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Quarantine Studio's 1/4 scale bust of Herr Burkhart from their Dead Reich/Return of the Reich series. Sculpted by William Paquet. Wooden base supplied by Pete Watson. The figure is finished in a mix of acrylic and oil paints

Another 1/4 scale bust from the Hellraiser films, bust produced by Keith Cousins and sculpted by Steve Peacock. The Cenobite Butterball was a follower of Pinhead. In his human form he led a hedonistic lifestyle and took great pleasure in sin however after finding and solving the lament box he was transformed into the Cenobite character we see here. Painted in a mix of acrylics and oils.

1/4 scale bust of Frank Cotton from the Hellraiser films. Produced by Keith Cousins and sculpted by Andrew Copeland. Frank Cotton opened the lament cube to another dimension and was torn apart by the cenobite beings from within and his remains taken there. However through a turn of events his spirit was brought back into the real world and he would be resurrected by consuming blood and flesh from dead bodies which would replenish him. The bust represents the stage of him trying to heal his body.

As we all know, there is a dark side to model-making. I am talking about the modeling horror stories that adult modelers tell their kids or small relatives in those dark and stormy nights in front of the fireplace, about kits that are evil, produced by manufacturers in damp and cold dungeons or scary-looking towers with bats whirling around. We know the dreaded names, and I would add just one: Mach 2. I am still traumatized by the vision of the pair of their kits that I had the misfortune to look at close by. I can't describe the moment but as a crime scene, with the opened boxes and the parts lying around, like misshapen model guts surrounded by flash. But, in spite of that somewhere else in BM I promised to myself no more Merlin or old Dujin kits, it seems that Mordor is attempting to cast a shadow on my modeling again, in the form of what is reputedly one of Mach 2's better kits, the Republic Seabee. I saw it on a dusty pile in a hobby store in the Palm Springs desert; apparently harmless, lying still, quiet. I cautiously approached, which was a mistake. It bit me and will not let go. I had to carry it home. Mind you, I even had to pay for it! Yes, I wasn't bribed or paid a big sum to take it -as it should be with this kind of kits-, I paid! Anyway. Gathering all the courage I had laying around -in the form of a pithy liquid made in Isla contained in a bottle-, I muttered the Expecto Patronum spell and opened the box. To my surprise, no dark cloud of evil came forth. Just a couple of sprues, that, if not obviously cursed or badly mutated, still had some flash, no locating devices, and what looked like not perfectly molded parts. But nothing, so far, that screamed hasty retreat, or calling for the help of @Martian Hale. Accompanying the sprues was a dubious transparency, like the fogged eye of a monster, thick, milky, hissing. A one-side instruction sheet (that to my surprise was not scrawled on parchment) containing some (never better said) guidance and a small decal sheet. I believe the caldron and iron tongs have to be purchased separately. In any case, who else would make a Seabee, you may rhetorically ask yourself. Well, there is a Glencoe 1/48 (excuse my language) kit of it, and what seems even more ancient versions of it. I have spotted what looks like a resin CMR kit box (72-183 and CMR1083), but no more info on that anywhere I looked. So I guess we should thank Mach 2? We will see. The plastic has fair engraved panel lines and some detail, the flying surfaces have nice corrugations, but the plastic is a bit grainy. Some of the relief is overstated (especially the stiffeners on the hull). The detail is what you would expect from a kit of this nature. An interior is provided with cockpit pan and bulkhead, seats, a separate instrument panel, console, control wheel and a little stick. The only part that so far calls for an exorcist is the propeller, that deserves its own paragraph. It's poorly defined, which is something you expect, but both blades are pitching more or less toward the same side, one more than the other. To be clear: if you look at a prop from blade tip to blade tip, you should see an X. Here you see (exaggerating) just /. Of course the blades can be cut off and re-positioned, no big deal...but: The pitch has to be reversed, as it is wrong as molded on the prop. Looking from behind, the prop should turn clockwise (actually anti-clockwise, thanks Wlad for the correction). I guess the prop is better replaced. So far no terrible things, just a very poor transparency (vacuum-form a replacement may be?) and a discardable prop.

Hello from Essex. Glad to be here!