“Off the hook, but up in the air”

Well it’s the end of the first week of “Forgotten heroes”, and what a week it’s been, the majority of people seem to off to a good start though we do have a couple of chaps who are yet to take the plunge! I too have been beavering away (when I’ve got the chance) and I’ve made reasonable progress this week..

But how have I been progressing you ask? What you don’t? Well tough because I’m going to tell you anyway, Saturday was spent looking over the figures and seeing if I was going to change their stances in anyway, starting with Mer-man, his pose was actually not a million miles away from the classic toy pose (though his legs are less bent than the toy). Now he is often depicted with a sword, and indeed the toy version came with one (a silly yellow one made of what appears to be coral of some sort), however I decided that any self-respecting sea-monster would rather be armed with a trident, and it just so happens that there are some pictures of him along with a later version of the figure that does show him with one, so to this end I bent up his right arm in readiness to accept one that I will make later on in the build. I also took the opportunity to file his face away ready for me to add his “fish-face” later too. That was about all I needed to do to him so he was glued to a tuppence and he was sorted. Stratos on the other hand needed a bit more work, first off he was another of those “legs akimbo” figures that’s bases are too wide to fit onto my copper coin, base of choice, so first job was to get out the junior hacksaw and cut his base in half and take a bit out of the middle, but after doing this I decided that I’d straighten his arms out a bit, remove all the base from under his right foot, bend his leg, and pose him as if he was leaping up into the air. I used a little greenstuff to tilt the remaining bit of base to add to this effect (I’ll hide it under the filler when I complete his base at the end). He looks a little bit like Rudolph Nureyev doing “Swan Lake” at the moment, but hopefully once I get all his “bits” on he’ll look alright.

Sunday, and I could start getting some putty onto them. So starting as I usually do I slapped a bit of greenstuff about their “nether” regions and after shaping them into underpants, tapped in some fur with the blade of my small knife. You have to ask yourself though whether “fur” is really the best material to have your “undies” made of if you live underwater, but hey’, who am I to judge.

Monday was a “no show” figure wise so it was Tuesday before the old tools came out again, I began by adding Statos’ belt, this was just a thin sausage of putty run around his waist and flattened to shape, then using the same technique I added the straps that run over his shoulders and the plate that sits on his back, because yes folks I can reveal that Stratos is a FRAUD!, because despite all those feathers he actually has rockets on his back to help him fly!! (I’ll add these later), after this I just had to add his belt buckle, this was just a blob of putty, shaped into a square, then I pushed a circle into the middle of this with the end of a “glue tube” spout, and then flattened the top and bottom of the square making it a rectangle, and the circle became an oval!. Taking the tiny bit of putty I had left, I added Mer-man’s belt in the same way only I made it wider and left it plain as he has a fancy “fin” design on his that I’ll add after his armour is in place.

Wednesday, was another, no hobby time day so it was Thursday before the tools came out to play again, and it was mostly Stratos who saw the fruits of my labor’s today, as I set about adding his helmet, this was a blob of putty plonked onto the top of his head and then pulled down around the sides and back of his head, then taking one of my colour shapers I smoothed out the surface, this is a very tedious task as you have to keep turning the figure to make sure the helmet is equal and symmetrical. Then once I was happy with it I “pushed” four indentations into the top, as this gave me the three ridges that run across the crown of his helmet front to back, more smoothing and shaping ensued until the shape looked about right. With the little bit of putty I had left I added a couple of “lugs” on either side of Mer-man’s head, these will support the fin like appendages that sprout out there and added his three toed “frog feet”.

Friday was a “bust” too as they say, and so dear reader that brings us too today, all in all I’m reasonable happy with the progress I’ve made, I’ll leave you with this little fun fact, apparently during the initial planning stages of these figures Mer-man was going to be called Sea-man! Luckily that idea didn’t “cum” to fruition!

Till next week, Excelsior Roger.