Kit of the Day: Bachmann's Fisher Boy

Bachmann, who brought us the Birds of the World, Animals of the World, and Dogs of the World kits also made three dioramas entitled Bachmann's Americana. They apparently didn't sell well because they were discontinued after three models: Fisher Boy, Home Plate, and Bowling Alley. I'm not sure of the scale but the boy stands about 4 1/2 inches tall without his hat. I painted this one mostly by the instructions, but I substituted my own paints for the ones supplied in the kit, which were old and rather worn out. My main departure was the fish, which they wanted gray and silver. I tried to make it look more like a largemouth bass. There's a guy selling the Bowling Alley kit on eBay for $80.00. It's missing the entire front half of the man in the scene. I got this, complete, for half that, although the boy was glued together and his hair was already painted. The middle photo shows the fish, and the bottom picture shows a little bunny peeking out at the base of the stump. There are other nice touches, like the slingshot and can of worms. All in all, a great little scene.

 

 

 

Kit of the Day: Wire Hair Terrier

Since not one single solitary human being on Planet Earth saw fit to comment on my Pteranodon, I thought perhaps a cute little doggie might bring some kind of response.


Reply, dammit!

Kit of the Day: Pteranodon

I found this at a Goodwill store for a mere $4.00 and decided to move it to the top of my to-be-built pile (actually, a tbb room with many piles of kits therein). It stands 15 inches tall and I had to epoxy a couple of peach-sized rocks into the back of the cliff to prevent it from flopping over on its face. The baby pteranodon is supposed to be twins, but half of the face of one was missing so I carved out the other half and rescribed the wing in hopes of making it look natural. The sea is a piece of velvet paper I balled up, flattened, and painted with acrylic to make whitecaps. As for the guano, I'm just guessing that pteranodon droppings are that color. Thank you very much.

 

 

Drakkar Oseberg

A recent completion is this Viking ship in 1/180 scale from Smer. Drakkar means dragon, but it doesn't have the typical dragon's head on the prow. The finished model is about 5 inches long. The fit of the parts was very good and I a swell time building it. Some day I will do the larger Viking ship I have in my TBB (to be built) room.

Kit of the Day: Collie

Here's a collie I call Champion Denton's Laddie Good Boy. He's another plastic model kit from Bachmann that was issued in the early 1960s. The paints that come with these kits are hard little buttons that are supposed to melt when mixed with Bachmann's thinner--a tolulene solution. The colors that came with this kit weren't for this pooch so I used oils and mixed the shades as best I could.

Kit of the Day--Standard Poodle

 

In the early 1960s, Bachmann manufactured model kits of animals and birds that were well-made, attractive, and simple to assemble and paint. Plus, everything needed to complete these kits came in the box: paints, brush, thinner/glue, dog, and stand. I recently got this poodle, along with a collie, on eBay and completed it last night (really, just a few hours ago, but it's after midnight). The instructions call for him to be either all black, white, brown, or silver, which made painting pretty simple. I opted to use black, then mixed a very dark gray to paint the shaved areas on his waist, legs, face, and tail. Finally, I used silver to dry brush highlights on the fur. I'm reasonably satisfied with the result.

 

Kit of the Day

Sassy the Kitten

In an effort to get more young girls to build models, Revell created four kits of cute, cuddly animals. They were marketed between 1957 and 1962, but the little ladies preferred Tiny Tears or Barbie and the idea flopped. Along with Sassy the Kitten were Perri the Squirrel, Teddy the Koala Bear, and Friskie the Beagle Puppy. Price guide values for these kits today range from $75-100, but I've seen a Perri on eBay for less than that for over a year with no takers.