Roots

We'll skip the introductions and get right to it.

Heroes

I was a child of science fiction movies, and what I always loved the most about movies like Star Wars, aside from the great characters and hero's journey and all that jazz, was the world-building - the creatures, the ships, the gadgets, the environments, the textures and colors and sounds.

And the behind-the-scenes. I loved anything that I could get my hands on that described how the special effects magicians brought these worlds to life. I scoured book stores, comic book stores, and the cable channels for anything I could find that gave me even a glimpse of how in the world these people were making these things real.

My childhood heroes weren't ball players or movie stars - they were special effects pioneers and masters, beginning with the original Star Wars crew - the starting lineup of the nascent Industrial Light and Magic - Phil Tippett, John Johnston, John Dykstra, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Lorne Peterson, and the model-master Steve Gawley. What a crew.

Tippett was always my favorite. He was one of the chief creature makers and stop motion artist and also had lots of personality in all of the videos that I saw of him. Cool guy. What an artist.

Then as Star Wars shifted the entire world of movies back to popularized science fiction and fantasy, the 80s kicked in, and a whole new slew of special effects wizards (some who had been around for years, and some who were new to the game) came into my world. Rob Bottin, Rick Baker, Kevin Yagher, Ron Cobb, Sid Mead, Ian Hunter and Matthew Gratzner, Stan Winston and all of the incredible artists who came out of his studio like Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff. These guys were my idols.

I loved creature effects, and I loved models. Oh, the models. Such wonderful designs and pieces of ingenuous construction and detail.

I also grew up leafing daily through my tattered and well-loved copy of How to Build Dioramas by Sheperd Paine. His book was my bible for everything related to dioramas and scale model building. Such a talented guy and skilled teacher.

Enter Ma.K

When I was in high school, I found the Nitto line of science fiction scale models - what are now the Ma.K kits molded and distributed by Hasegawa. Designed by Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama, the kits were the coolest things I had ever seen outside of the Aliens Dropship and the Millennium Falcon. I bought a few and had a great time building them up, adding miniature lights, making little dioramas. Awesome kits, great designs.

Now 20-something years later, I've rediscovered how much I love building models. I've had a few of the Nitto kits in storage for the last 15 years or so, and the one that I decided to start with was always one of my favorite designs - the Krote. Reminiscent of the AT-ST glimpsed in Empire but with a far more WWII vibe to it, the Krote had great lines, awesome detail, and a wicked gun at its nose. I first saw the Krote in the Reader Gallery in the pages of Fine Scale Modeler. A dude had built a nice one and portrayed it trouncing through resin water with this great diorama base made from real stone slate.

So, a few months ago I pulled out my dusty Krote box and got to work. Now, as the first diorama that I've built in more than 20 years is almost complete, I'll backtrack to describe some of the nuances of the build, and more importantly, share some of the lessons I learned as I reenter this wonderful hobby.