Anime figure question.

Smeagol

sorry I didnt see the question you posted.

i ALWAYS pin each and every part together with wire. I have had too many tranportatio failures from these HORRID roads we have in LA. Even if it is just a hand, it gets wire, either leftover ROMEX, guitar wire or even a paperclip, drilled and epoxied in.  Superglue just fails, its quick and easy but it will always fail, when you dont want it to. I have had far fewer failures using epoxy.

Now, on the epoxy front, there is a fairly new 1 minute or 60 second Epoxy in the twin push tubes at Walmart. it REALLY sets in about 3 minutes. it comes with two mixing tubes...these are single use, and you will be using tiny dabs. Just dont use the mixing tubes and go ahead and mix on a pallet. I find that it is fialry flexible and the RC guys like it for that flexability.  Sets almost water clear. Im using it to cast Finemolds stormtroopers in a silicon mold believe it or not. it gets rigid after about 3 days, up to that point its pretty flexible.

Oh, and since it was actually intened to be used once, maybe twice and used up, it does not come with a cap to seal it. I used poster putty to seal the ends and stored it upright in its original package so it wont leak out.

HTH

David 

I LIKE IT!

man you are off to a FANTASTIC start!!!!

Lets see the rest of her :D

David 

That looks great!  I love the colors, and the blue for the hair is just a great color, it fits perfect.  Good job, really.  I am suprised to see the ear fur being a different color then the hair, while you see that sometimes, the fur is normally a single color brown or black with a pink interior, the alternate is the fur being the same color as her hair , I dont think I have ever seen one shaded with realism as you did, looks good.  Kudos.

A question, what glue do you guys use for the resin kits?

Ok I have her head done...  Right now less is more so i didnt get to crazy with the green but its clean and i think it looks ok.  now the body..

no, I actually had so much FUN painting her! Seriusly she was a blast. She was done entirely in gaming acrylics. Just layers and layers and layers built up, and flesh wash mixed with a drop of drying retarder for the shadows. Right now she is in my top two fave figs that I have done I have her "sister" here in the box and another on the way, so I should have the whole set eventually.

 Now, back to the piece at hand and the videos....I have been watching them most of thenight here and I remember watching the videos on the Subraru WRC and how that came out! Going back to the point of the paint, I believe what the painter has in the large bottle is his base mix most likely a mix of flat white and clear gloss which is a satin base which you tint with your mixes. I want that paint dryer he has! man that would rock! 

he is using Character Flesh 1 for the base skin color, its a good overall color, then he warms it up around the shadows with Character Flesh 2 whicih is a pink. Flesh on the other hand is a tan color unlike these two colors.  For his lavendar he mixed most likely Character Blue , another blue perhaps clear blue, a tan or brown, looked like Wood Brown and soem darker color, likely a green. He seems to know a bit about color theory and how the paints will mix to yeild color. I mix opposites for effects. Sometimes it works, sometimes its junk! 

Also I noticed that after he did the gloves in Character White he overcoated with 151 White Pearl. I have to try that.  The overcoat Super Clear Gloss is some great stuff!. I would like to know what his tint base actually IS and not be gussing at it like I am.  I love the way he mass, same as I do. I use a ton of that poster putty every year, and love it for a mask. Just dont use it Tamiya acrylic they dont get along.  The clear red mr. Color 49 and clear orange 47 got mixed into that mix so that makes me furter believe its a clear base with white mixed in for tranlucency.

He is using Tamiya Enamels for the eyes, not commonly found in the US, they are gloss enamels.  the retarder keeps it from drying out but i have not seen it sold in shops in the US. he mixes paint on this thumb too LOL. mine is usually covered in splotches of paint. 

One thing that I learned about mixing paint, is that it should always be mixed/ applied OUTSIDE.  Ok, thats not always practical and frankly thats why I dont finish as many figs as I could, but once I leaned that you cannot corectly judge color under typical household light, my color tones started looking better. I tend to paint on a fairly clear day when I have good light, but not so strong that I cant see what Im doing due to shadows. I have my little table outisde and I have my colors and my airbrush and im ready to go.

here is what I mean, i work from this little Walmrt table right at the edge of my garage door. As the sun moves around and gets either too light or too dark to effectively work I move in or out as needed. Or until the mosquitos got to bad.  this is a solid base coat of Rosey Flesh. Golden skin tones went ovet that. actually it was raining when I was doing this, but I hadpretty good light in the garage at the time.

She does have fangs, looking closley, are you doing to gaint them both?  I'd be to tempted to sand one of them off, give her the cute one fan neko look.  Kawaii desu!

Cant wait to see some more, eh'

i have not seen the vid, can you link me to it?

I mix the flesh colors custom, starting with a big batch of mr. Color Flesh or Character Flesh depending on what look I want. Then add a few drops of blue ( it looks better) or Green.

Hightlights and shadows are mixed by adding white or tan to this. It works for me, he may have a different routine and we all eventually wind up with our own.

On brushes I have carpel to a degree so my hands buzz painfully after a few minutes.  i get the brushes withthe big huge handles for delicate work like this.

  I really think theres lots of room for improvement  but in time Im sure.  Ill need to get better at mixing colors thats why Ill be taking a look at Mr Colors clears..  One reason I like the pro brushes is they have big handels I think that will help with control well i hope

   thank for the nice comments!!!  Ill see about getting more pics up.

  Also she does have fangs you were right...  Why i was watching  the guy on utube he look like he was using a base and adding the colors to it then into the airbrush.. any ideas??

here's my input--

DAMN FINE JOB first time out! 

Sure fine brushes, thin paint and all of that, but YOU GOT THE JOB DONE and Done pretty darned well! Super fancy brushes dont make the kit, that comes with practice and such :)

That to me is the most important part of all.  You overcame what others DREAD and cuases others to never finish kits of this type .  Now lets see the rest of her! :)

David

Her hair looks fancy  

Does she have fangs? Think I saw a pair of them

Yep the eyes are not the best but ill get better i hope.  As for the brushes I just cant find a good ones local so Im going to have to get them online I have time before the next kit gets here.  They are the first eyes Ive done got lucky for the most part...

   Watching that guy on u tube really helped alot...!!!!

  Ok here is the first ever atemp at eyes...be kind..  Im not happy with the black but Im learning

Mr. Color paints, as far as I can tell only available mail order, are a strong synthetic lacquer baed paint. i have a small stock of Flesh 1, Flesh 2 , character flesh, blue to add to the flesh to give it a more human color, brown, black , pink, red and tan. 

I have found , and others will disagree to the Nth degree but this works for me, to use not only thier regular Mr. Color lacquer thinner in the blue bottle but to also use a small amount of Leveling Thinner to help outflow.

Nice choice Dustin! I would go for a figure like her to add to my collection.

I see you will have just a couple of challenges on the eyes...just draw them out, on paper first if needed. You will have fun with her spots!

 http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b244/ThePlasticFanatic/Scale%20Modeling%20Album/kasegatat.jpg

Kasega only has the thong on so I knew I could not cheap out and just paint it black. Its silver Alclad (like a Silver Bullet girl swimsuit) and dark blue cheetah spots. The spots were fun, I just had to go slow and make sure they were not too lumped up in one place. note here eyes are Persacomp eyes...I did that on purpose,her Persacomp "ears" are in the sand beside her.that middle of the arm seam was a BEAR and none of it lined up right, so I made her an Ipod to wear on a sport strap to hide the horrid seam. 

keep us updated with some pics!

A cat girl, or a Neko-mimi (girl with a  cat ears hat)

As far as people like that... Its the major difference between this and a place like hobbyfanatics (where I started) you would ask a question and the answer would come back, en mass 'USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION AND STOP BOTHERING US WITH THE SAME QUESTIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN!'

As opposed to here, where we either tell you, or go and find it for you, or tell you to use the search in a nice way.

Well you really see that in all forms of this hobby..  well in life really those who are better then the rest and know it. I mean if your going to slam all who try and start and push them away then the less of us theres going to be which means there going to be less out there for the masters to build.

   Ok I got the ears (cat ears on her) done today and i must say after watching that guy on u tube Im pretty happy with the first go around. And the silly putty worked wonders on her so far.  Im going to work on the hair now or maybe tomorrow.

  Im going to go look at that site now...  God my wish list is filling up fast at e2046.... 

well, i was not referring to his forum, just his builds and WIP's.

I think Cody and Gamera have both been extremely helpful to the community.

If you have not checked out Clems site, head to http://www.gamerabaenre.com/gameramodelpage.htm  he also has wonderful tutorials and step by step information on how to do things. I have seen his work up close and it is wonderful.

Ficth, hes got agood site. that's all I will say.

I'v learnt most of what I have of damaging and weathering from his site, I just need to get the right paints (oils) to do it correctly, eh'

Hes really friendly to, I have e-mailed other people asking specific questions (Fitchenfoo (the ***hole))  and gotten no responce, but Cody droped me a line about a week or so later with exactly what I needed to know.

I second smeagol on Cody Kwok's site, it's fantastic, and the tutorials are easy to follow and well thought-out.  Very worth the visit, for anyone embarking on painting anime figures.

Regards,

Brad

There are large format japanese language magazines such as Hobby Japan that delve heavily into all forms of modeling. I cannot read it but he articles and photography are top noth and insightful.  

like i said---don't be afraid of doing the eyes. Honestly, you will find the eyes on Anime figures to be easier than most parts of the kit which is another reason I start there.  use Cody's tutorial...its great. First, KNOW what you want to do, pick as set of eyes you like and that seem to work for the figure, photocopy it out if needed,enlarge it and keep it by the desk as refernence. sketch out the eyes in pencil and work from that.

If you are unhapy with them, recoat them in your eyeball paint color and start over....I am on my third set of eyes with my figure and she has near-human eyes, I am using voilet mixes instead of browns or blues. I learned than applying a solid base coat of say blue, and then mixing up a super thin drop size amount of a contrasting color--purples in my case--and applying that over the blue, gives a nice effect and is easier than trying to strike in the individual striations of each iris. I will try to get some pics and post them up.

if ANYTHING is going to kill my eyes it will be the pupil. I can just about nail the rest of it, but always screw up on the pupil.  Punch and die with black decal to the rescue! Also that allows me to get them dead on centered instead of pointing off in different directions