One of the more unexpected items I received for Christmas was this vinyl model kit:
Yes it’s everyone’s favourite changeling, ‘Constable’ Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. This kit was made in 1995 and KLS bought it new for under a tenner! Here’s the contents of the box:
Not a bad likeness is it?
I’ve assembled vinyl kits before, and immediately a problem was apparent. The age of the vinyl had made it hard and brittle, and there was no way I’d be able to cut off the flash without softening it first. So it was time to give Odo a hot bath:
A few minutes at a light boil was enough to soften the vinyl enough for the razor blade:
And soon the pieces were ready for gluing:
The second problem became apparent at this point: the kit wasn’t well designed. To be specific, some of the pieces didn’t fit well, and the fact they needed gluing (as opposed to using ball joints) was poor design in the first place! I soldiered on carefully though, and soon got to this point:
A bit more glue and some time drying and assembly was complete:
What’s that you say? “Where’s his legs?” The fact is the waist joints just didn’t match at all, and even if they had the upper half is so much heavier he wouldn’t ever stand so… I tossed his legs in the bin! I was happy with half an Odo 
But I wasn’t finished yet! I was serious about this kit, and carefully began to paint him…
And mere minutes later, my very own Odo was complete:
Look at his flaming hair! His jaundiced skin! His inky-black jacket with red piping and silver trim. As one would expect from a design of my very own, Odo looks majestic.
Now before some of you get all ‘but that’s not canon’ on me, please be aware that this isn’t supposed to be Odo from the TV episodes.
No my friends, this is Odo from my unpublished DS9 fan fiction script entitled “Elegy of The Vampire Savior”. That’s the one in which Odo teams up with Space Dracula to save the colonists of the fourth moon of Nosferon from being enslaved by a tyrannical computer. This particular outfit is the one Odo wore during the logic battle with the Machine Brain, immediately after his fated lover Udu died in his arms.
If you’d like more details, please let me know.
I didn’t ever expect to get my very own Odo for Christmas. And now I wonder how I ever lived without him!
