George Shaw’s Invisible Man

As a kid I was a HUGE fan of the old classic horror movies. I also read just about every book I could find, Wells, Shelley, Stoker, etc etc etc. I also built just about every Aurora model out there! Anyway, about two years ago I ran into your site and it inspired me to pick up a model for old-time’s-sake. Well, since then – let’s just say my inventory continues to grow! So here is my Invisible Man:

One of the big decisions I had to make was how to dress Mr. Griffin. Of course when I was a kid I always painted according to the box art, but as you can see, this time around I went just a little in my own direction. But besides the clothes, there are a few details I’m kinda pleased with the results that I wanted to point out. The first is the floor:

I started out by painting individual boards different shades of brown enamel. I then put a good dab of burnt umber oil paint on a piece of cardboard for about 45 minutes, allowing the cardboard to absorb a good amount of the oil. I then smeared the paint on the floor and let it sit maybe three or four minutes, then used a clean rag to kind of “buff” the oil paint off until I got the floor looking like real wood:

Then there was all the beakers and flasks. I decided to go with some gel paints I found at a craft store to give the illusion of liquids with a little viscosity.

But my favorite of the flasks was the one on the floor:

Finally, another detail that I was pleased with was that skull on the book shelf. I primed it with a gray, water-based craft paint, then dry brushed over it with white enamel.

This was my second model since returning to the hobby after, oh say 30-something years. It was a blast to paint and build and took up Sunday afternoons for about five or six months! Happy modeling!

George Shaw