Mars Attacks! Most people will first remember 1996 Tim Burton film. it really started as a trading card series released in 1962 by Topps (the baseball card people). It became the most popular non-sport series ever. Mr. Burton kept the Martians in the film very similar to the trading cards and Moebius has duplicated that in this kit.

The kit consists of 43 gray parts and 2 clear parts for the Martians helmet. The kit has a nicely detail base with toasted human on it, a lamp post and a Martian warrior straddling the corpse. The kit assembles in four parts- the base, the victim, the lamp post, and our Martian.

The base has the victim molded in and separate hands and head. I used a gray primer which was a good base for what is mostly concrete. I added several washes and dry brushes and sealed it. The victim was painted by hand with a brown shirt and blue jacket. I used pastels and dry brushing again for the coat and sealed again. I used silly putty and masked the wounds and entrails. I sprayed these dark red and followed with highlights of lighter red. I painted the bones in and flat coated again. Lastly I masked the base to the streetlight off and used Tamiya gloss black followed by Alclad aluminum. I detailed the drain and set the base aside. The head and hand were built and painted. I wanted a little sear on the head from the Martian heat ray so I used black pastel to char the head. I then added the head and hand to the base.

The lamp post was straight forward. I really like the piece of metal tubing for the pole. It took a little filler on the base and globe. Once construction was finished, I sprayed the post with Tamiya Gloss Black thinned with lacquer thinner. Once this dried (very quickly and very glossy), I sprayed the entire post with Alclad aluminum. I masked off the globe and shot it gloss white. The lamp post was added to the base and we moved on to the Martian.

Due to the limits of molding, the Martian was molded in a lot of pieces- the good news is that the fit is very good. The head is five pieces but fit like a glove and needed little clean up. The same goes for the tanks, ray gun and main body. A little putty here and there and one sanding and all the parts were good to go. The arms and legs assemble well. I used a needle file to get at the lines in the arms and legs. I added the arms and legs to the main body- no filler needed.

To paint the Martian, the primary color is a metallic turquoise. I used an Xtracolor enamel which was Japanese Aotake. Looked about right and I let this dry a couple days and used a black technical pen to get the joint lines in the arms and legs. I masked off the armor ring around neck and used gunmetal as a base- I also sprayed the gun at this time. I highlighted with white aluminum and brass. I added the gray hoses and red tanks to the back. I added the finished Martian to the base. For the head, I sprayed it tan and flesh, flat coated and highlighted with pastels and dry brushing. The eyes were outlined in black, painted white and given red pupils. The earphones were painted silver and the head added to the base. the clear helmet was added. There is a very visible seam line but they are remarkably clear. The gun was added to his hands and we're done.

This is a fantastic kit which makes me smile every time I look at it. The fit is great and even though I followed the paint scheme in the box, you could do almost anything with it. It is fun and that's what the hobby really needs to be about. Highly recommended. My thanks to Frank Winspur and all the great people at Moebius for he chance to review this great kit.