BASIL RATHBONE AS THE GREAT DETECTIVE
1/6th scale, resin with various add-ons.
Produced by Supporting Castings / Sculpted by Terry Reynolds
BASIL RATHBONE AS THE GREAT DETECTIVE
1/6th scale, resin with various add-ons.
Produced by Supporting Castings / Sculpted by Terry Reynolds
Yikes-a-mundo! This kit is from the nineties;
Steve Iverson found it in 2024 while cleaning out his warehouse and put it up for sale,
and I grabbed it without thinking twice.
The kit came with two heads; this one was the later sculpt and looked better,
though the area above and behind his right ear seemed a bit too flat to me, like a piece of his head was missing.
I took a deep breath and added Alves putty to it, and worked to make it look more normal. It didn't take a lot of putty, and it was fun.
This is the side of the head that I added the putty to. You can barely tell unless you look closely.
His pipe is lit with some luminescent orange.
"Elementary, my dear Watson!"
The base needs some photos all its own. The model kit originally came with the fireplace and some accessories,
but I wanted to add to it. I gave it a bigger wooden base, built the table, and bought some extras as outlined below.
The rug is for dollhouses. The bellows and the bag both came with the kit.
The fireplace tools on the right were manufactured for Barbie.
They were painted in glitzy gold! I primed them and painted them multiple metal colors.
The green lamp on the table came with the kit, though it keeps warping.
I positioned it in a way that the warp doesn't look too bad.
The kit came with a violin that even a maniac wouldn't try to play,
so I found this Barbie violin on eBay. It's a beauty - it has real strings and a real bow.
The table top is a wooden oval from the craft store; the legs are white plastic from a Barbie table.
I filled them with putty, attached them to the table, and started painting like mad.
The lamp is manufactured for Barbie collectors and is battery-powered.
The pincers next to it are metal and they really work; I don't remember where they came from.
The letter, magnifying glass and persian slipper are one piece and came with the model kit.
The knife came with the kit and needed to be sanded down like crazy without breaking.
The slipper is filled with a spice that looks like tobacco.
The magnifying glass came with a perfect clear lens, BUT I LOST IT!!!!!!! I filled it with clear varnish instead.
It's hard to see, but the letter has writing on it and the envelope has a stamp painted on it.
The green books came with the kit and are hand-painted. The snuff box came with the kit; the white vial is from my leftover stash.
The top book is an old resin leftover, and the bottom book came with the kit. I covered both with photos of real books (see below).
The bottles are from an arts and crafts store. I filled them with different spices from the kitchen.
The labels are also leftovers from the modeling junk drawer.
The spilled liquid is "Deep Silver" acrylic craft paint from Delta. I marred the table and had to cover it up,
so I figured I could let Holmes make a mess on Mrs. Hudson's fine furniture!
I had to insert the paint into the bottle with a syringe so that the paint wouldn't get all over the inside
of the clear plastic and instead just pool on the bottom.
The books came with the kit; I painted them, but my wife said they looked boring compared to everything else.
So I found pictures on the web of first editions of Sherlock Holmes books.
Using photoshop, I measured the size of the resin book and created a new document with those dimensions.
Then I copied and pasted the book into the document and scaled it to fit.
I then had it printed as a photo at my local pharmacy for 45 cents! They're glued on with Modge Podge.
The fireplace has two twigs in it from my yard, each about 1/2" in diameter.
I dried them out on the radiators for a week and then dullcoated them multiple times.
The lights are puttied down behind and under the twigs.
The screen came with the kit and is painted multiple metal colors.
Here's the wiring in all its ugly glory. Duct tape is holding it in place so I can change the 9V battery when needed.
The white switch is superglued to the top rear corner for easy activation from the front.
The fireplace lights are fed with the wires going in the back on the bottom.