Kamui K's WIP

Neo Go feather necklace

2007-01-13T03:25:00.000-05:00

I revisited my usual craft store to pick up some stuff to make accessories for my male dolls. Making jewelry isn't easy with all these tiny round objects floating around. I'm sure there's special tools I'm suppost to use and I'm doing things the hard way. But I've managed to make the appropriate sized chain + end closures that were needed.

Nadia: pin holes in base

2007-01-10T03:12:00.000-05:00

I've bathed some parts into a naphta(sp?) bath, then right into a Castrol Super Clear bath. But once after washing and scrubbing, the parts still seem shiny in some areas. But for whatever reason, the primer still seems to stick anyways. So I'm not complaining.
:P
Here we see various imperfections on her wooden base. Bumps/lumps, and tiny pinholes dot the areas. But because of the tiny wood grain detailing, I've decided to use a different method of fixing up the base. First I made sure that I had the appropriate tiny bit size for my drill to match the same width of a styrene rod. Tiny is better, but it all depends on the size of the hole and kit. But since this is 1/10 scale, I made sure it's tiny. In pic #3, I've included a paper clip on the bottom for size reference.
:)
Drill into the pin holes to make all the holes the same size. Dip the end of styrene rod into crazy glue and fill in holes each in turn. Then cut off. I find this method a whole lot easier. The other alternative is to slap on putty in a messy fashion, while covering up the grain details in the process. Messy and troublesome since I'd have to redo the detail work. No thanks. ;)
Now onward to the other parts.

Pinky:st Fonewearl dress update

2006-12-25T23:57:00.000-05:00

Just another look at the progress on my PSO/PSU customs before I pack them away while guests were over for the holidays.
Added the inner shirt collar with the green putty, cleaned up the edges, and repositioned the arms with twin daggers.

Volks 1/6 27cm male dolls / armatures

2006-12-13T15:04:00.000-05:00

Fed up with the lack of pretty guy figures in the resin kit and miniature hobby, I'm reaching out a bit into the Japanese custom dolls hobby and got a few.
If anything, they double as armature references for various projects.

I have enough hobbies as it is, so I'm not going in depth with these just yet. But they could be pricey and the attention to detail for them could be just as insane as the modeling kit hobby.

But for now, at least I bought clothes for them. My guy preferences are the tall, dark handsome type (stereotype'n, I know), office guys, uniforms, priests, and they MUST have glasses. I dunno. I just find glasses really sexy. :)

Here's just an example of what I'm striving for in my male dolls and what could be done with them. I MUST replicate that look when I have the spare time!

And just for reference, the 3 figures listed are Volks:

New-EB N/ Natural skin (in red shirt)

New-EB N/ Light skin (in chair)

NEO-EB GO/ GUY Color (in suite)

And a good look through for general tips: http://shineblitzon.com/broken/etc.html

25mm Sibeccai Akashic

2006-12-08T04:10:00.000-05:00

I needed a sibeccai akashic mini for Monte Cook's Arcane Evolved role playing game. And had a specific idea in mind. Here I'm taking a Chainmail Tiefling mini and modifing her into a sibeccai. Lots of changes has to be made in order to make this work. But I'm up to the challenge.
In the end, she should look vaguely like a 25mm sized wolfen. At least, I hope she does.

First, I had to temperarily remove her legs so I can manuvour around better. Female wolfen wear somthing close to a thong to show off their powerful thigh muscles. It took a great deal of work, but I've managed to drill away the chainmail skirt and resculped an ass onto her. I've also hated the angular back muscles she has, so I filled it in a bit and rounded things off. Removed her hair to be ready for some new hair in the future. And removed the spikes on her bikini top. Next, removing her front chainmail skirt to make way for a long cloth one.

Pinky:st Fonewearl dress update

2006-12-08T03:59:00.000-05:00

Just building her up in layers and smoothing everything out before adding more details.
I have to pay close attention to the edges and make sure they're even throughout the piece.

Nadia: stubborn mold release

2006-12-08T03:52:00.000-05:00

Alright, this time I've soaked her for a month in clean Castrol Super Cleaner solution and still the mold release refuses to come off completely. To further test the thickness of the mold release, I've tried to sand down sections and eventually the stuff does come off. And the markings you see is another way to test the presence of mold release (if you couldn't already tell by the gloss finish).
Most of my other kits doesn't get this problem. So why does this has to happen on such a small 1/10 kit?!
Next, to soak her in different types of fluids. Napha is next. Time to bust out the chemical resistant gloves...

PSO resin kit: FOmarl

2006-12-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

Gah! A FOmarl kit I don't own!
Let the hunt begin....

http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~quin/arishia8.html

I've also found an excellent PSU reference site.
I gotta check back often here to study the details in multiple angles:
http://pwv.sakura.ne.jp/
Also a great pinky:st custom fansite:
http://www.geocities.jp/kappy_lamp384/pinkystpage.htm

Pinky:st -FOnewearl PSU dress

2006-11-27T00:59:00.000-05:00

Nearly done with my Fonewearl shirt. Now onto one of the optional outfits you can buy on PSU. Now with a cute hat option you can also buy. I've also included my current progress on the higher ranked sword.

Onegai 01: Pictures -finished & uploaded

2006-11-15T03:41:00.000-05:00

After a long delay, I've finally finished editing the pics. So the next day or 2, is spent uploading and properly making a page for her in the gallery section. Check the link to the Mizuho Gallery here:

Pinky:st -FOnewearl PSU shirt

2006-10-25T02:05:00.000-04:00

Here's the progress I've made so far with this new PSU character.
Woo-oo! It's the 25th and PSU should be out by now!
I'm using all my will power to not pick up the game till I finish this figure first (among other projects). Lord knows once I pick up the game, I'll never get back to finishing her.

Here I've tacked on a 2 handed sword, kinda making her a HUnewearl for the time being. But that's only cause of finding out how difficult it was trying to make a symetrical rod for her. Ah well. Any weapon would do for now.
I'm also waiting for the white putty to dry over so I could smooth things over tomorrow. Then add on those arm bands of hers later on.

Onegai 01: Taking pictures

2006-10-24T02:07:00.000-04:00

Finally finished with her and trying to take good pics. With my new lighting set up, it's been taking a lot of trial 'n error. There's too much saturation here 'n there. And again, my camera pics up too much yellow for some reason. And just like Mahoro, you can't make out the shading on her skin. That and you can't make out any beige/pink colors I've added to the skin tones. But funny enough, the pics on the previous posts didn't have this problem. Time to try out new bulbs and other options....

Pinky:st -FOmar shoes

2006-10-18T03:47:00.000-04:00

I've taken shoes from another figure, altered them to a FOmar's after study'n the concept art, and stuck them onto this thin framed legs option. This way, his skirt still fits, and his pants flairs out to almost bell bottoms. Well, you only get to see his shoes anyways.

Onegai 01: arm finished!

2006-10-18T03:39:00.000-04:00

I spent the last days properly covering 'n shading her new area to match the rest of her shirt. The red lines indicate the new putty work I've made to lessen the depth of the gaps before, while trying to keep the folds look'n natural. Well, now she's done! Time to prepare a proper base for her since she's still not all that sable. And hopefully, I'll have time for detailed pics this week.

Nadia: test fitting

2006-10-05T02:59:00.000-04:00

I thought it's about time to start up this wonderful Nadia kit done by F-Face. Lots of delicate parts, but thankfully the quality casting is pretty good to work with. The mold release is being stubborn again (hence the shiny surfaces). Time for another bath for this one, but with stronger chemicals.

Onegai 01: putty + arm

2006-10-05T02:51:00.000-04:00

Just some shots on the gap of the arm after gluing and attaching it to the body. I've forgotten to take pics of the previous arm, so here's another go. As you can see, there's a slight crack from the front view. But in the back, there's a huge gap cause the 2 body shirt parts didn't fit well together. So the 2 arms here have to suffer a bit as a result.

Pinky:st -FOnewearl PSU

2006-10-03T02:23:00.000-04:00

Well, after 5 years, a true sequel is coming in the name of Phantasy Star Universe. :)
And I've been working on and off on a pinky version of a newearl. The outfit she has on just reminds me of a force more. And I plan to give her a FO staff anyways. Here's just a quick attachment of various test characters for example. A mix of pig tails from one, ears + outfit and shoes from another. One of these days, I'll finish off my FOmar.
One of these days....

Onegai 02: Test fitting

2006-10-03T01:52:00.000-04:00

I believe this is a Ryuji sculpt and his works are always beautiful. I've done some test fitting here and as I thought, her hair is a nightmare to deal with cause of the Thai quality material. This was originally made to be casted with bendable resin so that the hair parts would easily bend to her body during assembly. But looking closely at it now, I'm not sure if it's possible to work with this at all without devoting a TON of time breaking up the hair pieces to try and make it all come together.

There's several gaps between nearly every piece. Many of her hair parts seem to float off her arms and shoulders and refuses to touch each other. There's even a section I couldn't even attempt to put together (indicated with bars of red) cause it's made up of little delicate parts that just plain doesn't fit together, each are too warped. So I'm kinda stumped on this one. I like this sculpt, but the material I have here makes it nearly impossible to work with.
I'll play around with her hair more. Perhaps I'll brain storm something here.

Onegai 01: hair finished + finger nails

2006-10-03T01:42:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. Since last time, I've been done with her hair and have painted some color on her finger tips to simulate finger nails. This casting was bad enough to have lost the fingernail details. So I just tried my best to imagine where the finger nail shape falls into. Both hands were done this way. It's just difficult to take shots on her left hand. I've also touched up her pupils with some purple. But it's so dark in there, it's hard to tell if there's a noticable difference without some flashlight glaring straight into her. Next step, attaching her arm and the last of the putty work. Then she's finally done.

Onegai 01: repriming hair

2006-09-12T04:43:00.000-04:00

The usual assembly, putty, sanding, and now repriming on the jointed areas. The blue painter's tape is to protect the previously done areas from spashes.

Onegai 01: hair assembling

2006-09-01T00:47:00.000-04:00

Here's a few shots during the assembling stage. There's going to be obvious gaps that needs filling and sanding, but at one piece at a time.

Onegai 01: Shading + highlighting hair

2006-08-20T23:23:00.000-04:00

Here's the results I have on her hair. More highlights were added to the outer side since the underside isn't all that visible once assembled.

Onegai 01: basecoating hair ver.2

2006-08-17T05:45:00.000-04:00

I've added more red into the mix and got a more neon/hot pink look.
Ehh..... it doesn't look as soft anymore. I think I have to tone it back down a tad bit. But at the same time, this current color adds a nice contrast.
^^'
Dam pinks and reds. They look totally different once dried....

Onegai 01: basecoating hair

2006-08-09T23:44:00.000-04:00

I'm starting off by painting the underside of her hair parts with a mix of dark pink + red.
My goal is to match the colors used here on the right. Is it close enough I wonder? Or is more red needed?
http://www.hobbyfan.com/images/resin/f01510d.jpg

Onegai 01: shirt + arm

2006-08-03T03:12:00.000-04:00

I'm attaching her left arm at the moment and to no surprise, it doesn't fit perfectly as I'd hoped. So here you see I've used some white milliput putty to fill in the gap along the edges and to enlarge a fold to help blend the 2 parts together. Then left alone overnight to cure.

Onegai 01: shirt basecoat ver.2

2006-07-29T03:26:00.000-04:00

Well, I reprimed yet again, made sure it dryed overnight. And basecoated it immediately the next few days. This time the paint sticked well and I shaded it properly. Now my only real problem at the moment is still my lighting set up. Here you can see the major differences between my camera mode. One is really washed out and hard to make out the shading, While the other is too pink, yet you can clearly make out the gradients I've made in the creases. I'll have to play around with my lighting further to take get more true colors out of my camera.

Even though I've covered her with a very light pink, her shirt is more of a white in this (lighting of 100 watt bulb lighting) as of now with pink shading. I'm guessing she'll need more pink all around if I were to mimick this reference pic:

http://www.hobbyfan.com/images/resin/f01510d.jpg

But I'll have to replace my bulbs to make sure it's not the super white lights that's washing out my colors. If it's not one thing, it's another. :P

Onegai 01: shirt basecoat trials

2006-07-29T03:19:00.000-04:00

It seems I took too long between the priming and basecoating stage. As a result, dust, handling, light sanding, etc. is making it difficult for my paint to stick. It's difficult to see, but you can make out the streaks, pools, and uneven coats in certain areas that just refuses to smooth out nicely. Plus my new lighting set up is really washing out or saturating the colors. I'll still have to rework it all to take better pics in the future.

Onegai 01: shirt basecoat

2006-07-20T02:56:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been remodeling my place and have a much larger work area now (hence the change of wall color among other things). Onward to painting!
Still touching up a few connecting areas of the 2 shirt halves. As for the shirt color, I'm going for a light pink (almost white) color. Here's just the basecoat for now.

Onegai 01: putty + shirt parts

2006-06-23T00:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a shot after the 1st attempt to putty up the gaps, sanding it down, and masking off the skintoned areas; getting it ready for repriming.

Onegai 01: connecting shirt parts

2006-06-20T10:04:00.000-04:00

Before connecting any parts perminantly, I painted areas where it's impossible to reach afterwards like her inner collar and underneith the bottom half of her shirt.

While putting the shirt halves together, here you can see the Thai quality recasts shine through with all their warping and unfitted parts glory. She's not all great to look at from underneith. But it can't really be helped since this material isn't able to be bent back into it's proper shape. All I can do is cover up the gaps from the outside.
And where there's an area where the shirt parts a bit on her right thigh, I'll have to extend her shirt a bit more to cover up the seam from her torso.

Pinky:st -Doll customs

2006-06-14T16:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not a huge fan of frills and laces, but these customs are really done well.
A good reference site for such projects.

http://vielle.lolipop.jp/pinky/index.html

Plus here's a good site of customs + stikfas add ons:
http://www.kt.rim.or.jp/~sim_n/pkagura/index2.html

Onegai 01: eye lashes

2006-06-10T03:09:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update on what I've done with the eyelashes so far. Added in the eyebrows and lip color. Onto the shirt!

Onegai 01: Shading panties + eyes

2006-06-09T02:22:00.000-04:00

I've added some purple to the shading of the pinky undies (which in turn kinda made it more magenta in tone). And finally covered up the primed side of her thigh that's hiding the pin hole I've inserted. Shaded it once again, sealed it then moved onto the eyes.
I'm using new light bulbs right now, so it's throwing off some of the color of her skintones (too saturated here). But at least you can check out the progress of her blue eyes.

Onegai 01: panties -change of color

2006-05-25T02:25:00.000-04:00

A request came in to change her white panties to dark pink ones. Here it's just basecoated and a darker purple for shadowing is to come.
I've also cleaned up the side of her thigh were the pin hole was drilled and the joint where her thigh meets her panties. Layers of white primer were added to cover up the putty work.

Onegai 01: Shading panties

2006-05-18T03:39:00.000-04:00

After shading her skintones, her white underwear wasn't white anymore. So I had to repaint her panties back to pure white. Masked off the skintone areas, then shaded the white with a mixture of grey and other colors.

Next comes attaching her other leg together. I've purposely avoided painting the surounding area of the pin hole I made. Here I'm using a new putty (to me anyways) called Tamiya Fast Dry Putty, which is yellow in color.

PSO HUnewearl kit -WHF23

2006-05-16T15:53:00.000-04:00

Another convention came and went. And this time around, another HUnewearl kit has surfaced.
PSO maybe dying, but there's still a few dedicated fans around.
:)

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Queen/5592/

http://nekosaba.pm.twin.ne.jp/putty/event/WHFkobe23/02/054.jpg
http://nekosaba.pm.twin.ne.jp/putty/event/WHFkobe23/02/055.jpg
http://nekosaba.pm.twin.ne.jp/putty/event/WHFkobe23/02/056.jpg

Pinky:st collection

2006-05-11T12:32:00.000-04:00

I've recently aquired a piece of furniture that would allow me to take all my pinky figs out of their box and display them. What I like about this is that I'm able to section them off into categories:
Customs, standard completed figs, Special + limited Ed., single extra parts, doubles/customizable parts, accessories, unassembled customs, etc...
Careful for new comers...
Pinky:st collecting are highly addictive.
^^'

Onegai 01: Shading skintone

2006-05-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

Here I took shots at each stage during shading and a pic of just the basecoat for comparison.
From the basecoat to 1st shading attempt, the difference is subtle, yet noticable. The 2nd attempt had to bring out the depressions in a more obvious way. Since she's going to be a pink/red head, her skintone should be more on the pink side as well (something I was taught about human complections). It's just my camera always making my skintones more yellow than it should. But at least you could make out the gradients I've made.

Onegai 01: Basecoating skintone

2006-04-24T11:52:00.000-04:00

Here you can see the basecoat's color showing through as a smooth uniform color. Unfortunately for me, I thinned down the paint too much and had to apply more layers than usual.
^^'
I kept a lighter tone in mind since spraying the protective coats often darken the colors I've used when all's said and done.
I'll do better next time with the hair and shirt basecoats. Hopefully, that's just save me more time and effort.

Onegai 01: Basecoating skintones -1st layer

2006-04-21T12:10:00.000-04:00

I decided to attach her chest to the back part of her shirt so that I wouldn't have to paint over the holes with skintones a 2nd time. The only drawback to this is that it'll get tight around the edges with the brush to her shirt collar. But I'm using a brush anyways compared to an airbrush, so it's do-able.

As you can see here, I've drilled 2 holes to help secure the weight of her hair onto the back piece. I inserted pins with glue, puttied the hole, sanded it over till it's not noticable, primed, and lastly started painting over it.
Woo-hoo! Painting's finally begun!

This is a shot of the 1st layer of basecoating with skintones, so there's noticable flaws and the color is very faint. (you can compare the difference between the face and the front shirt part that's still white primed). It's all part of handpainting, and I'll have to repeat this procedure 5+ times to get an even color to form. This goes for all the colors I basecoat with. Now to let this layer dry before working anymore.

Pinky:st WIP

2006-04-16T12:16:00.000-04:00

I had putty left over and decided to start the basis of new bunny ears and a different hat style for my FOmar.

Onegai 01: White priming

2006-04-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

After using the grey primer to check for imperfections on the surfaces, I reprimed it over with white. I prefer to paint over white cause it helps me bring out the brightness of my colors overall, unless it's a dark moody piece. But for her, she'll be mostly white and pinks anyway.

Onegai 01: More putty work

2006-04-08T18:48:00.000-04:00

Just more pics of various putty works. Here you can see that her chest doesn't fit snug into her shirt, so there's work all around her chest. I'm finally done with her hands so I attached them into their shirt sleeves to save me assembly time later on. I'd hate to putty & sand away any paint where the 2 meet later on. And if you can see, there's an imperfection on her right collar that just doesn't meet up correctly because of the misfittings. So here's just a pic of me showing how you can extend the shirt a bit to cover it all.

Onegai 01: Test priming + test fitting

2006-04-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

Most of her parts have gone through it's 1st test priming stage to recheck any overlooked imperfections. So it's time to recheck the test fitting stage and properly pin all the parts (all previous test fitting attempts were just rough tests to get a general idea where everything goes). Her hair & head are now heavy and I'll have to propperly insert pins to help support all that weight onto her shirt parts. And to my surprise, non of her body parts fit well together at all. Even my previous attempts at it doesn't seem to cut it anymore after working further on the various parts. So she's pretty messy underneith. I'll have to take a pic of that to give an idea on the putty work and how she's assembled .

Her hands also gave me trouble since there's lost of flash to remove and lots of missing chunks of her fingers were they should be. The pic doesn't show the imperfections well at this angle. But those of you who know what Thai castings of fingers are like; this is just typical work of their calibur.

She's getting closer and closer to the painting stage.
:)

Pinky:st -Hasaha : Tail + Ears

2006-04-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

I've been busy try'n to get Hasaha's tail and ears finished. And after many layers of putty, sanding, and priming, I think they're nearly done.
YAY! I got an instant fox girl.
:D
Now to move onto her outfit. BTW, her tail and ears are of course interchangable like any other pinky parts.
:)

Pinky: FOmar sleeves

2006-04-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Here I'm trying to alter the bottom front portion of his hat. I didn't like how it turned out the 1st time around. And I've been working on his sleeves for a while. It seems there's tons of interpretations on how the FOmar's sleeves can look in the end. So I guess I'll just borrow ideas I like the most. I'm done with the upper arm portion where it flairs out a bit on both sides. Now to work on the bottom area. I've just added putty here and waiting it to cure before file'n it all down again.

Pinky:st -Hasaha : tail

2006-03-31T11:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been having unresolved computer problems at home, so I'm unable to update and upload files as often as I'd like. And without pics, my updates are pretty much useless.

Here's the only uncorrupted file that made it's way to a temperary computer. In here, I've been working on Hasaha's fox tail by adding putty where I see fit to keep it's round shape and curves. Then sanded it all down to make it look seemless.

Rest assured, I've made more progess on this and my other projects as well. But I'll post them up seperately when I figure out a way to post my other pics.
^^'

Till next time.

Pinky:st -Hasaha from Summon Night

2006-03-02T03:36:00.000-05:00

I recently stumbled upon a resin kit of her and just fell in love with it. Some ppl are into cat folks, I perticularly like foxes. And since I can't have nor find the resin kit version, I'll settle with making my own sd pinky version. I took the top and bottom body parts from seperate figures and would have to resculpt the sleeves a bit. Here's the beginnings of her ears and fox tail. And I'll have to chop up her back hair to flair out a bit more. But so far, just the beginnings of her...
http://www.summonnight.net/snworld/sn2/chara_img/2chara_f06.jpg

Pinky:st -FOmar hat details + etching

2006-03-02T03:00:00.000-05:00

Added shoulder pads and more detail added to the hat after drawing them in earlier. I left the center diamond area empty in hopes that I could find some sticker jewel in the future for it. I'm rather stumped on the little peak on the center bottom of the hat. It doesn't look as good as I'd thought. Also, scribing in details with the photo etching saws isn't as easy as I thought. Lots of deviated lines and mess-ups accured. I guess I'll have to practice more with these saws to get the hand of it.

I was really inspired to design my FOmar after Shines's rendition of her fomar. It's not accurate to the game graphix exactly, but her alterations are an improvement IMO. These 2 perticular drawings really struck a cord with me. And as you can see, she altered her hat as well with a slight peak. Either I'm misinterpreting it. Or it just doesn't look that impressive in 3D.
http://www.yhidemi.com/pso/psogc_cg/gc027.html
And here, you can see a better shot of the sword that resembles the Anceint Saber. Plus in the background, I've been working a bit on a future Twinkle Star.

Mahoro: Packing kit for shipment

2006-02-27T03:26:00.000-05:00

I've finally found a good density foam that's needed to hold Mahoro in place within the inner box I'm shipping her in. I wanted a foam that's soft enough to sqeeze, but sturdy enough to suspend a completed kit within a box when cut up right. And as you can see here, she's hovering when you cut out the foam the same size as the girth of the box. Add a part for the head as well and fill in the rest with peanut foam. This way, I hope that her hair parts (my biggest worry) wouldn't be knocked around during transit. Then off she goes.

Onegai 01: More Hair extentions continues...

2006-02-25T23:01:00.000-05:00

Just an update on the progress so far. As usual, just more hair extentions.
Plus I've assembled the pieces to make sure the extentions I've made doesn't get in the way with the other seperate parts. Here, you can see a huge gap within 2 parts that needs major filling.
Till next time...

PSO: Red Ring Rico + HUnewearl kits

2006-02-20T15:14:00.000-05:00

A new PSO released kit this winter WF 2006. But unfortunately, she's only available at the convention. Japan's copyright laws are cruel sometimes.
*wimper*
http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~quin/index..htm

A WIP HUnewearl kit.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Queen/5592/hanyu.html

And these HUnewearl pinky:st figures I've been watching for a while. IMO, he's got to be the best converter of PSO pinky figures. And I'm grateful he takes in depth details on his works for fans like me who'd want to emulate his works. :)

http://www.geocities.jp/dcpsoheidi/pinky/index.html

Also another HUnewearl & FOnewearl pinky:st WIP site.
http://www.sol.dti.ne.jp/~tetsrow/ill/pinky.html

And a tuturial on how to mod your pinkys more into stikfas/dolls accessories.
http://mkei.client.jp/act/act.html

A dedicated PSO fan who made his own HUnewearl. Plus mag kits!
http://www.geocities.jp/take_2ma/index.html

Pinky:st -FOmar sketching details

2006-02-17T01:38:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to draw out some guide lines for myself to see the overall finished product. Plus it'll help when I'll need to scribe in the details in the future.
Making his armor chest plate is trickier than I thought. His posture is slightly leaning to one side, so making his chest plate (and everything else) centered and symetrical is getting hard.
:P

Onegai 01: More Hair extentions, Continutes

2006-02-17T01:30:00.000-05:00

Just an update on what I have so far. I've finally finished all the extensions on another lock of hair (the one to the far left). That bunch had all it's ends broken off. So it took some time for me to add on the missing pieces one at a time, doing more at once would risk breaking a previous part that hasn't been securely cured 'n glued.

I've also managed to add on a few other parts and have started using plasticard on the really small hair tips to get that crisp angled edge. And the hair extentions continues...

Onegai 01: Reference pics

2006-02-14T00:55:00.000-05:00

Found the original sculptor's site and his gallery on his kit, in case I need to see what parts goes where.
http://www.geocities.jp/kuroringo_12/moonlighter/GALLERY_Folder/GALLERY-f.html

Pinky:st -Fomar, skirt trim & section ID

2006-02-12T19:32:00.000-05:00

Snowed in the past weekend so I got to work a bit on 3 of my projects. Including getting a bit further with my FOmar pinky. I'm using milliput super fine, white cause it dries hard and keeps sharp edge details. Hopefully the skirt trim is symetrical enough and I'm working on his section ID holder and chest armor. Plus I've added a sword that looks very close to the Ancient Saber in the game.

Onegai 01: More Hair extentions

2006-02-08T02:26:00.000-05:00

Just moving onto the other hair parts and their broken tips. It's getting trickier now with these smaller parts and tight confined spaces between the strands. How on earth were these made to begin with?

PSO: FOmar & HUmar WIP kits!

2006-02-07T14:32:00.000-05:00

In my hunt for more reference pics on the back side of the FOmar for my pinky project, I stumbled upon this guy's site which has WIP shots of a HUmar and FOmar kit, based on the official character designs.
*drool*
And he had plans to make the RAcaseal as well.
Unfortunately, he hasn't updated in months, so I hope he didn't drop the projects all together. Though he mentions the up coming WF....
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~hilolo/HUmar.htm
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~hilolo/FOmar.htm
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~hilolo/index.html

Metallic experiments up loaded

2006-02-03T04:40:00.000-05:00

I was curious on the type of metallic effects I can achieve beyond mini painting. So I painted a few and took pics.
I still have more to experiment with, but here's what I got for now. In the mean time, I've opened up a section on my site for future projects as well.

Mahoro: Basing round 2

2006-02-03T02:30:00.000-05:00

Finally dished out my lighting set up to take some better pics of the bases.
Unfortunately, the plastics store I shop at to get cheap square/rectangular acrylic bases closed shop and I had to buy these 5" circular bases from their higher priced competitors. Sorry, but I have to pass on the extra charges onto my clients for now (at least for these acrylic bases). And for some reason, all hobby shops I rely on online are sold out of the 5" bases. Plus the 3" bases that were in stock didn't fit this 1/6 kit.
So I ended up getting this transparent orange base. It was either this, or a thick black one at a higher price cause of the more material involved.
Damit. I miss my old store... This new store doesn't even have a lot of options.

And on the other is my black gloss over a wooden base. At least unworked wooden bases are still about $2. Though my wood working skills aren't that great and clean. I find it more difficult to work with compared to resin. :/

Though in the end, she's kinda stable on her own. But if the table is shaken a bit or bumped into, I'm afraid she'll tip over without a proper base.

Onegai 01: Test priming hair.

2006-02-03T02:20:00.000-05:00

Second round after dropping + breaking the hair to peices. I cursed myself for over estimating the strength of these bamboo skewers. And wouldn't be satisfied till I spent the next following days on vigorous sanding to get it all back together. ACK!
Sorry for the slight delays.
^^'
Well, at least these 2 parts are look'n good so far. 5 more hair parts to go...
*sigh* I can't wait till I get painting again.
:P

Onegai 01: Glueing together some hair parts

2006-01-31T02:14:00.000-05:00

Still have to resculpt the missing pieces here, glueing some parts that are done with sanding. So onto priming to flesh out any flaws, only to see the weight of the heavy Thai resin buckle under my skewers and break into even more pieces.
*cry*....
Fragile AND heavy material. Dam Thai resin!
I'll never be rid of this sanding stage...
^^'

Metallic colors -testing

2006-01-31T02:11:00.000-05:00

Just playing around with various mettalic colors I got and trying to flush out the shades and highlights with each one.
I'd need some time to set up a better lighting system to see them better since gloss and metallic surfaces are tricky to photograph.
Some of my brand colors seem naturally glossy compared to others.

Mahoro: Basing

2006-01-25T10:59:00.000-05:00

I'm nearly done with the base for her. Got the pins and putty ready, but I won't glue her perminanty in place till I know the base is satisfactory. What do you think? It's either this gloss black base or a $6.00 5" transparent orange circular disc I picked up this weekend.
In the mean time, I'm off hunting down a proper container for her for shipment.

Onegai 01: Test fitting hair

2006-01-25T10:56:00.000-05:00

These parts seem nearly done. So I wanted to pin them to see if I missed any important areas to fix. Then it's on to grey priming to double check any mistakes.

Onegai 01: Putty missing parts 2

2006-01-22T02:32:00.000-05:00

I'm amazed how some of these tips broke off and some peices of hair strips are just missing huge sections on the sides. Talk about seem lines. How about seem chunks? Well, for some time now, I've been trying to fill in those parts and make them look seemless. I'm just amazed how the sculptors managed to get into these areas when they first made these to begin with. Makes me wonder if I have the wrong tools or something that'll make my life easier.
:P
I've also decide the best way to handle fixing the end tips, is to smooth out small pieces of good quality resin, smooth out the broken ends, and super glue them together. After drying, smooth out the good resin and if I did a good job with the smoothing prior to gluing, the new tips should withstand my forceful sanding to get it into it's new shape.

Pinky:st -FOmar hat

2006-01-19T02:45:00.000-05:00

Well, while I'm playing with putty at the moment and waiting for it to dry, I might as well play around with my FOmar again.
:)
I've been sanding and putty'n his skirt for some time now, and each time, it gets better.
I've also worked a bit on his long bangs and made a basic strip on his other side to work off of once cured. But I screwed up in not making his long bangs attached to his hat in the first place. I realized it now once I studied the official released hat attachment I got in the mail. And apparently, the bangs are suppost to be attached to the hats, otherwise the hats would be too thin to cover the hair options seperately.
DOH!
So of course, here's his new hat I'm working on. I still plan on making a few head options for him. But this is going to be a slow going project.
^^'

Onegai 01: Putty missing parts

2006-01-19T02:36:00.000-05:00

Well, between the cheap material, and my mistake of getting sloppy after hours of sanding, I dropped the hair pieces and 2 large strands broke off. I might as well make the best of it and sand away in those hard to reach areas while these pieces are removed. Though when I received the parts, a lot of the hair ends were damaged in transit. So I'll have to extend many of the parts myself. But since the extra parts that are needed are in tricky areas (with barely any support to hold it in place), I'll have think about how to get the extentions to actually stay put while being sanded once dry.

Onegai 01: Vague test fitting

2006-01-16T00:45:00.000-05:00

Preliminary test fitting to see what areas are exposed and important to sand and putty. Plus, to fix any major gaps in the parts. The shirt comes in 4 pieces and doesn't fit snuggly with her legs attached. I'll have to sand away something to make them fit...

Onegai 01: Sanding has begun.

2006-01-13T01:59:00.000-05:00

ACKK!THIS is a prime example why no one should be purchasing Thai recasts on ebay, unless the sculpt is simple with no thin parts or details. Here's a close up shot on the unholy casting of the delicate hair details. I've sanded 'n puttied quite a few times over the past days, but there's still work to be done. I think I need to buy new tools (rifflers maybe?). I don't see how I can smooth out the insides of those curves without a curved file itself. Otherwise, I'm tempted to purposely break the pieces apart, sand them seperately, then reassemble them.

1/6 Onegai Teacher 01: removing mold release

2006-01-10T02:57:00.000-05:00

Started a new project in the mean time.
http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?products_id=2516&name=&title=1%2F6+Onegai+Teacher+Kazami+Mizuho+stretching+pose+WF2004

Unfortunately, this is a Thai recast version, and taking a closer look here, it isn't so bad except the hair pieces. Her bangs are unbearable and I'm kinda stumped at how to tackle this one.

Mahoro: Finished!

2006-01-07T15:58:00.000-05:00

Finally done! Please check out the gallery if you'd like.
http://www.khohannessian.com/kamuik/kamuik.htm

Mahoro: Hair assembly -final

2006-01-07T01:51:00.000-05:00

So close to being done. But her pony tail + ribbon is kinda heavy to sit on the back of her head. So I assembled her hair parts with super glue and green stuff (one of the hardest bonds I know with putty). So I had to let her dry off before attaching her to the body.
Now... what to do with the base....

Oh, and since I'm waiting for the putty to dry, I had time to edit those Joker pics and have uploaded them. I was in a mad rush and was barely conscious when I took them. So the backdrop was really distracting with all my supplies thrown about.
:P
I just basically blackened them out. Enjoy!

Mahoro: Shading hair

2006-01-05T03:37:00.000-05:00

I started shading her hair and sealed it over night. By the quick look of things, the basecoat got darker thus making the shading work not all that apparent. I'll have to see tomorrow if I'll need to go back and reshade with a darker color.

Mahoro: Hair assembly

2006-01-01T02:54:00.000-05:00

I've basecoated and shaded only the underparts of her hair and left the top areas exposed and primed for now. Otherwise, after I pin, assemble, glue, putty, and sand the pin holes I've made, I find it easier to basecoat the colors all together all at once and not worry'n about matching up colors previously.
Now to let the glue and putty dry over night.

Joker: Finished!

2005-12-31T01:40:00.000-05:00

Whew...
Stayed up all night till 7am to finish him on time cause of all the waiting for various layers of paint, glue, and finishes to dry before moving onto the next steps.
^^'
Watching paint dry is no fun.
:P
Ok. Here's a small pic of the finished product. I'll have to edit and update my gallery soon. In the mean time, I need to sleep.
Later.

Joker: Chair + suite

2005-12-28T03:37:00.000-05:00

I've been done with the throne part, and the inner shirt + jacket. I've basecoated and shaded the purple on his suite for now. All that's left is painting on the stripes, shoes, and hands.

Joker: Hair

2005-12-23T03:00:00.000-05:00

Just got done with his hair 'n eye brows, with highlighting the raised ends. Then sealed it. I'll have to check back if the sealant killed my highlighting works. And took a better shot/angle of his face. In this shot, you can see the 5 layers of weathering effect on his teeth. I thought it would look too unatural if they were too sparkling white.
All that's left here are the reflections on his pupils.
Whew. I'd say the face was the hardest paint work on this kit. Everything else (painting wise) should be easier. And I'm amazed with the amount of details on his head alone. I can't see how someone would use an airbrush. You gotta get a #000 detail paint brush to get in there and flesh things out. And drybrushing would just make a mess of things, IMO.

Joker: Teeth + lips detail

2005-12-22T03:42:00.000-05:00

I weathered his teeth a bit and made his eyes more menicing. Onwards to his hair and eyebrows.
And I've finally put together his 5 part hand + gun. Time to prime.

Joker: Making cane + shading skintone

2005-12-21T01:26:00.000-05:00

Well, for some reason, his left hand seems to fit, but is left levitating from the arm chair. To make his hand rest on the arm rest requires resculpting a huge gap were his folds/cloth would be by his elbow.

So other kit builders out there have subsituded items in his hand. But for me, I invision a cane for some reason. Here you can see a shot of the basis for the cane. And the after shot when I have sculpted the handle and bottom area. I don't have wire bending tools to make the cane handle perfect. Nor is the handle in one piece. It has to be in pieces and filed to the shape and thickness without the hand to avoid damaging it.

As for the face, I've tried painting the eyes first since it's the hardest part of the face, but the miscasted face was just too unbearable to work with. I had to go in there and fix the eyes after all with putty. His left eye was missing his pupil. And his right eye wasn't in the same oval shape as the other and had a large pit seperating the pupil and white area. This made it very difficult to make the eyes match each other. (if you go check out some finished kits of this, you can see how uneven the eyes can be).
So, I had to fill them in, prime to check if it's smooth. Then move onto outlining.
I first outline the eyes, lids, pupils, and his teeth since these are the deepest parts of his face.
Then moved onto the 1st shading stage with the overall basic skintone, then seal.

Mohoro: Basecoating hair

2005-12-21T01:23:00.000-05:00

The usual. Back to painting while waiting for the putty to dry on the Joker's cane.
Though more coats of purple/blue is still needed to get it all smooth and even.

Joker: Throne primed

2005-12-15T02:08:00.000-05:00

Primed in gray at first to see any flaws in my putty work. Fixed minor flaws, then onwards to prime in white. Leave to dry over night and hopefully start painting on it by tomorrow.

Mahoro: Shoulder pads + hands test fitting

2005-12-15T02:04:00.000-05:00

While the Joker is drying off, it's time to work on Mahoro again.
Some how during assembly, her left hand doesn't fit snuggly anymore. Some putty and painting is required to make her hand properly cover the other. I'm glad I waited till now to assemble them rather than earlier.

Joker: Putty'n + sanding continues...

2005-12-14T02:41:00.000-05:00

Attached his flower to his shirt. Test fitting his left hand. Fixing the gap on his torso by extending his shirt. (And I think he looks better this way). Sanding, putty'n, and scribing in his lines on his knees.

Joker: assembling + putty

2005-12-12T00:57:00.000-05:00

Various shots of the joker in different stages of work. To assemble the parts, I try to super glue the pieces together, then fill in the gaps with kneadatite since the putty is strong and sticky. Then smooth things out with the red putty. Unfortunately, I've heard & seen from other modelers that this Joker's left arm was casted hovering over the arm chair. He SO wants to be holding a cane right there. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to modify this kit tho. So I'll just have to leave him as the sculptor intendid him to be.

Joker: Cutting flash + filling

2005-12-10T23:32:00.000-05:00

This is a horizon original vinyl kit of Joker sitting on his throne (7" tall).
First I had to wash the mold release off of him. Then carefully cut out all the flash. Then test fit all the pieces together. And fix any warped parts. For the bottom parts of the kit, I had to fill them in with various putties to give them weight. And the top areas I used compact plastic bags. It seems to do the job.

Mahoro: Assembling arms + armor

2005-12-10T23:29:00.000-05:00

I realized that I had to assemble her arms first before adding her hands afterall. Otherwise, I run a risk of her hands & guns not facing each other well. Added putty into the holes & pin 'n just waiting for it to cure before painting it black.

Mahoro: Eye brows & touch ups

2005-12-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

Spent the past days finishing up the last touches on Mahoro's face. Pinking up her lips, drawing in the lashes 'n eye brows, dullcote to seal, and gotta go back in there to regloss her eyes. I'm also putting together her gun into her hand. This was in 3 pieces and I've been slowly trying to make the little parts look seemless when assembled together with more putty, priming, and painting. In here, you can still faintly make out were I pinned the parts together in the center of her hand. More layers of paint are needed, only to find that I still need more sanding and putty'n. Rince, lather, repeat....

Mahoro: Basecoating & shading skintones

2005-11-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

My camera is coroporating again so I could take upclose pics of her eyes and the skintones so far.
She looks as if she's on the fair/light skintone gal, so I tried not to go too crazy with the shading. Just a little here and there to bring out her features.

Mahoro: Test fitting boots

2005-11-28T21:04:00.000-05:00

Finally starting to put parts together.
Her boots fit snugly. Alright!

Mahoro: Eyes reflection

2005-11-28T01:19:00.000-05:00

I don't know what you call it, but I finally added the white reflective parts onto her eyes before I have to move onto her skintones.
I just had to go slow and add little by little till they're both symetrical.

Mahoro: Different finishes for red

2005-11-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I just wanna take a shot of both finishes to see the differences side by side. In the end, it'll all probably be dullcoted matte.

Mahoro: Shading reds

2005-11-25T01:58:00.000-05:00

Hmm.... the shading looks so subtle, it's hard to tell under this light. There's several ways to shade red, but I went down the more magenta/purple route. Maybe it's time to add some grey/black into the mix so that we could actually see the shading better.
The reflection on the plastic is also throwing off the colors. I'll take better pics next time.
:P

Mahoro: Pinning bullets/gun

2005-11-22T03:11:00.000-05:00

Touching up the red colors here and there for the armor parts. Putting that aside to dry, time to move onto something else. I thought it would be easier if I paint and assemble her hand parts to her arms before attaching the arms to the body. So to prepare for that, I've started putting the bullets into the gun with their respectable pin. Fill in the hole on top. And wait over night to dry before sanding & touch ups. It seems the 3rd bullet is nearly submerged into the gun. O-well... At least you can see all 3 at an overhead shot.

Mahoro: Basecoating red

2005-11-20T22:58:00.000-05:00

Standard stuff. Just pile'n on layers and layers of red till it's all smooth and uniform. Hopefully, the no name brand of bright red I have will coroporate with me. 95% of my paints are historical based, which means dull, earthtoned colors. And I'm lacking a bright red. Unfortunately for me, red's one of those tricky colors were you can't simply add on other colors to "brighten or darken" it with other paints. You just simply have to get the right kind of red straight out of the bottle.
Note to self: BUY one of Vallejo's bright red paints...
><

Mahoro: Gloss finish suite

2005-11-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

After slowly going over and checking to make sure the black lines are smooth and straight by hand, I sealed her in a durable gloss finish. It doesn't look too bad glossy, but I'm thinking a semi-gloss finish would make her suite look nice. Or just go back to the flat finish? I believe her red & grey parts are armor, so make those glossy in the end? If so, what about her boots?
hmm....

Mahoro: Sanding black edges

2005-11-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

While the relatives are away, the modelers can play....
*evil grin*
Ok. Now that everyone's asleep, I can't go to sleep myself till I do some kind of modeling work done today. (I guess it's stress releaving most of the time). So I've fixed the black spot that was accidentally sprayed onto her grey, back chest. And I've sanded down the black edges to blend smoothly into the unpainted areas. Paint a thin layer of black to see if the edges are gone, rinse, lather, repeat till it's all seamless.

Holiday clean up :(

2005-11-15T20:04:00.000-05:00

*sigh*
I'm not looking forward to the holidays and visiting relatives.
Well, because of them, I had to get control of my stuff and pack them all away in fear of parts being lost or damaged.
I didn't think of taking a "before" shot (and believe me, it was getting pretty bad). But here's all my kits and miniatures all packed away into a corner. And I had to scrap tons of boxes just to make them fit in there.
*sniff*
Good bye for now hobby tables...
Well, at least some of my WIP kits are neatly organized.

For my sanity, I'll have to try to sneak in time for my hobbies while they're visiting. But it's kinda difficult to work with everything packed away. Dam ppl who want to socialize and talk about nonsense.
Man, I'm such a hermit at heart.
^^

Mahoro: Reference pics.

2005-11-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

A bit too late, but I might as well study how this painter finished his version up.
I finally found the painter's website from where the reference pics came from.

And now looking at these better pics, it seems that on her back vest, the painter added a bit of mettalic silver on the bottom area. And since I couldn't find a reference pic from the anime or manga of her backside of her battlesuite, I'll just have to assume that the silver is suppost to be there.
Anyone else knows otherwise? Please inform me if it's wrong.
;)
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~g-dome/chara02.html

Pinky: Lacus Clyne

2005-11-07T01:23:00.000-05:00

With so many pinky customs of Lacus Clyne out there, I thought I might as well start my own for practice. So far, I've just made a vague shape of her bangs. There's still lots of smoothing and shaping needed on this one. This might be yet another project I started but never finish. We'll see...