1/35 Scale vinyl model kit by
GEOmetric Design/Max Factory Custom Craft
Kit #VHO 50
Scale: 1/35; just a hair
above 8 inches
Price: $64.99
Kit Review by Alan Nadel
| King
Kong
1/35 Scale vinyl model kit by GEOmetric Design/Max Factory Custom Craft Kit #VHO 50
Kit Review by Alan Nadel |
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I've been a big fan of the movie since I first saw it on TV in the 60s. Unfortunately, there's never been a really good model kit of the big guy (Aurora's silly looking kit is the first to come to mind, at left). Even in the best of current figure kits, Kong's face is so stylized that all resemblance to Marcel Delgado's actual creation is lost. |  |
(Acrobat Reader required) |
GEOmetric Design/Max Factory
Custom Craft offers a licensed model kit of the mighty ape. Thanks to the
wonderful sculpting of Izume Takabe, GD/MFCC has produced probably the
best likeness of the Eighth Wonder of the World in a model kit.
This nicely packaged kit comes in nineteen black vinyl parts, six of which are optional. Detail on the kit is exceptional, especially the face, which is a beautiful reproduction of a roaring Kong. The instructions, which come in a nice glossy "collector's booklet" with four pages of photos and some Kong trivia by none other than Bob Burns, include an exploded view of the kit, building tips and a basic painting guide. |
| The kit itself is easy to work with and wonderfully engineered. The hard vinyl softened nicely under hot tap water and excess vinyl was easily removed with a hobby knife. Parts are numbered and clearly marked "L" and "R". The warm parts popped together firmly and easily at the joints, which are all circular to allow rotation. These joints include the neck, waist, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists and ankles. What one winds up with is an eight inch tall fully articulated figure. |  |
| The kit comes with what
the instructions call the "Fay Wray option": a manacled right hand and
a figure of Ms. Wray. The four piece figure, which measures three inches
when assembled is nicely executed. It consists of top and bottom body halves
separated at the knee and both arms which attach at the shoulders. Once
again, detail is excellent, including the face and delicate little hands.
At 1/35 scale, however, the three inch Fay scales out to nine feet tall! If we are to assume that Fay Wray was average height of about five foot, three inches, then the kit works out to 1/20 scale. But, at that scale, Kong only scales out to a touch over thirteen feet! The book The Making of King Kong by Orville Goldner and George E. Turner lists Kong's height, in comparison to the miniature backgrounds as eighteen feet in the jungle scenes (which would make the kit 1/27 scale), and thirty feet in the New York scenes (which roughs out to 1/45 scale). I left the Fay Wray option out and posed Kong with arms raised in a menacing gesture. (At 1/35 scale, Kong scales out to 23 feet, 4 inches, an acceptable compromise.) I used general purpose super glue to fix him in position. |
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Puttying and blending the
seams is tricky due to the kit's furry texture, but with a little patience
and a pointy object, fur can be sculpted into filler putty. I used A and
B epoxy putty with a 4 hour cure time for maximum workability. Extra putty
was needed at the backs of the hip joints to hide "panty lines". Ambitious
modelers may want to sculpt extra fur detail onto the backs of the hands,
and to retexture both upper arms (parts 4 and 5) which seem to be less
sharply detailed than the rest of the kit.
Painting Kong was simple enough. The instructions recommend "rabbit fur brown" (whatever that is; probably because the original Kong puppet was covered in brown rabbit fur) and medium brown. I chose to use a darker brown for the fur and flesh to try to capture the coloring of a real gorilla. A base coat of 1:1 flat brown and flat black Tamiya acrylic was sprayed on with a Badger 250 mini spray gun. Lighter mixes of brown were then dry-brushed on over-all and finally a mix of brown, white and yellow was dry-brushed on to add highlights to the fur. Kong's face is large enough to make painting his eyes and mouth easy. |
| When finished, I had spent
about twelve hours on Kong: one hour building, five hours filling and texturing
seams and six hours painting. The finished model looks just like the real
Kong, even down to the dramatic facial expression. Even more so than most
vinyl figure kits, this one is easy enough for even the beginner and the
kit's pose-ability makes it possible for any modeler to build a unique
figure.
Pros: Excellent likeness, easy to build, poseable Cons: Fay Wray figure way out of scale, detail on forearms softer than rest of the kit |
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The History of Space Exploration
Figures: People, Creatures and Dinosaurs
82001, Alanoodle Creations
