Mark Arnold’s Maria from Metropolis

Here’s another one from 2008 that has never been posted to the site…

I purchased Masudaya’s Metropolis Maria off of ebay a few years ago.  She  was in great shape, untouched, unpainted, I think she was never taken out of the box.  The black rubber base cover didn’t stand the test of time,  however.  It had turned hard and stiff and would no longer stretch over the plastic base with the lights.  So I wasn’t able to use it as is.  In the future I plan to build a similar base but for now Maria looks pretty good attached to a marble block.

I spent a great deal of time deciding what color I should paint Maria.  I was torn between bronze/gold and metalic silver.  I think the gold attracted me because of Star Wars’ C3PO which I’m so used to.  Ralph McQuarrie’s original C3PO’s artwork bore a striking resemblance to Maria and must have been the inspiration.  Everything I’ve been able to discover through my research on Fritz Lang’s Metropolis describes Robot Maria as silver.  After much thought I decided to go with Lang’s interpretation.  I think she worked out well.

The painting was a simple process.  Very gently I cleaned Maria up with a little dishwashing soap and water.  Once dried I carefully spray painted her with a flat black base coat.  After that I applied AMACO’s  Rub ‘n Buff Pewter Wax Metallic Finish with my fingers.  Buffed that up to a nice shine and then roughly covered that with AMACO’s Silver Leaf Wax Metallic Finish.  A little light buffing and then a coating of Testor’s Dullcoat.

Maria was looking good but I thought that she seemed a little too harsh so to make her look more sympathetic, I sprayed on a thin coating of Creatix Metallic Midnight Blue Airbrush Color to her eyes.  It’s not very noticeable but softens her up just enough.

As I said, a very simple paint job but I’m pleased with the result of this classic model.

Mark Arnold