Atlantis Models’ reissue of ‘The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré,’ a classic, glow in the dark, Aurora plastic model kit
Atlantis Models has been busy reissuing some fantastic vintage model kits of late. Classic kits from companies like Revell, Aurora, and others.
extra and leftover parts
“The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré” is one of these recent reissues, and I snapped it right up upon release. This kit is the glow-in-the-dark version, featuring one runner of glow-in-the-dark (GID) parts. The nice part is, the parts on the glow runner are repeated on the regular runners, too, providing lots of extra skeletal parts!
Despite my enthusiasm for this kit, I did have one niggling complaint about it: what’s holding that skeleton up?
While I can appreciate the horror-lite approach of this model’s clean, still-assembled, skeleton, I wanted my end result to be a bit more realistic. Creepy, even. I decided to skin the skeleton.
Making Mummy Skin
An idea for making faux mummies has been kicking around my skull for over 30 years. Having seen the end result of toilet paper in the rain (high school TP parties), I reasoned it could be a good stand-in for mummy skin. I decided this kit was a great opportunity to give my theory a try.
The process involves wetting the surface of the object to be skinned with a light wash of PVA glue solution*. Then you put an appropriately sized piece of toilet paper on the wet surface and, using a soft paint brush and more PVA solution, push it gently into place. The beauty of this approach is that, if the TP tears, sags or ripples during the application, it only adds to the effect. Fantastic.
Once you are satisfied with your results, set the piece aside to dry. Once dry, you can add more skin, remove excess skin by rewetting, or begin painting.
Thanks to the glow runner, I had an extra skull to experiment with, so I started there and was almost immediately giddy with success.
Once my mummy’s skin was complete, I decided to add a wad of dried guts and a little hair. Voila: totally disgusting.
Other Modifications
One of the first things I decided to nix was the barred “opening” sculpted into the lower right side of the wall.
I knew I’d never be able to paint that to my satisfaction, so decided to make it a real opening. I initially thought I’d create a small space behind the wall to place the kits’ extra bones, like you’re seeing into a separate chamber. Ultimately, I decided against this and simply boarded the hole up.
The proposed layout of the kit was fine but I decided to go my own route. I was particularly against populating the extra shackle in the wall with the included skeletal arm. I just let the shackle hang, unused instead. The kit also included a snake, which I declined to use.
Once the model was complete, I modified an old, wooden display oval for use as a base.
There is one minor annoyance with the GID version of this kit. Though the skeleton is supposed to be GID, the pants with the skeleton’s protruding thighbones are produced in grey, not GID plastic. Consequently, if you want your entire skeleton to glow, you’re going to need some GID paint.
I say “annoyance,” yet it was this situation that caused me to discover one of the coolest hobby products ever.
Spacebeams Glow-In-The-Dark Paints
Now I’ve used a variety of glow-in-the-dark paints over the years and, with no exception, they’ve all sucked.
Contemplating this kits’ GID issue, I scanned the ‘net, hoping someone had come up with a decent GID paint since the last time I’d tried to find it.
Boy, have they!
Spacebeams glow-in-the-dark paint comes in two colors (blue and green) and the glow will blow you away. The extra-thick paint can be easily thinned with water and produces a bright, long-lasting glow you have to see to believe.
I tried it on both plain and white-primed plastic and was blown away by the results. The glow of the paint absolutely blew the GID plastic out of the water, glowing brighter and for literal hours longer. I was so amazed I ended up painting the glow parts with glow paint and making a Spacebeams commercial at the end of my model build video!
Spacebeams can be found online at spacebeams.com.
The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré
Overall, The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré was a fun and easy model to put together. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
*PVA Glue Solution:
1 part PVA glue (Elmer’s, wood glue, school glue, etc.) to 2 parts water
Stir/shake the mixture together until it has the consistency of milk.
