X Plus 7th Voyage of Sinbad Cyclops
The kit is something of a departure for me in that it is made of plastic as opposed to cast resin which is the norm for Ray Harryhausen monsters it seems. In any case, this 1/35 scale kit from X Plus is a nice addition to the menagerie of 7th Voyage Of Sinbad monsters out there at a fairly reasonable price. I ordered mine (via eBay) the moment it became available which was fortunate because they sold out almost immediately. The down side was that it was shipped from Japan and it took over THREE months to arrive!
The kit has about fifty parts which, for the most part, were nicely cast generally speaking except that some had sprue attached to mating surfaces which required a lot of clean up that really shouldn't have been necessary. However, a feature I liked was that some elements (such as the mouth) were made up of five individual pieces(!) which made painting much easier if done before assembly.
The kit is comprised of the Cyclops, a wooden cage with a skeleton and man inside, a spiked club and a small rocky base with a name plate.Though this may have been adequate for some, I decided to add aroasting pit off to the side with a victim tied to the spit as is seen in other kit versions of this scene.
The box art for this kit
A close up of the fire pit I added to the scene. I managed to find a pirate figure in my stash of figures that was just the right scale. I am not usually that fortunate.
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A shot from the rear of the scene showing the interior of the cyclops' cage.
Apparently (as in the film) one occupant decided to end it all as opposed to being roasted alive.
I made a base out of plywood roughly twice as long as the original. I secured the original base with screws from beneath and then added arough layer of Sculpt-a-mold over the exposed plywood that resembled the contours of the plastic base. I made the fire pit out of pebbles with the spit parts from twigs I from my backyard. Using a painting technique that I first tried out on my Sinbad ghouls display (found in the Ray Harryhausen Tribute section of this web site), you can read how I colored the fire pit in that build. I was fortunate to find a pirate figure in my stash that was the correct scale and posed in such a way that I could use it as my fire pit victim.
Though the instructions suggest that the cyclops be painted a dark brown for the legs and light brown for the skin surfaces I went with a pumpkin orange for the skin with a wash of rust to bring out the skin details. I applied medium brown flock for the legs and waist which I had previously painted dark brown to give a furry look to its appendages.
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The completed scene with a nice back ground reminiscent of the film.
I used various shades of gray and brown for the cage followed by a wash of black to bring out the details. The other elements (hanging skeleton, spiked club) were painted a light gray and medium brown respectively. As I described earlier, I made a fire pit out of pebbles and littered the inside with small twigs which I had scrapped previously with the teeth of a small saw to give the small twigs a bark like texture. After I painted the twigs black, I dried brushed them with flat white to resemble ash residue.
After I painted my sailor victim, I secured it to the spit with CA glue and then tied him with a piece of elastic string that I had colored tan to look like rope to the spit cross bar. Since the figure was already 'yelling' it fit very well into the scene.
This kit would be of below average difficulty for most so even a beginner shouldn't have a problem with it. The price is reasonable and the quality is good which would make a fine 'first' build for the Harryhausen enthusiast. 01/10/2023