Figure It Out: 14th Figure: Maria Naruse

I enjoyed the anime Shinmai Maou no Testament. I'm not attracted to oversized body parts, however, so my favorite character was Maria. I also liked her because she helped the other characters do exactly what we wanted them to do ;) But nevermind all that - this is just purely a great figure. I might not have painted a Maria figure if they had her in her normal outfit or in a uninteresting pose, but this one caught my attention immediately. And, if I don't say so myself, it turned out lovely.

Except for the broken piece. She's supposed to have a strap or something on her left hip, but all she has now is a hole...

Lesson 48: Don't use airbrush paint reducer

Maybe it's because I used too much, I didn't mix it well, or my paints are too poor, I don't know, but the only real mistake on this figure was that I used airbrush reducer when spraying her hair's highlights, and it ended up not looking smooth, but was very 'dotted'. I would have been much better off just adding more white paint and spraying un-thinned paint. It wasn't bad enough to make me redo it though - but it's annoying.

The two difficult parts of this figure were the alternating colors of the stalkings, and the thin straps of leather.

It's obvious how thin straps could make things difficult for you. It takes a very long time to mask them. I thought about just painting them, but I KNEW it would not turn out the same, and I'm confident I was right, and I'm happy I went the more difficult route of using the airbrush. But it wasn't for just the paint! I had to mask a second time for the finish! Oy!

I used the black masking putty to help with the tricky edges that were hard to mask. It really helped! It actually helped so much, that I started to use it more and more. But that was as mistake. The putty isn't very sturdy, and will move very easily. I made a few mistakes just holding the pieces in the wrong place.

Lesson 49: Masking putty is great for difficult corners, but don't use it for larger lines/areas.

Also, the stripes didn't have any indicators of where they were supposed to go, so you had to just look at the pictures online and guess where to draw the lines yourself. What made this more difficult was: of course, the alternating colors is a masking nightmare, but also, the bend in the knee made knowing where to put the lines very tricky. I had to paint the right leg (bent leg) three times before the stalkings looked evenly spaced on the front and back. Three times!! with what was already difficult with those alternating colors. It was not fun, and I was not happy. Well... now I'm happy, but was wasn't very happy back then.

I'm a little regretful about the skin color. I thought at the time, under a desk lamp, it was moderately shaded, but turns out, in even light, the torso skin doesn't look shaded at all! All my shading effort gone to waste! I don't know if it was just my fault, or if the paint dried and lost it's contrast... or maybe it's the finish, I don't know. But, the lesson is:

Lesson 50: If you're going to bother shading, you'd better make sure it's enough to make a difference. Over shading is better than under shading. The finish will likely reduce some of the contrast as well.