Moebius

1/8 Spider-Man

Kit Number: 907

Reviewed by  Perry Downen, IPMS #44000

MSRP: $29.99 Website: www.moebiusmodels.com I would like to thank Moebius Models for submitting this item to IPMS for review and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it. History Spider-Man is one of the most successful comic book characters ever produced. Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko created Spider-Man. He made his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962. Since then Spider-Man has done so well for Marvel Comics that he has become their flagship character. The Kit The kit comes in a 15-1/2" X 6" X 3-1/2" cellophane wrapped slip-top box. Upon opening the box, I found 4 plastic bags. Two bags contained medium blue Spider-Man parts. The other 2 bags contained the tan colored mounting base. I found it strange that mounting base parts 116 and 117 as well as parts 118 and 119 were already removed from the sprue, joined, but not glued together. In all, there are a total of 22 parts – 7 for the base and 15 for Spider-Man. The instructions are printed in color on a single four-fold sheet of heavy stock. There is a list of parts and exploded views of Spider-Man and the mounting base with part number callouts. In addition there is a list of tools and materials needed, notes on the assembly and notes on the painting. There are a total of 4 steps in building this model. The last page of instructions contains a chart listing the needed colors in Testors Enamels, Testors Acrylics, and Model Master Enamels paints. The color photographs used during construction are also a big help in painting this figure. Construction As you might suspect assembling 7 and 22 parts is rather simple. I assembled the mounting base first. It goes together in about 15-20 minutes – less time than that if using cyanoacrylate. There are some small gaps in some of the mating parts that need to be filled and sanded, but nothing major. Spidey goes together just as easily. I followed a suggestion in the instructions by building sub-assemblies – arms, legs, and torso. Again, there were some gaps that had to be filled and sanded. A few lines of webbing on the arms and legs had to be scribed to restore the webbing. This process of building sub-assemblies facilitated the painting step. Once painted, the arms and legs were added to the torso. This is the only place I had any difficulty, but nothing a good sharp X-acto knife couldn't fix. The torso had rough openings for each limb to fit. Each limb had a keyed flange that fit inside the torso opening. Had I placed the limbs in the torso as I glued the torso together, I don't believe there would have been a problem. However, once the torso was together, I could not get the flange into the opening. Using an X-acto knife I removed the flange and glued the limb in place. Again, there was some gapping at these join lines. A little filler and some touch-up paint fixed that problem.

Painting As previously mentioned, I painted the model before it was totally assembled. This turned out to be a good idea. I first painted the blue portion of the costume cobalt blue as specified on the color chart. After a couple of days I masked off the blue in preparation for painting the red. Masking the spider on his back is an exercise in patience. The color chart calls for "red", but does not specify a particular shade of red. I used Model Master's Guards Red. One thing I did not do was to darken the webbing as I would the panel lines on an airplane. To me, the engraved webbing lines were cut deep into the plastic that it gave the appearance of dark lines. Painting the base was easy enough. The color chart called for painting the base a flat tan. I used a gray instead to represent concrete or granite. Some shading and weathering was added to the base, but none to Spider-Man. Mounting Spidey on the base is nothing. His hands do not rest on the base as depicted in the instructions. However, with a little adjusting to the pegs on his feet and/or the mounting holes in the base, an acceptable look can be achieved. Recommendation What a fun little kit to build. There are no "fiddley" or delicate little parts. The parts are large and robust and the fit is tolerable. This kit is extremely easy to build. Other than tedious masking, painting is a snap. I can easily recommend this kit as an excellent starter kit for the beginner or young modeler. At the same time, it is a must for the comic book character aficionado. I enjoyed building this kit and look forward to building other kits from Moebius. Again, a "Thank You" goes to Moebius Models for providing this kit and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.