Niels Elmholt

some outdoor shots Niels, DK

I bought and build this impressive white metal Mounted Samurai model from Poste Militaire in the early 80's - I can't remember the price, but it was very expensive and I had kept iy ever since. However the years and some moving around had left its marks on the model and a couple of years ago I dismantled the samurai figure and removed all the paint. The Horse was mounted solidly on its base so I decided just the repaint it. Another move and other priorities meant that the projects was stranded until recently, where I found the parts and repainted and assembled the figure again. This is how it looked when done originally - the pic is from my book "Plastbyggesæt" from the late 80's Since then I had begun using Vallejo paints and wanted to test them on the Samurai figure. This turned out to be a good idea and I was especially happy for the airbrush color which I mixed with the normal colors to get the right consistence (flow) for fine detailing work. I also experimented with matt, satin and gloss varnish to enhance the different parts of the armour. I also used the Citadel washes which are new to me. Here are some pics of the process: The base plate was also restored with new "plants" - grass, which was made from green rope for gardening and small bushes made of dried moss covered with leaves made from dried and grinded herbs. I had a great feeling finishing this model again. It was tough to paint all the little details as my eyes are not as good as they were 30 years ago. Extra glasses and a lot of light helped me a lot and I am very pleased with the result. Have ordered some new figure kits :-) mvh Niels Elmholt

This figure is a Monogram reissue of the 1960's Aurora classic. It is cast in some disgusting red, translucent plastic, that is glowing under ultreviolet light - a bit like the later Aurora kits, which had green, glowing parts. I build the Aurora original back then, but the model is lost many years ago, but now I want to build it again :-) The fit of the parts is not impressive at all :-( and the there is a lot of flash to clean up. Here is all parts glued together and the joints primed to see what to do. On a figure with this many surface details, the joints are critical and on this figure all joint just goes across the many linen stripes which means that there is a lot of cleaning up to do. The joint flash is cleaned by a scalpel and I have used different files to restore the shape of the linen strips. On the head, I used the tip of the scalpel to create more deoth in the hair and also to camuflage the stupid joint across the head :-( The body is assembled and the joints cleaned. The holes in th ebody is for the linen strips. I have thought of replacing these with strips of cloth or paper, but opted for the original parts. All linen strips are thinned to make them more "real" and I have reworked the joint with the body to make them as "natural" as possible. The linen is painted in light brown and the body parts in mahogany and light brown. The body has got the whole treatment with Citadel Devlan Mud wash (still wet). The base plate was so distorted that it was impossible to correct and I glued it to a 1,5mm grp plate, which has to be but and shaped to the original base plate. The grp plate is cut and sanded to the shape of the base plate and the ruin parts is glued in. It got some primer and base color and all the "sand " was given a thick layer of Future and sprayed with baking powder. This works fine as sand in 1:8 scale. The joints between the ruin parts and the base plate was treated with super glue and baking powder to conceal the joints. The base plate has got the whole treatment - wash with Citadel Devlan Mud, also on the ruin parts to enhance the hieroglyphs etc. followed by dry brushing with different tones of white, grey and light brown + mixtures of these. I tried to keep the sand a bit more yellow than the ruins, steps etc, which was sand stone. They got a light brown color with a slight light grey tone. All was toned down with very light tones of colors. This was very exiting as the different colors was very close in tone. But I was satisfied with the result :-) The viper was not easy to paint, but I gave it a ground Color of ocre, green and brass (!) and after that a dry brushing with light brown and white and I made some spots on the uper side in dark green. This was toned down with white. The underside was painted light brown and the eyes black with transparent red on top. The tongue was cut in this paper and painted red. The script is painted black with a bit of brass and finally dry brushed with brass, which gave a nice effect. The figure is finished. The Eyes has got a layer of transparent red on top of red base color. The eye surroundings are painted in black and the eye is covered with clear coating. The picture is not very good :-( But here is some pics that I have taken with magazines as background. Even if the kit is nearly 50 years old, it is not that bad, but you must prepared to do some work before the you reach a decent result, but it was very nostalgic to build the kit again after so many years :-) - so now I have to get hold of the Frankenstein model.... yours, Niels Elmholt, DK

If you don't build it soon, Håkan - i'll come and get you.............. be afraid - be very much afraid............. Niels aka The Mummy