Since the autumn release of AFM #28, our "Denizens Of The Deep" issue, I have had many emails from readers wondering why the Creature bust I painted for the cover didn’t appear in the magazine as an article. We weren’t trying to pull a fast one, I promise! Our covers are designed to be a selling tool, the image on the front reflects the issue's theme, but will not always be used as an article in the issue as long time readers will attest. It’s another way to show more work, and give exposure to pieces that may be out of production, or so new that only part of the kit was ready at press time, such as the Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman on issue #27. In the case of issue #28, the answer was that the article was slated to appear, but at the last moment I decided to give the contest winners more color pages, especially for the Honorable Mentions Category. The work submitted was so well done that I didn’t want to slight anyone with black and white coverage, so I bumped myself! I also knew that I could eventually run the article on our web site as an additional feature, so here it is!

Of all the classic Universal Monsters, the "Creature from the Black
Lagoon" seems to create some of the most rabid followers. The sight of a rubber Gillman usually elicits giggles from an audience, but I doubt
anyone was snickering when this Creature splashed across the screen in the 1950s. Even by today’s standards, "The Creature from the Black
Lagoon" was an imaginative and frightening monster. Coupled with it’s
trademark three cord musical signature, I can remember being scared
silly as a child when the Creature stalked the screen, yet as with all
good Universal Monster subjects, you’d find yourself feeling sympathy
for the monster by the final reel.

Tens of dozens of kits have been produced of the Creature over the
years, many of them notable. I’ve even covered painting The Creature in past articles, all the way back to my "Model and Toy Collector" days, but I thought that for this issue, I’d focus on painting the outstanding full size bust released by Needful Things. This large, 1:1 scale head was hollow cast using cold cast porcelain, and even hollow, weighs several pounds, so make sure you’ve got the proper space and biceps to work on this beast! First, I had to prepare the head for painting. To be honest, the castings were good, but to make this bust look "movie prop ready," you’ll have to spend a bit of time on cleanup. It’s not a criticism mind you, casting a piece this large and detailed with grooves and undercuts is just asking for trouble! There were lots of small resin bumps and pinholes to contend with.

I waited for a pretty day weather wise, and went out on my deck to go "head to head" as it were, to land this Gillman. Using small files and sandpaper, I picked off and resin bumps and sanded any imperfections I could find. Once I had the piece looking good, I sprayed the bust with a coat of light gray automotive primer to better see how it was coming along. What were revealed were more pinholes, and resin bumps, along with a fingerprint or two!

Hey, no one said modeling was easy! I broke out the 2-part epoxy putty to fill in a few gaps and air bubbles in the tips of the gills, and filed and sanded any other problem areas. Then to really smooth over the fins and gills, I used a little trick that I’ll share with you. When you have a kit with textured areas like the gills on the Creature, or fur on a Wolfman , and you find lots of pinholes and imperfections, how do you repair them without filling in all of the details? I like to use Green Squadron Putty, but not straight out of the tube. I squeeze a dollop of putty into a disposable cup, then I slowly thin it with an acetone fingernail polish remover until it is about the consistency of oh, lets say, Ranch Dressing (Hey, I don’t know what brand of dressing, it’s a general analogy! It should just be thick but pourable)! Then I use a disposable paintbrush and begin to brush the mixture over the gill area to fill in pinholes and uneven areas. You can wipe off any excess and keep it from filling in any wanted details with a paper towel. Once it has dried, sand and prime.

If it needs another round, don’t hesitate to repeat until you have it the way you want. Another tip: I primed the gill area with a surface leveling, "Scratch Filler" automotive primer. This stuff is great for smoothing and blending, but don’t use it on any detailed areas, it will fill them in. I find it best for covering large problem areas. Then I switch to regular Auto Primer for the detailed spots and parts. It took me the better part of two days to prep the head for painting. You may find that a lot of my steps were a bit obsessive and not necessary for you. I have been known for going overboard in the prep stage, but I believe that the better the piece on the front end, the better it will look on the back end.

Since this is a life-sized head, I want it to look as life-like as
possible. With that in mind, I agreed with my good friend Robb Rotondi, the owner of Needful Things, to insert glass eyes he was providing for me into the bust. I usually don’t like to use glass eyes in my work, not that I think it’s cheating, I’d just rather paint them myself. Robb really wanted me to try it, and I figured it would be an easy short cut so I agreed. Did I say shortcut? Boy was I ever wrong! First I had to drill holes through the resin eyes to hollow them out to the open cavity inside of the bust. This is one of those moments that you have to ask yourself," do I really want to do this?" Once you begin cutting and drilling, there’s no turning back. The first eye was a piece of cake, about 1/8th of an inch thick, it took about three minutes to have the eye cut out with my trusty Dremel tool. I test fit the glass eye in the cavity, "Like a glove" I murmured proudly to myself. Whew! Now to the second eye… wait a minute, what’s this @#&%? The drill bit went in, and in… and in…

Here is a tidbit of information I learned on this bust. When you spin
cast a bust this size to be hollow, the resin doesn’t always coat the
inside of the head equally. When it settles it can be quite a bit
thicker than in other areas of the head. Guess where the resin settled
in my Creature Head? Yep, behind the left eye. While the resin on the
right eye was about 1/8th of an inch thick, it was closer to one inch
thick behind the left eye!

"Damn you Rotondi!" I cried in my best Charlton Heston impression,
falling to my knees, breaking the relative solitude of my back yard,
"damn you!" Okay, I’m being a bit dramatic, I didn’t yell it, but I was
thinkin’ it! The only way out of this predicament was to grind and Dremel my way to success. I cut a large enough hole in the bottom of the bust to fit my hand and Dremel tool through and began to remove the copious material. Ouch! Watch for any sharp resin protrusions inside the head! After what seemed like days (ok, it was about 30 minutes) of grinding, I emerged from resin hell, coated with a gray/white dust like Eli Wallach in ‘The Good The Bad and The Ugly." I grabbed the glass eye and inserted it for a test fit. Fit. Fit damn you, fit… it didn’t fit.

I Dremeled some more… still didn’t fit. Finally I gave up and resorted to a desperate step I could no longer avoid. I cut away the entire eye
section and inserted the glass eye, anchoring it in place with epoxy
putty. Once it was set, I resculpted the details of the area with epoxy
putty as well. While it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened, all I could keep thinking was that I could have had the thing done with painted eyes by now! To "glue" the other glass eye in place, I used a Silicone adhesive so that the glass wouldn’t fog or discolor. Once set, I placed a wad of epoxy putty in back of the eye and filled in the space therefore permanently affixing it into place. You’ll notice that I unfortunately didn’t document this section of the project with photographs. I regret it, but at the time I didn’t realize it would be so involved or I would have. By the time I did realize it, I was in no mood to slow myself down with the additional burden of photography, so just use your imagination and envision me covered in dust, knuckles bleeding from scraping the edges of resin inside the head, and steam coming out my ears! Once this little modeling odyssey was complete, I was ready to prime and paint. I put a layer of Super Sculpey over the eyes to mask them from the primer and paint.

Deciding how to paint the Creature presents quite a few options. As
with all Universal Classic Monsters, you’ve got a lot of options since
the films are in black and white. Do you paint him the deep greens of
the movie poster art? The Olive Green and Metallic Golds of the actual
suit? Bright green like I painted my old Aurora kit sitting in my garage
in the 1960s? It’s entirely up to you the modeler; there is no right or
wrong way to approach this project. I decided years ago that I like to
paint my Creatures to look as real as possible, using colors that I
think would look at home in the Amazon. I like olives, browns and coral
colors to render the monster.

For this project, I decided to use a new airbrush kindly sent to me
by Tom Grossman and Iwata. It is a new model, the Iwata HP-CH, and it’s quite a tool. The all-metal housing features a nice, large and roomy gravity feed cup that I really like. The brush also features an
adjustable stop for the needle similar to the micrometer on the Badger
Sotar 20/20, but without the numerical settings. My overall impressions of the brush were that it was very easy to use and clean, and the larger cup was a big plus in my book. I began by spraying a basecoat of a light olive green over the entire head. I used a mixture of Freak Flex Frankenflesh Green mixed with a touch of Nicotine Yellow. Then to make the skin look realistic and textured, I wanted to give it a mottled finish. I lightened the olive green with a little more yellow and white and began to "noodle" a tight random pattern over the first layer of paint (Photo One). For Photo Two, I added a bit more yellow to the mix, and mottled the area some more.

Next, I began to spray light touches of coral red and blues onto the
skin for arteries and veins, then I softened them with more of the olive color mottled back over them. I want to create a surface that looks organic and soft, even squishy like a fish would feel (Photo Three). In Photo Four, I began to shade and contour the features with a thin, semi transparent spray of medium to dark brown. I took Liquitex Burnt Umber and thinned it to an almost wash consistency and sprayed light shading between the ridges and features of the face and around the eyes. I also lightly misted the lips and gave them an indefinable, random soft texture.

The next step was to continue to add more shading in the details and
around the crown of the head. I also mist the entire head and face with a thin wash of Raw Siena to warm up the colors and blend them a bit more. I mix a coral red with Liquitex Red Oxide and a touch of Burnt Umber, and thin it down to a transparent wash. I airbrush it to the mouth and over the lips as well. I try to keep the lips muted in tone, but still with a reddish hue. Too much red will look as though Creatch was dippin’ into Julie Adams makeup bag! I also use the same color in and around the gill and fin area as well. I took my olive base color and added a good bit more white and sprayed the lower jaw and neck with the lighter tone to mimic a lighter fish belly look (Photo Five). After all of the work was complete, I sealed the bust with Testor’s Dull Coat to protect it. I mixed up a wash of Burnt Umber and brushed it over the body scales, then wiped the excess away leaving a darker color in the recesses of the scales (Photo Six).

Once I have the bust airbrushed, I return with spot washes to add extra details. Using my Burnt Umber wash, I add extra texture to the lips to give them a fish-like appearance. I wanted the lips to be glossier than the skin but not too glossy. I brushed a coat of Tamiya Clear over the lips and then dabbed it off just leaving a slight sheen to the lips. To make the mouth really pop, I decided to add siliva and drool the area. To make the strings of drool, I use the plastic rod technique I demonstrated on video four of my Modelmania™ series, so I won’t go in depth here as I do on the tape. First I take a clear piece of plastic rod from Plastruct that I purchased at my local Hobbytown U.S.A. If you can’t find it, you can substitute a piece of clear plastic sprue from a windshield part tree in almost any car model kit. Heat the piece of plastic and when it gets soft, begin to stretch it by pulling from both ends evenly. You want it thicker at the ends and thinner in the middle.

Then set it by dipping in cold water to retain its shape. I clip it to the size needed to bridge the top and bottom of the mouth and glue it into place with five-minute epoxy glue. Don’t use superglues because it could fog the piece white. I added three pieces to the inside of the mouth and one to the outside, hanging down. To complete the effect, I mix more five minute epoxy glue and coat the inside of the mouth, the drool in the mouth, and add a drop to the end of the drool on the outside of the mouth. I also add a few drips of glue on the lips for added effect (Photo Seven). After all was set, I gave it a coat of Testor's Gloss coat, the kind that comes in a bottle and brushes on.

Hooray! The piece was done! Or so I thought… after looking at it for
a few hours, I felt it just needed something else to give it an extra
"kick." I decided to branch off from the movie version and add a bit of
textured patterning to the head and face for added interest. Using a
Burnt Umber wash, I begin to painstakingly paint irregular spots on the
skin, larger in the center of the head, smaller as it gets to the sides.
As each spot is painted, I dab a little color out of the center using a
cotton swab to give them a bit more transparency (Photo Eight).

I
continue the spots around the side of the face and back of the head.
Once they were dry, I sealed them with a coat of Testor’s Dull Coat
(Photo Nine). Now I know the Creature didn’t have spots on his face, but I liked the effect. I decided to paint the sides of the bust base solid black to make them set back from the other work and not compete. Photos Ten and Eleven show the piece completed, and Photo Twelve is the bust shot with "fancy shmancy" lighting by our professional photographer Tisha Poling for the cover of the magazine. I wanted it to look as though the Creature had climbed upon the boat and was caught in the beam of a flashlight.

I’m very happy with the way the bust came out, and although it became a far more extensive project than I had anticipated, I’d have to say (grudgingly) that Robb was right. The glass eyes were a great addition, especially for the cover of the magazine, very life-like if I say so myself! All in all, a great project and learning experience for yours truly. The bust is outstanding, and I highly recommend it to all Creature fans, a great piece at a great value. If you have the guts and experience under your belt, go for the glass eyes, you might get luckier with your casting than I did, but pass on them if you are less experienced.

I’d like to thank Robb for supplying the bust and eyes; I’ve been
having a little good natured fun at his expense, but truthfully, the
piece was not that difficult for the results it yielded. After all, it
is a model kit, you should expect to do a little prep work. I’d like to
also thank Tom Grossman for sending the Iwata HP-CH, it’s a great brush and I highly recommend it, easy to clean and disassemble, it’s about as easy an airbrush to use as they come. For all Creature from the Black Lagoon fans, a life-size bust should be a must for your collection, and this is the best one I’ve seen so far, so I highly recommend it.

Contact Needful Things at: www.darkcarnivalmodels.com for details, tell ‘em
David sent ya!