Resin the Barbarian - Part 4

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‘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

… Read the rest

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

Clubhouse co-founder Mark Mitchell helped glue together a strong modeling community of friends who’ve never met

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 interacted only through various hobby forums and e-mails. He used to type more words of encouragement in a week than I could read. He also pissed me off from time to time, and I know I did the same to him.

I’ve known him about seven years.

Third Clubhouse co-founder: Hi, fellow modelers,

I just want to say a few words about my old buddy Mark Mitchell. He was there in the beginning when I first started my Yahoo group Marvel Model Club back in the late ‘90s. We were a couple of superhero comic geeks! But Mark was a DC guy, so he decided to start a DC modeling group. Then the next thing you know Spock invited us to move over to his Clubhouse and as the saying goes, the rest is history (read about it here).

In those early days of the Clubhouse, Mark was an administrator and a driving force that helped turn it into a premiere modeling club. Our hobby wouldn’t be what it is today without Mark’s kindness and generosity. Mark worked his ass off for the Clubhouse. It took a tremendous amount of his time and energy, we all… Read the rest

Filed under Painters | Tags: , , | 7 Comments » |

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… Read the rest

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

A DVD update from Cortlandt Hull and Dennis Vincent

December 2nd, 2009

Pasted below is a message from Cortlandt Hull and Dennis Vincent, whose interview with James Bama was the subject of Resin the Barbarian’s October entry.

Our new documentary, “LEGENDS OF FILM & FANTASY”, will now be a multi-part series, this we just decided less than a month ago. Our very first volume will be “THE AURORA MONSTERS – THE MODEL CRAZE THAT GRIPPED THE WORLD!” (co written & co-directed by Dennis Vincent & Cortlandt Hull). The DVD should be ready this spring. It will make it’s official premiere at “Wonderfest” in Louisville, KY., on May 15 to 16, in 2010.

We re-thought our documentary, originally it was planned to be a four-hour, two-disc film, covering way too much material. Plus, we have almost 50 interviews, it seemed a shame to waste it, as the raw footage of each interview ran well over an hour for each guest. So, we are planning to produce two themed documentaries a year, but shorter – between 60 to 90 min. and about $10.00 each. The series will all be under the banner of “Legends Of Film & Fantasy”. This way, we can use more of the material we have shot. Mainly, this new format allows us to concentrate on each subject, rather than just a brief over-view. Dennis & I are very excited about our new series. We just put a write up on the “Home” page of our website – www.preservehollywood.org

(Pictured here) is our mock-up for the DVD cover. Zacherley is also doing some new wrap-arounds for us, since it was the horror hosts that originally made the classic horror movies “kid friendly” on “Shock Theatre”, across the country. This led the way to “Famous Monsters” and eventually the Aurora Monster Kits, which have inspired many makeup artists, illustrators, actors & film makers. Among the guests – Aurora cover artist, James Bama, actor & model sculptor Jeff Yagher, illustrator & model maker, Daniel Horne, from “Sideshow Collectibles” – Tom Gilliland, with Mat Falls, giving a wax sculpture demo, the artists of “Mad Geppetto”, Frank Winspur president of “Moebius Models”, master model builder & painter Mike Rutherford, and a lot more. We will include some rare photos from Thomas Graham, the author of “The Aurora Models Kits” (book by Schiffer), plus shots of Bob Burns as “Kogar” promoting the 1960′s Aurora Monster Kit Contest.

Still in production, no exact release date, except for the premiere at “Wonderfest”. Not confirmed yet, but the music score may be done by Broadway violinist & conductor, Kurt Coble.

Early preview trailer, which now is an overview of this new series, “LEGENDS OF FILM & FANTASY” -

All good wishes – Cortlandt & Dennis

Filed under Hobby news, Movie makers | Comments Off |

Sculptor Kent Kidwell focuses for now on his original
creations and hopes to work with more familiar characters

December 1st, 2009

The Head Merchant. What a name for a character. When he lumbered onto the garage-kit scene a couple years ago, I was struck by both his originality and his familiarity. The character is a cheerful but deadly, axe-toting barbarian on the back of a … whatever that horned creature is, packing a bouncing supply of severed heads. If someone told me this was an image that flowed from the paintbrushes of Frank Frazetta, I would have believed it.

But it’s not Frazetta’s work. It was created by sculptor Kent Kidwell, and for many hobbyists it was a memorable introduction.

Kent Kidwell, 40, lives in Florence, Ariz. He’s married to Linda and has four kids, Chessa, 4, Gabriel, 6, Kaleb, 14, and Samantha, 17. His business is Kidwell Concepts, which offers sculpting, mold-making, casting, design and multimedia. Running his business is a full-time endeavor for Kent; he says it’s all he knows how to do.

“Sadly, almost 20 years of sculpting, mold making and casting has made me unqualified for normal employment,” he said. “I would get fired at Taco Bell, I would get caught making a zombie bust made of beans and that would be it.”

The majority of his clients are private buyers who want unique fine art for home use, some office, but he has done work for larger companies as well.

“Being so young in the resin kit industry, I have just focused on releasing original kits,” he said. He’d like to do familiar characters such as the Hulk or Batman. “For some reason, I haven‘t been pursued for that genre much, not sure why. But I’m pretty sure I will be doing some comic characters soon, I hope.”

For now, the garage kits available directly from Kent are the Head Merchant, Pod Creature and Shadow Host General of the Undead.

I always ask the subjects of these interviews to share photos of themselves. Kent declined, but suggested readers envision him as “Quasimodo meets Uncle Fester, with charm.”

Q&A WITH KENT KIDWELL

Resin the Barbarian: You sort of burst onto the garage-kit scene a couple of years ago with your Head Merchant kit. Since then, what have you most enjoyed about being involved in the hobby?

Kent: Before I answer that, Todd, I just wanted to thank you for the chance to meet your readers. This is my first interview based on this hobby so I’m flattered.

To your question, I think there are two parts for me I enjoy. The first is the original kits side of things. I sincerely love the creative process of doing something that is uniquely your own, and being free to expand on that… Read the rest

Filed under Monsters, Producers, Resin, Sculptors, Swashbucklers and buccaneers | Tags: | Comments Off |

Bobby Horne uses brand-new decals, costumes and customization to renew old Megos and other models and figures

November 1st, 2009

For a lot of us, the concept of setting aside childish things just because we’ve grown up is alien. We want that child inside us to be there forever. For others, those “childish things” are naturally woven into the adults we become. I think Bobby Horne is one of those guys.

Bobby is almost 43 years old, all grown up and lives in mid-Tennessee. He has been married for 21 years to the “beautiful and understanding” Jennifer. Their three kids are Kirstie, 17, William, 12, and Endora, 6.

He works as a graphic designer, “anything from sign work, computer graphics to woodworking. Years ago, I worked in a cabinet shop and never got the sawdust outta my blood.” Sort of like resin model kits, he said. “Once you start, you never really stop.”

Bobby is about two years younger than I, so I think we grew up enjoying some of the same stuff: G.I. Joe, Big Jim, that kind of thing. Maybe he read some of the same comics I did, and was just as thrilled when the Mego figures of comic characters (both Marvel and DC!) were introduced.

Today, through his Academy Art & Design, Bobby offers customized Megos, decals and plenty more. E-mail him at aadesign@nctc.com.

Q&A WITH BOBBY HORNE

Resin the Barbarian: What’s your own personal “toy story”? Megos seem to be your particular interest. Do you remember when you became a fan, and what figure first got your attention?

BatdecalsHorne11-09

Bobby: My toy story goes as this: I can remember back when I was 5 years old and getting my first Mego figure. It was a removable mask Batman. This was the greatest thing I had ever saw. This ended up being a truly loved toy. It didn’t survive over the years; only parts of it.

Here’s a link for people that don’t know what Megos are: www.Megomuseum.com/

RtB: How did your interest in Megos, Big Jims, etc., translate from childhood into adulthood? Do you still have the toys you collected way back when, or did you go in search of it all again?

Bobby: A lot of my toys (Megos, Big Jim, Micronauts and comics) remain in my collection to this day. I guess I never really grew up. But when I discovered eBay in the ’90s, like many others, I began to add to my collection.

I always looked at the custom Mego stuff. These were the figures that Mego never made. Back then, there were only a few really good customizers that could get big money. I noticed a lot of extremely poor customs sold really well. I thought to myself ” I know I can do better”.

So, I… Read the rest

Filed under Comics, Producers | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments » |

My first look at the new Moebius Frankenstein’s Monster

October 23rd, 2009

Disclosure: I sell this kit and need money, so the opinions expressed herein may be tainted. Please take that into account.

My case of Moebius Frankenstein’s Monster kits arrived today. I was pleased to note that, despite a hole in the side of the shipping box, my kits are in good shape, as opposed to the beating UPS gave my case of Spider-Man kits. There was a little bit of a muddy spot on the shrink wrap of one kit, so that’s the one I kept for myself and opened up this afternoon.

Let’s not bury the lead. Plenty of people have objected to the look of this monster and I agree that it’s not the out-of-the-ballpark home run of the Mummy. This kit looks less like Karloff and is overall a bit stiff, even for the Monster. However, I still like it, and I was pleased to see how detailed the kit’s facial features are.

At first, I thought it might help to use some Aves to lengthen the face a bit. Now that I see the kit in person, though, I might instead suggest chopping a couple of millimeters off the neck to give the creature a somewhat tougher, more bull-necked look. Of course, Karloff himself was thin, but the costume’s padding hid that. I wanted to show how this new Moebius Monster looks next to the Aurora classic. Unfortunately, the only version of that kit I have handy is a Luminators with that wild translucent orange plastic, but I did the best I could.

Here’s one where I turned the Luminators Frankie black and white to try to better highlight the facial features.

A look at the profiles. I love the classic creature as much as anybody, but the new one definitely has a sharper, more realistic look.

The kit’s head went together nicely and the seam line isn’t intimidating. If the rest of it is as easy to assemble, it won’t take long to get it ready to paint.

I really appreciate how Moebius pays attention to some details I don’t even consider.

For example, on the Spider-Man kit, the seam line on the head follows the web pattern on the character’s costume. On the new Frankie’s base, there are a couple of delicate connection pins that are nicely protected by a clear plastic shield.

Frankie’s box is nice. It’s about the same height as a classic Aurora long box, but substantially wider and deeper. It also has a little more heft than the Moebius Spider-Man and Green Goblin boxes.

Overall, I’m pleased with this latest Moebius Universal Studios Monster and look forward to seeing the recently announced Lugosi Dracula.

Filed under Hobby news, Monsters, Styrene plastic | Tags: | Comments Off |

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