Most styrene kit builders know the
story of Big Frankie but here’s a short version just in case you
don’t. Originally designed to be a toy, Aurora scrapped the idea and
released it as just another model kit. The sculpt of the Universal
monster was more of a caricature so many kids did not take it as
seriously as the other Aurora monster kits. It also carried a price
5 times higher than the regular kits. All this added up to be the
kiss of death for Frankie. Sales were poor and he was dropped from
the shelves after a short run. This makes him a very valuable and
highly sought after kit to collectors.
This poor guy needed a complete
restoration. I totally disassembled the kit. It
had been glued and re-glued, rather carelessly, several times
causing damage to some areas to the plastic. I stripped off all the
old paint down to the bare gray and black plastic. It had 4 layers
of old, gloss, enamel paint with skin tones ranging from shades of
gray, to blue, to green. I then reassembled it, puttied all the
seams and sanded them down. This took a couple of rounds in some
cases. I sprayed him with a good base primer and he was ready to
paint.
I used acrylic paints to bring new
life to Frankie. I airbrushed him and hand painted all details. When
completed, I sealed it with multiple layers of clear sealer to
protect the paint. Standing right at 19” tall, he makes a nice
centerpiece to any collection.