Quark - 1/6 AMT/ERTL

Andy Moore · September 3, 2018

I've recently been cleaning out the spare room and stumbled on a storage box containing a few old builds from the '90's. Technically, I didn't do any modelling from the very early '90's up until I returned to the hobby in 2012, but there were some exceptions, all of which being AMT/ERTL Star Trek kits including this one of everyone's favourite Deep Space 9 character, Quark.
I picked this up at the time (probably around 1996) at The Works for about 2 or 3 pounds. AMT had released Quark and another figure of Odo presumably to jump on the Horizon/Screamin' vinyl figure bandwagon that was popular at the time. They'd clearly not sold well though, hence ending up in discount bookstores.

When I pulled him out of the bubble wrap he'd been stored in for the last 20 odd years he'd stood the test of time remarkably well. The paint was still clean and fresh and the vinyl hadn't warped or distorted in any way. The paint finish I'd given him at the time though was pretty basic, to say the least. No airbrushes back them. Just Halfords rattle cans and some old Humbol enamels left over from my modelling days in the 80's. The jacket, trousers and boots had been sprayed in different black tones and the shirt picked out in a dark red enamel. Although the finish was reasonable, I thought he needed some freshening up so I've given all the clothing a re-paint. There's not a lot of detail in the body sculpt, so I've not added much in the way of shading/highlighting. It's really just a slightly refined (and a little more colourful) version of what it was like originally.

The head and hands though are still in the original paint job from when I build him. Like the rest of the original detail painting, the skin tones were done with Humbrol enamels over a Halfords grey primer coat and, although there's a little roughness to the finish now, it's held up pretty well and I didn't see any need to risk spoiling the finish by trying to re-work it.
He originally held a drinks glass in his right hand but that seems to have disappeared over the years, so I'll probably scratch build a replacement when I get a moment.

It's been good to get him out of storage and he's now taken up residence in the display cabinet, looming ominously over the 1/12 Bandai Star Wars figures.