A STING IN THE TALE

Our resident model expert Andy Pearson goes all Ray Harryhausen on us this issue. It’s Machine versus Giant Scorpion on his kitchen work top!

HOBBY HABITS

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958); Dinosaurus! (1959) attacks; An octupos tripod, your flexible friend, and a home animation kit with everything but the camera

As it looks as though many of us will be enjoying further protracted periods confined to barracks, what’s a chap (or chapess) to do to pass the long winter evenings? In my case beer is the answer but only a partial one as I’m Captain Sensible these days so the intake is modest. Building models does help but I find that even the joys of that wear thin on occasion, although a recent project gave me an idea for further fun. Since I was a wee lad I’ve been fascinated by the model animation aspects of film special effects, my particular introduction being the late, great Ray Harryhausen’s 7th Voyage of Sinbad. I recall boring a young lady to tears with my excited description of how the effects were achieved and I may have got know her even better had I chosen another topic of conversation.

Anyway, back to the source of inspiration. The model kit in question was a Hitachi construction machine which I bought simply because it looked interesting, having two working arms, one for grabbing stuff and the other equipped with a fearsome cutting device.