SAUCER MAN
(from: Invasion of
the Saucer Men - 1957)
Manufacturer:
Earthbound Studios
Sculptor: Steve West
Material: Resin
Scale: 3/4
COMMISSION
The film industry of the late 50s was
chock full of flicks about bad boys, swingin’ chicks, hot rods, and
monsters. And AIP’s Invasion of the Saucermen is no exception
- has it all. I love AIP movies and I always felt Sam Arkoff tried
to make his “teen” movies kinda serious, but this one, to me, was so
campy that it is actually one of my least favorite. It does,
however, feature Frank Gorshin (TV Batman’s Riddler) as a delinquent
teen so I guess it does have some redeeming value. And the little
green men are awesome!! Once again Paul Blaisdel created memorable
monsters on a shoe string budget.
The Saucer Man is
another in Earthbound Studio’s incredible Big Head series of B Movie
Monsters. The kit comes in 4 parts: the head, torso, base, and a
hand. Steve West does his usual exemplary job of sculpting and Mark
Brokaw gives us another flawless casting. It only a few took minutes
to sand off some barely visible seam lines and he was ready for a
bath. A couple coats of primer and we’re ready to paint.
I built the kit
stock, straight out of the box, except for one customization. In the
film the visitors attack the hapless teens and kill them by
injecting some sort of poison from needles they extend from their
finger tips. As the kit did not come with this feature I just had to
add it. I carefully drilled out the tips of the fingers and inserted
large sewing needles. I added drops of the deadly fluid using 5
minute epoxy. The hand is a separate piece not attached in any way
to the kit. Taking a cue from the Metaluna Big Head kit, I mounted
the hand to the base instead of letting it lay about.
Even though the film
was black and white, there is actually some good color reference
material thanks to Bob Burns. As film historian and archivist he has
preserved some of the iconic pieces from the era. Bob obtained the
actual masks used in the film and posted them in his book “Bob’s
Basement”. Surprisingly, they are orange in color. Now as the
artist, I get to choose my own color scheme and I usually try to
stay true to the film or reference material. But in this case I just
couldn’t bring myself to paint him orange. I mean, c’mon, he’s a
little green man from outer space, right!? He’s just gotta be
green!
I used acrylics on
our little friend and applied them with airbrush and hand painted
the finer detailing. I did the base in a chrome spray paint to give
it a high gloss reminiscent of a ‘50s space ship.
This kit was so much
fun to do – especially if you are in the mood to just paint. It
gives you an opportunity to experiment with whatever color scheme
you choose. If you’re a fan of the great “B” movies of the ‘50s and
‘60s, I highly recommend this, or any of the Big Head series of
models.