Achromatic Munsters

[ausf]

I'm still playing around with mixes and techniques, so in practice I wanted to get some simple things done. I grabbed the Moebius 1/8 Munsters kits and started painting.

Really having fun with it, I wanted to stay true to the TV show, so I'm keeping it strictly black and white and am painting the stage makeup with it's heavy shadowing.

When paint this scale, should I try to shade and highlight the black garment or leave it to reflect light naturally?

Any critiques at all are greatly welcomed, I'd like to improve but don't know what I don't know until it's pointed out.

 

[Nap]

Love the subject

Painting black is always difficult ..well for me at least ..lol ...I suggest shadowing only with pure black , a big scale as you said .

Have a look at Martins SBS here he painted clothing in black ..http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/fighting-cossack-scorpio-models-1-10.81154/

That face is great and I loved the TV show as well are there any others from the series?

Looking forward to more

Nap

PS I moved the thread to V Bench

 

[Oda]

Very interesting approach.I like it.

Oda.

 

[Metal Extremo]

I can't give you advices about lights and shadows. Very big for me.
As big fan of Munster Family say you likes me a lot your painting of this kit. I think is the good way do it in black and white. When i need do various elements in black at the same miniature, i mix the black with a bit of other colours to obtain different black for every element.

 

[ausf]

Thanks gents, I appreciate the comments and suggestions.

Nap, there is a Herman figure to go with it, but looking at it, I guess I just assumed these were 1/8 based on general size since the there's no mention of scale in the instructions and the boxes were tossed (or binned on your side of the pond). The Herman model is the same height as Grandpa, which certainly wouldn't be correct.

As I understand it, the highlighting and shadowing of fabric is to accent the dimensions, but at this size, they are readily apparent so I'm not sure. Figure painting is still new to me, I can handle canvases or inanimate subjects in 3D, so I guess that's where I lean.

At first I wasn't overly impressed with the sculpt, which isn't out of the ordinary since it's a styrene kit and don't expect much, but after the Moebius' Bride kit, my expectations are higher. That said, this assembled and painted nicely. Very little seam filling and the only alteration I made was to add corneal bulges to help with the eyes. Al Lewis' irises are very dark so there wasn't much to work with to get depth.

I'm going to go ahead with painting the base and knock down the gloss on the gloves and lapels. I normally airbrush Future so I can control the sheen, but in this case I hand brushed it and put it on too thick. A bit of Satin varnish should do the trick and I'll do some highlighting to bring out the leather appearance in the gloves.

Thanks for moving the thread. I assumed Brutal critique was where it fit since this is still under the heading of learning and practice.

 

[MCPWilk]

That's quite some painting.

Mike

 

[Jazz]

Can I first just say that you have done an amazing job already with grandpa. As these are just plastic injection moulds that have none of the details that we are used to the likeness you have got is incredible.
These mobeus kits are the same as the old aurora kits that I cut my teeth on in the early 70s. I never had this one though. Kind of wish that I had, seeing what you have done with yours.
Please keep posting your work in progress shots as I'm really keen to see how this turns out.
John

 

[ausf]

Thanks Mike, thanks John.

John, I'm familiar with the old Auroras, I remember seeing them in the LHS when I was young. Moebius and Polar lights have been using the old Aurora molds and releasing them over the years in limited runs. I paid $130 a few months ago for Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, Wolfman and the Creature. They were originally 98 cents...

However, Moebius has been producing new kits as well, the Munsters are part of that line and yes, while styrene doesn't hold a candle to the resin offerings we have, the newer ones are much better than the Aurora kits of the 60s. The Munsters aren't their best, but the Batman 66 kits are really nice and their Bride kit is every bit as good as resin. They hit it out of the park with that one, Boris and Elsa are excellently represented even though it's injection molded styrene.

 

[Stephan]

Wonderful

 

[ausf]

Getting near completion here which is remarkable for me.

 

[Jazz]

These are brilliant. Painting them in black and white is certainly the right way to go and really brings them to life. The likeness in both figures is superb. Well done indeed.
John

 

[Nap]

They look great as Jazz said black and white was definately the right way to do these

Thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[Blunderbus]

Those are terrific! A favorite show when I was young.

My only criticism would be that it would have been interesting to have there eyes directed toward each other as apposed to straight ahead.

Simply my 2 cents.

 

[ausf]

Thank you gentlemen, much appreciated.

For all the putting this off and worry about proper shading, etc all it really took was a little dry brushing to create enough highlights.

I also learned a good lesson regarding the eyes that will help with sculpting: Grandpa's eyes were vaguely defined. but Hermans were well detailed with irises and pupils, but in the end, the less defined eye was much better to paint. The sculpt let me decide while I had no choice with where Herman is looking.

I just need to finish Herman's hands (they are just blocked out now) and tighten up a few things, then I'm calling it done which is a pint worthy moment for me. I tend to start a lot of projects...

 

[ausf]

My only criticism would be that it would have been interesting to have there eyes directed toward each other as apposed to straight ahead.

Simply my 2 cents.

I agree. I didn't pay attention to how the bases interlocked, I assumed they would have been facing each other, but it's more of a vaudeville type set up. There was a long period of time between when I built and primed them and now, probably two years I think and I tossed the boxes and instructions.

I couldn't change Herman's gaze, it's fixed in the sculpt, but I guess I could have had Grandpa looking sideways.

I was thinking more along the lines of catching Al Lewis' crazy expression.

 

[Blunderbus]

Regardless of the eye position they are still a delight to look at.

 

[Viking Bob]

Absolutely superb, electrifying!