Grim Reaper

Memente Mori - remember you are mortal

I started this kit in September and finished it in December. It wasn’t that it was hard or tedious, in fact it was relatively easy, straightforward and fun to build. The problem came in when I became obsessed with my Necron Monolith. After that I had to find the urge to work on it again. By keeping the model in the middle of my work table, making myself move it out of the way to work on anything, I eventually settled down and finished it.

The resin kit was made by a long defunct garage kit company called Mercury Models. It came in 7 parts and is 1/6 scale. I love the topic. I have been collecting skulls and skeletons for a while and was surprised I couldn’t find a Grim Reaper on the net. Although this one was overwrought, I bought it. I wanted a Reaper to display at my workbench, a model reminder of my own mortality, like the skulls which adorned medieval monks’ desks.

I purchased this kit from a local hobby store in town. The shop has a surprisingly good selection of sci-fi and out of print kits, but the owner prices them to be furniture, not as merchandise - no bargains there. Now I do most of my shopping online.

I washed the kit and connected the arms to the torso. I pinned the parts with aluminum wire. Using Magic-Sculpt I filled in the deep seams around the shoulders. A huge problem was that the robe didn’t extend all the way down in the back. It was like they just stopped pouring resin. The feet were intact, but I had half an inch of void behind it. I used Magic-Sculpt to build it up. My new set of riffler files blended in the repair.

I assembled the three pieces which made up the right hand and scythe, filled and sanded the seams. I drilled pin holes into the wrists and into the sleeves. The left had didn’t need assembly but sure needed help.

I mentioned that the model was overwrought. The sculptor tried to put as many “death” symbols onto the model as he could, as if a large robed skeleton with a scythe wouldn’t adequately confer the thought. He made the sash around the robe into a noose. The worst was the coffin in the Reaper’s left hand. The coffin pushed it, but inside the coffin was a clock with twisted hands. Where the “12” should be, there was a “13” and the pendulum was a swinging battle-ax. That stupid kitchy clock crushed any dignity the piece might have.

I considered cutting the coffin off completely, turning the hand upward and adding a more appropriate hourglass, but I couldn’t find a glass and was worried about mangling the model. Instead, I kept the coffin but covered the stupid clock with a piece of sheet styrene. This move toward understatement, however small, helped the kit.

I didn’t attach the hand to the model until the very last to make painting easier.

I primed the kit with my trusty Plasti-Cote Spot Filler Primer and did the skeleton first.

The scythe was done with brown dry brushes. I used dark brown washes to unify the colors when the drybrushing was too stark. I used Liquitex Steel, Antique Steel and Iridescent Silver on the blade, washed it with Burnt Sienna for rush and dry brushed the over it. The handles were a medium brown washed with a dark brown with brass fittings washed with black.

The coffin was a challenge since I wanted wood grain. I had seen a technique for creating such things with oils but I was using acrylic. The idea was to feather the wet paint into the went undercoat thus subtly blending the hard edges. I figured out a way to do this with acrylics. I mixed up a dark brown for the under coat and thinned it to stay wet for a while. Using a fine brush I painted semi-thinned tan paint where I wanted the wood grain to be. Then, using a very soft wide brush, I feathered the lighter color into the background creating the faux wood grain effect. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great first try.

I mixed the ivory bone color with my trusty Liquitex Basic Acrylic paints; Titanium white and a touch of Raw Sienna. I used a dark brown oil based wash for shadows and then lightened up my ivory a bit and dry brushed. I darkened the recesses of the eyes, nose and mouth with a heavier wash. I lighted up my ivory even more and painted the teeth.

I sparingly used greens, grays and browns for the rotting flesh around the neck and on the hands. I washed them with brown wash again if the colors were too bright. A wash is a great way to unify colors.

Satisfied with the bones, I masked off the painted areas with Mold Builder and masking tape. I’m not very good at using the Mold Builder. I always make a mess of things and have to repaint where I’ve over masked. I did that here.

I gave the whole model a heavy coat of Liquitex Mars Black. Then I got distracted from the kit for about 2 months. When I returned, I lighted the Mars Black with some neutral gray and highlighted the tops of the folds. I made another lighter color and highlighted some more. I went back with straight Mars Black and painted in some recesses I had abused and then using the Black I misted the entire area again to unify the colors. This works very well by the way. In fact, when I went back to highlight a couple of areas I missed, I used the lightest gray exclusively, knowing I could tone it down to where I wanted it with a black mist later.

I took off the mask and then repainted the areas I had over masked with a brush and careful airbrushing. Thanks to the fine line of my Sotar 20/20 airbrush I could do it.

The belt/noose was painted with a dark umber brown and then highlighted with a tan. The contrast was too great so I made a wash of the umber brown and used it to unify the colors. Again I had success. I black-lined around the coils and sides of the rope with a brush.

I attached the hands to the sleeves and coated it nice and thick with several coats of Testors Dullcoat.

Surpsingly, the real challenge with this kit came when I wanted to photograph it. Winter had just arrived in Oregon as I finished it and my usual technique of using indirect sunlight was not possible due to the weather. I tried and failed several times to set up a studio lighting arrangement and Tungstun film for the photos. After I got that settled, I then had to combat the high contrast nature of the piece. I used an 18% gray card and f-stop bracketed exposures and still couldn' get it to work. Finally, the sun broke out and, on my fifth attempt, I got some decent photos.

This kit was easy and fun. I learned a new technique with the wood grain and seriously validated washes and mists to unify my color. Provided the miss balanced piece doesn’t take a nose dive off my shelf, I have a new friend in my modeling room, reminding me that whatever creative soul I might possess it is housed in a failing meat puppet which sooner or later will fail utterly.