WIP - 1/5 Super Sailor Chibimoon: Prepwork and Painting, Pt. 2

Aaaannnnd here we go again!

Chibimoon is proving to be quite the challenge due to her casting.  Remember how I stated in my previous post that she wasn't the best in the world?  Yeah...about that...

O_____O;

All that red stuff you see is putty...That's right.  P-U-T-T-Y. 

Seriously...WTF happened in this this workshop?   Puttying isn't something I mind too much, but this amount of flaws and crap is just unreal.  I could rant on and on about this, but I'll spare you.

Anyways, I did an initial coat of primer to check for flaws and such I missed after round numero uno of prepwork.  Turns out I missed quite a bit.

Repaired some more seams and areas where the putty didn't stick in the guidelines.

 Fixed a small gap between her torso and skirt.

 Seriously, it looked like someone friggin' chewed on her bangs o_O;

I went ahead and ground out her eyes as well, they were bugging me.  I should have done that in the first place but oh well.  I sculpted some side curls to go near her ears like in all of the manga references.  I have to say, they turned out rather cute !

 SQUEE!

And after one more round of primer, she is ready to paint!

WOOT!

Started with some clear parts first.  I mixed up a bit of Future Floor Wax and Pearl-Ex powder in Pink Gold.  Here's the results on her back bow tails!

Oooo shiiiinyyyy @_@

As you can see, it is pink at some angles, and gold in others.  But what is really cool is that the clear parts are still clear as well.  I LOVE THIS STUFF !

Next is the base skintone, which is on the pale side.

 Looks like me in the winter...

Then I added some shading.

 Looks like me in the winter after I attempt self-tanner...

Time for Chibimoon to get her hair did!

I laid a pale pink base coat, followed by some shading in a slightly darker pink.  After that I shaded the deepest areas with pastels, and highlighted with a pearl pink. 

MORE SHININESS!

Looks odd as is, but once I seal it with a matte sealer, it will cut the metallic look down a bit.  In fact, you may not see it at all unless the light hits it just right.  And with that, hair and skin are complete!

She looks a tad creepy...

So now you have been caught up to where I am currently.  Next up on the to-do list is her outfit, accessories, and face! 

Oh, and her base.  Which shall be interesting.  I won't say exactly what I have in mind yet, but I will tell you it involves this stuff...

-insert mad scientist cackle-

Next post coming soon! 

WIP - 1/5 Super Sailor Chibimoon: Prepwork, Pt. 1

I know, I know...It's been a while.  But...

There has been lots going on, some personal things, I won't get into it...yet.  One big thing I discovered is to blame, but I'll rattle on about it later.  Though there has been another rather annoying inconvenience I shall mention now:  

I lost my camera .

Yes that's right. My camera, which is sort of vital to the whole WIP/Completed GK gallery type thing, vanished.  I could not find this stupid thing anywhere for the past few months. I practically turned my house upside down, and my parent's house since that is where I do my blog updates at the moment.  Then I finally needed to take out my trash in my crafting laboratory a few days ago...

I was looking around for the lid to my airbrush and decided to check my trashcan for it before I took it out. I found the lid near the top, then thought "You know, this is the one place I haven't looked for my camera..." So I dug all the way almost near the bottom and guess what? 

There it was...covered in paint . 

 I suspect monkey cat shenanigans are to blame, since I sometimes set it on a table nearby. Why I didn't think to look there sooner I don't know, if you can't tell I can be scatterbrained at times. Luckily the camera itself is ok, I just have a colorful new case. 

OoOoOo Pwetty! @_@

So, today shall be a REAL update (albeit a short one), with REAL WIP pics of a REAL commission I am working on.  I'll give you a moment to allow that revelation to sink in...

  

Ready now?  Good, here we go!  My new commission is THIS Super Sailor Chibimoon!

Chibimoon isn't my favorite Senshi, but this particular Chibimoon figure is one I have wanted to work on for a long time.  I love the pose, and I also love how big she is!  She will stand at 26cm tall when I'm finished, which is just over ten inches!  And that's not including the base!!  I love working on big kits !!! 

As an added treat, my customer would like her painted manga style, like this:

 

In the name of the Moon...!

Oooo should be fun!  More about how she will be painted later, I need to get her to that point first.  So onto prepwork, ROUND 1 !


Here's her pieces parts, cleaned and tabs mostly cut:

 "I have random body parts laying around my house" is quite the conversation killer.

Did I mention that she's big?  Those squares on the cutting mat are inch squares to help you visualize a bit better.  I have a hard time believing that she's just a 1/5, I think she's closer to a 1/4.  Here's a comparison shot with a 1/6 (middle) and a 1/8 (far right) Chibimoon I have:

 Big Chibimoon is big O_O;

Now granted, there is no set guide for figure scale; you can have the same character done by two different sculptors or companies that can both claim the same scale but be completely different in size.  But I still believe the far left Chibimoon is closer to a 1/4.  Which works out great for my customer since they also have a 1/4 Super Sailor Moon in progress.  They will look great together if I can manage to pull this off, so here goes nothing!

First, some initial problems.  Her back bow tails arrived broken.

Dang it...

Luckily it broke right where the two halves connect, so it will be mostly hidden under the actual bow.  I'll have to pin it to stabilize it.

I also broke her bangs while test fitting.  I don't think this is entirely my fault; upon closer inspection, it looks like the workshop broke them first, then glued them back.

Grrrrrr....

The shiny stuff you see to the right of the break is glue.  I hate when they do that.  Shouldn't be hard to fix though.  Also had some oversanding issues as well, like this.

 Yuck.

Seriously, why do the workshops do this?  I would MUCH rather deal with seams and crap myself than for them to go all grind-happy with their Dremels and whatnot.  I can assure you, it doesn't help; in fact, makes for more work for the builder !  But I digress...

I sanded down the places where the tabs were and started pinning to test for fit.  Fit was ok, had some gaps to fix.  A small one with her leg:

Fun with epoxy putty.

And a somewhat larger one at her neck:

 More fun with epoxy putty.

There was also one between her torso and skirt, which is a common problem with Sailor Moon kits.  I'm still fiddling with that one. 

That's all the pics I have for now.  I've gotten so terrible at forgetting to take pics as I go along.  I had to make a sign to remind myself to do it...

Is it subtle enough?  I don't think it's subtle enough...

But now that the epoxy putty has cured, tube putty and lots of sanding are on the agenda for this week.  I'm also wrapping up a personal build to make way for Chibimoon, though I will wait and do one big post about it when I'm done, which should be in a few days.  Until then, I leave you with this little preview from several weeks ago:

Can you guess who it is, can you guess???

 Until then, happy building !

WIP- 1/8 Sailors Uranus and Neptune, Pt. 2

Hi-o!  I have finally returned with a bit more on my latest commission set . 

I would also like to welcome you to  Murphy's System of Laws 101.  Here today you will learn of the practical application of this unique set of rules and regulations as they govern this little section of the universe. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, just keep reading .

Well this isn't going to be much of an update for two reasons.  1) I've had some setbacks with painting due to some stupidity on my part (more on that in a minute ), and 2) Sometimes I get "in the zone" and forget to take progress pictures ( I have a lot on my plate as far as figures go lately between these ladies and my three contest kits so been forgetting to take the time to take pics).

But anyways, here's what's going on now.  First off, with the last bit of prepwork.  Sanded all those nasty seams all over the place, then decided to work a bit further on Uranus's face.  My customer requested a not so angry look for her, which if you've seen most of the Uranus figures, you know that is natural state of things for her (she isn't the most warm and fuzzy Senshi out there and is a bit of a badass).  So I worked on softening her expression a tad bit by adjusting the shape of her mouth very slightly.  You probably can't tell unless you put it beside the original head but it's enough to give her a more light-hearted look.

Yep, basically turned the anime yelling face into more of an anime open mouthed smile.  It'll look more obvious once it's painted I guess. 

Finally got around to priming them last week, only to run into another problem:  pinholes.  In case you don't know, they are little microscopic air bubbles that are near impossible to see without an opaque paint on top.  Neptune was FULL of them !  So another round of putty and primer was in order (no pics of that, would prefer not to remember that incident ).

Well after all the pain in butt prepwork, they are FINALLY ready for some paint.  Here are the specifics that my customer wanted:

     *Little to no shading:  This includes skin shading.  My customer says she prefers things pretty simple in that regard.  Now, I'll admit this is a bit weird for me, I've never done a figure with no skin shading before.  I keep looking at it like "it's not done" then remember "oh yeah, yes it is".   But whatever makes my customer happy, makes me completely and totally ECSTATIC, so I can live with it .  She is allowing me to do shading in their hair and white parts of their outfits though, so long as I keep it subtle.  I can do that, contrary to popular belief...

     *Metallic/Pearl outfits:  It was either pearl paints or candy effect for the outfits, she chose pearls.  WOOT!!  I LOVE SHINY AND SPARKLY COLORS  !!!

Color palette was sent to her a couple of weeks ago and she approved.  Now onto the painting!   

I started with the hair.  Painted the base color of Neptune's hair, did some shading, then misted back over it to blend it in.

It's so subtle the camera barely picks it up, which is what I'm going for really.  Next onto Uranus's hair.  Same story: a base color, some shading, then misting the base color again to blend in.

Coming along nicely I think .  Next I did the flesh tone on Uranus, but I didn't get to take pics, you'll see why in a minute.  While it was drying I went ahead and painted some of the metallic parts.  I had to mix up both of their main outfit colors because I didn't have any that would match otherwise.  So first I painted Neptune's skirt and collar a green with a slight blue tint:

Then I painted her back bow blue.

Next I painted Uranus's skirt, collar, and back bow a navy blue.

Sooo shiiiinyyyy ...

Now we run into the stupidity I mentioned earlier.  I somehow got distracted and lost my train of thought with what I was doing (think I had to answer the phone or something).  I came back to work, saw one of Uranus's legs laying in front of me and thought, "oh this must be what I was doing."  Started to spray another coat of fleshtone, only to discover it wasn't flesh tone in my airbrush...it was navy pearl paint .

And that boys and girls, is why smart people test to see what's in their airbrush before spraying .

So one leg had to be stripped and  repainted.  Went to seal the rest of the fleshtone, only to discover I was out of matte sealer.  I can't win I swear .

Congratulations, you have now graduated from Murphy's System of Laws 101.  Please review the following for your final exam on the practicalities and applications as it applies to you.

That's about as far as I have pictures for though at the moment.  Next update will be the last, and will have details about their eyes and bases.