Lucky #13, Asuka Langley Soryu

Like the last few figures, this one started out a bit handicapped: the skin was painted and finished long ago with the Yoko figure - when I had much less experience shading with an airbrush, and when I still finished the skin pieces with a glossy finish. Instead of trying to sand all the skin, which would have taken forever and which, even then, I couldn't have guaranteed a good job, I decided to just stick with what I had and try to make up for the glossy skin with quality everywhere else. Easier said than done.

I'm still a novice with the airbrush, though getting better every time. In my case, I'm changing the procedure I follow to paint different parts of same piece different colors. Previously, I just chose a color and did that part, masking the rest, then continued with the next color I chose to do. After watching some youtube videos, I saw that they actually had a mechanism to choosing the color. If I was to do things in layers, I wouldn't need to mask near as much. The process I chose was to paint "lower" colors first. Since figures are 3D, some parts of a piece are lower, or under, others. For example, with this figure, the skin is the lowest color. Which is great, because that's the color I've already done. The next lowest color is the spandex, which is black. The highest main color is red, so that was next. Then came the minor colors of silver, green, and orange. I was torn whether to do the orange before the red. And I should have, if I followed my own rule of "lower" first. But I was eager to get the red color done, which is most of the figure, so my eagerness beat out my process logic. In the end, I regret this, because it forced me to adjust which area I would paint orange (to be explained later).

Lesson 37: Paint "lower" colors first, even if it's small and boring.

As I said, black was the first color I decided to do for this figure. The whole point of this new "lower first" painting process, was to avoid masking as much (which in turn creates smoother color borders, which in past figures, could have a 'lip' due to the masking tape). So, previously painted areas were masked, and unpainted areas were not. I wasn't all that careful about keeping the black paint within the areas to be colored black. It didn't seem to matter. All was well until I masked the black area, and started to paint the red (which was mostly black at this point). Because the red paint is much thinner than the black, even after several layers of light red color, the end result is a very dark red area. So, unfortunately, it turns out that my 'bright red' is more of a 'brick' color.

Lesson 38: When painting darker colored areas, you have to mask areas which will eventually be painted lighter colors. OR, if you intend to shade those lighter colored areas, you can forgo masking and while being very careful, can use the darker color as the future shading of the lighter color.

So there you have it - when layering and painting a lower layer, if it's a darker color, you have to mask what is to be the lighter color area, or use the darker color as the shading of the lighter (but you have to be careful). In my case, I was able to recover as long as I accepted a very brick, dark red as the color of the jump suit. I did accept it, because I was thinking of doing something lika that anyway, and it looked good. Now that I've finished the figure, I think it's a bit too dark, but hey, it's not bad.

There are a few differences between my paint job and the real figure. I've never liked the hot green color of the clavicle piece of the suit, so I felt like changing it. My choices were between gold and silver. I had already painted the silver on the shoes, so it was either go back and paint both gold, or just continue with silver. I chose to be lazy, but I can't help but think gold/brass would have looked better. The contrast is nice, though.

This figure also marked the first time I used putty. The right hand of Asuka was actually split it two pieces which fit together horribly. This was intentional and incredibly stupid on the part of the figure maker. I had to try three times to using putty to get the seam sealed correctly. It was a good learning experience, one which I'm sure I'll need again. In the end, it's still not perfect after all my effort, but that's fine with me. I'm just unhappy that the flaw is on a prominent part.

Lesson 39: Let putty dry overnight, and always apply way too much, over a much larger area than you need.

Lesson 40: Don't wait till you've already painted before you discover you need to use putty. Before painting, place all your parts together to see if you need to putty it.

Another first I did for this figure was to use black masking putty. I only used it once, and it was just a test. The putty performed nicely, in that it had a solid seal and it came off without pealing any paint from under it. I did learn, though, that it's easy for the putty to move, and when it moves, can uncover some areas. I think in the end, I'll only use putty on parts which I absolutely cannot accept the paint pealing off.

Lesson 41: When using masking putty, paint soon after applying the putty. The putty will move, so be sure that you don't try to grip the piece by the putty. Also, be careful to line the putty up along the correct border, because you can't see under it, it's hard to know whether it's placed correctly.

Another problem I had with this figure was with the finish. To prevent the masking tape from pealing the paint under it, I applied a finish over each layer of color. However, with glossy finish, masking tape left a residue on it. It's only visible at a certain angle, but at that angle, it is very obvious and looks very bad.

Lesson 42: Don't use masking tape on areas with a glossy finish

Lesson 43: If using a spray on finish, shake your spray very well! If it's gone bad, and they DO go bad, then DONT USE IT. For me, when they 'go bad', the spray is very clumpy when it comes out, rather than smooth and event. When you get used to a spray, you can tell when it's gone bad by looking at it and listening to it as you spray. You can hear a bit of a sputter and the spray mist is a bit whiter.

Lesson 44: Don't use triple thick glossy finish. It leaves a color.

#12 - Sinon, from Sword Art Online 2: GGO

This figure started out a bit handicapped, because I did things a bit out of order long ago. You see, on my 10th figure, Yoko, I got really 'excited' and did the skin tones of several different figures, all at once. I thought I was being clever and efficient, but what I was actually doing was depriving future figures of much needed airbrush experience. I, still being new to airbrushing and the procedures around it, made three mistakes - and those mistakes I now have to live with for this figure and even the next few. Those mistakes were: I made the skin glossy, I got the color wrong, and I didn't shade the skin either. I also masked the skin portion of the legs long ago, and didn't do a great job, which was something I had to recover from.

So aside from those mistakes, which I've already discussed in previous posts, I still made a few new, large mistakes with this figure too.

I'll start with the largest mistake: trying to make a small amount of airbrush paint stretch enough to finish a job, when it's apparent it's going to be a close call. Really, so much effort put into a figure, just to get lazy about waiting to order more paint. What happened was that I was running low on white airbrush paint. I already knew that white was terribly thin, and took dozens of coats to get a solid white. That's why I often use a white primer instead of a white paint. Which is what I did as well. Ok, back up, let me start from the beginning. This is regarding the white on Sinon's jacket, and her scarf.

Firstly, the jackets is very crumpled up, making it hard for the masking tape to stick to it. This was always going to be something hard. Knowing it would take 20 layers of white paint to cover up the underlying green, I instead used two layers of a white primer first. And this, was actually ok. I should have just stopped there. But I was getting cocky at everything so far working very well - so I added a blue tint as shading on the white, like I've read online (but never done) before. Turns out, it looked pretty bad. I was hoping that I could cover it up with white paint, but after two coats, it became apparent that using the white airbrush paint would take forever. It's at this point, that I decided that blue looked really bad as a shade, so I change it to grey instead, meaning I had to start over with the white to cover it up. Again, after a few layers of white and little result, I was almost out of white paint. Instead of doing the smart things and just ordering more paint and sticking with the airbrush paint, I tried using a thin coat of primer again. I didn't think it would work, and it didn't. It forced me to completely cover all the shading I had just done. So that's two more layers of primer. I tried to keep it thin, in order to keep some shading, and in parts I succeeded, and on parts I failed.

Lesson 32: For white surfaces, use primer, not paint.

Lesson 33: When shading white surfaces, blue isn't always best. As well, since white is thinner, the shading you apply should be as light a color as is possible.

Lesson 34: Don't try to make paint stretch. Don't start a piece unless you are confident you can finish it with what you have.

After all this, it still didn't look nice, but it was presentable. But there were two other problems all this caused: first, after 4 layers of primer and 6 layers of paint, the white part of the jacket was about a millimeter thick, which is huge. The other problem caused, is that after painting this 10 times, mistakes in the masking tape accumulated to something pretty massive. In particular, the finish actually got under the tape better than the paint did and left some ugly impressions on the back of the jacket. These were hard to clean up.

Lesson 35: Finish can get under tape easier than paint. When applying finish, just be patient and apply very thin layers rather than trying to get it all done in one layer.

I also had some problems with the torso. First, it was just hard, because of all the straps. I initially tried to do it by hand, but it was really starting to look bad, so I ended up using airbrush anyways. But the damage was already done - the straps have 3D brush stroke marks all along them. Oh well.

Lesson 36: Don't paint by hand anything thicker than a brush width, unless it's small.

Other than those things, no other huge mistakes were made. Lots of success stories instead. What worked: painting the thighs (skin) by hand. Using lots of water, I was able to avoid the 'brush stroke marks' and keep the thighs smooth. What worked: same thing for fixing the green portions of the jacket which were 'infected' by the white paint mentioned earlier. I spent several attempts to find the right color, and I used lots of water to keep the paint smooth. What worked: painting the black lines on the jacket by hand. What worked: the eyes turned out to be everything I could hope for. The cast didn't have a well defined groove for the eyes, so I kind of had to find my own place for them. It took several attempts, but I took my time, did it over again, and things worked out well. I used some of the methods I learned from YouTube several figures ago, and once more, they served me well (basically, work my way from the outside to the inside).

11th Figure - Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier

As I mentioned in the last post, I started this figure only a little after I started the last. This figure had her skin parts painted at the same time as Yoko. But at the very least, I was able to apply some of the new lessons learned from Yoko. Firstly, I finally bought some putty. Honestly, long ago I knew there had to be a way for hobbyists to fix these flaws the figures occasionally had, but I never really looked into it. And then one day in the middle of doing Yoko, I just decided to check out Youtube to get some advice on shading. While there, I saw this lady using putty to fix the flaws in her figure, and immediately bought some putty from Amazon so I could do the same. It was at this time that I also saw a video of someone doing a degreaser bath on their figure's parts, and decided that I'd do that as well, starting from that moment on. Because of that, all the part of this Sheryl that hadn't already been painted or primed, were the first to benefit from being cleaned. Sheryl was also the first figure where *most* of her parts were primed. Oh, and I also finally bought some fine sandpaper 'sponges' which have made sanding a whole lot easier - so while Sheryl didn't really benefit from that, the next figure will. But those were all things learned during the last figure.

For this figure, the first thing I did differently was use a drill. Previously, the idea of harming the parts was taboo to me. But on Youtube I watched someone completely saw, chop, and hammer her figure apart (in order to customize it) - honestly the video made me feel like I was a teen and watching my first porn again, it was just so naughtily disturbing. But it made me realize that these things were just pieces of plastic which could be molded and modified to suit my needs. So in the joints, I started drilling holes; immediately for the purpose of allowing my alligator jaw pins to grab ahold of them without getting in the way of the paint, but in the future it will allow the glue more places to hold. One of the problems with Yoko was that her left leg started to come loose during the final glueing; this I hope will now be avoided in the future thanks to these holes. Some people use metal to help hold pieces together, but I find that hot glue does the trick quite well - the only problem being that hot glue is a bit thick, and if you use a thin layer, it doesn't work as well. So the only solution is to texture the surfaces of the two pieces so that you can use more glue but not create a gap in the figure.

Lesson 29: If you use hot glue to bind pieces together, when you can, make the surface of the pieces irregular, to give the glue more places to bind.

I also had a bit of a problem using the Tamiya primer spray. Previously, I was impressed with it’s fine pigments and even spray, thinking it would solve all my problems. But while air brushing the hair on Sheryl, I was getting a lot of beading up of the paint. Recall, that this piece was prepared properly: cleaned using a degreasing solvent and a toothbrush, plus primed with two layers of Tamiya primer. Things should have been perfect. I solved the problem by lightly sanding as much as I could of the hair: using a 3200 sandpaper pad for a few seconds on the primed area fixed it, and the paint settled without issue. But I don’t want to f*@#$ sand every nook and cranny of every figure piece after I’ve already washed it and primed it. The Tamiya primer was TOO fine, creating too smooth a surface, and paint just wouldn’t stick. This is a COMPLETE fail on Tamiya’s part.

Lesson 30: I take back lesson 25. Tamiya makes mistakes too, and it’s spray on primer is one of them. Use something else. I’m not sure what, at this point. I hear good things about Mr. Surfacer, so I might be using it soon (if only it didn’t take three weeks to ship here from Japan). 

But this revelation, that the beading-up wasn’t a result of releasing oils on the figure parts but instead the fault of the primer I was using, will make getting the willpower to continue with all the effort of cleaning the things (which was the reason I thought they were beading), very difficult. I’ll likely clean them still, but just with a soak and a light cleaning.

I’ve done a pretty good job with the masking so far - using the Tamiya tape has had it’s ups and downs. The yellow tape doesn’t rip off the pain underneath it, ever, as long as the layer under it has a finish on it. But, the yellow tape has had it’s moments where it didn’t mask well and I had to repaint under it anyway. The white 2mm Tamiya tape, I don’t much like. It’s very plastic, and doesn’t bend well around corners. As you can imagine, most figures have more than a few corners and bends. As long as you give it a flat surface and don’t take any turns with it, it works well. So, it’s just someone I’ll use when the occasion calls for it, but generally I’ll be using the yellow masking tape still.

But no matter how careful I am, some of the airbrush paint still comes off from the tape. I could just use massive amounts of the yellow tape, but since that’s impractical, I still find myself using the Blue 3M tape. Which still rips off paint. So in those areas, I repainted with the EXACT SAME paint I used for the airbrush, and initially it looked like a match. BUT soon after I applied a finish, the color darkened dramatically, and now it’s so obvious, I might as well have just left the bare spot. 

Lesson 31: When repairing a small spot ripped off by tape, don’t try to apply a finish again afterwards. Leave well enough alone.

For this figure, I didn't really like the large ribbon that she has on her back. So I made it removable. So you can see how she looks with and without it.

The ribbon also had lots of gaps in it. It didn't fit terribly well. It might have fit better if I changed the position some, but I didn't have any guide on how to make them fit, so I went with the best I could do.

I installed a steak into the ribbon, and drilled a hole into Sheryl's bum. Sheryl already had two small holes, so I just re-used one of them and made it bigger. Filling in the remaining small hole was troublesome - the whole was too large to just paint over, and too small to shove something in it. So I still shoved a mm^3 piece of wood in it from the steak, and painted over it. Doesn't look terribly nice, but it's good enough that one can ignore it if they want.

The small steak in the picture above is the 'placeholder' which fills the hole below, when not in use.

Realistic Yoko - Tenth figure, first real airbrush

I'm not a huge Gurren Lagann fan. Actually, I've only seen the first 5 episodes. But I REALLY appreciate realistic figures. So, since I knew the character and they had one for sale, I decided to do her.

This figure marks the starting point of me using the airbrush extensively. Previously, it was used for only a part or two, but this time, it was used everywhere it was feasible. So, obviously, I had a lot to learn about airbrushing, and I certainly did. Actually, most of the hard lessons had NOTHING to do with airbrush painting skill, but to do with the equipment and processes.

I'd had a few learning experiences before her, with Devil Lady and Etna, so I wasn't a complete noob with the airbrush. That's not to say I didn't make plenty of mistakes and learn a bunch. The biggest thing I learned was how to shade properly with the airbrush. For me, I paint a base layer of a 20% darker skin color. Then I paint the shadows. Then I 'fix' it a bit with another layer of the 20% darker skin color. Then I add the highlights. Then I go back with the final 'real' skin color to tone down the highlights and any remaining shadows. After watching a youtube video, I tried skipping the first step, but I just didn't get the same results, even though it did work.

I haven't really been using a primer for a base coat. I hadn't needed it so far. So this time, when I went out to start airbrushing, I noticed that certain figures really really beaded up when I sprayed them. Of course I knew the reasons, but I was still lazy and tried to get away with just doing a few thin layers at first before laying it on thick. This works, but the problem is that the paint will chip off even from light handling - - it's kinda ridiculous how easy it was to chip this stuff off. I was already done with the base layers of paint on this figure before I decided to stop trying to skip the primer.

Lesson 26: Don't skip the primer when using airbrush

I made plenty of mistakes airbrushing her - mostly with masking. It turns out that the 'blue' tape I was using is too sticky and would often rip off the paint it was taped over. Obviously this was a hug hassle. I learning early that I was better off not letting the tape stay on longer than it needed to. I also purchases some Tamiya masking tape at the very end of the project, and discovered how wonderful and perfect it is. 

Another lesson I learned here with airbrush paint - you HAVE TO use a primer. really really. No more skipping it, like I could with the handpainted acrylic. Oh well.

I STILL noticed a lot of beading up with the primer itself, which I thought was supposed to stick to just about everything. I noticed that the Tamiya primer spray, while much finer than my cheap sandable auto primer, was having a hard time 'sticking' to the figure. The sandable auto primer was better, but still beaded up some. I knew this was due to oils or casting residue on the figure parts, but I'd always managed before, so I tried to force it. All in all, after much effort and not so great results, I can only say that I have decided to soap all my parts from now on. Unfortunately, again, this figure didn't benefit from this new policy.

Lesson 27: Don’t skip the soap wash. Let sit in a degreaser overnight and wipe it off. Even a little bit will really help on bad pieces. I found that not all pieces had a problem, so on some, it didn't make a difference.

I've really grown used to doing my figures in a production line style rather than in a series. I take several figures, prep them all together, wash them all together, paint all the similarly colored pieces together, and only then do I pick one to complete before moving on to the others. This parallel production has it's pro's and con's - the main pro, being that when using an airbrush, I have to clean it less. The main con here, would be that since I'm still in the learning process with the airbrush, when I fail, I fail across multiple figures, instead of having only messed up on one. I mention this, because that is exactly what happend during the production of this figure. As it turns out, I really don't like the skin tone I chose. Or rather, I think the tone fits ok for this figure itself, but since I did 4 in parallel, the three other figures also go this same skin tone - - however, it doesn't look right on any of those characters. Now, I have two choices: spend a LOT of time to sand them all down, or just go with the color. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to sand them down, but I don't even want to think about how much time it's going to take. 

So, Lesson 28: if you are still learning, don't try to shortcut parts of the process: take every figure as a chance to learn.

Another huge hassle here was with the finish. Because the paint kept coming off (bad tape and / or no primer), I put a clear finish on it. However, I kept on having bad luck. The first finish I used dried YELLOW!! omG!! Not only that, but it made the paint crack!! Krylon clear matte finish sux!! I tried another Krylon: Low odor matte finish, and got better results: it dries clear enough, but it still has a problem with tearing up. I'll continue using the Krylon Low Odor finish, but just be much more careful not to spray too much. OH! and NEVER spray a layer of finish, a layer of paint, and then another layer of finish!! You'll regret it.

9th figure - first airbrush, Etna from Disgaea

I've always had a thing for Etna. I already own this figure, the real one, but I still wanted to paint her myself. Since I like her so much, I should have waited till I was better with the airbrush, but alas, she was my first - which means I really had no idea what I was doing.

Since this was my first experience using the airbrush, I didn't try to do anything fancy with it. Or rather, I should say that I tried, but quickly decided to cover up my attempt with solid color instead. After a bit of practice, I added a highlight to the hair and wings (which can barely be seen) and did a gradient on the tail. I was too scared to attempt shading the skin (the skin being the most important part of a figure, IMO). But I did use the airbrush on the shoes, which are just two colors - but that's enough for me to have to mask, so just in case you haven't been paying attention, this is (was) my first masking. After the shoes I did the legs, which was my second masking, but my first where I really cared about getting it precise. So I taped them up, painted them, and left them on the desk for a week. When I got back to them, the tape was hard core stuck to the paint and I was forced to rip up an awful lot of paint. 

Lesson 24: Don't let tape sit. Once the part is dry enough to handle, get the tape off

Her hair, tail, and her skin were airbrushed very simply. Her skin was actually airbrushed AFTER I hand painted it and decided I didn't like it. She shoes were also airbrushed. The wings were a weird mixture of airbrush paint (red) and acrylic to blend into the skin. It's hard to see, but I really tried hard with the blend and it actually looks really good in person.

I hand painted the purple because I didn't have a way to 'pearl-ize' the airbrish paint, but I did for the acrylics. It didn't even occur to me at the time that I could have used the acrylics in the airbrush. Anyways, the hand painting makes the skirt look a bit too 3D, which throws off the whole figure a little bit.

The eyes were simple and done easily (yay, another success). All in all, I'm happy but not thrilled with the results. I really wish I would have waited another month to do this one, to get more experience. As it is, the only real deficiency she has over the real deal, is that I have much less shading. 

I found out that even getting the tape off fast won't fix the problem entirely, but it really really helped. But when you're going for perfection, little things like those chips being pulled up by the tape can double or triple the amount of time it takes to paint a figure. I truly hate it. Part of my problem as well was that I was using painters tape from my local hardware - the blue one, not the green one. Apparently, I was causing myself heartache for no good reason because as I only recently discovered, the Tamiya masking tape is PERFECT - it cuts easy, doesn't stick too much to the paint, but I've still never had a problem with paint leaking under it. Honestly, paint leaking under it is better than it sticking too hard and ripping up paint, so even if it does allow some to get under it, I really don’t care; I'm never going back to the hardware store tape.

Lesson 25: If Tamiya sells a version of it, the buy the Tamiya version!

8th: Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo

Tenchi Muyo is one of my all time favorite animes. And of all the characters from that show, the only decent figure I could purchase was that of Ryoko. Even this figure is a bit boring, but at least it isn't as bad as some of the Ayeka's out there.





The legs on Ryoko took FOREVER because I had to paint 8 or 9 layers of red acrylic before I got a nice solid color. This is the figure that convinced me that it was time to buy an airbrush and compressor. With an airbrush, this figure would have been super simple - but without it, it took forever to get enough layers on the parts for a flat color. I think it was great for practice and to up my painting skills, that I started out with hand painting; but any serious figure painting has to be done with airbrush, and it was time to move on up. So after I finished this figure, I bought one.

As happy as I am to have a Tenchi Muyo figure, there is nothing particularly exciting about this piece for me. It's rather simple, and not particularly sexy. The only real thing I'm happy with here was another perfect eye job. Maybe an even better one than the last figure (Rei).

Favorite so far: floating Rei Ayanami

I did this one simultaneously with the Devil Lady, but started it a little after, so this would be the 7th figure. First thing I learned here was that there was no way I was going to paint a plug suit with acrylic paints, so I decided to use a white primer spray instead. It worked out really well! The primer was super easy to use and of course never chipped off like some airbrush paints might. Even now, after a few figures having used an air brush, I still go back to using primers if I ever paint white.

 Nothing tricky done here - just good ol fashioned patience. The most difficult thing, however, were all the thin lines on her plug suit. It took me a very long time to get it right.

Rei was my first real success painting the eyes. I watch a video on youtube, and poof, perfect eyes! Thanks Internet People!

Again, I love the even and perfect white texture of the plug suit.