Vampirella

Warren Comic book cover, Issue #1. Note the price.

Here are a pair of kits I picked up on eBay based on the comic book heroine 'Vampirella' created by Forrest J. Ackermann of all people. For the uninformed, Forrest was the creator and editor of Famous Monster's of Filmland magazine, a staple of my misspent youth.

The comic tells the story of a race of vampire beings living on the planet Drakulon and the turmoil on it which results in Vampirella ending up on modern day Earth. I am not at all familiar with the comic nor am I with the film which starred former Bond girl Talisa Sota. Though Ms. Sota is pleasing to the eye, it wasn't enough to get me past the 15 minute mark when I attempted to watch this horrible film produced by Roger Corman (who else?).

Vampirella Kit #1

In any case, the standing Vampirella is roughly 1/6 scale and has five parts: the base, a pair of boots, an arm and the rest of the body. This sculpt is based on a much larger work by Susmu Sugita which has been OOP forever. The resin kit was very clean and required very little prep work although painting her red outfit was a chore since there was little demarcation between her skin and the skimpy costume.

Addendum

As time worn on, it became evident that the base for this standing Vampirella kit was defective as, after a brief time, I'd find the Vampirella figure leaning to the left or right to the point of actually falling over. It was cast hollow in an effort to save resin (I assume) so the mounting pins in the boots really didn't have that much to bite into (pardon the pun). In any case. I filled the void with various substances to address this problem without any success. My next step was to place Vampirella in a place on my display shelf where she'd lean on something to prevent a tumble.

Fast forward about a year where I come across a beveled pine base at a model builder's convention for three bucks. I figured I could copy the original to a certain degree with better results as far as the stability of my figure was concerned.

Signing into Thingaverse.com, I did a search for “tombstones” which resulted in the very nice replacement that you see in the pictures. It had more detailing and had a much more interesting shape than the original so I fired up my 3D printer and ran off a copy that I scaled to fit the scene. I already had a skull recipe in my 3D files, so I ran that off as well, with each object taking about three hours to print.

Next, I built up the base with some two part epoxy clay and roughly sculpted in some surface details such as rocks and the like. Before the clay set, I pushed the skull and gravestone into place. After the clay fully cured (about 24 hours), I gave the whole base a couple coats of gray primer and let that sit overnight as well.

I used craft paints to paint up the base objects with an undercoat of burnt sienna for the ground. After the paint dried, I gave the ground part of the scene and thick coating of PVA glue and then dusted it with various ground foams to simulate earth and grass along with yellow tree debris I found in my driveway to suggest dead leaves. 11/19/19

Vampirella Kit #2 Sculpt by Vance T. Rudzinskas

The seated version is a bit larger ( 1/5 scale?) and has a much more interesting base. The eight piece kit was sculpted by Vance T. Rudzinskas and was very clean. It had a few seam lines to clean up but nothing out of the ordinary. Painting the figure was about as difficult at the previous for the same reason.

As far as the base is concerned, I added ground foam, real dirt and tea leaves to add debris and texture to the base and gravestone. Spent paint brush bristles provided materials for the dead weeds located throughout and a piece of driftwood stood in for an old log lying near by..

To see more of Vance's work, click here: http://advancesculptor.net/index.html

Both kits were very easy to build and look great although I prefer the seated version simply because it was a more interesting display. It is a limited edition run so grab one before they're all gone. 10/28/18