Week one of #MonsterMarch - check out the Swordmaster of Hoeth blog for all the community updates.
Ok - a bit of background about this model - I got it from a Thai seller on eBay a while ago - I've always wanted a life-sized Facehugger and they are only about £20 - so thought it was taking a punt on.
The quality is hit and miss - I definitely wouldn't advise for a novice builder; the model is made out of vinyl and is hollow, so can be easily heated to reposition it and trimmed, but being hollow means that joins can be an absolutely nightmare to fill if there are gaps (and there are gaps!). The sculpt is pretty good, plenty of detail where you would want it and but obviously not GW standards here. I can imagine lots of these get bought, put together badly, sprayed once and then get binned - but with some TLC, I think they could look pretty good.
Typically - I jumped straight into assembly, meaning I had no unassembled pics - so I will share this one from the seller:
As you can see - the body is in two parts, with eight complete fingers, separate nails and the tail is split into four (understandable - the tail is about 3 feet long...).
Issue one...everything is very straight...not very organic or posed.
The body went together first, a hairdryer was required to heat the parts to get everything meeting and even then, there was a good 5mm gap in places that had to be filled, so out came the greenstuff. Luckily, most of it was around flat areas that I could smooth in, with only a little sculpting required around the 'mouth'.
The tail went together fine, but I left that off until the end.
I attached all of the fingers and nails as they were, before heating the knuckles and bending them. I wanted the Facehugger to look like it was about to pounce, so played with each finger one at a time until I was happy.
Finally, I attached the tail in one piece before heating it and bending to give it a bit of life. I hardly had it kinking round, but even the positioning I gave it was pretty tricky - the vinyl is pretty thick and being hollow, wanted to 'fold' more than 'bend'.
The other good thing with the model is that I should be able to gently heat it once painted and reposition it if I'm not quite happy. Saying that, by the end, I managed to get the model into a pose I was happy with - I have a super secret place I will be placing this once finished - so tested the poses on a few bits of furniture and it doesn't look half bad.
Next update - painting begins!
Ok - a bit of background about this model - I got it from a Thai seller on eBay a while ago - I've always wanted a life-sized Facehugger and they are only about £20 - so thought it was taking a punt on.
The quality is hit and miss - I definitely wouldn't advise for a novice builder; the model is made out of vinyl and is hollow, so can be easily heated to reposition it and trimmed, but being hollow means that joins can be an absolutely nightmare to fill if there are gaps (and there are gaps!). The sculpt is pretty good, plenty of detail where you would want it and but obviously not GW standards here. I can imagine lots of these get bought, put together badly, sprayed once and then get binned - but with some TLC, I think they could look pretty good.
Typically - I jumped straight into assembly, meaning I had no unassembled pics - so I will share this one from the seller:
Issue one...everything is very straight...not very organic or posed.
The body went together first, a hairdryer was required to heat the parts to get everything meeting and even then, there was a good 5mm gap in places that had to be filled, so out came the greenstuff. Luckily, most of it was around flat areas that I could smooth in, with only a little sculpting required around the 'mouth'.
I attached all of the fingers and nails as they were, before heating the knuckles and bending them. I wanted the Facehugger to look like it was about to pounce, so played with each finger one at a time until I was happy.
Next update - painting begins!
The model Looks good and faithful to the film. Are you air brushing?
ReplyDeleteHi Col. no - I wish but haven't jumped in and made the investment yet - but know I should. I'll give you a spoiler ahead of next week though - it's coming along ok by hand ;)
ReplyDeleteCreepy.
ReplyDeleteThis model is indeed large so great job on painting it with a paint brush! Thanks for the updates, I will definitely include the pictures for #MonsterMarch!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
That's huge and horrible looking, great job. I find the facehugger scene in Aliens in the sickbay worse than the Alien soldier attack scenes, something about choking and putting a huge tube down the throat, yeugh!
ReplyDeleteOh wow that is grim lookong already, just the idea of it.
ReplyDelete