Drej

I bought this kit for several reasons, the least of which is that I wanted it. Mostly, I wanted to support Polar Lights who was the only company producing sci-fi kits at the time. I paid full price for my first one; the second for a song on eBay. The first I gave to Marcus and the second I built.

When the kit came out I read a review of it somewhere and bought it anyway. The main problem was the transparent blue plastic the kit was made from. PL obviously wanted the kit to have an appeal for the novice who won’t paint it. The monster itself was transparent blue so it made sense. However clear plastics don’t lend themselves to modeling. Seams and alignment holes can’t be fixed without painting and my transparent paint is see-though. I never considered leaving the model unpainted. 

Though not hard to build, the curved pieces were challenging since every piece needed to be addressed for seams. After the plastic cement set, I sanded the seams and used CA glue to finish them off. Remember to sand quickly or else the glue gap-filler will be harder than the plastic and that’s a real headache. 

I built and addressed each part before attaching it to the whole and then addressed those connections. It’s not perfect, but I worked until I wasn’t interested in working on it anymore.  Art is never finished, only abandoned.

I knew that the model would mostly be a painting project. I primed with a white sandable primer and fixed the seams I didn’t like and couldn’t live with. I cleaned my Sotar 20/20 airbrush and went to work over the white basecoat. 

I used thinned Liquitex Ultramarine Blue and painted away. I put the blue on heavy in the shadows and pulled back over the rest of it. I was careful and slow and pulled it off, I think. The shading is good but the model is still nice and bright. It almost glows in the right light, simulating the energy being’s body. I sealed it with a flat sealer and painted the face black. 

For the base I went with Orange to counter the blue critter. I tried to break up the monotonous oval with shading - more airbrush fun. I’m not sure it works, but there it is.

This was a fun and quick weekend project. Not my best, but I’m not sad I bought it or built it.