I must admit, when I bought this kit (about 4 years ago) I had no real plan and intended to build it, whenever that would be, much the same as I had built it when I was ~11 years old, except for the Glow In The Dark features. Glow in the dark is cool for an 11 year old, but I think I’ve grown out of that at 63. Thankfully, there’s an option.
I must admit, upon starting the build I still had no real plan and my intent remained the same. Although I did alter the Phantom’s teeth. He had bad teeth so I chiseled the gaps, between each, a bit larger to emphasize that.
Another aspect that required attention at the time was his lapel. Filling and sanding gaps on the shoulders resulted in the orange peel effect of the lapel to be smoothed down. So I sanded down the entire lapel and then used Mr. Surfacer 500 to recreate the orange peel.
Anyhoo, fast forward to now and I have a bit more of a plan.
First off, I did a dry fit of the legs to the torso and discovered huge gaps there, so I decided it best to cement those together now and deal with those gaps before proceeding with primer.
Next step will be to primer everything. I bought an airbrush 10 months ago and still haven’t used it. Time to take the plunge into the world of airbrushing.
As for a plan, one year later…I want to make this model more than what an 11 year old would build, and that includes other changes besides doing away with the glow in dark pieces.
The lizard. Too much. I’m going to leave that off.
The prisoner. Not a fan. In the 1925 Lon Chaney film, that this model clearly represents, there was no prisoner as depicted in this model. There is a torture chamber in the film, of which Raoul and Leroux stumble on and get trapped in, but they are not really tortured. At least not in a way that the model suggests. Call me a stickler for accuracy, but I’m considering leaving the prisoner out of it. Thing is, I’ve already cemented it’s head to the back wall. I’ll figure something out. Any suggestions on cleaning that up after I remove it are welcome.
And finally, weathering. Up to this point in my modeling career, I’ve have considered weathering to be probably too advanced for me, but I’m now rethinking that. The Phantom lived in the bowels of the Palais Garnier opera house. I’m sure it must not have been pristine down there. What better opportunity for a first attempt at weathering than this piece.
I intend to weather the “rock” base, but I’m not sure what would be best. A wash, or pigment application? Any suggestions are welcome.
I’d like to weather the Phantom’s clothing as well, but it’s predominately black and me thinks that dirt does not show up well on black, so does the clothing need weathering at all? Suggestions are welcome.
Regarding the stone. Using all the methods you mentioned together can produce spectacular results. However, since just starting with the weathering beginning with base color + wash will give nice results.
If feeling a bit more adventurous. Add a little white to the base color of the stone to lighten it and then dry brush it on top.
Regarding the ckothing. Rarely is anything a deep true black. Try a very dark grey. Then you use black for the shadows, dry brush a lightened version of the dark grey for the high points. You can also dry brush some dirt or dust onto various parts where he would have been likely to pick some up. Like the cuffs of the pants and jacket.
Hope that helps.
@PhoenixG is right on. Drybrushing is a shockingly powerful technique for these more “organic” shapes that scale modelers don’t often encounter. A set of even the cheapest drybrushes from your LHS and a little practice will have that stone base and the black robes looking really nice.
Haven’t ever seen this one built up yet Mark. I’m not much help on figure painting or “weathering” of clothing but it looks like @PhoenixG has got you covered with some good pointers there. As to removing the head from the stone… Depending on how well glued it is to the stone, you might get by with gently prying it off. If it’s on there really good, you can carefully cut it from the wall using a cutting wheel on a Dremel or fine tooth saw and then sanding everything down smooth on the bricks and adding texture and borders back to them.
In any case, it looks like an interesting build and am looking forward to seeing what you’ll do with it.
@mustang1989 I had just cemented the prisoner head in place the day before, so it came off without much consequence at all. I could smell the cement as I began digging and prying so, as you know, that’s a sign of it still gassing off and not fully cured. Phew!
I filled the small locator holes with Vallejo Plastic Putty. Will look at cleaning that up today.
I have an idea what to do with the empty space, what with the prisoner head out of the picture. Stay tuned.
You’ve done some great work prepping the figure and your questions give a tantalizing peek into your vision for this figure. I’m excited to see how this develops.
Lucky you on the glue not setting up fully. That could’ve been tough getting that head off of the brick work. Looking forward to seeing what you’ll be doing with the empty space.
Ah, classic Aurora movie monster! Great subject and nice start to your build.
I know what you mean about doing better today than when we were kids and built Aurora monsters. I built Godzilla when I was a kid (I’m 60 now) and the re-issue is one of the kits I built shortly after re-entering the hobby. It turned out nice, but sadly, I knocked if off an end table and it came apart. It’s still waiting for reparation.
I look forward to seeing your progress on this one!
@the_Baron I built quite a few back in the day. Seven or eight, I think. I believe The Creature from the Black Lagoon has been re- released, but I haven’t seen it in stock anywhere. Hoping for a re-release of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Hunchback at some point. I’d say Quasimodo was my favourite.
As mentioned upthread, I’ve decided to leave the prisoner out of the build. This involved removing the arms from the torture chamber bars. I screwed one of them up badly by trying to do too much sawing in place of filing. Thankfully, I had spare bars in the form of the Glow parts.
Everything is ready for primer now. Looking forward to my first ever attempt with airbrushing for that. Just waiting for a proper airbrush holder I’ve ordered and coming on Saturday.
Thanks for looking. Suggestions are welcome. I want to improve as a scale modeler.
I’ll second Tom’s comments on the shoulders and the modifications to the bars Mark. If it’s one area of modeling that I need to try, it’s figures. Your work here is highly inspirational to me. Keep up the good work bud.
Nicely done with the shoulders as well as the repair on the bars!
Regarding the rusting of the bars. I think I saw you use Vallejo paints on some of your work. On their website they have a bunch of short tutorials in PDF for download including several on rusting and chipping. The one I am thinking of had specific examples of rusting bars and poles. I found them very easy to understand and follow. Vallejo Tutorial PDFs
I just checked the site and some of the tutorials are not able to be downloaded. Hopefully it’s a temporary technical issue.
I’m pretty sure I downloaded the tutorials on rusting. If interested let me know and I’ll see if I can dig them up.
Lucky you on the glue not setting up fully. That could’ve been tough getting that head off of the brick work. Looking forward to seeing what you’ll be doing with the empty space. 
