Resin the Barbarian - Part 10

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Gabe Perna’s visions of villains

July 10th, 2009

First published April 6, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

Question: Whose idea was it for you to sculpt your own visions of these comic villains?

Gabe Perna, sculptor: It was one of those things where I just kinda started one and saw that I was having some fun. I wanted to make a sculpt that was sort of “museum bust”-like, with the sides and back truncated, in a larger scale than some of the stuff I had been doing at that point. No sooner than I finished the first one, I had started the second. They were quick and a real blast to sculpt. I showed ‘em to Randy of Killing Time Kits and that was that!

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If you’re looking to kill a little time by building a model, Killing Time Kits has three killers worth considering. They’re the unique visions of DC Comics villains by the sculptor Gabe Perna, dubbed “some of Gabe’s best work” by Randy at Killing Time, which is saying something.

Darkseid by Perna

“THE MONARCH”

Inspired by DARKSEID, ruler of the planet Apokolips

Painted by Dan Cope

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Bizarro by Perna

“ME AM #1″

Inspired by BIZARRO #1, an imperfect duplicate of Superman

Painted by Dan Cope

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Killer Croc by Perna

“CROCODILE JONES”

Inspired by Batman enemy KILLER CROC

Painted by Joe Dunaway

All three museum-style resin busts are about 10.5 inches tall, a little larger than 1/4 scale, and sell for $60 plus shipping. They all come in two parts and are unpainted.

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Gabe and Randy are two more guys I encountered through the Clubhouse Internet modeling community. Randy started out like me, a fan of garage kits (although he’s more talented), then he branched into kit production after a couple years or so. Gabe came along a bit later and quickly drew a lot of attention because of his striking style of sculpting. For some reason, both of these jokers struck me as guys a person could get along with, and I found out for sure that was true when I met them last year at WonderFest in Louisville, Ky.

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Here’s more of my e-mail Q&A with Gabe:

Me: What hours of the day do you sculpt, and do you have any kind of snack or drink on hand while you’re working?

Gabe: I keep the worst sort of hours (in a traditional sense). I generally stay up hammering the clay until about 5:30 am and rise… Read the rest

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Bubba the Redneck Werewolf and John Diaz

July 10th, 2009

Originally published March 30, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

Doesn’t this look like a happy fella?

Bubba the Redneck Werewolf

Meet “Bubba the Redneck Werewolf”, a 1/6 scale resin kit from the wonderful folks at Resin Realities and Wolf’s Den. The kit’s sculptor is Mark VanTine and it comes unbuilt in four resin parts; the one in the pictures was painted by Saul Alvarez. Bubba – who is also the star of his own comic and soon a movie – will be available in kit form for only a limited time; the price is $65 unbuilt or $75 for an assembled “bronzed” edition, plus shipping.

Sculpting Bubba “was a fairly straightforward job, which I both designed and executed,” MVT told me in an e-mail. “When finished, I sent it to John to do his thing.

“I’ve been working with John for over 10 years now, and over the years we’ve both learned to trust each other enough to allow the other to do their job. That’s the best way to work, if you ask me.”

The “John” he’s referring to is John Diaz, president of Resin Realities, a person known and admired by garage-kit fans around the world. I’ve known John for a few years, mostly because we’re both members of the Clubhouse modeling community, and I’ve also done a few transactions with him. I finally got to meet him face to face in the dealer room last year atWonderFest in Louisville, Ky. It was amazing; I approached John’s table with a bit of trepidation, wondering if I should bother to introduce myself; before I could decide, and while I was still several steps away, he picked out the name in small type on the tag I was wearing, gave me a big smile and started a conversation. Being able to make people so comfortable, so quickly, is a rare gift.

Bubba the Redneck Werewolf

Here’s what John had to say about Bubba in particular and producing garage kits in general recently through e-mail:

Me – What can you tell me about the character Bubba the Redneck Werewolf? (I wasn’t even aware of the comic until last week or so.)

John – Bubba was a character created by a friend of mine, Mitch Hymen. The story goes that he was a dogcatcher who was bitten by a dog that had been infected due to cosmetic testing in a lab and escaped.

Bubba likes to drink beer, drive a 4×4, has a hot girlfriend named Bobby Joe and is extremely jealous of anyone around her. He is more of an antihero as he really… Read the rest

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Koma’s Unbreakable David Dunn

July 10th, 2009

First published March 23, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

“How many days of your life have you been sick?”

David Dunn (played by Bruce Willis) is a man sadly moving through a midlife crisis until he becomes the only person out of hundreds to survive a train derailment in director M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable.” Then he finds a note under his windshield wiper, asking the question above, and things get really interesting.

David Dunn, see, goes on to meet the man who wrote the note – Elijah Price, a.k.a. “Mr. Glass” (Samuel L. Jackson, wearing a hairstyle inspired by Frederick Douglass) – and eventually accepts he has the ability to be a superhero, of sorts, in a real world that isn’t as much fun as the pages of most comic books.

Unbreakable David Dunn

Unbreakable back

“Unbreakable David Dunn” is a new model kit produced by KOMA Designs and available from Amok Time. It’s a 1/5 scale resin kit, 14 inches tall, five parts, includes two hoods, and sculpted by … well, all I know is the sculptor is “a real fan of this movie who wishes to remain anonymous,” according to Paul, a producer of the kit. It’s limited to 20 to 30 castings, one of which my wife, Lisa, pre-ordered for me at Christmas. The kit comes unbuilt and unpainted; the one in the pictures was painted by Saul Alvarez.

A Mr. Glass kit is also in the works from Koma.

“Unbreakable” was an acquired taste for me. First time through I sort of liked it, thought some scenes were well done but overall it was so low-key I didn’t spend much time on the edge of my seat. The ending wasn’t as big a surprise as the one in Shyamalan’s previous film, “The Sixth Sense,” but I didn’t see it coming. When the movie ended, I flipped off the TV and pretty much said, “Eh.”

Then I couldn’t get it out of my head. I bought the DVD the next week and have viewed the movie five or six times since then. Last time, when I knew this kit would arrive in my mail before long, I paid particular attention to some scenes toward the end when David battles a murderous home invader, and I started plotting ways to make his slicker look wet and dripping, like he just got out of a pool and is ready to return to the battle.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Rent the movie. Even if you hate it – which, honestly, seems to be about half the people who watch it –… Read the rest

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Cult of Personality Wolf Man replacement parts

July 10th, 2009

Originally published March 16, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

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:

GEOmetric Wolf Man

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”):

GEO Wolf Man with replacement parts

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… Read the rest

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Harvest Terror and Angel of Death with KitKong

July 10th, 2009

Originally published March 9, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

Sometimes I look around and think I’m the only guy in Colorado who gives a rat about this kind of stuff. Then I remember James “KitKong” Whitman of Lakewood and remember there are plenty of people who share my model-kit fascination.

I knew James by reputation quite some time before I actually had any contact with him, mostly because he was the person who so often outbid me on these kinds of kits on eBay, and a year or so ago I discovered his online store, KitKong’s Model Mansion. Now, James has started producing garage kits of his own, and they’re the perfect original creations for Halloween lovers like me.

Harvest Terror

Angel of Death

“Harvest Terror” and “Angel of Death” are 1/6 scale porcelain-resin kits, both sculpted by Nick Williams and the first GKs offered by the Model Mansion. Both kits come unbuilt and unpainted; James built and painted the ones on the box art himself. “Harvest Terror” sells for $65 plus shipping; “Angel of Death” is $45 plus shipping.

James’ model-kit collection – large enough to inspire a friend to give him the “KitKong” nickname – now belongs to the Model Mansion, of which he is the owner and sole operator. Here’s some of what he had to say about the background of “Harvest Terror” and “Angel of Death”:

“Both were sculpted by Mr. Nick Williams. The ‘Harvest Terror’ concept was his own, and derived from a concept and idea he had been playing with for years. We agreed to see how it would translate into a kit.

“The ‘Angel of Death’ kit was a collaboration between Mr. Williams and me in trying to come up with an interesting new look for the Grim Reaper. It was not originally intended as a bust, but we found that it seemed to present itself better as a bust than a full figure kit.”

Before I finish up this week, I’ll note that the prices on these two pieces are pretty low for resin garage kits, particularly “Harvest Terror” (1/6 scale GKs that include the base typically sell for $100 and up) and I’ve heard the castings on both are quite good. Anyone interested in checking out whether they’d enjoy building garage kits would probably find these a good way to ease into the hobby without overheating the checking account.

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The Forgotten One with Kitman

July 10th, 2009

Originally published March 2, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

Most of the model kits I collect are easily recognizable characters. The Universal Monsters, comic-book heroes and villains, Indiana Jones … fantasy character stuff. Yep, I’m in my 40s and still prefer this kind of thing to watching millionaires with no sense of good sportsmanship play games on TV all Sunday. If that means my priorities are out of whack, so be it.

Every now and then, someone comes along with an original creation that catches my eye. “Aldrhiel The Forgotten One” from Paradoxx Resin is such a sculpt:

The Forgotten One

The Forgotten One comic

Aldrhiel is a 1/6 scale kit, cast in solid resin, sculpted by Alterton of Argentina, priced at $150 plus shipping and limited to a mere 25 castings.

The prototype in the pictures was painted by the remarkably talented and prolific John Allred.

“As much as I like all the superheroes and Universal Monsters,” John told me via e-mail, “I like original characters even more. So it was a lot of fun and a challenge to come up with a paint scheme for this piece. BTW, Norm surprised Alterton with this finished piece, not telling him who was painting it. Alterton e-mailed me and said he was very happy and amazed at how close the color scheme was to what he had always imagined. Needless to say, I was relieved!”

Norm “Kitman” Piatt of Paradoxx Resin – a fellow I’ve known about four years now primarily via The Clubhouse, a popular online modeling community – answered some questions about the “Forgotten Ones” series via e-mail.

Me: What can you tell me about this character?

Norm: The character is from an original story Alterton began writing a few years ago. He decided to sculpt a couple of figures from it. This is when we started working together on the project. There’s a description of Aldrhiel up on the Paradoxx Resin Web site.

Me: You mentioned that there is a “Forgotten Ones” comic book and plans for multimedia project based on Alterton’s characters, including theme music. Who writes the comic? Who’s composing the music? Where will people be able to see these things?

Norm: The whole multimedia idea came about when Alterton told me he was writing a story based on the Forgotten Ones. We thought it would be cool to see if we could turn this story into a comic book. I am handling the artwork and computer graphics; both of us are collaborating on the story. It’s really more of a graphic novel than a comic book.… Read the rest

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Jeff Yagher’s Aurora Box Art Bride

July 10th, 2009

First published Feb. 23, 2006, at GJSentinel.com.

“Aurora” is an important name to anyone who enjoys monster models. It was the company that introduced the world to such kits back in the ’60s, first with the Frankenstein Monster and followed by many more, including a wonderfully detailed kit of the monster’s Bride:

Polar Lights Bride of Frankenstein

For the record, the picture above is the kit issued a few years ago by Polar Lights. It looks pretty much the same as Aurora’s, although I hear the glass parts on the original weren’t cast in clear plastic. The PL kit isn’t hard to find; original Aurora Brides are.

Truth is, while many of us love the classic Aurora kits, we recognize that the figures inside the boxes weren’t as spectacular as the box art paintings, most of which were created by artist James Bama. Here’s how Bama painted the Bride:

Bride of Frankenstein by James Bama

Similar to the kit, but better, right? A lot of Aurora nuts (and I became one of them in the ’70s) just accepted that this was how things were. But finally, all these years later, super-talented sculptor Jeff Yagher has translated Bama’s artwork into three dimensions:

Jeff Yagher's Bride of Frankenstein

The Bride Of Frankenstein Aurora Box Art Tribute Kit is a brand-new offering from Monsters in Motion. It’s the latest in a continuing series of Yagher-sculpted Aurora box art tribute kits, including the Phantom of the Opera, WolfMan, Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde, Dracula and King Kong. Pictures of all of these can also be found on MiM’s site, but I’m linking to the buildups by Mike Rutherford, who is the biggest fan of the series I’ve encountered and has a gift for making them look just like Bama’s paintings.

Monsters in Motion’s new Bride is a pressure-cast resin kit, more than 40 parts, 1/7 scale, priced at $199.99 plus shipping and scheduled to be available at the end of February. Price got you intimidated? Hey, I understand, but it’s not like these garage kits are being mass-produced by sweat-shop workers making a nickel a day in China. Kits like this are available in very limited editions, and this one in particular is sculpted by one of the most talented people you could hope to encounter.

Speaking of whom, you may not think you know anything about Jeff Yagher, but there’s a pretty good chance you do. He’s a man of many careers, most visibly as an actor. He’s got a ton of titles to his credit, including the “V” television series, “Six Feet Under” and many, many more. He even played one of Elaine’s sponge-worthy boyfriends on a… Read the rest

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