# Solarwind's "The Thing": My First Resin Kit.



## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

:thumbsup:I totally geeked out when I saw the previous thread on this kit. I've never bought a resin model, but had to have this one - just "to see."

What an excellent experience, and I haven't even bought supplies yet. Great communication with the seller who double checked my order with me. The shipment arrived quickly, and then I opened the box.

A lot of the problems I've heard about with resin models are not existant with the kits I received. No air bubbles. No funky mold problems. No excessive seams. The parts assemble so you don't need putty. There were just a couple of big tabs and a few instances of light flash to sand down. Wow!

I'm now going to do a careful search and review of resin model building - best glues, primer, and paints. Then a trip to my LHS to purchase aforementioned supplies.

Did I mention I geeked out? I'm sure I used the term "kits." I bought two: one for a traditional build-up and one to paint with glow paints. This sculpt has a defininte Aurora feel to it, and I think a "frightening lightning" edition is most certainly in order. In fact, these would look good displayed next to Morbid Monster's awesome Aurora What-If "The Thing" boxes.

Funny how old guys can still totally geek out on a new toy! WOOT!!!


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## Chinxy (May 23, 2003)

OK - NEED PIC's!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:


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## paulhelfrich (May 11, 2009)

Great to hear you're branching out into resin! I enjoy both styrene and resin kits a lot. Solarwind is an exceptional company to deal with - first-class products, as well as great customer service.


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## mhorm (Mar 28, 2003)

Congrats Murph, need to see it when your done.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

I was geeking out (I mean checking out supplies) in an art supply store today, and came across Crayola glow in the dark "sand." It comes in four colors, and I think you get a lot with the package. There are some moulds you pour the sand into, and they glow for 4 hours. In the store where I was shopping, this went for about $12.00.

Thought this might be of interest to those who want to tweak some of their glow kits. This stuff might look cool in the clear bottles that come with your Invisible Man, Witch, and if you have one - PL Bride of Frankenstein.

Cheers.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

Hey Murph, is this the one you are speaking of:










I am almost finished with mine and should post pics by the weekend. I have to agree it was a great kit, maybe my 3rd or 4th resin kit. And it does capture the Aurora mystique. I am maybe 90% done and just need to do the final trim items. I am very happy with the kit and agree the casting was excellent.

Bob K.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

Hi Bob
that is the exact kit - and the very picture that sold me on it. I'm a little slow getting around to art supply shops and my LHS, so it's going to take me a while. I'm thinking pale grey/green skintones (similar to the resin bust pictured in Amazing Figure Modeler a while back), but I have to admit I do like the deeper greens used on the box photo. The Thing in the movie was a plant after all.

While we're on the subject, may I ask which brand of primer you choose for your resin kits? Do you have a prefered epoxy? Inquiring minds would love to know.

Greatly looking forward to your pics of the finished kit.

Cheers to all
- Murph


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I used Rustoleum gray primer. I first gave it a scrubbing in dish soap with a tooth brush. I just started a Glo-head also and painted the tongue without washing it first and the Rustoleum wrinkled up on it. I am using mainly Freak Flex paints with the trim being done with Vallejo game colors and Tamiya acrylics. I am doing the skin tones in a green that is primarily Vallejo military interior green. Then I did some shading with a darker green and did some pastels on it as well. I wanted to bring the veins out in maybe a darker green while keep them reasonable so they don't stick out like a sore thumb. I did the lettering in the colors from the movie poster with red and a yellow/green. I am going to get this done on Saturday I am promising myself as I am so close. Always seem to have trouble getting down to it after work.

Bob K.


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## IanWilkinson (Apr 23, 2010)

Bob - i love the base on this kit.. there is another Thing kit - but the base was a little 'bland'.. cant wait to see it painted up!!


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## Tim Casey (Dec 4, 2004)

As mentioned earlier, PLEASE remember to wash the kit using soap and warm water before you prime it. I forgot to and now there are spots where the paint and the primer have fallen off!

I use the Rustoleum grey primer as well.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

Thanks for the heads up, Tim. I thought I'd washed it well, and had the same problem with the primer. I tried Tamaya grey primer - which seemed to work well on the base, but washed off the figure. No painting yet, so we'll see. 

I'll check into Rustoleum primer this weekend.


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## kdaracal (Jan 24, 2009)

Man that's a clean resin kit......


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

kdaracal said:


> Man that's a clean resin kit......


Clean says it all. I've had styrene kits which required more prep work.

Incidentally, I think my primer problem was due to using old primer and nothing to do with the resin itself. I noticed that in some places the primer had a definite rough texture which easily scraped off. 

The base is coming along well. The figure is soaking to remove the bad primer.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

I've downloaded pictures of the primed kit to my gallery, but haven't yet figured out how to copy and paste photos to the forum.  I couldnt find specific directions when I did a search, but will do so more thoroughly later on. 

I primed the figure and base with Modelmaster gray primer - and was assured by the guy at my LHS that this primer would work on resin. Thus far, no complaints. I then base coated white snow, brown mud, and stainless steel on the steel drum. 

These pics aren't the best (I took them with my cell phone). And my technique isn't near what we've seen from more advanced modelers. But I did geek out on this kit, and I wanted to share what progress I've made. Anyone with helpful comments or suggestions is encouraged to chime in. 

I primed the potential glow kit with white Modelmaster primer, sprayed on Tamiya dullcoat, and again this seemed to work ok. Now for the really geeky part: I bought glow glitter at JoAnne's fabric to sprinkle into the snow. What a twerp, I know. :tongue: If all goes well, I should have a glow kit ready to display in a couple of weeks.

Cheers!


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

OK Murph, to imbed a picture from another web location use this method. It took me a while to find the directions too back when I started doing it.










It can link to your photos on Hobby Talk, Photobucket, or any other website they reside on. Just bring the picture up on that site, right click, and use the "copy image location" option. Then paste it in between the two Img brackets as shown.

Bob K.


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## Chinxy (May 23, 2003)

Murph, just copy the link and then paste the link in your message like this!


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## kdaracal (Jan 24, 2009)

I hope you continue to post progress pics! Looking forward to this build.

:thumbsup:


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

Well, let's see if these pics make it to the forum. 
I painted the face and hands with a light sage green, added washes of olive green, followed by a light wash of dark purple. Another poster suggests painting eyes first, but as usual I did this "bass ackwards". Still a little intimidated by painting eyes, but I'm planning to use transparent red for the iris and transparent yellow for the sclera. And I'm also counting on goofing it up a couple of times. 
Thanks for looking. Any helpful suggestions welcome. [Still totally geeking out on this one. I've primed the second glow edition in white primer. WOOT!]


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## kdaracal (Jan 24, 2009)

mrmurph said:


> Well, let's see if these pics make it to the forum.
> I painted the face and hands with a light sage green, added washes of olive green, followed by a light wash of dark purple. Another poster suggests painting eyes first, but as usual I did this "bass ackwards". Still a little intimidated by painting eyes, but I'm planning to use transparent red for the iris and transparent yellow for the sclera. And I'm also counting on goofing it up a couple of times.
> Thanks for looking. Any helpful suggestions welcome. [Still totally geeking out on this one. I've primed the second glow edition in white primer. WOOT!]


Thanks! excellent!


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

Thanks for the advice, Chinxy And thanks for the kind words, dkaracal. 
I did a light blue wash over this, brushed blue chalk lightly over that, then highlighted the lips and ears with light blue. Now I'm tackling the eyes (now THERE'S a mental image).

I painted the steel drum and hope to finish up the wood on the base this evening.

Anyway.... we'll see how it goes. I may actually finish this one.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I can't wait to see him done Murph. I have a problem in that I never expend to much effort on eyes but at this small size there really isn't much you can do. A model in 1/4 scale and above has large enough eyes to really put some effort into them. When I did mine I painted the eyes white after basically finishing the head and then dotted the iris with black. On larger models I have tried doing the pupil with a transparent color and then dotting the iris with black. Only someone examining the face up close will ever notice much about the eyes if you do something basic for the iris and pupil.

Oh and, Chinxy sent me a spare DVD of the movie and me and the wife watched it Sunday night. For 1951 it was pretty good but I had one problem for me personally. My hearing is quite bad and this was a Korean ripoff DVD so the CCs were in Korean only! I missed half the conversation so need to see about picking up an English version for another viewing in the future.

Bob K.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45847
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45848
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45849

I'm calling it good on this base, though any suggestions for improvement or helpful comments are certainly appreciated. Almost finished with the figure itself.

(Now lets see if I remembered how to post pics correctly. And here we go...)


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## Chinxy (May 23, 2003)

Your base looks GREAT! Like the snow and really like the words on the box. Very good job!


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45859
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45858
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45856
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45857
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45855
http://photos.hobbytalk.com/showphoto.php/photo/45860

I'm calling this guy done, though I may do a light wash of olive green to tie everything together. Lots o' fun to build. 

Now let's hope I've uploaded the pics properly. They're in the album if I goof something up here.

Cheers!
- mrmurph


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## mhorm (Mar 28, 2003)

Nice job murph, great kit, I think I need it.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I've seen this somewhere before! Great job, a nice model to display next to any Aurora's you have. As I said before, this was an excellent casting and required very little clean up work. It also fit together easily and for the price is a great model from a very good 50's scifi movie.

Bob K.


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