[dconlon]

Nine months of tender loving care to restore an abused kit I bought off e-bay:

Derek

 

[bqeman]

Great job. This and Forbidden zone's son of Frankenstein are my favorite kits

 

[septimuspretori]

I can't stop looking at it...very amazing!

Ben

 

[the Dabbler]

WOW ! I always wanted this kit before I 'retired' modeling but I'd have never done that good of a job on it. :thumbsup:

 

[hal9001]

What all did you have to do in your restoration?

Great paint job!

HAL9001-

 

[Dr. Syn]

Nice job! You should post a "before" pic.

 

[dconlon]

What all did you have to do in your restoration?

Great paint job!

HAL9001-

It's a very long story that I documented on another board.
The short version goes like this:

I bought this kit at the begining of the year because the price was pretty low - but it required a lot of work.
You won't be able to see all that was required, but in a nutshell the make-up kit - one of the central pieces of the model - was a shambles. The two fold-out trays were broken apart and the pieces that held them together, that made them sit inside the main case, were gone.
Those "connectors" had to be resculpted which was done using Aves.
The main case also had three sections broken off and those sections had to be resculpted.
The packing crate was misaligned (not square) and gaps were filled with glue.
The stool was missing one of the horizontal spacers.
The base and columns were lost under thick black paint and black was the primary color of choice on the busts making them featureless.
Everything had to be broken down and stripped.
Once the paint was off the pinholes that were never filled became visible.
A good part of Chaney's hair was sanded smooth and had to be rescribed.
The Chaney figure had to be disassembled to get rid of the thick paint and give me access to the full figure for a complete overhaul.
I airbrushed much of the kit although all the facial features on the four faces were enhanced using pastels - a technique I'd never tried before.
I'd also never tried doing a faux marble effect but I wanted that look for the busts' pillars. The technique turned out to be really easy.
But the most time consuming feature was the pinstripes on Chaney pants.
I spent at least 12 hours (which translates into days) masking the stripes.
And believe it or not the above is the short version of what I did on the kit!

Thanks for your interest.

Derek

 

[Tim Casey]

Nice shading!

 

[SJF]

Outstanding work!

Sean

 

[Spockr]

Great seeing this post. Congratulations on your score and thanks for sharing the horror stories about its restoration. The work you did really helped revive this gem and it looks excellent. Its like you stripped away the impostor's make-up and revealed the Lon Chaney below.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[rkoenn]

Great job on a great kit. You really did an excellent job on the painting and detailing. That is one cool kit and I wish I could pick one up sometime for a decent price. Do you mind me asking what it went for when you got it?

 

[dconlon]

Great job on a great kit. You really did an excellent job on the painting and detailing. That is one cool kit and I wish I could pick one up sometime for a decent price. Do you mind me asking what it went for when you got it?

If memory serves it was about 300 with shipping.
I've seen them sell for 400-450 and even more.
Someone asked me the other day if I planned on selling it now that it's finished.
After all that time and effort the answer was a pretty quick 'No.'

 

[Mitchellmania]

Excellent work- I did a similar pin stripe masking on a Zorg (Fifth Element) outfit. a lot of work , but the effect is great!
Enjoy your piece!

 

[louspal]

Really nice work. Your repairs and restorations are undetectable.
:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[ursusmajor]

Those marble pedestals look awesome.

 

[dconlon]

Those marble pedestals look awesome.

And surprisingly easy to so.
Next time I attempt the technique I think I'll try lighter tones - either greys or a peach/rose color.

Derek

 

[Dyonisis]

This rocks!! Of course I could've done it in a few days even with having to strip it - all I have now is nothing but time!! I'm waiting to get some parts for a very much needed overhaul on a few guitars, and a dozen models. This is enough to keep me busy for a while, but the X-wing kits are going to be my masterpieces. In the meantime, I've got more time than I really want to get these projects done, but no space to work makes it evermore difficult! Excellent job on this. I see why it took you nine months. The marble is good, but you have to be careful not to add to many viens in one place as this makes it look plant like. The shading, and skin tones are awesome! I love the pin striping, and of course you knocked yourself out doing all this. It definately shows. I do the same, but only a few ever appreciate the hard work put into something of this calibur. It's easy to see the end result, but impossible to see how difficult it was getting there! Thanks for sharing this on Hobby talk.

~ Chris​

 

[Auroranut]

Stunning restoration on a very rare and desirable kit Derek!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
You've done a wonderful job of bringing it back from the brink...

Chris.

 

[dconlon]

Stunning restoration on a very rare and desirable kit Derek!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
You've done a wonderful job of bringing it back from the brink...

Chris.

Thank you Chris.
And thank YOU Chris (the previous posting).
Nice to know one's work's appreciated.

Derek