King Kong - in memory of Mike O

This post is to commemorate the passing of a friend: someone who inspired me and had a strong influence over me in these past two years.

If you are interested in wargaming or historical miniatures, you may have heard of Mike O, aka "Mike O Durruti." Perhaps you have seen his thoughtful and well-researched posts on historical message boards. This is how I came to know Mike. Mike had a deep knowledge of the Spanish Civil War, and in particular the efforts of the anarchists and the Durruti Column in that conflict. When I first became interested in this hobby a few short years ago, I found Mike's work online and became deeply inspired. We connected on a message board, and developed a friendship based around our historical interests, but also music, art, politics, tv and the news. We were soon emailing and calling each other, and had a great time trading perspectives on current events from across the Atlantic, and, of course, comparing our accents. My older daughter particularly enjoyed joining in for that last part.

Mike and I really bonded around our obsessive interests in anarchist workers and peasants who fought in the Spanish and Ukrainian revolutions. During this period of my life where I have been feverishly creating miniature representations of those particular revolutionaries, Mike's immense knowledge, passion, and attention to detail were invaluable to me. He introduced me to many sources, photos, people, ideas, and techniques, that I otherwise may never have learned about. In my lifetime spent studying the minutia of anarchist revolutions, I had found someone, in Mike, who had spent many more years on the same pursuit, who I could look up to as an elder, who could push me to look deeper. He never held back in sharing his wisdom, and was always eager to learn what I had to share as well, and to encourage me forward in my way-too-many ongoing projects.

Mike passed away a couple weeks ago. To remember my friend and honor his contributions to the historical memory of those who fought for freedom and equality, I'd like to share the last project we worked on together: a 1/72 model of King Kong.

Through my local library, I had the opportunity last winter to learn 3D design and printing, and to produce a few small items. In our work in previous years to discover as many of the tiznaos (improvised armored vehicles produced by Spanish workers during the revolution) used by the Durruti Column, Mike had lamented the lack of an accurate, available model of the famous King Kong. I had made a crude model of it once out of a toy truck and some clay, but with the opportunity to use the 3D printer, I set off working on the below model.

Mike was instrumental in the process. We began discussing the project back in February. Mike shared with me rare photos of King Kong I had not seen, helped me figure out accurate scale and dimensions, shared his thoughts on the various shape and surfaces, and helped me decipher the rear doors on the truck from the old, grainy photos. The shape of the truck, Mike argued, is where past modelers had gone wrong. Informed by the rare photo from the rear, as well as his keen eye, Mike helped me edit and reedit. When Mike was satisfied with the accuracy of the 3d design, I knew it was ready.

Mike suggested a swiveling turret and helped me figure out how to make it work, and when the model printed out a little funky, gave me suggestions for smoothing over the rough sides.

His last email to me about the project came in mid July, a few days before the anniversary of the Spanish Revolution. That's about how far I had gotten with the models. They have been sitting on my desk since the middle of summer. When I heard that Mike passed on, I started working on them again.

So in memory of my friend Mike, I present our latest efforts:

King Kong, 3D printed Model.

Tinkercad file - (Print your own copies or use the file to make something new.)

Here's what it looks like in Tinkercad:

I printed 3 models. This is what they looked like when they came out of the printer (the third I shipped to Mike in England). Note how one has a separate turret, the other is one piece.

The print had a couple flaws. In particular, the smaller pieces did not come out at all, such as the gun on the turret and on one of the models, the lower back step is missing. I used a tiny drill bit to drill out holes to insert new guns, and to connect the turret to the hull.

The sides also printed a little bit rough, with many grooves, especially on the left side. Mike suggested filling them with a slow-dry putty and then sanding them smooth.

I attempted the putty work, made the guns out of small pieces of wire glued together, and added flag poles from the same wire. Then, I spray painted the models base brown.

Unfortunately, the groves on the left sides are still visible. I didn't use enough putty. I hoped they would fill in a little more with multiple layers paint.

Next, I painted the models gray, first a darker shade, then a slightly lighter shade on top.

Unfortunately, the groves are still visible, even with 2 coats of thick gray paint, but it got a little better with each coat.

Having two photos of King Kong with slightly different markings, I decided to paint one from each photo. The first model, with the swiveling turret, I decided to paint from the photo which I believe was the earlier photo. This is the model I plan to use when I play games.

Here is the first model, close to done:

While I didn't have a photo of the right side of the vehicle, given what was painted on the left side I could safely assume the right side would have looked something like this:

Next, I painted the model with the fixed turret from the second photo, which had more (and more complicated) markings. This one will probably end up on my bookshelf.

Here's a few photos of the two of them together. 

I added a third layer of gray over parts of the rough section, improving it yet again, but still it isn't perfect. Such is life, right?

I have one final step, which is adding the red and black flags to the flag poles. When I was searching for images last night to help me paint these markings, I was going through Mike's emails. I came upon a message in which he mentioned his preference for flags which have folds and shadows in the image itself. He sent me this red and black flag he had found as an example:

So my final step, which I will have to complete another day, will be to print out the flags and attach them to the poles.

One last touch I added to the model I intend to use frequently in gaming: I mentioned before Mike had found a photo of the back of the truck. I could not find that photo when I was looking through my emails and WhatsApp messages, so I have no idea what was actually painted on the back of King Kong. Instead, I wrote my own little tribute to my friend, to remember him by whenever the Durruti Column rolls onto my gaming table.

With Mike gone, I am left feeling overwhelmed and a little more isolated. Very few people share such specific interests with such passion, and I feel lucky that I got to know him. I wish we had been in closer touch recently, and I can't help but lament all of the projects we never got to start together. Most of our friendship occurred during a global pandemic. We never got to meet in person, but we had talked about going to Spain together one day, walking through the streets of Barcelona and following the path of the Durruti Column into Aragon.

I heard less and less from Mike at the end of summer and into the fall, and I have no knowledge about my friend's final days or how he passed. Perhaps thats better, as much of Mike's life outside of our shared interests are a mystery to me. But I can't help but think of the final words of Kim Chwa-chin, a Korean anarchist who help create a revolutionary territory in Manchuria, who said, after suffering a fatal wound from an assassin:  “What to do… I have to die at this time with so much work to do. How regrettable...”

Rest in power, Mike!