Maker
This happy-go-lucky fellow, along with all the other
creatures shown in this article, was designed and built
by Dave Britton, who specializes in making alien trophy
heads out of Casteline modeling wax and animal bone.
He uses these models to create resin-cast kits that he
sells online at
headhuntersstudio.com.
It Came from
My Garage!
Model kit makers bring B-movie monsters to your home.
By Gareth Branwyn
M AN Y MAKERS LIKELY GOT THEIR about anyone with a lick of sculpting talent, a few
first bug for building by putting together bucks in the old pocket, and a world of patience.
styrene plastic vehicle and monster Combine all this with the power of desktop publish-
model kits as kids. Until the late 1980s, the barriers ing, the internet, and e-commerce, and the “garage
to entry for actually fabricating — as opposed kit” modeling movement was born.
to assembling — such kits meant that only com- Until the emergence of garage modeling, builders
mercial concerns could afford to do so. But as were limited to commercially available model kits,
new, easy-to-use materials for sculpting, molding, mainly military hardware, cars, planes, spaceships,
and casting became cheaper and more readily and mainstream movie monsters. But DIY kit cre-
available, kit creation became a possibility for just ators cast their nets much wider. Today, a model
Photography by Dave Britton
