# My Favorite Martian



## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

*My Favorite Martian*FINISHED PICS**

In case anyone was wondering what I've been up to (or even if you weren't) I present some photos of my latest build, the Uncle Martin spaceship from the 1963 TV show. _My Favorite Martian_. The show starred Ray Walston as Uncle Martin (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara.

My Favorite Martian Opening Credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igMNkaxdCc4

Most people don't know this but the show premiered the same night and time as the first appearance of the _Beatles_ on the _Ed Sullivan Show_. I thought my sisters and I were going to have a war over the big 19" console color TV in the living room that night since they wanted to watch the Beatles and I, of course, had my heart set on watching _My Favorite Martian_! This was long before the advent of VCR's so, if I missed it, I'd be stuck waiting years perhaps for it to appear in reruns. Arghhhhhh! Luckily my mom intervened and let me use her small black and white portable TV in the rumpus room. After carefully tuning the rabbit ears for optimal picture quality (which by today's standards was not very good but this was the 60's after all) the show came on and hostilities were averted, I still remember watching the premier episode sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV as my sisters squealed in delight from the other room. 
Anyway, enough about my early childhood memories, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about the premise of the show:

_A human-looking extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship crash-lands near Los Angeles. The ship's pilot is, in fact, an anthropologist from Mars (Ray Walston) and is now stranded on Earth. Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby), a young newspaper reporter for The Los Angeles Sun, is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base (where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15) back to Los Angeles when he spots the spaceship coming down. The X-15 nearly hit the martian's spaceship and caused it to crash._

Here are some stills from the series...

Ray Walston as Uncle Martin:









The spaceship, loved it as a six year old and it is still one of my favorite designs:










The inspiration for the spaceship design was an E-Type Jaquar sports car:










When I was a kid I thought it looked like a metal shoehorn! 

Like several shows from this time period episodes were shot in black and white for the first two seasons before switching to color in season three:










Anyway, on to the build...

This is a very simple kit consisting of a vinyl figure of Uncle Martin, 12 grey parts for the spaceship itself and a clear parts tree with the two cockpit door windows, an oval nameplate, and 2 sets of antennae (one set is extra) for insertion into 2 small holes atop Uncle Martin's head. 

Here I am brushing paint on Martin's face after painting his hair a reddish brown color with gold yellow highlights. Testors Cream would serve as the base for other facial and hand colors and shading to be added later. The figure has been described as resin but I tend to think it is actually vinyl as the paints I used (lacquer primer followed by Testors enamels) took forever to dry and, even then, were still a bit sticky to the touch after a week. I finally solved this problem by coating the figure with Future clear acrylic floor polish. Later I sprayed with Testors Semi-Gloss lacquer. His hands and head were brushed with Floquil flat. Had I known he was molded in vinyl I would have used acrylic paints of course but the tackiness is gone now so all is well:










Uncle Martin is almost done in this image. The glittery look to his suit was accomplished using transparent green Glitter spray over a green basecoat: 










Uncle Martin finally finished and glued to a craft store wooden base standing next to the show's nameplate:


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Closeup with his antennae. The antennae when deployed allowed Uncle Martin to disappear and/or use his telekinetic powers:












Cockpit hatches. There was padding on the inside of the ship's hatches on the show which I simulated by scribing sections of thin sheet styrene and gluing them in place on the inside of each door. ParaGrafix makes an excellent looking PE set for this kit which includes panels for the cockpit hatches (along with other parts and decals for the round view screen) but spending more than the kit cost me for the photo-etch set just wasn't in my budget so I made my own:










Here's the completed dashboard installed in the upper hull half. Molded in clear and painted with Tamiya Bare Metal Silver as was the rest of the ship:










So that's it for now. I've finished painting the ship and am about ready to put the two hull halves together. The fit of the parts is so good though I may not glue the halves together just yet as it looks pretty nice as is without gluing. I'm still trying to decide if I should light the dashboard so not gluing the hull together allows me time to make up my mind about that. 

Thanks for reading along guys. Comments welcome!


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

In my home Ed Sullivan won- had to wait a while before seeing the pilot episode.
I like what you did with the interior panel padding!
I have this kit is perpetual start mode- had a paint issue and just set aside for the time being. Still pondering whether to light the dash myself and get the photoetch as well.

What hull paint are you going with?


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## veedubb67 (Jul 11, 2003)

Doug Drexler has the original spaceship. Steve Neill restored it for him and it looks amazing!

Rob
Iwata Padawan


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

veedubb67 said:


> Doug Drexler has the original spaceship. Steve Neill restored it for him and it looks amazing!
> 
> Rob
> Iwata Padawan


Wasn't loaned out to 'Men in Black 2' or did they build a look-a-like?
That storage/impound room scene had a number of classic craft for the old days but the 'My Favorite Martian' ship was the most noticeable.


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## Y3a (Jan 18, 2001)

I watched My Favorite Martian as a kid in the Washington DC area (Springfield, VA) and MFM came on after Lassie, and before Ed Sullivan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963–64_United_States_network_television_schedule


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Richard Baker said:


> In my home Ed Sullivan won- had to wait a while before seeing the pilot episode.
> I like what you did with the interior panel padding!
> I have this kit is perpetual start mode- had a paint issue and just set aside for the time being. Still pondering whether to light the dash myself and get the photoetch as well.
> 
> What hull paint are you going with?


I used Tamiya Bare Metal Silver over Tamiya Black which is glossy. I applied multiple coats while giving the ship a light sanding in between coats. So the model has a very smooth finish. I'll take some pics and post them soon.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Y3a said:


> I watched My Favorite Martian as a kid in the Washington DC area (Springfield, VA) and MFM came on after Lassie, and before Ed Sullivan.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963–64_United_States_network_television_schedule


Boy that TV listing brings back memories. So many great shows.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

veedubb67 said:


> Doug Drexler has the original spaceship. Steve Neill restored it for him and it looks amazing!
> 
> Rob
> Iwata Padawan


Yes. I watched this video of Doug and crew when they went to pick it up from the prior owner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqGCgxCMjP4

Steve Neill did do a wonderful job restoring it. He also took lots of videos; unfortunately, he took them all down and you can't find them on his SNG (Steve Neill's Garage) page anymore.


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## Brisfx (Nov 10, 2005)

Trekkriffic said:


> Yes. I watched this video of Doug and crew when they went to pick it up from the prior owner:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqGCgxCMjP4
> 
> Steve Neill did do a wonderful job restoring it. He also took lots of videos; unfortunately, he took them all down and you can't find them on his SNG (Steve Neill's Garage) page anymore.


Thats not the original prop, it was built by a fan. He did a brilliant job and it was in MIB II. The original prop is in a private collection.


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## JGG1701 (Nov 9, 2004)

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks for reading along guys. Comments welcome!


Looking good Steve!:thumbsup:
-Jim


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Thanks Jim. Appreciate the support. 

I decided yesterday to quit dickin' around and light up the instrument panel. I bought a 2-pack of 9V batteries and a push-on light at the local Dollar Tree store yesterday for a buck each and started wiring up a single cool white LED behind the dashboard. The pushbutton switch from inside the push-on light was cannibalized and installed in the upper back end of the spaceship with Plastic Surgery CA and AVES. A hole was drilled thru the hull big enough for a toothpick to poke into and activate the switch. I'll post some pcis later.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Finished wiring up the 9 volt battery to the LED and pushbutton switch...




























I drilled a hole thru the stern to be able to insert a toothpick and push the button on the light switch in the back of the ship:










I used a jet plane nozzle from my leftover parts stash to make a detail piece for the front scoop:










The inner turbofan was trimmed away from the nozzle and glued to a panel on the bow that hides the seam between the upper and lower hull halves. 
I plan to glue the halves together with white glue so I can easily split them apart should I ever need to swap out the battery:


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Here are the finished pics...


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Uncle Martin...


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

Wow! That really turned out nice!


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

Excellent paint job, esp. on Uncle Martin!


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Richard Baker said:


> Wow! That really turned out nice!


Thanks a lot!


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Richard Baker said:


> Wow! That really turned out nice!


Oops! Double post!


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Fozzie said:


> Excellent paint job, esp. on Uncle Martin!


Thanks! The instructions said to paint his hair orange. I think I used about 4 different colors myself. Didn't use orange though.


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## Mark Dorais (May 25, 2006)

:thumbsup:Very nice build indeed.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Trekkriffic said:


> Thanks! The instructions said to paint his hair orange. I think I used about 4 different colors myself. Didn't use orange though.


 Orange? Dark blond would be correct, just as you did it. They must've got old AMT/Ertl employees to write the painting instructions...


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Owen E Oulton said:


> Orange? Dark blond would be correct, just as you did it. They must've got old AMT/Ertl employees to write the painting instructions...


Thanks Owen. I looked at quite a few images of Ray Walston and never could quite see where they got the idea his hair was "orange". 

Now this fella, Carrot Top, has what I would call orange hair ...


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

Trekkriffic said:


> ...I looked at quite a few images of Ray Walston and never could quite see where they got the idea his hair was "orange"...


Here are some shots from Season 3 of _My Favorite Martian_, which was filmed in color:


























It's not bright orange like ol' Carrot Top's, but Walston did have naturally red hair.


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## Trekkriffic (Mar 20, 2007)

Zombie_61 said:


> Here are some shots from Season 3 of _My Favorite Martian_, which was filmed in color:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hmmmm... is that what is called strawberry blonde? My niece has hair that color. One of the colors I used to paint the hair was copper.


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