Glencoe Models

1/8 Navy Seal

Kit Number: 5903

Reviewed by  John DeRosia, IPMS# 36643

MSRP: $13.77 Website: www.udisco.com According to much documentation- the NAVY SEALS (United States Navy SEa, Air, and Land Forces) along with some other combatants make up the Special Operations Forces of the US Navy. Navy Seals are employed to take part in direct action and special reconnaissance. They are trained in unconventional warfare, foreign defenses, counter-terrorism and hostage rescue. Personally I'm glad they are on our side. The mystique of what their missions entail helped me make the split second decision to buy this model- and the fact it was cheap. Big! Fun! Cheap! Easy! Big! Simple! Few Parts! Big!.....oh…and did I mention Cheap? I definitely didn't need my 45x tri-focal glasses to build this guy. Okay let's get serious. I bought this model some time last year for under $10.00. Yes- not over 1000 pennies. I think it was $ 8.97. No short term loans involved, no signing away our home and stuff like that for some of the big mucha-mulla dollars required for models these days. As a side note- I just got a mail order model flyer and saw the same model advertised on sale for only $ 3.99. I always though it would be cool to have a BIG chess set with large figures….let's see, 32 of these for $ 3.99….oh never mind…I'm straying from this model review. See, the thing is I can stray because this whole project was so fun and easy and FAST. When I bought it last year (2009) - I spent 1 evening for about 2 hours trimming the minor flash and gluing everything together. All that is except his face and swim mask -excuses for that are coming up later in this article. Yes- the whole dern thing was 99.99% done in 2 hours. It definitely came with the famous older model "gap-aschious" syndrome which I had to remedy. I used my good old 'model-bondo' -styrene bits dissolved in liquid model glue to a thick consistency- and filled those gaps that same night. No sanding-ever! Speed forward now to the first few nights in February 2010. Not sure just what went on after that night in 2009 - I never got back to completing this model. I'm sure I violated the sacred IPMS Law # 32 that says "do not start another model while 7 are on your bench not completed". But most likely the Navy Seal guy was called away on one of those secret missions and sure enough- he faded away. I hope the Navy supplied this one a swimming Seeing Eye dog since he didn't have a face glued in place. I'm in between completing my large 1/72 GATO sub so for some reason was again called to my modeling bench to those poor long lost uncompleted models. I just needed a break from the sub. 'Sub'-consciously these unfinished models make me feel guilty morning noon and night because they are not done. Right! - you've never had an unfinished model intimidate you that way. Boy have they got you trained. Before I knew it, Mr. Navy Seal calls me from my bench and says- "hey- I'll make a deal with you"…… After 4 hours of cleaning him and hacking away dust, dog hair and a strange looking growth on his left side (I came close to calling the CDC - the Center for Disease Control-in Atlanta that Everett Washington may have a strange fuzzy alien looking species on one of my models), but then realized it was a piece of old pizza. I still wonder how that got on him since he never ventured into the dining room…..that I know of… He was once again clean and ready to come out of retirement. Back to the face. Faces on models intimidate me because it is a weak side of me in modeling. I'm getting better though. I still have 12,000 faces to paint to get as good as many of you folks already are. I did glue his face on and then pondered on my plan of attack for painting him in several more days. My choices were black, black or black. I decided on black. But first I painted his face and hands sort of with flesh colors. The eyes were HUGE in 1/8th scale. I had to redo them 3 times. My wife looks at me on the 3rd try and says- "those military men with blue eyes in movies sure look like hunks don't they?" Well I remedied that fast- his eye balls are dull black, boring, no life of any kind of eyes!!- No shiny blue eyes on scaled plastic men folk in my home!!! I had decided to mask off the human color parts and spray the rest black, then do weathering and highlights on a few things like the air tank and knife. Let me tell you- this Navy Seal had a chip on his shoulder. He kept saying "hurry up - get me done, I have a 'Priority 1' mission to go on". I therefore ended up doing my usual paint by brush routine on the guy that very night instead of spraying him in a day or so. I used thin dull black paint mixed with a slow drying thinner. I double dog dare you to find any brush strokes on the guy. I lightly weathered some of his air tank areas and lead belt. I ended my paint on him with a black wash -yes- on a black painted figure. Here's the thing. I knew that cheap old water based thinned black poster paint when dry actually has a whitish look which makes a person think of dried salt. Get it?...like dry ocean salt…..where he supposedly came from according to the box top…not Kansas City! It's the Navy thing…..no oceans inland…

Lastly, I cut out a piece of clear plastic for the face mask since I'm sure I lost it 6 months ago. For stability, I glued the figure on a piece of plastic "For Sale" sign and weathered that with a little sprinkle of colors. It still didn't look that good so I glued the whole thing onto a left over piece of shelf wood. It looked better to me…besides- I didn't have any drift wood…okay- you're catching on…that Navy-ocean thing is sinking in. Sinking? Finally- the best part. He stood like a 'stiff' holding his knife. What a dunce look. Well- I surely wouldn't tell him that to his face. But I wanted to convey a 'mission' for this guy. Aha!! He is holding a knife- a knife for what purpose? I decided to have fun with BRIGHT RED GLOSSY paint on his knife and blood splatters on the base. Even gives me the creeps looking at him since I normally don't model with such a visual morbid message. But let's give the Navy Seals lots of credit. They definitely contribute to us being free. I like being able to model them in the SAFETY of our home. I will state under torture by three 1/8th scale 8 ½ inch high Navy Seals that I honestly did not spend more than a total of maybe 10 hours on the whole project. Sometimes- it's fun to model a subject that is easy, fun, has few parts - and you can still let your imagination go. Keep your wife (or partner) happy if you are in a relationship. Buy the $ 10.00 (or less) model and spend the rest of the $100.00 plus ( left over by not buying that very expensive kit) on roses for her…..you do bring roses home every now and then don't you?……which reminds me….I need to get to the flower shop…..