Rehabing a tired old Monster.

I scored an original 1961 Aurora Frankenstein so I'm setting off to bring it back to life.


After disassembly and scrubbing, I'll give it a proper glue and seam filling.


As it stands:




















Here's a comparison to the 1999 repop. A lot more flash and a horrible sink mark in the palm. That must be one tired old mold.

I'm looking forward to watching this thread. I had that model when I was young and loved it.

Me too. I remember shelves full of them at the LHS the I was a kid. All the Aurora stuff caught my attention back then, and now 45 years later.

It really isn't a bad kit, considering the mold technology of the 60s. The face is no great shakes, but it'll build nicely. Of course it's more nostalgia that anything else.

I particularly appreciate the comparison between the old and new releases. It would be fun to see that with a lot of older kits.

Love a nostalgic build too.

-Rog

Thanks Rog,

Got some work done on the kit. It really isn't a badly engineered piece, especially considering it retailed for 98 cents.


After cleaning it up, I had to get creative with the clamping and fix a few surfaces so they mated nicely.


You can see the results of some care during assembly. Very little putty will be needed in the next step.














Some shims were needed:





And sanding joints flat:








Final mating, joins a bit tighter than before:

ausf said:

...The face is no great shakes, but it'll build nicely...

Click to expand...

You think so? I always thought the likeness was pretty good for a 1960s kit, but it's clearly based on the Monster's appearance in The Bride of Frankenstein, not Frankenstein. In fact, I was surprised when I learned modelers in those days were unhappy with the kit because it didn't resemble the box art; my first thought was, "But it looks like Karloff! Who cares about the box art?" I guess they wanted a Glenn Strange Frankenstein. :lol

Really nice work so far, especially considering all of that old styrene cement! I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. thumbsup

I hear ya Zombie, yes it is scared with burned hair from the Bride and I never have high expectations when it comes to figures and styrene, especially 60s technology.

But...Moebius blew the doors off expectations with their recent Bride kit:



Final assembly of the Monster. I'm stumped to the engineering of the jacket. Up to then, everything was well designed, but there's only one attachment point with the two halves. Any pressure on that point would raise the piece off the chest, neck or separate the jacket. Due to design it couldn't be pre-assembled and one side couldn't be set because alignment with the rest wouldn't be assured. It was a bit of a struggle for me, as an adult with a shop full of tools, tapes and glues, I can't imagine me 45 years ago getting this right sitting at a card table with a tube of Testers orange oozing out.

The white strips are shims added to strengthen some joints until the putty locks everything in place when filled.





While running some molds, I took some leftover silicone to cast the jacket texture so I can reproduce any detail lost with seam correction.



That's it for now, comments and critiques more than welcome.

Looking forward to more