Polar Lights "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" By Tim Nelson

Introduction

Before "Jaws" made you afraid to take a bath, there was the Creature. The "Creature from the Black Lagoon" has always been one of my favorite movie monsters. The 1954 film of the same name stands out as one of the best of the 1950s horror film genre, and is still entertaining to this day. In a nutshell, an expedition exploring the upper reaches of the Amazon discovers the Creature (a.k.a. the "Gill Man") and attempts to capture him; death, dismemberment, and general mayhem (not necessarily in that order) ensue. The female heroine, Julia Adams, is given multiple opportunities to scream like a banshee. The film has the distinction of being the first widely released movie in 3-D. Several Creature sequels followed, but none of them matched the intensity or cinematography of the original.

Polar Lights has been reissuing the old Aurora monster kits from the 1960s for several years, and has gone so far as to re-engineer some of the kits (e.g., "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Phantom of the Opera"). They have even acquired rights to the "Aurora" name. Their "Creature" kit is a reissue of the original Aurora 1963 release. Having an affinity for the old horror and sci-fi flicks, I had to have one.

The Kit

The kit is molded in dark green plastic, suitably eerie and consistent with my memories of some of the old Aurora monster kits. You get a Creature, a flowing ooze base with "The Creature" label, an ornery looking lizard which lies on a rock, a small tree with fanged snake, and (in a nod to an early scene in the movie) a skeletal arm/hand from another Creature. The texture of the various surfaces rendered in the kit is fairly impressive, especially the Creature's scaly skin. Other textures such as the lizard's skin, the background rock, and the snake's tree are also admirably done. The Creature's face and hands are particularly well done, especially when considering that this kit is basically 40 years old. The only flaw in the kit that I felt compelled to correct was to get rid of the Creature's prominent choppers - I saw no indication of visible teeth on the Creature in the film. The Creature stands about 8 inches tall, which works out to about 1/9 scale for a 6 ft tall "real life" Gill Man. The instruction sheet is mostly the old Aurora issue, with helpful guidance on colors. I ignored the color suggestions - more on that later.

Assembly

The parts count is low and assembly is straightforward. Anyone who assembled an Aurora figure kit in the 1960s or 1970s will know that seams will be prominent. You didn't care back then, did you? Two problems required some extra effort. The Creature's head is a 3 piece assembly consisting of face, rear, and a set of "gill" ridges that are sandwiched in between. There was a major mis-fit (approx. 1/8 inch) along the top of the head, which I took care of with a Dremel tool and a stone grinder. Caution is required not to melt the plastic when using a motor tool; low RPMs and a delicate touch are appropriate. The seams joining the fore and aft parts of the arms, legs, and torso are also problematic. You can fill 'em, but you want to retain that nice textured skin detail. My approach was to take care of the seams with 3M Acryl Blue putty, sand smooth, and recreate the texture as necessary with small drops of CA and/or white glue.

Painting

I chose to render the Creature just as I saw him at the movies - in glorious black and white. Black and white, to me, captures the brooding, gothic feel of the old horror flicks. It also avoids the vivid red lipstick look so often seen on colorized Creatures.

All of the gray tones were created by mixing Testors black and white enamel paints, starting with light and moving darker. This method ensured that no subtle colorations ("sepia" effect) were introduced. I worked up slightly different tones for each element in the kit to ensure sufficient contrast, going from almost pure white for the skeleton hand to very dark grays for the "ooze" and rock base. (Any photographers out there may appreciate the use of Ansel Adam's "Zone System" in visualizing and "placing" the various tones.) All of these basic tones were applied by airbrush.

I painted the Creature's eyes, lips, and claws by hand. After a gloss coat or two, I applied a heavy dark oil-based wash to add depth to the extensive recessed detail in the Creature and supporting items. I did a light gray dry brush treatment on the Creature to enhance skin texture, and dry brushed "THE CREATURE" label in white to try to achieve a weathered, mysterious look.

The final step was a clear top coat to suggest different textures; high gloss for the Creature and the ooze to suggest wetness, semi-gloss for the lizard and snake, and flat for the tree and rock. I touched a spot of Future on the Creature's and lizard's eyes for good measure.

All of the painted elements were then affixed to the base with CA glue, and the Creature walks among us...

Conclusion

When I examined the finished Creature, it was clear to me that a shrieking Julia Adams would make a knock-out companion kit. As it turns out, a "Creature Babe" kit is available at CultTVman.com! A Creature head upgrade is available there as well.

These Polar Lights reissues of the old classic Aurora monsters are a great change of pace from the typical modeling fare. I greatly enjoyed doing the Creature in black and white, and will be doing other ghouls and goblins similarly in the future. Loads of fun!

References

"The Creature from the Black Lagoon", starring Richard Carlson and Julia Adams, Universal-International, 1954

Classic Plastic, Rick Polizzi, 1996,

Collector Books Graven Images, Ronald Borst, 1992.