Polar Lights Mystery Machine & Black Knight 1958

OK, this one is a simple, quick build.  It is a snap kit and I own it for exactly the same reason I own a Mach 5.  I loved the show as a kid and it makes me feel good to see it on the shelf.  This probably took me all of 15 minutes to build and a few more minutes to apply the stickers.  Even the figures of Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are pre-painted and I did not see anything that needed to be updated.  I just put it together and enjoyed having it.  It is currently available as of this writing.  

The next 1/8 scale Knight from Aurora.  The Black Knight was the third in the series and was issued in 1957.  Very enjoyable kit to build.  This was recently re-issued by Monogram for around $15 so if you like the looks of it, you might want to snag one or two.  Below is the 1957 box, the later issue box and the 1968 Lancelot of Camelot box.  Below the boxes is a photo of my built model kit.

Painted most of the exterior of the sentry box.  Didn't have a lot of time today.  I have the red and white stripes painted.  The sentry box is shown on the back of the box with red, black and white stripes.  I have seen photos of sentry boxes with just the red and with red and black to go with the white.  Most of the photos I have seen of just the red and white are inside Germany, the others are outside of Germany.  Since this diorama is in France in 1942, I added the black stripes.  

There is a bit of roughness to it, such as the areas where the paint did not get all the way in between the planks which I left because it makes it look more like individual boards.  It can't be seen as well as I would like, but there is some wood grain going on inside the box.  This will be weathered later once I decide on the amount of weathering needed.  

1960's Comic Book Batmobile & Blue Knight 1957

I love the George Barris designed, Ford Futura based, Batmobile of the 1960's TV show.  No other Batmobile, no matter how sleek or gadget laden, will ever take the place of that car in my heart.  I always felt the 1960's comic book version was an attempt to look a lot like the car from the show without having to draw all the detail.  All of that being said, this kit is a nice addition to my vehicle shelf.  Below is the kit in the box and a photo of the kit I built.  It is a very nice kit which goes together well and, having a die-cast body, is extremely durable.

I would have really liked to have seen a 1970's Batmobile and a 1940's Batmobile in the same scale from the same company but it didn't happen.  I have toyed with the idea of making a custom 1940's Batmobile and have even bought an extra 1950's kit to use the fin and the bat and a few other parts.  I will post it if I ever get beyond the "thinking about it" stage.

The Aurora collection continues.  The Blue Knight was the second knight and was issued in 1957.   I would like to note these kits are of great quality and are really fun to build.  Below we have the original box, the later issue box and the 1968 Camelot box where the blue knight was called Sir Galahad.  My Blue Knight model is below the box images.

Diorama update.  I began working on the Master Box Checkpoint.  I painted the faces and hands, let them dry a bit and did the darker washes to bring out the details.  This needs to dry for 24 hours before I can add eyebrows, etc.  Painted the interior of the sentry box and started on the traffic gate.  This kit is looking like a lot of fun.

Went today and bought Vallejo Colors for doing Caucasian skin tones.  Picked up Basic Skintone, Flat Flesh and Dark Flesh.  I have not used these before so will begin experimenting with them in the near future.  Probably on either the crew that came with the Tamiya 7.5 cm Anti Tank Gun I picked up today or on the next set of figures which come in for the diorama.  

Remember me mentioning I have a fondness for the old AMT 3 in 1 kits?  While I was at the store I picked up this little jewel below.  Re-issue of the 1962 AMT Double Dragster kit.  Looking forward to playing around with this pair of 1/25 scale beauties.  That's right, one box, two complete cars.

Three bodies, three frames, three engines, two rear ends, two front axles, two sets of tires plus everything else you need to build two Dragsters.  Looks like a whole lot of fun coming up.

1950's Batmobile & The Silver Knight 1956

Johnny Lightning issued several Batmobile kits including the one featured here today.  This kit is 1/24 scale and features a pre-painted die cast body.  The modeler need only paint the interior and the details.  Aurora made a 1/32 scale Batmobile in the 1960's to go with their Batplane as can be seen in the comic advertisement below.  I don't remember the scale of the Batplane. 

Model car scales go hand in hand with slot car (electric race car) scales.  1/24 was primarily for club and commercial racing, 1/32 was for "full size" home tracks (if you had the room) and later they came up with "HO" size for home, but the cars are actually closer to 1/64 (approximate scale of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars) than 1/87 (HO model railroading).  Many of the car kits from the 1950's and 60's are designed to be put on the shelf with the included bottom, but you could remove the bottom of the car (undercarriage and wheels) and snap in a slot car chassis, mechanism and wheels to race.  Many of the model cars designed like this were bought simply because a slot car in the desired design was not being manufactured.  The manufacturer could sell the car kit to two markets instead of just one.  I have a couple of cars built on this format.  I will have to dig one out and photograph it in the near future.

I really prefer my car models in 1/25. Revell and Monogram both used 1/24 scale but 1/25 was used by AMT (love those old 3 in 1 kits!) and MPC, but I am willing to make exceptions for certain vehicles for my collection.  That being said, I am not all gaga over the 1950's Batmobile per se.  I really just do not understand a supposedly fast, sleek prowl/patrol/pursuit car which doubles as an RV.  Desk, lab equipment, spinny seat, file cabinets attached to the back of the driver's and passenger's seats...just sayin'.  If the car companies did not have the idea for an SUV yet, they surely found the inspiration right here in The Batmobile of 1950.  

Johnny Lightning did a great job, imho, of reproducing the car from this comic book, right down to the microscope and test tubes.  Everything went together well and it looks good on the shelf with all my other vehicles.  First is a picture of the model box and below that is the model I built.

For our Aurora moment today, we start with a bit of history.  The company was founded in 1950 and began making model kits in 1952.  Initially they made airplanes, later adding tanks, cars, ships, etc.   They didn't actually start making figure kits until 1956.  Their first was the Silver Knight.  This is the kit that started the figure kit line and the figure kits were what made Aurora one of the big three in model kits in the 1960's.  

 I do not have one of these in my collection.  (UPDATE!  I just got one and am working on building and painting it as of 1/19/2015)  (FURTHER UPDATE!  It is posted below)  It is the only one of the five knights I don't have, and one of only 9 Aurora kits still on my want list, so I really need to work on that.  

The first box shown below is the original issue.  The second is the one with which I am most familiar and the third is the 1968 kit when the mold for the Silver Knight was issued as King Arthur from the Knights of Camelot.  I really don't know much about the Camelot series of knight issues because I do not recall seeing them in stores and have never owned any.  As for seeing kits in stores, the Silver, Blue and Black Knights were the last Aurora kits I saw for retail price in a hobby shop.  They were in stock (about 3 of each) in a bicycle shop in Indiana in 1985.  Owner said he ordered them from Aurora Canada.

My built up

I unpacked the Master Box Checkpoint tonight and primed the contents.  These are planned for the 1/35 diorama I am working on.  Below is an image of the box contents.  

The Polar Lights Mummy

Before we get to the Mummy from 1999, here is an ad from the back cover of some1960's DC Comics showing when Godzilla and King Kong kits were added to the Universal Monsters Collection from Aurora Plastics.  This got the count up to 8 kits.  Aurora will only add 5 more to the collection.  Yes, I know Godzilla is owned by Toho, but everyone seems to call these 13 kits the Universal Monsters Collection and for a change I do not feel like a rebel.  The Forgotten Prisoner of Castlemare, the last kit in the series, as well as the Witch, were not based on movies at all, but are still considered part of the same series of horror goodness.

In 1999 Universal Pictures released the new version of The Mummy, rather loosely based on the 1932 movie of the same name.  Aurora had made The Mummy model kit as part of their line in the 1960's and Polar Lights followed suit with The Mummy based on the new movie.  Great kit!  Love the base and the figure is on the verge of disgusting, which is exactly what you would want from a rotting corpse climbing out of it's coffin (OK, technically it is a sarcophagus, but you know what I mean).  

The box art appearance versus the actual kit appearance has been sometimes more than a little exaggerated by model companies, with a prime example being the Wolfman from my beloved Aurora Plastics.  Not this time.  What you see is what you get.  Floor, sarcophagus, jar...it is all here.  These kits are available on the net for a very reasonable price (at least at the time of this writing) so if you want one for your very own, I would encourage you to not delay.  Long out of production model kits tend to only go up in both price and rarity.  

Continuing my notes about the diorama I am currently working on, I have selected a few more of the kits which I will use.  I built the Tamiya German Hanomag Sdkfz 251/1 which I believe will be toward the center of the street.  I have not yet weathered it because I have not determined the amount of weathering which will best suit the scene.  I will also have to adjust the decals a bit as I progress.  The Hanomag comes with a combat crew of 5 which I will not be using this diorama.  I did paint and assemble them.  Stored them in a plastic box called a Floss Organizer which I picked up for about $3 at Wal-Mart.  There were already four Americans soldiers in there to keep them company.  I am including a picture of the floss organizer interior below.  Perfect for 1/35 scale figure storage.

At the moment the plan is for the half-track, a motorcycle with side car, three building fronts and the checkpoint.  Then add about 35 more people besides the 6 which come in the checkpoint kit.  

Halloween (Michael Myers) from Polar Lights

That is correct.  Still no Aurora Plastics treasures posted here.  I have not yet had the time to pull anything down from the shelves to photograph.  I have a 1999 PL Mummy, a few Batmobiles and the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine already available to photograph, so they will probably be next.  I also have some Johnny West items photographed so we might see some of that fairly soon.  

To whet the appetite for things to come, I will show my favorite Aurora ad of all time.  This one is from the back cover of DC comic books in 1966.  Although I really like the Monster Scenes 1 page comic ad from 1971, the one below is my all time favorite.  I stared at this one for months until I had all the kits pictured with the exception of Wonder Woman.  This ad has DC Comics, Marvel Comics and most of the characters had either a live action or animated stories at the time.  I remember Batman, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Zorro re-runs, Lost in Space, Spider-man on Saturdays and the Marvel Heroes in the afternoons, Superboy animated and Superman (live action re-runs and animated) but I honestly do not remember Wonder Woman being on television at the time.  So, I think Aurora fudged a bit on the ad blurb at the top, because aside from Wonder Woman, the Batman TV series and movie did not have a Batplane, either.  

 A friend of mine back in the day actually tore a copy of this ad off one of his comics, thumb tacked it to the wall of his room, and put a big ol' ball point pen X over the kits as he got them.  I don't think he ever got all of the kits from the ad, but I do remember he found a Green Beret kit several months before I found one.  By the way, I wanted the Wonder Woman, but I never found a copy of the kit in the 1960's.  The Wonder Woman kit I did not own until the 2010 Moebius re-issue. 

Polar Lights re-issued a lot of the old Aurora kits starting in the late 90's and they also made quite a number of new ones.  I will later be showing Kiss and the Mummy and a few others, but first up is Michael Myers from Halloween.  This is an awesome kit.  One of the things I loved about the Aurora kits were the bases and if you are a fan of bases which really set the scene, this kit will not disappoint.  I am not the biggest fan of the Halloween franchise, but I am a big fan of this kit.  I just love everything,  the spilled candy, the mask, the jack o'lantern and even the front porch.  There are even dead leaves blown around the yard.  The only thing I think could have been added would have been a backdrop of the front of the house.  I think that would have really set it off.  They did it for Kiss, why not for Michael?

This model has been out of production for over a decade, so it is a little hard to find.  I do see a respectable number of still sealed copies on ebay, normally in the price range of $50 to $150.  Shop around and you might even get a better deal than $50.  

I have been working on some 1/35 figures and vehicles.  I am very deep into the planning and development stages of a WWII diorama based on a street scene in France in 1942 and have starting buying the kits I need.  The first to arrive in the post was the Master Box Checkpoint.  Master Box is a model company based in the Ukraine and they are issuing a lot of really great items which have been missing from the hobby shop shelves before this.  If you have any interest in 1/35 modeling, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

I did just put the final touches on a Mole People vinyl kit made by Horizon in1988 and now I am designing a base for it.  Made some little mushrooms for the base already.  After all, what would the Mole People be without some 'shrooms?

War of the Worlds from Pegasus

I know I started by singing the praises of Aurora, however, I have not yet taken any Aurora items down from the shelves to photograph and I wanted to post something besides just the intro.  That being said, the first item I am going to post is a photo of my War of the Worlds kit from Pegasus Hobbies.  This kit is still widely available at the time of this writing.

Easy to see the kit is based on the 1953 Paramount Pictures film if you look at the movie poster below.

The kit captures the feel of the movie for me and I greatly enjoyed building it and displaying it. 
I love the ships, the eye beam and the little figures burned to ash in the center.  Adding ground foam and terrain cover from Woodland Scenics  instead of painting the base really adds to the overall feel.  

I am thinking about a couple of changes at some point.  First would be the color of the tank being fired upon.  Since items in the movie glowed red before disintegrating, I am thinking about repainting the tank to indicate this effect.  I am also thinking of adding a few 1/144 scale riflemen to the scene.  I am not, however, thinking about adding lighting as that is just something I do not add to kits and have never had the desire to add.

Introduction

Since this is my first post, I assume it is traditional to say a little bit about my intent toward this blog.  Although I may stray from topic, and I would not be me if I didn't, this blog is for sharing photos and ramblings regarding two of my favorite hobbies:  scale modeling and Johnny West.

I started modeling a year or two before Johnny West was put on the shelves.  First model kit I remember owning was an Aurora Superman kit.  

Aurora was king as far as I was concerned.  They made everything I could ever want.  After Superman there were monsters and later characters and vehicles from television and just every little thing I could dream of having on a shelf.  Admittedly I was rather young and my control over matters financial were pretty much limited to "Mom, can I have...?" along with Christmas and birthdays, but I still wanted them all!

Nowadays I have a fairly decent collection of what I wanted, between originals and re-issues, as those I had when I was a kid have long since gone the way of the dodo.  There are still a few on my want list, but such is life.  I will be sharing them with you in the days to come.  That being said, I would be remiss in not mentioning my modeling interests have grown beyond just Aurora since those halcyon days of the the early 1960's and I will share that with you too.

My other major interest is Johnny West.  Eleven and a half inches of Cowboy with enough gear to choke a horse right in the box with him.  Including a coffee cup.  Who doesn't love a figure that comes with it's own coffee cup?  I will admit back in the mid-60's to liking G.I. Joe more than Johnny.  Over the years, my enjoyment of Johnny grew and my fondness for Joe waned.  Johnny has a wife, Jane (actually two of them, but that is a story for another time), plus Cavalry figures, Native Americans, Daniel Boone (technically, Daniel came first) and even children (my least favorite figures, and yes, I know, I am wrong, the kids are great, I have been told so many times over the years).  If you are not familiar with the Best of the West line, you will get the opportunity to learn more about them as we go along.

I will be sharing my collection and my customs (yes, some of us make our own) with you as time goes by.

All of the above being said, I really want this blog to be about the things I like, not just a history of one toy company or model company.  For Aurora I will start with the Silver Knight, the first figure kit they made, and move on through the 1970's.  But there will also be kits from Hawk, Moebius, Atlantis, Toy Biz and others.  Stay tuned, it should be a lot of fun!