Tony McVey has this knack for taking a well known character, then filtering the essence of that character through his own creativity and bringing to life something that is at once recognizable and yet totally unique. Whether it's mutants or dragons, winged monkeys, or monsters from the id, there's no mistaking that they are all creatures from Tony's id.
The Metaluna Mutant is based on the creature from the big-budget 50s sci-fi adventure, "This Island Earth". The bulbous cranium, empty insectoid eyes, and crustacean limbs are still there but this vision of the mutant takes a wild detour off the well-trod path of rubber suit, B-movie monsters, giving us a true alien monster with 4 sets of arms, a crusty carapace of a back, and huge pincers that look like they could snap a person in two.
The quality of the molding and casting is very good, with minimal seam lines and no apparant air bubbles. The arms are keyed to fit, facilitating easy assembly. I only used a bit of gap-filling CA glue to close up the join of the large, "claw" arms.
The first column shows the assembled and primered figure. I airbrushed the figure using Alclad II lacquer primer. I like to do this with smaller figures so the primer does not obscure the fine detail. After priming, I rubbed down the primer with 6000 grit sanding pad under running water to further smooth the primer layer and wash away any debris and residue.
The second column shows the basecoat. All basecoat colors are Golden's Airbrush acrylics. These are ready-to-use, pre-thinned acrylic paints that spray very well through my airbrush. I also keep on hand a bottle of Golden's Airbrush Medium, and Golden's Transparent Extender to thin the paint further, and to turn the paint into a transparent glaze for layering effects.
The third column shows the finished piece. More Golden's AB paint was used to further modulate the hues, using transparent colors and mottling, I lightened, some areas while darkened others. I was mostly looking to create a more organic, crustacean look to the mutant--while keeping the primary colors of the mutant character from the movie. Finally, I detailed painted the red veins around the eyes by hand brushing Golden's Light Red and Burnt Umber paints using a Winsor and Newton Series 7 brush, size #00. The eyes are painted with Alclad II lacquers: first 2 layers of Gloss Black, which was allowed to cure overnight. Then i airbrushed a layer of Alclad II Prismatic Jade on top of the eyes and Prismatic Sapphire on the bottoms of the eyes. The eyes were then overcoated with Future Floor Acrylic. I also airbrushed Testors Dullcoat between all stages of painting.
Thanks for looking! |
