Refinishing a 1935 Idealite POPEYE Lamp

This is my friend’s lamp and when he showed a picture of it to me I informed him that is was indeed repainted and the colors were all wrong. The lamp arrived at my home a few days later to be repainted and to be rewired so it was safe to actually plug in and use.

I removed all the paint from the lamp and repaired the two small holes I found near the feet.

I gave it two coats of primer to smooth out and imperfections in the metal.

I painted the white pants and collar, pipe yellow and the flesh areas first.

Next I painted the lamp post and base. Then I painted his tattoos and the details of his face.

The shirt and hat and belt were next.

This is a makeshift version of the shade on the lamp that is only for effect here.

This is a picture of an original lamp from 1935.

Go here to learn the lyrics to Popeye's music ; http://theneitherworld.com/popeye/lyrics.htm

So the whole search for the 1963 Superman Model kit instructions reminded me that a few years ago I bought a Revell reissue of this classic model. Now the original sculpt for this head was a cross between Superman from the comics and George Reeves from television.

However Revell changed the head and it was/is somehow just not right and is most definitely not a favorite of model builders.

I realized that the guy who re-sculpted this head must have done the head then added the hair because the ears seemed to be buried in it.

So I took a Dremel and some sandpaper to his hair to give him a haircut and somewhat to his jaw line to thin out his face then used some Apoxy Sculpt and Testors contour putty to smooth things out. I also shaved his eyebrows so only the bottom of the lines were left and added the lines back in his neck which made the head fit in the body better. I still like the original from 1963 better but who can afford it!

You can because if you go to http://www.hroch.us/thunderboy.html  you can buy one to improve the look of your revell model too!

So here is the model compleated I'm sure others have made better examples of it but this is the best I can do with the materals I had on hand. I may purchase the other head in the future but for now this is it.

Aurora 1963 Superman model # 463

 Aurora 1963 SUPERMAN Model Kit #463

This is the miniature I want to make with it.

Making Myself A Poopdeck Pappy

I have a ship my mother bought me years ago that started out as a Chinese Junk but I turned it into a sailing ship to display some ornaments that Hallmark made in 1994: One is Popeye holding a can of Spinach the other is Olive Oyl holding Sweet Pea and Carlton Cards made a  J.Wellington Wimpy holding a gift box full of hamburgers.

This is a Hallmark Popeye the Sailor from 1994. It dawned on me that I could convert Popeye into Poopdeck Pappy with little effort.

This is the one I bought on eBay

I cut off his arm and cut off the spinach can. It turns out the hand was solid plastic so I used a knife and Dremel to turn it into a full hand. I also cut down the Popeye collar to make it like Pappy's.

I removed the arm stump to move it back on his shoulder. I drilled a hole to help hold the new arm in place.

I added a new sleeve stump to his shoulder.

I made his beard and hair with Apoxy Sculpt. I also added to the top of his pants and the bottom as well to give him Pappy's britches.

Here is Poopdeck Pappy next to the original Popeye version made by Hallmark.

My latest miniature project is an ice cream cart!

When we were kids we used to go to Ralph's Famous Italian Ices on Richmond Avenue on Staten Island. So my sister wanted a cart with their name on it for her miniature street scene which also has a pizzeria and a bakery so far.

Ralph's Famous Italian Ices is working it's way down the coast and I am hoping my brother-in-law can swing a deal to bring it here to Orlando.

I did this project in about three days, amazing even myself, and I think it came out pretty appetizing.

Do yourself a favor and scroll down to read this from the beginning. Here is Jennifer after arriving at her new home with the Juro Jerry Mahoney I also fixed to show how small she is. The customer was elated with her transformation.

I re-carve her hands as well to make them less monkey like and add a small amount of detail.

I re-carved her face, repainted and re-wigged, made her new soft figure style legs and added "real" 1.25 blue eyes I bought from Mike Brose, after hollowing out much of her head and added a "spitter" to her mechanics.
Yes, I know her eyes are now off in the opposite direction they were before but it is the shape of her face that makes this happen. I chose to have her looking to her left rather than her right.

These are Jen's simple inner workings and I must say they were flawless in performance many years after she was made.

She looks like a victim of a severe car crash to me!

This is Jennifer as she looked when she arrived to get her makeover.

I'm thinking Foy Brown was making a monkey and when asked for a little girl by Tommy Atkins her converted her to what you see here.

Can you say UGLY boys and girls?

These are Tommy's figures, they seem to all be Foy Brown figures.
This blog is about the fate of the little girl "Jennifer" who is sitting in the front in the pleated gingham dress.

This is a picture of Tommy Atkins who I used to go see
perform at Lake George in upstate New York.

Mrs. Claus

So one of my hobbies is a Santa's Workshop dollhouse I started in 1981. Well this year my wife said she would like to have a Mrs. Claus and a kitchen room added to the Santa Workshop we have had all that time. So I scuplted a Mrs. Claus out of Sculpy clay.

 
Here Mrs. Clause is in front of the Workshop.

She kinda cute don't you think?

 
This is a reproduction I made of my Gramma's (grandmother's) own drop-leaf kitchen table. the sides fold down if you want them too.

 
While this is the reproduction of my Nana's (Great-grandmother's) 1954 Philco V Handle refrigerator

 
On the real one, whatever side of the handle you pulled down is the side of the fridge that opened. It was cool!

It does light up when plugged in. It's body is made of basswood. I made the freezer door, vegetable & fruit door and drawers and door shelves with a VAC-U-FORM.