Wilco Model's Martian War Machine |
| By David Green |
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This is a copy of Wilco Models 1950’s movie Martian War Machine. The kit consists of the fuselage, the death ray “cobra”, three green lenses and one red lens. The fuselage resin was well cast with minimal porosity, however the fuselage is rather “lumpy” and required much filing to get it smooth. Tthe lenses themselves had many bubbles. The green lenses did not fit to the fuselage vey well either, so I glued them on with epoxy, then filed and sanded them flush with the body. I later polished them with acrylic watch crystal polishing compound and my buffing machine. The cobra took a fair amount of cleanup and once again had to file sand and polish to get the lens to fit flush. I painted the craft with a mix of Testors' copper and silver enamels. I wanted to to tone down the bright look so went for a bronze color. I sprayed some very light coats of Createx Transparent Grey to simulate soot and grime. The stand is my first attempt at sculpting. I tried my hand at making a Martian hand similar to the film, and the vines on the base are supposed to be the red vegetation the Martians brought with them. Apparently they are not eco-friendly. I enjoyed building the kit, since I always wanted one and the Pegasus version was not on the market. However if had to purchase one now I would go with the Pegasus injection molded kit, but it was a good introduction to resin for me. |
