# Polar Lights Bride of Frankenstein questions



## aurora fan (Jan 18, 1999)

My first build of this kit. I have above average skills but appreciate ANY input as I remove parts from sprue. I am building her to become a part of my Halloween decorations and allowing myself 3 weeks 

She is 7" tall heel to hair. Is this 1/10 scale? 

With a Diorama in mind, will the Dr Deadly and MoM Frankenstein Monster scale well with her? How about the Diamond Universal Action Figures? I'd like a Mad Scientist, Monster and even a lab assistant if anyone has ideas. 

Her body GLOWS! I was wondering if other modelers have left it so or painted it. I'm not really a GLOW guy but as with Mummy's Chariot, maybe it works out better that way.

What is the best way to make the beakers appear to have fluid? Painting the interior walls of the glass comes to mind but seems...unsatisfactory. 

The Lightning Bolts might not suit me, well see. I'm interested in lighting ideas and any other suggestions and photos anyone might have and like to share!

Happy Halloween & Thank You All in Advance!


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

Apparently, the glow parts were a mistake, and on subsequent runs of this model, she was done in regular non-glow plastic.

However, I have yet to see a non-glow version of the Bride appear on eBay. So there perhaps were not many of this version run before production stopped.

Others will have more info for you, I'm sure.

And on "filling" the beakers, someone a long while ago, posted a tutorial which showed the beakers first glued together and then coated with Future(?) — to hide the seams — and then injected (by way of a syringe, I think) various coloured paints into the beakers and let them settle to appear more natural.

Again, someone must have the info (or link) to that.


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## LGFugate (Sep 11, 2000)

For more info on the beakers, search the forum for the Moebius Invisible Man threads.

Larry


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

a.f.,

I always thought that the Bride's bandages had a silvery sheen to them, so I darkened white with silver to get that effect. I left the glow plastic of the ovals near the Bride's head unpainted, but opted out of the glow feature for the rest of the kit. I think the electrical flashes would look cool as glow parts if you decide to use them.

If you're willing to take the time, the clear bottles can be made to look very impressive.


I removed the interior locators with my Dremel tool. I left a little of the plastic behind, knowing it would be better to sand the remainders down rather than go through the sides of the vessels with the Dremel.
There was a lot of sanding to be done, first with 150-grit sandpaper to remove the marks from the Dremel, then sanding with increasingly fine grades of wet-or-dry sandpaper. Starting with 220-grit, I eventually worked down to 2000-grit paper. Alternating the directions of the sanding scratches for each grit allowed me to tell when the previous sanding scratches had all been removed.
I polished the insides of the sanded parts with whitening toothpaste; Novus plastic polish is excellent for this operation as well.
At this point the insides of the clear vessels looked smooth and only slightly foggy. Dipping them in (what is now called) Pledge with Future Shine made the plastic parts as clear as glass.

For the larger vessels, I cut thin pieces of clear styrene into disks that fit inside the bottles. These disks represented the surfaces of the liquids within the flasks. The disks were cemented with Testors Window Maker and Clear Parts Cement to one side of each vessel (for the largest flask that sits over the burner, I even used the Clear Parts Cement to make "bubbles" sitting on top of the disk).
The areas beneath the disks were painted to represent the various liquids; I thinned the paints so they'd be transparent.

The vessel halves were all cemented together with gap-filling super glue. I didn't use an accelerator so the glue wouldn't bubble.
Once the super glue had set up, I sanded the exteriors of the vessels as I had the interiors. Since I hadn't needed to chew up the outsides of the vessels as I had done in removing the interior locators, this operation went much faster. When the sanding was all done, I polished the vessels and dipped them in Future once again.
The seams between the clear parts had been minimized, but couldn't be eradicated entirely. I camouflaged them by painting the interior liquid colors and pale gray over the seams to represent spilled liquids and dirty glass.
As for lighting, you can't do better than Starlighting Projects; our own Spockr runs it and can help you with anything you need. His products are reasonably priced and very easy to use.

Here are a couple more tips: rather than fight with the molding flaws on the kit chains, you can get real metal chains at Michael's or Hobby lobby in the jewelry section. Take a kit piece with you to find the right size. I darkened the shiny metal by dipping it in Walthers' Blacken-It. You can really set your model off with a resin nameplate. I used one from Posthumous Productions, but they don't have an online store. The Headless Hearseman has several styles to choose from.

There are photos on the Bride on my Aurora Monsters page if you'd care to see one take on this model (you'll have to scroll down a bit). Best of luck with your project!


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## Cro-Magnon Man (Jun 11, 2001)

I kept the bandages Glow by only drybrushing them with a very light beige colour, which created the right effect - lighter shade on top, original glow plastic in the creases and hollows. I didn't drybrush more than one tone onto the bandages as too many levels of paint would have prevented the glow plastic from working. The bandages would be pretty fresh and new, I expect, not soiled or bloodstained as she hasn't risen yet, so a single shade in the drybrushing, for an as-new look, worked well.


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## aurora fan (Jan 18, 1999)

Thank you for the Input! I have primed everything and taking a break. I will give thought to the procedure you outlined, Mark. I should have everything I need and for what I'm lacking, I've got an auto glass friend who has specialty polishes.

Although I am an Aurora Fan, I never built the Bride or Salem Witch. Ever. The scale was wrong, and they never appealed to me, so the unopened kits are (were) garage art up until now.

As to an extended diorama idea, I've decided not to. I never bought MoMs or Monster Scenes before but checked them out on e bay before I went to bed. Why these simple little re-pop snap kits go for 20 and more dollars is beyond me.

I'll post pictures when I'm done. Thanks for the interest!


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

aurora fan said:


> Although I am an Aurora Fan, I never built the Bride or Salem Witch. Ever.


The Witch is a great kit to do; so many details — nothing like the Invisible Man, mind you. 
But, she looks almost like a cartoon witch, or perhaps a caricature of one. She's not as realistically sculpted as earlier monsters.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

In the two bride kits I have (molded in rubbery ABS) the "glow" parts are just sort of clear yellow and don't really glow.


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## phantom11 (Jul 12, 2007)

Brilliant advice, Mark, and the pics on your site really are a help, also.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

phant',

I don't know if my advice is so brilliant - sanding those clear parts took a lot of elbow grease. But I'm glad if the photos give anybody some ideas for building their own Bride.



Frankie Boy said:


> [The Witch]...She's not as realistically sculpted as earlier monsters.


All too true, Frankie. But Tom Parker has the Posthumous Productions replacement head and nameplate set available on his Cult of Personality web site.


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## Rob P. (Jan 26, 2004)

The Polar Lights BoF was and is one of my favorite kits. I have a glow one set aside for the future? Not sure what I may or may not do with GITD kits, but I seem to squirrel them away. Anyway, when it came to mine I was not happy with the table and things just sort of went from there. I did not want a huge layout, just a change in the existing kit diorama. Ended up with this...............







Maybe this will help with some ideas for your own build?

Good Luck, Rob


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

Mark McGovern said:


> Tom Parker has the Posthumous Productions replacement head and nameplate set available on his Cult of Personality web site.


Thanks for the link. I see they offer a "generic" head, which they show a picture of, but they also offer a "likeness" head, which they _don't_ show a picture of. I'd like to see what the "likeness" head actually looks like.


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## aurora fan (Jan 18, 1999)

Thanks for the great photos of your Bride, Rob. Her face is very nice. The whiskey jug and extras are great additions. I'm using yours and Mark's for ideas and painting guides. Thank you very much for the input everybody.

Except the glass wear and Bride, everything is painted and begun test fitting. I didn't realize this kit would make me smile as I work on it. I wished they'd a made her 1/8th scale though, to match her other brothers. They could have sold the Laboratory as a separate customizing kit and I'd have liked her more.

As I look at Ebay I see the Monster Scene Lab equipment will fit in nicely as additional pieces. If I can get a couple boxes for 20 bucks or so I will but that stuff is way over priced.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

Frankie Boy said:


> I'd like to see what the "likeness" head actually looks like.


If I recall correctly, it's a fairly decent likeness of Margaret Hamilton.



aurora fan said:


> ...I wished they'd a made her 1/8th scale though, to match her other brothers.


Yes, as they did with Aurora's models of the Marvel superheroes. Well, I suppose you could always build the Monsters in Motion box art tribute kit - if you're willing to shell out the $pondoolick$, that is. The price of resin models makes those Monster Scenes kits look a little less pricey, wouldn't you say?


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

Mark McGovern said:


> If I recall correctly, it's a fairly decent likeness of Margaret Hamilton.


Ohh. Well, I've seen that one then. I was thinking that it might be a likeness more in keeping with the box art itself.


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## oliver (Jan 11, 2005)

Great Job!!! I might try and tilt my table like the box picture.


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## tracy.net (Aug 30, 2009)

If I remember correctly wasn't this kit produced in two different kinds of plastic? So you would need to use the correct type of glue accordingly ? Anyone with knowledge of this chime in on this. How does one know the difference?


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

tracy.net said:


> If I remember correctly wasn't this kit produced in two different kinds of plastic? So you would need to use the correct type of glue accordingly ? Anyone with knowledge of this chime in on this. How does one know the difference?


The glow version is in ABS plastic (and requires the appropriate type of glue for that) and the non-glow version is in regular styrene (and requires your regular styrene glue for that).

What is the best recommended glue for ABS plastic, I'm not sure.

From what I understand, to tell which model you have with which type of plastic (if you're dealing with an unopened box), is that the glow version Bride has the 1-800-MANTIS8 on the side of the box.


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## Trek Ace (Jul 8, 2001)

You can use any of these liquid cements on ABS with great results.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

oliver said:


> Great Job!!! I might try and tilt my table like the box picture.


Ollie,

The kit supports for the laboratory table relate to each other at 45 degrees angles and don't raise the semicircular support high enough. That means the table can't rotate to as nearly perpendicular an angle as it appears on the box. To do that, the center of the table has to be raised to a height equal to half the length of the table.

Therefore, the lab table supports need to be repositioned so they are at 60 degree angles to each other and the semicircular piece must be swiveled to accommodate the vertical position of the table. This may all sound daunting but it's not, really. You can replace the kit table supports with 1/4 " square styrene stock from Evergreen or Plastruct. You'll have to cut the semicircle off the kit parts and cement them to the styrene stock pieces when the table has moved from the horizontal to the vertical position.

I started to do all this and changed my mind when I got the idea for the coiled tower I added to the base of my Bride. The flat nature of the table supports made it easy to trace them on paper and figure out the dimensions and angles needed to raise the table to the vertical. Except for the horizontal mounting rails that attach to the base, the supports of my table are all square stock that I cut to replace the kit parts I'd hacked off before I changed my mind.

Best of luck with your project! :wave:


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## Rob P. (Jan 26, 2004)

If you only want a partial tilt, and not the full tilt of the box art, I just cut one side of the support and reattached them to the opposite side. I used a small plastic pin to reinforce them inside. You can see what I did in this picture..............



I then constructed a "metal plate" out of sheet plastic to attach them to the bottom of the table as can be seen here..................



Hope this helps and if you have any questions, please ask!

Rob


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## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

Rob P. said:


> ... I just cut one side of the support and reattached them to the opposite side. I used a small plastic pin to reinforce them inside. You can see what I did in this picture..............
> 
> 
> 
> I then constructed a "metal plate" out of sheet plastic to attach them to the bottom of the table as can be seen here..................



With what tool did you do the cutting? And how exactly did this small plastic pin thing, you describe, work?
Also, why was it necessary to construct this metal plate?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Well for one the back of the table is hollow, so you would want to fill it in and then add something like the plate for detail.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

Actually, the Aurora kit laboratory kit table top is quite accurate to the movie. When the table table rises in the creation sequence, you can see that it's really a hollow metal tray. Mind you, I'm not criticizing anyone else's rendering of the table, merely pointing out that the extra work is unnecessary if one is looking to build a replica of the movie prop from the Aurora/Polar Lights kit.

That's the table *top*; the supports are more complicated. The semicircular support part had truncated disks attached to it, with a long lever attached to each disk. These were the handbrakes that kept the table locked in one position or another; you can see Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorious loosen and tighten the handbrakes as they bring the table to the vertical position in the film. And there's other support structures under the table as well.

If one is going this far I'd note that the molded head rest is much too large and there's no footrest. That item I added to my table, making it from scrap styrene. A movie-accurate table will take some work, but it won't require a lot of fancy tools or materials and could look really unique and impressive. If I ever build another Bride, that's the table I'll build.

I've attached a YouTube link to the latter part of the creation scene from _Bride of Frankenstein_. Sorry about the blinkin' ad...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zhqCccFsGc


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## Rob P. (Jan 26, 2004)

Frankie Boy........I did the cutting with an xacto saw blade in my xacto knife handle which should be available at your local hardware store. The pining involves drilling a small hole in each end of the table support parts that are to be reattached and gluing in a small piece of plastruct rod (IIRC I used 1/16" diameter) to give it strength at the joint. The "Metal Plate" was used on the bottom to add both a little more strength to the table as well as for visual effect. As you can see I did not use the table top from the kit, as I wanted a more crude looking wooden table. (I made it from balsa wood) That was just my personal preference. HTH and as always please feel free to ask questions anytime!

Rob

P.S. As Mark states the movie table lacked the foot rest, which is something I added to mine. I constructed my footrest out of two plastic replacement shelf supports for lightweight cabinet shelves I had on hand in my garage. When finished it gave the look of a nice big cast iron piece that added to the look I wanted on the table.


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