'Monstrous' from RichardC: 1970-something, Saturday, 10pm, BBC2

For those of us of a certain age, late-night Saturday TV viewing in the late 1970s meant one thing - the “Monster Double Bill.” Every week, there would be a pair of horror films, usually following the format of a 1930s RKO feature starring such greats as Karloff, Lugosi and Chaney, after which they screened a second, more recent film – by recent, I mean anything from a 1950s Vincent price flick to a Hammer Horror. In my mid teens at the time, I would watch these with my older brothers, who would do their best to scare me.

A couple of years earlier, my brother started making plastic kits of classic horror stars made by Aurora. These must have been the re-issues, as the kits contained fluorescent, “glow in the dark” parts which would lend an eerie green glow to the bedroom. I remember buying the guillotine kit, and having hours of fun watching the head of the aristo falling into the basket.

The kit I always wanted was Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s creature – sadly now expensive, even if you can find one for sale.

My entry for the Monstrous round is a slightly smaller version. Here is my version of the 54mm kit by Andrea Miniatures, and available in the UK from Historex Agents.

A simple kit of only seven parts, I decided to chance my hand and paint it in greyscale thanks to a comment by Mr Awdrey who suggested that my childhood round should be in greyscale, as “everything was black and white in those days!”

The paintjob itself was pretty straightforward, with a number of ink washes and dry-brushing – as this was my first attempt at the genre, I am quite pleased with the result.

I even followed the practice of a small splash of red (a vivid scar on his temple, and where his manacles chaffed) which, according to Michael A is acceptable in this genre.

 The only extra I added was a 1/35^th scale rat from Jon Smith Modellbau which I had spare from a WW1 project.