John Ovington’s Alien Warrior

GEOmetric Design’s
Aliens   Alien Warrior
1/8 scale

Most Alien kits have the correct details, fewer have a decent pose, fewer still the correct proportions, but GEOmetric Design’s Alien Warrior has all the goods plus “attitude”.  The merits of the kit as assembled are evident, but by comparison to other Alien(s) figures (past and presently available), this one is, in my opinion, the absolute best.   GEOmetric has engineered this kit to be clear and easy to assemble, with challenges enough to keep the skilled modeler interested.  Though crouching at a height of 7 1/2″, there is a lot going on in that small space.  I don’t build a lot of figure kits, but this one has easily become my favorite.  I can not recommend it highly enough.

George Stephenson, President of GEOmetric Design, generously supplied this kit to me, when he read my posting on Cult’s BB regarding the purchase of recast/ counterfeited kits.  I had mistakenly bid on, and purchased, from an eBay seller a pirate recast of this kit.  The difference between the original from Mr. Stephenson and the recast is eye opening.  I won’t spend time here describing the pitiful copy, but the GEOmetric kit is sharp and crisp in every detail.

My construction adhesive was Pacer cyanoacrylate Zap-A-Gap (gap filling formula).  All appropriate seams, scratches, chasms, etc., were carefully filled with 3-M Acryl-Red automotive glazing putty.  Any sanding was done with 3-M 320-grit wet & dry paper used wet.  The instructions recommend adding weight internally to the tail for balance, but my kit’s tail had no hollow space to accommodate any weight material.  He does like to fall face first into his Cheerios, so for a little better counterweight, I added a few fishing “split-shot” lead weights to the inside back of his head before final attachment.

I painted the kit in four sub-assemblies: head, 2 arms, and body (legs and tail attached).  I lightly primed it with gray automotive primer.  While effective in the past with other vinyl kits, in this case it remained slightly tacky.  Once my first color coats were on, the adhesion was just fine.  All painting was done in Artist’s Acrylics.  I used two initial wash layers: the first a blend of Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green, the second Alizarin Crimson dirtied slightly with Turquoise.  I then dry brushed on 3 iridescent “interference” colors (Green, Violet, and Blue) to highlight GEOmetric’s fine detail work.  I then gave the kit an overall thin wash of Paynes Gray.  At this point, the teeth, claws and tail tip were added in Aluminum leaf for extra brightness, rather than paint.  They were detailed in Paynes Gray.  The gums were dry brushed with Gold.  The jaw muscles were washed with White, then Black, and dry brushed with Iridescent White.  The whole kit was again washed with a very thin Ivory Black.  Finally, I selectively dry brushed with Gloss Medium to slicken it up a bit.  All the sub-assemblies were then joined.

As always, I have no base made to display this fellow yet.  However, that has never stopped me in the past.

I always enjoy painting a well-made kit.  Though it went very quickly, because of GEOmetric’s high level of detail, I had a lot of room to play no matter the approach.

John Ovington