon, Thomas Kuntz and Takayuki Takeya.

It didn’t take long to figure out George was the man who ran GEOmetric. It also didn’t take long to figure out George was quitting the business and slowly shutting down GEO.

Bad, bad news for this budding middle-aged hobbyist. It was a relief when Phoenix Comics owner Al Matrone made a deal to buy GEOmetric in 2003 and continue the company.

In the years since, I’ve crossed paths with many of the creative people involved in GEOmetric and have interviewed some of them for Resin the Barbarian. George … well, I briefly met him twice, once at Imagine-Nation Expo 2002, which I believe was the last hobby show he attended as GEO’s owner; and the second time at WonderFest 2005, where I found myself standing next to him in the dealers’ room. I took the opportunity to introduce myself before quickly running away for fear of being even more of a pest than I’m used to being.

Both occasions predated the creation of this blog, and so I couldn’t create an excuse to throw a bunch of fanboy questions at him. In the years since, it would have felt rude. The guy’s a judge in his day-to-day life, I had no business pestering him to talk about the hobby he departed years ago.

Imagine my delight upon hearing in 2009 that George Stephenson was returning to garage-kit production, and that his new company would be called Black Heart Enterprises.

GOODBYE GEOMETRIC, HELLO BLACK HEART

A brief confession is in order. An awful lot of what you’re about to read is the barest rewrite of an autobiography George put together himself. He’s a good writer and I know better than to mess it up just so I can say I did it myself.… Read the rest

Filed under Monsters, Producers, Resin, Sci-Fi, Swashbucklers and buccaneers | 4 Comments » |

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