“THERE'S SOMETHING OUT THERE WAITING FOR US, AND IT AIN'T NO MAN.”

Billy (Predator)

Hot on the heels of my success with the Alien figure (well, I saw it as a success), I decided to tackle another little model-and-paint job. Hold up in a dust covered box in the attic, I’d been keeping this little kit.

It’s a 14” model kit of the Predator, as seen in the first Arnold Schwarzenegger film. It was a gift when I was about 13 years old, and at the time (and still to this day, if a little less so) a big fan. The kit itself is pretty basic under close scrutiny; the casting isn’t particular good (the bones in particular worn across the chest are terrible) and it doesn’t fit together snugly when assembled. Many years ago the thing came to pieces, and some, like the wrist blades, were lost entirely. Other aspects, such as the wires and pipes which connect the shoulder weapon to the arm and the mask, never even existed.

The kit (in pieces) and some colour references.

Now, I’m presently 35, so back when I was 14 there was little in the way of publicity stills and (even if it existed at the time, which I doubt) our home certainly didn’t have internet. Therefore, my father, who first painted this for me, took a running guess at the colours. I only noticed ion later years that he’d come up short, and being colour blind (which we both are) probably didn’t help any. Anyway, as you can see here, he went for greens and bronze, which, to his credit, in the jungle light it often looks this way. This time around though I opted to find the right colours.

A quick internet search turns up some great images. The creature’s skin is actually a pallid flesh, with browner patches and darker spots. The finger and toe nails are shiny black, like the ‘hair’, with bronze adornments. The bones he wears are polished and near-white, the clothing is earthy, and the amour is a dirty metallic silver. I figure every Predator is a little different, so while I probably won’t be able to match this pallet exactly, I can at least get pretty close to it.

Amended base and new bones added.

First I assemble the Predator, and when I’m happy (my God this was a fucking pain, for some reason it just would not stick), I add a few extra touches; I use plastic pipes and electrical wire to the shoulder cannon, I seal up the gap in the hair with extra dreadlocks made of model putty (although, in all honesty I kinda mess this up and hope to fix it somehow), and I cut-up a small plastic dinosaur toy for the bones on the necklace. Then I glue the predator to the base and coat in black paint.

Next I tackle the base. My father originally glued real twigs and plants to it, but these perished pretty fast, so this time I’m going to use plastic plants, which I acquire in cheap shops, with the exception of the tree stump. For this, I actually venture out to find a suitable piece of wood, which I then proceed to cut and hack to fit. It’s already dried-out, so I give it a clean, and a very thorough black paint job to seal-in anything unpleasant (yes, this may well be the final resting place of some unfortunate centipede or woodlouse, this I will have to live with).

Painting under way.

I paint the base first with a mixture of greens, grays and browns and various ink washes (again, detail not as important as it will be on the Predator itself), along with the feet, before I attach the plastic plants- because I know doing this will obscure and make it difficult to paint anything below the knees.

Next I tackle the bones, which are a pretty straight forward white, and then the skin. I start with a fleshy hue, and onto this, with a drab brown, I add the mid-tone markings. On this I add another layer of spots, this time in very dark brown, and use a pale cream on the meatier parts of the Predator’s body and limbs. After this, the fabric and the armor. It all comes together quite fast, but a little bright, which was my intention, as I then use a dark brown ink-wash over the whole figure, which runs into the cracks and grooves, bringing out the detail while also muting the colours a little. Onto this I add a few minor highlights to the folds in the fabrics and gloves, the bones, and to the lighter patches of the skin.

Near completion.

By this point the Predator is almost complete, but there's an issue I've been wrestling with; the mold of the model does not include the 'body netting'. I consider painting and tacking a fruit net, but this is a job beyond my skill, I'm more a bodger than I am a model artist. So, instead, I opt to carefully paint this directly onto the model. The danger here is that if I go wrong, I ruin the skin and may need to start from scratch, but in the end (a few mistakes aside) I'm generally pleased with the result.

And it's finished. Here it is, in all it's otherworldly glory, my repaint / fixer-upper Predator figure (Although I have yet to add replacement wrist blades to the right arm)...