Hey all, the project is still moving along and Russ is downstairs as I (guest) type, working feverishly to finish in time.
The original show date has been moved.
Save the Date:
Dia De Los Muertos II
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Beginning at 5:00 pm
at the Richard App Gallery
910 Cherry Street
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
Hope to see you all there!
There is also a new Facebook page for Decomposing Plastic.
Go like it or the horde is coming for you.
M
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
THE TROUBLE WITH TRUCKS
Most of the environment work that I've done has been natural or science-fiction based, so making a realistically detailed, 1/18 scale downtown poses several challenges of scale. The first thing to tackle are the vehicles. There are 3 or 4 abandoned vehicles and several functioning atv's needed for the diorama, and they need to be both realistic and sized properly.
I found that I could buy cheap plastic vehicles and accessories from several different lines of adventure and military toys. I thought that some key modifications and a bit of paint might be enough. I also found that I could buy expensive die-cast metal vehicles. The realistic styling was there, but these things start about $40 each.
I'll try one of each please.
And so, armed with two blue trucks, I began my scale comparisons.
The plastic one definitely falls into the "monster truck" category, and the metal one is a street truck.
The plastic truck has opening doors and tailgate only, and looks very simple compared to the highly detailed die-cast. The die-cast has opening doors, tailgate and hood, revealing a detailed engine. It also has turning wheels and real rubber tires. The die-cast wins in the detail, but how about the actual size of each truck?
Wow, Blondie can't even see over the dashboard! I'd say that scale is too far "off" to work...
I took a picture of Blondie climbing into the die-cast, but it turned out really bad, so I'll just tell you that the interior of the die-cast is about half of an inch too short and needs about another inch of leg room for a figure to fit inside.
It's really no contest. I thought the die-cast were a little bit small at first, but I did some real-world measurement conversion to verify and the things are actually really close to accurate. (That, and I found a dirty little hobby shop and scored what I needed for $15 or so each!)
Next up I'll have pics of Zombies wave 2!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
What it is.
So, we all know what a zombie horde is, but this zombie horde is only four inches tall.
As a custom toy maker, I've been taking a Dremel to little plastic men for the past 20 years or so, and out the dozens and dozens of toys I've created- these are my first ever zombies.
And I'm a guy who likes his zombies. What flavor? Don't care. I like Romero zombies and 28 Days Later zombies and Stormtrooper zombies and... yeah, you get it.
In 2011, out of nowhere, toy giant Hasbro released an action figure in the G.I. Joe toy line called the Zombie Viper. For their purposes, it was an enemy soldier treated with a toxic goo that turned him into a super badass fighter. Eh, not so interested in that idea, but as I started to peel back the layers of G.I. Joe gear I found a fairly generic zombie dude hiding underneath! The wheels started to spin and I decided I was going to make at least a dozen or so zombies. I like taking pictures of these guys, and wanted a nice little horde to menace Spider-Man, Batman, even the A-Team wouldn't safe! Any toys made in the 4" scale could be victims of the horde.
I started in on the first 6 figures. It had been a while since I'd worked on this kind of project, so it was a disorganized assembly line at best! I was testing out a few new products and playing with some different techniques, and spent probably around 6 weeks on the wave. It was a few weeks away from being done when we had one of our local toy shows. It's called the Grand Rapids Toy and Comic Expo. The organizer of the show is a friend of mine who's been active in our local toy community for many decades and helped keep the scene alive over the years. (I will also be forever grateful to Russ for giving me the opportunity to meet Mr. Jeremy Bulloch, better known as Boba Fett from Star Wars.)
A few days before the show I had the (bright) idea that if the horde would be awesome at 15 zombies, how frikkin' amazing would it be if there were 50? And then, let's be honest, if there were 50 zombies, they'd have to shambling down some street, right? So streets mean cars, and storefronts, and rubble... oh my.
And that, my friends, is how the 6 custom zombies on my desk have turned into a 2 x 6 foot realistic diorama of a downtown street over-run by zombies. I showed the WIP zombies to Russ (the toy show guy), and explained the idea. He thought it sounded fun, and so the Decomposing Plastic diorama will be shown at the December 2012 show!
And that brings us to now. It's the beginning of April. I have just short of 8 months to design and build not only 40-odd more zombies, but the equivalent of a city block in 1/18 scale. Oh yeah, and there's always that handful of pesky survivors...
Over those months I'll be sharing the development of the horde project through this blog, so if ya like zombies, toys, idiots who bite off more than they can chew, or all of that stuff- check back from time to time.
As a custom toy maker, I've been taking a Dremel to little plastic men for the past 20 years or so, and out the dozens and dozens of toys I've created- these are my first ever zombies.
And I'm a guy who likes his zombies. What flavor? Don't care. I like Romero zombies and 28 Days Later zombies and Stormtrooper zombies and... yeah, you get it.
In 2011, out of nowhere, toy giant Hasbro released an action figure in the G.I. Joe toy line called the Zombie Viper. For their purposes, it was an enemy soldier treated with a toxic goo that turned him into a super badass fighter. Eh, not so interested in that idea, but as I started to peel back the layers of G.I. Joe gear I found a fairly generic zombie dude hiding underneath! The wheels started to spin and I decided I was going to make at least a dozen or so zombies. I like taking pictures of these guys, and wanted a nice little horde to menace Spider-Man, Batman, even the A-Team wouldn't safe! Any toys made in the 4" scale could be victims of the horde.
I started in on the first 6 figures. It had been a while since I'd worked on this kind of project, so it was a disorganized assembly line at best! I was testing out a few new products and playing with some different techniques, and spent probably around 6 weeks on the wave. It was a few weeks away from being done when we had one of our local toy shows. It's called the Grand Rapids Toy and Comic Expo. The organizer of the show is a friend of mine who's been active in our local toy community for many decades and helped keep the scene alive over the years. (I will also be forever grateful to Russ for giving me the opportunity to meet Mr. Jeremy Bulloch, better known as Boba Fett from Star Wars.)
A few days before the show I had the (bright) idea that if the horde would be awesome at 15 zombies, how frikkin' amazing would it be if there were 50? And then, let's be honest, if there were 50 zombies, they'd have to shambling down some street, right? So streets mean cars, and storefronts, and rubble... oh my.
And that, my friends, is how the 6 custom zombies on my desk have turned into a 2 x 6 foot realistic diorama of a downtown street over-run by zombies. I showed the WIP zombies to Russ (the toy show guy), and explained the idea. He thought it sounded fun, and so the Decomposing Plastic diorama will be shown at the December 2012 show!
And that brings us to now. It's the beginning of April. I have just short of 8 months to design and build not only 40-odd more zombies, but the equivalent of a city block in 1/18 scale. Oh yeah, and there's always that handful of pesky survivors...
Over those months I'll be sharing the development of the horde project through this blog, so if ya like zombies, toys, idiots who bite off more than they can chew, or all of that stuff- check back from time to time.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Welcome to the Horde!
I loooves me some zombies! I decided to start a little project, this is the beginning of the Horde.
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