Review

Monarch Model's 1:8-scale Nosferatu is its first installment in a line of styrene models following in the footsteps of the classic Aurora kits. It should be emphasized, however, that this kit is made from all-new tooling and is not just a repop.

The first things you'll notice upon opening the box are the uniquely colored, metallic burgundy parts (very Aurora) and an excellent, full-color, concise instruction sheet.

I tried to build Nosferatu from a novice's point of view. Monarch has done an excellent job making a very detailed but simple kit. Nosferatu's pieces are smooth and fit together almost flawlessly. Plastic models often have gaps or irregularities that require filling. Not so here. Besides clipping the parts off the sprues and flattening any resulting burs with a razor, I did nothing to any of the seams. That isn't to say that seams aren't visible, but the model will build nicely without taking more advanced measures.

All the kit's parts go together very easily, and the instructions are clear. It was basically impossible for me to put wrong pieces in the wrong place. I even tried to mess up, just to see if an unwary builder could make a mistake. The model is engineered so that a modeler would have to intentionally glue pieces out of place.

The metallic burgundy plastic is so striking that a novice can concentrate on snipping pieces and building a decent model that is still cool to display without having to worry about paint.

After gluing the legs, feet, body and arms and head, I primed the subassemblies in black and light gray. I also checked the Web site listed on the instructions and found an alternate paint scheme from the one shown, which was a little more faithful to the original monochrome movie.

I took something of a middle road, keeping the head and hands gray and layering in muted colors for the coat, pants and shoes. Nearly all of the painting was done in four coats of each color: base, wash, highlight and details. After those were dry, I went ahead and assembled the entire figure.

Many models today run into the problem that success is too difficult to obtain, especially for beginners. Not so with Nosferatu. It is an excellent beginner's model and diorama base, with great expert-level potential for those customers who have a penchant for extreme modeling. Adding details, decals, effects and all manner of dress-ups to the base and figure would be a breeze. There are even a few optional parts that I chose to leave off, like rats, a centipede, a spider and web.