KONG!

I rarely get called out to do figure models, but when asked, I’m happy to oblige.

Some years ago, Round 2 LLC acquired the license to the King Kong property. As such they decided to make a model of the 1933 version of Kong, by far the most famous and original, designed and animated by the late great Willis H. O’Brien as a solid resin statue which would be sold as a DIY kit and/or as a painted model that required minimal assembly by the purchaser. These kits were produced in very limited numbers and are collectors’ items now!

They hired a sculptor to recreate the way Kong looked in the original film and the sculptor did a fantastic job indeed, capturing the look of the original 18” tall “star” stop motion puppet used to film the VFX sequences (which were essentially all sequences as Kong was himself a special effect, possibly the first time a visual effect was the main star of an entire movie!)

Not much to tell about this one except that a little puttying was required around some joints and I used simple off-the-shelf craft paints to do the whole thing. The work I did was to be shipped off to the factory in China to act as a guide for them to copy. I have to admit, for the most part, they did a pretty good job. The photos shown here is of the prototype that I hand painted and was used as the painting guide for the factory.

This is how the box art looked:

Thank you for reading this short article. Please don’t hesitate to contact me via email at “jim@smallartworks.ca” if you want a model custom built for you.

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