Gino Dykstra’s My Favorite Martian

I just received this kit in the mail and felt I had to build it. Even at my advanced age, this original program is nothing more than a dim memory at best, but it still represents perhaps one of the first really mainstream SF programs on TV, albeit a sitcom.

The kit comes in all of 20 pieces, including two sets of antenna for the figure, which is a single vinyl casting with excellent detail. I figured this would be one quick build and in fact completed it in two days. First off, I wanted to do something with the figure, which is standing sort of staring off into space (how appropriate). I cut off and turned his head slightly so he could be regarding his broken spaceship with a certain amount of ironic annoyance. I also replaced the clear plastic antenna with wires which seemed more to scale, topping these off with tiny blobs of five minute epoxy. As it is, the figure comes with no stand at all, so I thought I’d integrate it with the logo plaque, which necessitated cutting some spaces among the letters for his feet. However, I think the end result justified the extra effort. I found that my usual lacquer-based primer didn’t want to work on this figure, so used an acrylic primer before painting in enamels. The only extra effort I put into it was adding a bit of glitter to the suit in the end to give it that semi-metallic look from the box top.

The spaceship went together relatively quickly, although there were a few annoying pin marks on the seat, landing gear and inside the hatches. I painted the backside of a couple of the control screens with suitably alien stuff and masked them off with a little latex rubber mask. The only real trial was the fitting of the two fuselage halves. Polar Lights thoughtfully put the seam on the underside of the craft, but they are quite large and required three coats of putty to adequately fill. The whole thing was then sprayed in silver, a little detail painting and voila! Finished. A quick and clean project.

I totally recommend the kit, although I have little recollection of the series itself. Still, a fun and quick project for those in the mood for something a wee bit different.

Gino Dykstra