"BE COOL!
– EVERYBODY JUST BE COOL!"
One of my brother's favourite films is "From Dusk to Dawn" so spotting the
kit of George Clooney as Seth Gecko on special offer in Forbidden Planet looked like a
good bet for justifying another kit and also providing a Christmas present.
I duly handed over my dosh and took away one box with two colour pictures of the finished
kit. Inside, well protected in polystyrene chips, were 9 parts, consisting of the head,
body and arms of Seth, his pneumatic stake machine, a partially decomposed vampire with
separate arm/hand, a base representing a section of wooden flooring and a small name plate
bearing Seth's catch phrase "Be Cool".
On the plus side, the likeness of George Clooney is pretty good, the pose is quite
dynamic, the texture on the clothing is well done, the vampire is a nicely realised and
the wood effect on the flooring is good. On the minus side there are huge seam lines,
numerous air bubbles including some real craters, the fit of the arms to the body is
dreadful. The right hand has bits of several fingers missing (not bad considering it's a
clenched fist), the stake machine only bears a passing resemblance to the movie prop and
both the base and vampire are badly warped.
Time to take stock; not a lot to be done about the warping so ignore. I didn't have time
to scratchbuild a new staker so I'd have to do my best with the one provided. Sanding down
the seam lines would create obvious flat areas on the clothes but they were too horrendous
to leave so the best bet was to keep the sanded areas as thin as possible and paint them
as seams. So it was on with sanding, filling, priming and repeat until satisfied. I
attached the head to a length of wire for painting and fixed the arms in place as the
shoulder seams required vast amounts filling - far too much to do after painting. As it
turned out, I had to do so much sanding on the staker, I ended up removing some of the
detail panels completely and replacing them with plastic card.
Painting started out fairly straight forward, over my usual grey primer the body was
blocked in in very dark grey with matt black for shadows and lighter grey for highlights,
with extra highlighting on high wear areas and seams. Fortunately the near black covers a
lot of the flaws. I picked out the buttons in gloss black, shoes were done in dark
leather. I painted the floorboards in varying shades of brown and then ran a dark wash
over them to bring up the grain. The vampire was painted in a gunky greenish flesh and
heavily washed and drybrushed to bring up the detail. The staker was painted silver and
heavily weathered. Seth's head first had the hair painted in flat black and then
drybrushed with various shades of brown. The flesh tones were roughed in and then misted
with the basic fleshtone to blend the shading together, I then added black to the flesh
mix to give a greyish tone and misted it on the jaw area to give a five o'clock shadow.
The eyes completed the head. Finally the nameplate was painted in copper, washed with
black to bring up the lettering and drybrushed with dark metallic green, the border and
decoration were painted and then it was time to tie the elements together.
First decide on the positions of the various elements and drill holes as appropriate. Then
take a wooden base (prepared earlier) and glue the kit base to it. Discover the warpage
reduces the contact area beyond a reasonable amount. Drill a hole where it will be hidden
by the vampire's body, insert reinforcing screw. Attach the head to the body - best fit of
the kit and no need (I hope) for pinning. Pin and glue figure to base, then add vampire
body and arm. The staker was attached to Seth's hands and the handle created with two
lengths of bent coat hanger. At this point time was running out (23rd December)
and the gaps between the vampire and the floor needed filling. As a quick fix I mixed up a
dark green, added Liquatex Modelling paste and used the resultant mix to cover the gaps
and give the impression of the deliquescing vampire. A lighter shade of green washed round
the edges extended the impression of spreading liquid. I also washed and dry brushed some
of the mix on Seth and flicked a few droplets on his face. Once the main
"puddle" was dry I brushed on some Klear floor polish to give it more of a wet
look. Then I mixed up a blood colour and applied it sparingly. Finally the nameplate was
glued in place.
At the price I paid, this is not a bad kit, given the problems I would have been very
miffed if I had paid full price. The final build up is not bad, all things considered and
the recipient is very pleased.
Gary Stratmann
1999 |