Wild Thing:
Building the Trog!

Monster modeling's first Golden Age was the mid 1960s to early 70s when Aurora monster and dinosaur model kits were all the rage, inspiring AMC, MPC, and others to get creative and put out a wide variety of creature kits.  But there was a second Golden Age from the early 1990s that lasted several years when a wealth of new kits sculpted by artists hit the model market, opening up new possibilities for builders and inspiring sculptors to push the hobby forward.

One of those kits was the one you see to the right, The Trog.  Based on the Troglodyte from the Ray Harryhausen film, SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER, this towering 15 inch tall hunk of hefty resin was first released in 1994 by sculptor Mick Wood who produced some wonderfully creative kits during that time.

Typical of Wood's style, the Trog, as it is called is not an identical copy of Harryhausen's creation, but rather "what if" kits that concentrated on real anatomy and proportions while preserving the look of the original.

And thankfully, the kit was re-released from Geometric Designs in 2011.  In fact, at the end of this article you'll find a link to purchase the kit if you like.

So, let's talk about how to build the kit and get great results.

The first thing to do with any kit after you have inspected it and cleared away any residual mold lines or flash is to wash it in warm water with grease cutting dish soap.  This will help the primer and paint adhere better.

When it is completely dry, you can begin to test fit the kit and see if you need to make modifications to get the best fit.  In this case I found that the left foot rode just a little high on the base, but not enough to be a real problem. 

To solve this dilemma, first I secured the foot to the base with a post made from a heavy nail and some three minute epoxy.  Then, using two part modeling putty from Aves, I built up the area around the foot and carved in details with the tip of an old airbrush needle.

The rest of the kit assembled very easily.  I put in support pins on the arm and along the outer edges of the connections, I used CA glue, a.k.a, Super Glue.  In the center at the posts I used 3 minute epoxy.  The epoxy will hold best but the CA glue keeps parts in place while the epoxy sets.

One of the places that needed more putty to hide the seems was around the waist.  You can see in the picture to the right that once the putty was laid in, I used the head of an old airbrush needle to make lines to disguise the putty.  A small nail or toothpick might have done the trick as well.

So, the next stage is simply to prime the kit.  You can use standard spray can primers if you like, and personally I find light gray or white is the best color.  However, I tend to use FW Ink's Cool Gray sprayed through my airbrush as a primer.  Some kits don't seem to like it for whatever reason, but most do and it gives me more control.  (If you need more info on priming and how and why to do it, click here.)

When the primer is on the kit, you may notice places that need to be cleaned up, filled or puttied.  This is a normal part of the process really, and you can just lay down more primer when you are done.

The next step is what I call "blocking," and it simply refers to putting in the first rough layer of paints to serve as the base coat.  It is a time to experiment and you don't have to be perfect here.

The base coat for base was hand painted with Folk Art acrylic Charcoal Gray and the bush was airbrushed in FW Inks Olive. After experimenting with reds, the name plate, which is built into the rocks got an airbrush coat of Createx white.

For the monster, the fur toga was done in FW Inks Raw Sienna and matches the film subject very well, but matching the skin of the Trog himself was more difficult.  This is fairly common with the Harryhausen color subjects because the skin color can seem to change from scene to scene due to the photography process.  The Trog, for example, sometimes looks sandy in color, and at other times looks brown or gray. 

So . . . the trick was to get all three shades in the final product.  At this stage in the build, I used Freestyle Sandstone to provide the gray tones and sprayed in lines of FW Inks Burnt Umber lightly in the muscle recesses.  I also used Sandstone for the horn and Createx Black for the base coat on the hair.

You can see that this stage is rough.  I intend it to be refined over time, and in truth, at this stage I was still just trying to imagine how I might get the colors I wanted on the skin.

The second coat of paint starts to bring the kit alive.

The mouth was sprayed first with FW Inks Flesh, a very light pink that is a little on the yellow side.  Over top of that I sprayed in Freestyle KB Flesh.  I don't know what the KB stands for but it is a little more orange in tone compared to the base coat. 

The horn got a treatment of FW Inks Raw Umber near the base and a little Freestyle Transparent Amber Oxide on the middle of the horn.

Then, all of the fleshy areas got coated with Freestyle Transparent Cocoa Brown.  The tops of the skin were lightly sprayed but in the recesses heavier layers were shot in.

While that dried, I worked on the nails a little brushing on a few layers of Freestyle Leather Tan and Americana Fawn.  I'd let that dry, coat it with FW Inks Burnt Umber and then wipe it away gently to leave some staining on the nails.

When all that was done I returned to the fur toga and cleaned up the edges.  You can also see where I have sprayed in red, orange and yellow on the name plate in layers using Createx paints.  I outlined it in black after the fact, but ultimately I decided to can the outline altogether.

The next step was to coat the entire creature from head to toe including the toga with a dry brushing of Americana Fawn, an acrylic craft paint.  This is a very light tan that brings out the highlights but still looks earthy.  It also helps unify the kit.

To dry brush, take a flat tipped paint brush and dip it into the paint so that only the end of the bristles are coated, then wipe off all excess paint.  Pull it across the surface to leave trace amounts of highlighting paint.

The hair was finished by dry brushing Folk Art Nutmeg, a reddish brown.  By having the Fawn underneath, it allows the rich color of the Nutmeg to come out without looking out of place.

The rocks were dry brushed with Folk Art Dolphin Gray with a little Leaf Green dry brushed on as well for mossy highlights. The Leaf Green also goes over the bushes.  Then they are hit with Freestyle Transparent Medium Green, especially in the recesses.  After that, I wiped off the top gently with a clean rag to reveal the highlights.

The club also has to be painted.  In the film, the club is just about the same color as the Trog and it is hard to tell if it is a bone or a tree limb, but it it appears to be the latter.  I applied a coat of Sandstone to it and then sealed the entire kit with Testor's Dulcote to preserve the paint job.

When the flat coat has dried, I covered the Trog and the club with a Burnt Umber oil wash mixed at about 1 part oil paint to 20 parts thinner.  The oil wash is what makes the kit look complete in my opinion and has a magical quality of toning the whole thing.  If you want to know more about oil washes, click here.

Finally, lets take a look at some of the facial details.  The eyes are done in white, followed by a black pupil and then a circular iris of Tamiya Clear Gloss Orange.  Having tried to do a series of rings, I went for the simple look in the end because the eyes are about the 3 mm in height at most and this actually comes out more natural looking.

The teeth are Americana Buttermilk and importantly, the lips and area inside the mouth is hit with Transparent Cocoa Brown, lightly inside and heavier around the mouth.  Then finally, the mouth and eyes are brushed with Future Floor Wax to gloss them up properly.

So . . . ya wanna get one?  You can get $10 off if you use the links below:

Unbuilt:  $150	Built:  $340