CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF

(from: Curse of the Werewolf - 1990)

Manufacturer: House of Hammer

Sculptor: Mike Hill

Material: Cold Cast Porcelain Resin

Scale: 1/6

Curse of the Werewolf has always been one of my favorite werewolf movies. Oliver Reed does an outstanding job as the tortured soul afflicted with Lycanthropy and the make up design is one of the classiest renditions ever.

Mike Hill’s sculpt is up to his usual superior standards. He has an uncanny knack for nailing a likeness dead on and his physical positioning catches the character in mid-motion giving it a great feeling of action. You can count on any piece by Mike to be exceptional.

This model was my first encounter with building a cold cast porcelain kit. It didn’t really present any major difficulties or difference from any other resin kit. The big thing that jumped out was when I was drilling holes for pinning or sanding it, it smelled different than what I was used to. But because the kit is porcelain, the casting is perfect. There were no seams, pinholes or air bubbles. Assembly was a breeze and when completed, the figure stands just over 12” tall.

I was in a quandary as to whether I should build this straight out of the box or try to customize it with a different base. I opted, for once, to keep it simple and just build it straight up. I’m pretty happy with the result but in retrospect, my biggest dissatisfaction turned out to be the base itself. The overturned bowl of food just doesn’t look good. If I were to do the kit again I would either do a new base or remove the bowl completely.

There is plenty of painting reference on this kit floating about on the internet. The film was in color so there’s a very good guideline for your painting. I did everything pretty much as in the film. He’s painted entirely by hand in acrylics. I used multiple washes and dry brushing to achieve the textures I wanted. There was no airbrushing on this one.

This kit is not elaborate but due to the craftsmanship of Mike Hill, the model stands out on the shelf among much more involved kits. It’s just a good solid monster model that is a great addition to any collection.