Saucer Sighting

After all the fun I had making my last "budget project", the Ion Cannon, I thought I'd have a crack at something else that appeared on my worktable recently.  Our "Stranne" lamp from Ikea has been flickering for a while and I replaced the cord switch, leaving me with this surplus item:

Yeah.  The project potential was obvious so I popped over to the craft store and bought some 1/2" wooden balls. These I sawed in half - surprisingly difficult to do evenly.  Fastened to the underside of the switch, they give us a retro-chic "Adamski" UFO look that many people probably recognize.

I decided to leave the cord holes, but added mesh inserts to make them look like some kind of sensor or port, and scribed some lines suggesting a ramp or hatch on one side.  Lastly, I added some view ports made from smallest brass washers I could find, and primed.

After a couple of coats of silver spray, and a few accents (ramp borders in steel and viewports in gloss black), I had a UFO!  Not too bad if I say so myself; a bit "clean", but it seems to suit the subject.  And as befits a budget project, it came in at around $8.00 (and some of that was Canadian Tire money!), including a fresh can of silver spray paint.

Scale is about right for a small "scout" type UFO...

(Note my lazy failure to fill the screw holes)

"'Klaatu Barada what', Mulder?"

Jen Haley MURDERS Khurasan's Paranormal Investigators

I don't normally post about other people's paint jobs... but damn it, woman:

"Something's spooky out there Mulder, and it's Ms. Haley's brush control."

I was still am pretty proud of my paint job on this set, but yet again, Haley shows me why she's soaring with the eagles while I'm still ****ing with the ducks.

According to Jon's TMP post, Khurasan will begin selling these with a new wave of releases starting next week.

Straight Outta Quantico

FBI Special Agents
15 mm

We just got back from a much-needed week's vacation on lovely Manitoulin Island, and so... it's time to post something cool I've been sitting on for a while here.

I was lucky enough to get first crack at painting these new releases from Khurasan.  One agent demands scientific rigor, the other allows himself to explore extreme possibilities.  Together, they're a doggedly unstoppable truth-seeking duo, even if they're always stopped short of actually finding it.

Anyway, on to the sculpts.  Holy crap, so tiny!  These are easily as finely sculpted as "Dave and Desiree", and perfectly proportioned.  There were a few pesky double mold lines that took some care to remove, but overall prep was not bad.  I didn't even try to remove the attached bases, as I was scared that I'd snap them off at the ankles; instead I embedded them in the middle of washer-shaped plastic pieces so the street surfaces didn't bulge up.

Conspicuously absent from these figures: powerful flashlights, yappy Pomeranian, implied pornographic VHS collection, or creepy living black oil.  Present: 90's style ladies' pantsuit.

"Wait, I think I heard something..."

"What's in the boxes, Reg?"