THE CLUBHOUSE

I have finally gotten back to my workbench.
And the kit that is christening it is the reissued Dark Shadows 2-pack.


I've got a page on my site for the WIP
https://www.tylisaari.com/models/tv/bar ... tyrene.htm

But I will be posting some updates and photos here as well.
So far it's just been taking parts off the sprues, cleaning them up, and gluing together subassemblies.
Last Sunday I primed what I had done, and I spent a few evenings this week going through and cleaning up the seams and the little bit of glue that squished out here and there.
So nice to just sit and clean up a kit while watching TV.
Sub-assemblies went together pretty well, but I have some issues on the horizon.
That will be the next update. I need to snap a few pics and do some more work tonight. Hopefully, I will update this again tomorrow.

Since, I have this going.
This thread would be a good place to also talk about another Dark Shadows set I have going.


https://www.tylisaari.com/models/tv/barnabas/dark.htm

A cool set of 1:15 scale resin figures with interlocking bases.
You can find the thread I started about this set (4 years ago ) here
http://theclubhouse1.net/phpBB3/viewtop ... rk+Shadows

I am going to dig those out, and get them on the bench too. Might as well work both sets at once. I'll probably end up using the same colors on at least some parts.

I also see, I never updated that page with any of my WIP photos. Because I have done some work on that kit, and have some of it primed. I know, because I just looked at the pics on my computer

Like this pic.

Ok, here is where things are going as of right now on the styrene kit.


As you can see in this pic, the small sub-assemblies are moving right along. They went together well. and clean-up hasn't been too bad. As I was finishing up these parts and getting them ready for their next coat of primer, I moved on to more parts. Which is when I got to the arms.



I opted for the styrene arms as I wasn't even going to mess with the vinyl ones that came with it. I ended up having to clip off the pins as they were keeping the parts from going together. You can see in that photo where I left one on to demonstrate how big the pins were.
Removing the pins left me with the issue of aligning the parts properly. Which was kind of a pain with a couple of the arms, as the way the parts lined up was kind of on a slant, and they kept wanting to slide and create an offset.



This brings me to the next issue. If you look at the hands in the picture above, you can see they have a bulbous peg to attach them to the arms. They are socketed and meant to be able to rotate once things are done. But this means you would have to assemble the hands, then put them in the arms before gluing those together.



Like so.



Then the arms and legs are meant to be placed into the body halves before putting those together.
This leads to multiple issues.
First, for assembly, trying to get the hands into the arms, get the arms together, then get all that rubber banded together to let the glue set properly all but impossible on a couple of them. And very difficult on the others.
It's even worse thinking about trying to do that with appendages going into the body. Trying to hold 2 arms, and 2 legs in place, while gluing the two body halves together? Then trying to get rubber bands around the body, without dislodging the appendages? Especially, since they don't really sit very well in the openings anyway.

This would also lead to a lot more complicated painting.
The sleeves on the arms have recessed ends for the hands to be inserted into.
That way it actually looks like a real shirt sleeve. But trying to paint down inside there, with everything already together? No thanks.

So, I made the decision to forego the rotating option.
I am going to glue everything into place.
This means I am going to have to decide exactly where I want things before committing to gluing them into place. But it will make things easier in every other aspect of the build.

Still plugging away at this.



Broke out the dremel to finish some of the seam work.
Need to take some really high parts off, as well as add some texture back where I have already scraped / sanded / filed most of the seams.

Hopefully I will be breaking out some paint in the near future.

tay666 wrote:Still plugging away at this.



Broke out the dremel to finish some of the seam work.
Need to take some really high parts off, as well as add some texture back where I have already scraped / sanded / filed most of the seams.

Hopefully I will be breaking out some paint in the near future.

Cool that you're back at it. Any work is forward movement so from me.

Thanks.
It's nice to be able to go down to the workshop and just pick up where I left off.

I haven't gotten a lot done in any one sitting, but doing 10-15 minutes here or there adds up over time.

That's me lately - 15 min here, 20 min there. It does slowly add up to some progress!

tay666 wrote:Still plugging away at this.

<chuckle> anyone else see the subject, click on the thread, see this photo and
instantly think; "Cool looking rat on the ol' workbench... oh...wait... that's not a
rat!" "My bad"

Buc Wheat wrote:

tay666 wrote:Still plugging away at this.

<chuckle> anyone else see the subject, click on the thread, see this photo and
instantly think; "Cool looking rat on the ol' workbench... oh...wait... that's not a
rat!" "My bad"

Don't see an image either.

Well, Sunday I pulled the parts back out. Laid them out and went over each one checking to see if I was ready to paint yet.


As you can see from this follow up photo



I wasn't.
Had some little spots that needed putty here, a bit of an offset there.
And in the case of Collin, I have a bunch of texture I need to replace on that darn shirt.

I am getting closer, but still not quite ready for paint yet.

Wow!
It's been a long while since I have updated this thread!

Been working on this off and on all year. I last updated the page back in July.
Just went through all the pics I have taken since then, and updated the page again tonight.

https://www.tylisaari.com/models/tv/bar ... tyrene.htm

Here is where I am at as of tonight





I am getting there. Was hoping to have these done by Halloween, but I really over-estimated my motivation while on vacation.
All these hours at work really have be burnt out and finding it hard to find the energy to do more than sit in front of the TV or computer through the week.

tay666 wrote: . . . All these hours at work really have me burnt out and finding it hard to find the energy to do more than sit in front of the TV or computer through the week.

Coming along nicely . . .

• . . . and I hear ya - but then my JOB involves being sat in front of the computer

It's enough to drive you bats (speaking of which - they turned out nicely too)


.

Those faces are fantastic !

Thank you.
They are some of the best I have done. Still no where near as good as some of the great paint slingers around here, though I try not to compare. They are in a completely different league than I am.
I'm just happy to get better with each kit. And actually be able to make some things look the way I hoped they would when I started

Looking great !

A little over a month since I last posted photos.
Still plugging away at this, but the holiday stuff, and the overtime has really kept me from spending much time at the bench.










I have to touch up the arms a bit on the wolf. Even though I used the same paints, for some reason, the arms don't match the torso now that I finally have it together.

Also need to tweak the head attachments a bit. Want the wolf's head to look up a bit more. Think I will build up a little CA glue on the inside edge to tighten things up some more.

Also considering pinning the wolf. He leans a bit forward, and the resin head really makes it top heavy. I think Barnabas will be fine with just glue holding him on. He stands pretty straight up, and the head isn't nearly as heavy.
Not looking forward to trying to drill through that thin ankle, but ya gotta do, what ya gotta do. Will drill the hole in the foot/leg first, then drill a hole in the base to correspond. Trying to glue it on first then drill the hole sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

Nice work.

I particularly like the shading on the wee batty fella's coat - but it's all looking great.

.

Another week and a couple more pics.





Not a lot of obvious progress from last week. Though I am showing them with the glow heads this time.
I've got the neck filled in on the wolf so the heads fit solidly now.
I have things all prepped for pinning as well. I was right about drilling out those ankle/leg joints. Took my time and made sure I had the drill bit lined up exactly.

Was hoping to get more hobby time with the long weekend, but ended up spending a lot of time prepping for xmas, then there was xmas day. Then Sunday was basically spent doing nothing, recovering from all of it.