# Frankenstein review and build



## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I started my Glow Frankenstein the other day. Overall its a pretty nice kit so far.

The box is well done with a photo from the Karloff movie on the lid. The instructions are also very nicely done and feature a good color photo of the built up kit and some fairly detailed painting instructions. Oddly, whoever wrote the synopsis of the Karloff "Frankenstein" movie hadn't watched it recently... the described scene in the woods with the blind hermit is from "Bride of Frankenstein" and the doctor's name is Henry Frankenstein, not Victor (as it was in the book)!

The kit itself is nicely molded in light grey plastic. The glow kit includes a second set of parts for another figure, done in glow-in-the-dark plastic. You get a couple other little glow parts like the name plate and door handles. Most of the pieces have only one medium size sprue attachment to trim away. The larger parts make up the wall, door, and floor base. The door comes with a little plastic sleeve over a the locating pins to keep them from being broken. There is very little or no flashing on the pieces, although there are some prominent mold seams here and there. Test fitting shows the part fit to be good overall. To be honest, I haven't built any large plastic figure models that did not need some sort of filling here or there to emiminate some seams... its just the nature of the beast.

With so much talk about the likeness of the model to Boris Karloff, I started assembly with the head.










The sculpture is interesting. Its obviously Karloff in the face, but the hair, shape of the back of the head and hair line etc are just off. If you don't compare the kit parts to photos its not so much of an issue. I am not yet sure what I will do with the kit parts. There are large mold seams running around the face and back of the head. The facial seam is quite visible here and must be removed carefully. The one through the hair is more problematic but its not as large nor is it visible here. The shape of the back of the neck is really funky and the head fits a bit funny in the body halves.

I glued the big boots together and found an annoying problem that no one else has mentioned, yet its very obvious...










It seems there is a mold mistake on the boots, resulting in a large seam across the top. The seam is clearly NOT on the actual boots. Most of the kit parts have a lip and groove type joint, where one half of an assembly has a little lip, and the opposite part has an overlapping groove resulting in a good joint. The boot havles both have a recessed lip and don't fit into each other, so you have a recessed groove down the middle! These should be puttied over and sanded smooth.










The incorrect angle of the monster's left hand has been mentioned. Other people note the arms seem a bit long. So I decided to fix both issues with one simple modification. I hollowed out the sleeves so that the lower arms can actually fit inside. If you look at the above picture, you can see the corrected left hand and the stock right hand, before modification. You can slip the hands about 1/8" up into the coat sleeves this way. This fixes the length issue, the angle of the hand issue, and also looks much more realistic. This is how Dragon molds their new 1/35 scale military figures... the hands and boots fit up into hollow sleeves!


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## veedubb67 (Jul 11, 2003)

djnick66 said:


> It seems there is a mold mistake on the boots, resulting in a large seam across the top. The seam is clearly NOT on the actual boots. Most of the kit parts have a lip and groove type joint, where one half of an assembly has a little lip, and the opposite part has an overlapping groove resulting in a good joint. The boot havles both have a recessed lip and don't fit into each other, so you have a recessed groove down the middle! These should be puttied over and sanded smooth.


Actually, the seams are supposed to be there, though perhaps not quite as pronounced as they are sculpted on the kit. 

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=272461&page=3

Rob
Iwata Padawan


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Somehow I missed that, but yeah they are NOTHING like the kit details. If anything (going from what I see on vintage leather military boots) the seam would be raised not engraved. Its also too mechanical and perfect... 

The pictures I have seen like this one don't seem to show any seam... 










There is a seam up the side of the boots and also around the top.

Lookint at that photo it seems the asphalt spreaders boots were made by gluing a regular pair of boots on top of a thick sole and outer-sole. If anything the top of the boot overhangs the bottom a bit and you can see what looks like glue.


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## veedubb67 (Jul 11, 2003)

Different boots were used for each of the Karloff Frankenstein films.

Rob
Iwata Padawan


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

True, but the publicity still he posted is from the 1931 film, so it applies. Unfortunately, at that angle it really doesn't show the seam on the top of the boot, which _is_ present but (as you posted above) not as pronounced as it is on the kit:










The top photo was cropped from the same still the kit is based on.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Thanks Zombie. I think the kit boots are too rounded in the toe, but I am going to leave them. My g/f has a pair of Skechers sneaker/boots with a platform sole that have a very similar profile to these with the sole actually jutting out in front of the boot a bit.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Well the boots are finshed now. I sanded them down, scribed in the missing side seams, and reduced the oversize front seam. I added a slight texture with MEK and an old paint brush.










The bottom of the pants will be cut back by about 10-12mm.










Both arms now fit up into the sleeves. The seperate palm pieces do not fit well and take some filler. The fingers themselvs are rather rubbery looking.










There is something off with the sit/height of the head. It appears the Monster's neck is too long, but the way the parts are designed, I am not sure how you can fix it (easily).










If you look at the above figure, the photo of the Monster from the instructions, which is close in scale to the kit, shows a shorter distance between the chin and the scoop of his shirt. Also the distance between the jacket collar and his chin is different. In the photo, the chin is lower than the back of the collar, but on the model, the chin is higher than the collar. Also, in the photo, the neck bolts are more or less level with the corner of the mouth but they are in a different position on the kit.

One way to fix this may be to saw horizontally through the neck, just below the neck bolts, remove several millimeters from the neck, and then glue the head back in place. You can't lower the neck into the body due to the design and shape of the neck.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

It looks to me that Karloff has his head tilted forward in the photo; the model depicts him slightly differently. This might account for the apparent proportion differences with respect to collar and neck bolts.


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## hedorah59 (Nov 24, 2008)

Its shaping up very nicely, David - Thanks for sharing your build :wave:


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## Jodet (May 25, 2008)

What are you using for filler?


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

mrmurph said:


> It looks to me that Karloff has his head tilted forward in the photo; the model depicts him slightly differently. This might account for the apparent proportion differences with respect to collar and neck bolts.


I agree 100% with your assessment; if the head on the kit was tilted downward slightly I think it would be a better match to the photo. But I still think the neck would be a little too long.


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## Gerry-Lynn (Mar 20, 2002)

djnick66 - I've been working on mine for the last week (Actually - The just two days) I've been dong some major Plastic Surgery on him - These are the kind of models I like building. Trimming the coat and the front of his shirt makes it closer to reference photo's. Hope to have him completed soon - Doing a video on the "Plastic Surgery" 101 Is there a Doctor in the House? My stills are at webshots.com
Gerry-Lynn










The Ears and the Neck bolts are going to be moved up an eighth of an inch. The boots I've trimmed major time - Closer to stills. Will post later.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

I haven't decided what to do about the elongated neck, but you and I are on the same page with regards to relocating the ears and neck bolts. I'm also planning to shave down the "bulge" at the top of the forehead (it sticks out too far when compared to profile photos of Karloff in the makeup) and re-sculpt the hair on the sides of the head to make the head shape closer to Karloff's...when I finally start working on the kit, that is.


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## Gerry-Lynn (Mar 20, 2002)

Here is an over all view of body - head - boot.









Side-view of head; with body.









Boot almost done - I cut - sanded - And filed. Then I used liquid glue to clean-up with.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Nice work G-L, you should start a thread here too on the subject. I find everyone's interpretations and fixes both interesting and helpful.

I'm not sure the ears really need to be moved. But the neck bolts should be. Plus they are in the way of cleaning up the large seam on the neck. Its easier to cut them off, fix the seam, and then add new better ones.

I like the model very much and also enjoy being able to do some personalization/customization. 

FYI if you don't have any of the movies on DVD, there are lots of excerpts and scenes on Youtube, and you can pause here and there to look at details.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Jodet said:


> What are you using for filler?


I use two products... the grey stuff is Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer. Its a lacquer based, liquid putty. It comes in standard grey color, and fine texture white. I apply it with a brush or tooth pick and then wipe off the excess, as on the boot top seams. You can also clean it up with a paper towel dipped in Tamiya's plastic-safe lacquer thinner, or Gunze Mr. Color Thinner, which is also safe for plastic. Thats how I will finish the hands. The filler will be dry today and I can rub it down with some thinner and paper towel.

For larger gaps, I use Squadron Green Putty, a traditional plastic model filler. You apply it with a tooth pick or old knife, let it dry, and then wet sand it down. Back in the day I used to thin it out with Testors Liquid Plastic Cement, and come up with something similar to the Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer. 

You can also snip up some leftover sprues into little pellets and chunks and dissolve them in Liquid Cement or MEK to make a liquid plastic filler. It takes a while to dry, but when dry its just about like the model plastic itself.


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## MonsterModelMan (Dec 20, 2000)

Coming along nicely....great tips so far!

Thanks for posting the WIP pics...keep 'em coming! :thumbsup:

MMM


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## Night-Owl (Mar 17, 2000)

Kudos djnick66 and Gerry for some cool customizing! :thumbsup: Keep on posting.


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## NeilUnreal (Feb 17, 2001)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who can't resist chopping figure kits all to pieces and re-sculpting them! :thumbsup:

-Neil


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Here are the reworked legs. I built up a new hem over the top of the boots (not pictured) using Procrete sculpting putty. 










IMHO just fixing the length of the legs, and either shortening the forearm pieces or hollowing the sleeves, so the arms will tuck up inside are the two biggest fixes to make on the kit.

I did some work on the neck last night too and that looks much better.


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## roadflea (Jul 14, 2009)

hi i dont have this kit yet but what your doing here is GREAT for us new guys i hope to have this kit soon and will be watching this thread THANKS AGAIN FOR taking the time to put it up


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Here's the new hem on the pants built up with Procrete. I roughly sanded and carved it down, and then put on some Squadron Green Putty to smooth the epoxy putty into the kit plastic. Epoxy putty can be harder to blend sometimes. The Procrete doesn't smooth out with water when wet, like some sculpting putties.










With the neck "bolts" removed it was easier to fill the poor seam on the sides of the head. I sawed through the neck, and sanded out a millimeter or two. I also tipped the head forward slightly. 










Its harder to get the two figures together for a comparison picture but you can see the subtle changes to the height of the neck and the distance between his chin and the front of the shirt.


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## Gerry-Lynn (Mar 20, 2002)

djnick66 - Looking good. How long does it take Procrete to set - And where can it be bought? 

Thanks Gerry-Lynn


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I sell Procrete, so I am sure other hobby shops offer it. It has a mixing chart that gives variations of the formula to get different results. Overnight usually does the trick if you aren't in a hurry.


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## Gerry-Lynn (Mar 20, 2002)

Thanks - Sound like interesting stuff. I'll have to try it. Do you use a type of solvent to smooth it? Looking forward to see how you paint the Monster!!!

Thanks Gerry-Lynn


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

My preferred epoxy putty is the Tamiya Quick-Set type, although I don't know if they still make it. Its nice and plasticky when soft and dries hard as iron when cured. But I didn't have any... I shape it when dry with files/sandpaper etc.


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

Keep up the great work,and thanks for looking in.Alex


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## dklange (Apr 25, 2009)

Thanks, djnick66 for the WIP thread. As I've read through, I keep thinking I want to build a second one and try some of these modifications. Very cool stuff! - Denis


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