CYCLOPS #2

Quite an Eyeful!

A classic fantasy movie from 1958, a resin kit and a little bit of sand provide the basis for this intriguing model.

A friend bought this resin kit for me at the Queensland Model Hobby Expo last year for $40. It consisted of just three pieces, the main body and head, and two arms which had to be joined at the elbows. I carefully Superglued the arms to the body, adding Tamiya putty to blend the joins together. Drilled holes in the “hooves” allowed the positioning of the model, via screws, onto a firm plastic base.

After sanding the joins so they were nearly invisible, grey primer was sprayed onto the kit and allowed to dry thoroughly. Reference material showed the Cyclops was a deep orange which was mixed using Tamiya colours. After much testing, it was hand painted over the entire model, while the lower half was a mixture of the orange and a dark brown, again hand painted.

After the base coats had been applied, a dark wash was added to the model to “dirty” it down a bit. This colour ran into the many skin creases and folds, adding just enough detail. The single eye was painted according to the reference material, with a coat of clear gloss to make it shiny. The mouth interior was painted a darker colour and gloss was added for realism. All in all, quite an accurate representation of the animated model seen in “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad”.