"The figure was small, like a hideous dwarf"

 Probably my favourite science fiction film, is without a doubt, Quatermass and the Pit. In fact, its not just the film, its a combination of the BBC serial on tv and the later film. Both are excellent, for different reasons, but each is distinctly different from the other. There are two major elements that I really like about the story - the alien and the spaceship. Oddly, there is a bit of a dearth of merchandise for the entire Quatermass franchise, apart from a couple of figures and a large scale model of the martian.

But one xmas a couple of years ago, Woodsy surprised me (yet again) with a gift of a small vinyl Martian, made bt the uber-talented Paul Kaiju. Paul makes vinyl monsters and all manner of weird creatures, but his little Quatermass Martian is just perfect. It arrived unpainted, in a pale green vinyl and I let it sit a while on my shelf, before I dared take a brush to it, as I didn't think I would be able to do it justice. However, the other day I got a bit braver than normal, fetched out a small tin of Humbrol Metallic Green and set to!

 I've never had much luck with the metallic colours, due to the translucency of the paint, but in this instance, it worked well. I painted in all the creases and folds in the skin and carapace with a thin black paint pen, then lavished some green over the top. After that set, I added veins and surface detail with finer pen, dry brushed a little purple onto the carapace and dusted the eyes with a little silver. Another coat of metallic green and he was done!

 The Martian is as he appears in the film version, chiselled and insectile with a demonic pointed chin and sharp horns. The Tv version went for something a little softer, almost plantlike, with feathery antennae and armoured plates like a knight in armour.

 The ship received different treatments too, my favourite must be the beetle-like film version, the truly alien black hull was unlike anything I had seen before and the slick organic shape really stood out against the grime and mud in the pit. The TV version went along the more thermos flask kind of shape, looking vaguely grub-like, but still recognisable as a rocket like device.

The Quatermass sequence has always amazed me with its narrative style and the various aliens, my very first viewing of the Quatermass Xperiment chilled me with such a primal fear as a ten year old, that it still has the capacity to frighten me even now. I can't for the life of me figure out how they did the final creature effect in the abbey, its not so much realistic, but truly alien - its impossible to fully comprehend the shape of the beast as it slithers across the scaffold and the brief glimpses of the creature on its eventual reveal are extremely well executed. Its let down slightly by the shuddering death throes as it is electrocuted, but even this is offset by its horrific warbling shriek as it expires. A film I still struggle to watch in the dark..