The Chickens from Hell

Tremors 2 (Aftershocks) is the rather less well known sequel to Tremors and features a mutated version of the original's ground burrowing creatures, dubbed by some "The Chickens from Hell".
When I saw Dave Trelfer's award winning Tremors 2 diorama at the Newhaven IPMS show (A Fort Full of Models - report in Drone 38, also pictures on the web site) I was very impressed. When he told me he was planning to release it in kit form I immediately placed an order. Some time later I received an e-mail telling me that the kit was now ready, cast from a brand new master. I sent my cheque off straightaway and within a few days received a stout cardboard box with a colour label including a very clear photograph and sporting the Film and TV Modellers Club logo; full marks for initial presentation.
Inside, very well packed in bubble wrap, were 5 beautifully cast off-white resin pieces, consisting of base with packing crate and logo, main body, lower jaw, tongue and "sensor array" plus 2 pins, another colour photo and a certificate (mine is kit No 5). There are very few flaws; some small air bubbles - mostly on the "sandy" section of the base, some minor seam lines and, as Dave warned me might be the case, a couple of the toes had not come out of the mould completely.
The first step was to remove the mould lines, easily done with a scalpel and needle file and drilling the holes in the feet for the pins. I drilled these at an angle up the legs to get a reasonable depth. There was also a bit of mould ridge around the base which I removed with my minidrill's sanding bit. Then a quick scrub with an old toothbrush in warm soapy water, rinse and leave to dry.
I gave the parts a coat of Halfords’ grey primer. A few additional air bubbles and other small flaws showed up, these and the other problems such as the toes were corrected with Milliput followed by another coat of primer. I decided to paint the base first and mixed up a sandy colour with acrylics (white, raw sienna and burnt umber) and gave it a good coat with my airbrush. I then darkened the colour with more burnt umber and put in some shading, especially along the bottom edges of the crate. After adding enough burnt umber to create a base colour for the wood I gave the crate an overall spray. I finished the painting session by lightening the basecoat and spraying in some highlights and "dusting" the crate to blend it in.
Next a dark brown wash was used to bring up the wood detail on the crate and the rocks on the base were painted in shades of grey, blending in other colours to reduce uniformity. The label was painted red brown and the frame and letters picked out in white, this was a bit stark, so I ran a pale grey over the white to give it more of a "bleached" look.
Turning to the beast itself, I mixed up grey flesh and sprayed the underside followed by a darker mix on the upper parts and legs. An even darker shade was used on the legs and round the edge of the mouth and sensor flaps. The same general pattern was used on the lower jaw. Finally red was added and the interior of the mouth, tongue, tail and side sacs painted. I then used a dark wash to bring up the tremendous amount of surface detail followed by drybrushing with a lighter shade. Once all that was dry, I made up a lighter version of the base colour and sprayed the beast all over to blend in the washes and highlights and create the dusty look of the original. I also gave the base a light misting to tie everything together.

I painted the "sensory organs" with a dark red, highlighted and shaded in the usual way, using an even darker shade at the junctions with the main body colour. When everything was thoroughly dry the sensory organs, mouth interior and tongue were given a coat of Klear(Future) floor polish to give them a gloss finish.
To fix the beast to the base I eventually only used one of the pins (left leg), Having drilled the leg along its length it was a bit tricky making a matching hole in the base. I should really have done all the drilling before commencing painting. I had to spend some time filing down one of the reconstructed toes to get the right foot sitting level.
Once the various bits were assembled with superglue, I added some drool using 5-minute epoxy and it was finished. A great little kit that produced a very pleasing result.

Notes:
The completed model is approximately 6 inches long by 4 inches high

Painting was done with Liquitex and Daler-Rowney Acrylics

Z-A-Gap cyanoacrylate superglue and Zap Kicker accelerator were used for construction

Araldite Rapid Epoxy glue was used to create the drool

Other build ups of this kit are featured at the Film and TV model club site (currently under reconstruction)

The Tremors 2 kit is available from:-

Dave Trelfer
18 Castle Drive
Whitfield
Dover
Kent CT16 3EN
United Kingdom

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