Weekly WIP - Clare (Part 3)

Sorry for the delay. Busy getting ready to go home for the Christmas.

What I'm working on...

Had some ups and downs this time. Firstly, I lost one of the armor parts. Luckily it's the back piece and will be covered by the cape so hopefully it wont be noticed. As for the rest of the armor, I chose to redo the paint. I wasn't really happy with the color. Too dark. So I switched to a lighter color. Last time I went to the store they I was trying to choose between steel and stainless steel color. I went with steel and I should have gone with stainless steel. So once I decided to repaint, I went back to the store and of course... they didn't have it. So I settled with Alclad II Duraluminum. After painting I'm happy with the results. Gives a nice smooth shine, yet isn't reflective like chrome. Looks more armor like and like the color in the anime. 

Fixed the cape. What I did was glue a thin piece of pla plate to cover the gap. Obviously this wasn't going to do the job on it's so. I then covered both sides with putty. This will fill in the gaps as well as give some rigidity to the pla plate. After that, trimmed the excess pla plate and then lots of sanding. End result looks fairly good to me. Not perfect, but good enough. Also found a lot of defects in the cape. Nothing some putty couldn't fix, but kind of annoying.

Did some painting on the face. I got a little sloppy with the paint on the eyes. Went a little outside the lines. Should be able to fix it. I stopped there on the eyes. I'm terrified to do anime eyes (or any eyes really). Seems like a tough challenge so I'm saving it for the end. I like how the lips turned out. Did a mixture of Vallejo Flesh Base and Light Flesh . Sorry no ratio. I just eyeballed the color. Made a nice pale lip color that's just right for the kit. At first I thought the eyebrows were too dark, but once I put the hair on, I think they work. 

Lastly, I did some work on the base. Tried polishing for the first time. Didn't go real well. Started rubbing off the paint. Had to redo the piece. The second time I put 5 coats of clear to prevent me from getting down to the paint. After using polishing pads I went over it with some Tamiya polish. Not sure the I picked a good color to polish. In the end I think it looks ok, but nothing special. After that I hand brushed the red symbol. There is a nice mistake in the middle. Fortunately it's covered up by her feet. Lastly I did an enamel wash on the lettering. I think it looks good, but I wonder if I should paint the letters white. I'm really conflicted about it.

What remains is the main chest piece that I broke (more on that later), the sword which needs some touch up and some gold, and part I'm most worried about... the eyes. Almost done!

What else I'm into...

Christmas! Ok the holiday is nice and  but what I'm most excited about is going home. I haven't been back since April and I haven't seen my family since June. On top of that I am not one of those people that likes a white Christmas (the forecast for where I am currently). When it's cold, dark, and wet for 4 months or so, I get no pleasure out of snow on Christmas. Give me sunshine and temperatures in the 60s (forecast for where I'm going). 

Since I'll be gone the rest of the week, there will not be a Weekly WIP next week. But I shall return Jan. 1. So until then, I hope you guys have a good holiday season and I'll see you next year.

Weekly WIP - Clare (Part 2)

Wasn't really feeling the Strike Freedom project this week. So I figured I would work the Clare project until my gunpla mojo returns.

What I'm working on...

Since you last saw this kit (WIP 1), I finished the little bit of clean up that needed to be done and then re-primed the kit. I am using grey Krylon primer. Works pretty great, but mother nature didn't seem to like it. As I was priming is started getting pretty windy. I was applying a second coat to make sure I got the entire kit covered when a gust of wind blew all of my piece off the table and crashing to the ground. Luckily, nothing was damaged. The Krylon dries pretty fast so only 2 or 3 pieces had any noticeable defect. Nothing a little sandpaper couldn't fix.

With that mess over, I was able to start painting. For this kit, I am going to try shading for the first time. Going for a real subtle shade. First up, the white clothing. I used a mixture of Gloss White and RAF Medium Sea Grey for the base coat. 

Then I hit it with plain gloss white. For the first coat, I did a light misting over the entire kit.Barely any white could be seen at this point. Then I went over all of the raised areas with 2 coats of gloss white. Lastly I did another misting coat to blend the grey and white. I think the end result looks pretty good.

Up next, the face. Lot going on here. First coat was Light Flesh. Clare in very pale so I didn't want to start with a dark base. Turns out, I probably went too light on the base coat. After that, I used a mixture of white and Basic Skintone. I hit the raised parts with the first to coats and then a light mist coat to blend. Lastly, I went over just the raised parts with a mixture of white and Highlights Flesh. 

I'm not entirely pleased with this result. The shading didn't really come through. Since I don't want to re-paint it, I think I'm going to try using a wash. Hopefully that will fill in the lowered areas and give it some depth.

Next up the hair. First I tried a mixture of Gloss White and Cadmium Yellow Light. This color did not work at all. Way too bright. Attempt #2 was a mixture of Cadmium Yellow Light, Bristish Bulg LT Stone, and RAF Medium Sea Grey. Seemed to be a pretty good base color. After that I added a little Gloss White to lighten it up. 

My shading didn't work so well on this part. I think I got carried away with the mist coat. I'm going to try a wash on this too to see if that can improve the situation. 

Lastly, I tackled the steel armor. First I went over the parts with 3 coats of Gloss Black Base. I followed that up with 3 coats of Klear Koat. After that, I buffed out every piece so they were as smooth and I could get them. Then I went over them with 3 light coats of Steel.

This is what they look like now. A little darker than expected, but that's ok. The pieces are also very dull. Hopefully after some buffing and polishing I get the effect that I'm looking for.

What else I'm into...

South Park. I love this show and last week's episode is a great example of why. Over the top, offensive, and  very funny. And as a cherry on top, lots of your momma jokes. Seriously, who doesn't love those.

Weekly WIP - Clare (Part 1)

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have been unable to work on my Strike Freedom. In the mean time I put some work into my first resin kit and my first figure. The kit is of Clare from anime (and probably manga) Claymore. If you want my thoughts on the kit and why I got it, check out the unboxing.

What I'm working on...

First order of business is removing the pour marks and fitting it together.

Parts fit together pretty good. Happy about that. Only work that will need to be done is some putty work. Hair, arms, and legs need work. 

And then there's the cape. It's in pretty bad shape. There are two areas that are broken. One is minor and is a fairly easy fix. The other one... not so much. Not entirely sure how to handle it. Probably going to have to try gluing some pla plate and using putty to get the right shape. I'm going to put this part on hold until I figure it out.

Next step, primer. Using Krylon white primer. Not terribly happy with it. It appears to be good primer, it just doesn't cover up the color underneath. Now that it is primed, I can see all the defects I couldn't see before. Revealed some areas that need sanding and a little putty. Easy work.

That's all for now. Not sure when I'll get around to the next WIP as I hope to be getting back to work on the Strike Freedom.

What else I'm into...

Battlefield 3 (PC version). I'm putting the new computer I built over the summer to the test. Runs pretty well on high settings which is fantastic. As for the game itself, I kind of like it. I'm not really a fan of first person shooters, but I like how you can level up and support a team without having to try and kill everyone. Haven't really played the campaign mode yet. Wasn't really enjoying the timed button press stuff, so I've really just been doing multi-player. For fans of multi-player first person shooters, I'd say this is fantastic and a must own. 

Scary movies! Since Halloween is around the corner, I broke out some scary movies to watch. Halloween II (the Rob Zombie one), 28 Days Later, Devils Rejects, and High Tension. All really good and highly recommended. And I followed it up with a new episode of The Walking Dead tonight. Also very enjoyable.

Weekly WIP - MG Strike Freedom (Part 6)

What I'm working on...

Before getting started, I'd like to thanks those from the MAC Forum that have shown their support and provided some valuable advice. 

Finished the waist.

Not very happy with the results. Decals silvered. Panel lines don't look good. There's scratches. Paint didn't on on very well. Just overall, I'm not pleased. So to hopefully prevent this on the rest of the kit, I decided to take a step back. 

Snapped together a NG 1/100 Exia.

Snapped together a SD Unicorn Gundam

Lastly, I pinned together a resin kit for the first time. It was a fun experience. Resin is a very different plastic than what bandai uses. If you're looking for a different challenge, I highly recommend trying out a resin kit.

After all of that, I got back to the Strike Freedom. Sanded down all the nubs on the chest and legs. Other than two parts on the legs, there no other seam lines to remove. But I'll be covering all that in more detail next time.

What else I'm into...

The League! I love this show. Very funny. Even for those that don't like fantasy football (or sports in general), I highly recommend this show.

Great Lakes Oktoberfest. I believe it's only available in northeast Ohio, but if you're in the area check it out. One of my favorite beers. 

What's in the box? - Clare

So I've ordered a few resin kits and the first arrived today. It's a figure of Clare from the series Claymore (purchased from e2046). I saw the anime series a while back and I really liked it. Well until the end. I could sort of deal with the story spiraling out of control because that happens all the time in anime. What I can't deal with are things not finishing.  It's the same reason I'm not a fan of Berserk. Anyways, I'm getting off track. Back to the kit. I've never bought a resin kit before, so this is the first time I've seen what it comes with.

Here's the box.

Comes with some papers. 2 are in a language I can't read. The other is in English. It basically says what to do if there are missing parts, how to do some modeling basics, and some other stuff that isn't really important.

The other sheet has the parts and how to assemble the kit.

Also comes with a card that shows the painted figure.

I'm not familiar with the color scheme. I'm not going to do that. I'm going with the anime colors.

Here are the parts. All of them seem to be there and intact. Well mostly intact. There does appear to be a part broken on the cape where the sword can go. But I'll be going with the pose above so I don't really care. Should be a fairly easy fix.

Bonuses!
So there are two things I really like about the kit. You get two right arms. You get the original and Irena's. Nice touch if you're familiar with the series.

The other part I like is that there is not only do you get a base, there's some pretty nice detail on it. Being someone that doesn't like plain bases, I really appreciate it.

Well that's it. Since it will be winter by the time I finish my current project, I probably wont get to any resin kits until the spring. This isn't actually a bad thing. Was hoping to get this earlier, but pre-ordering of resin kits can be fairly unpredictable. I ordered a total of 6 kits. Took over 2 months to get this one. 2 of them are in the mail. I'll do unboxings on those when I get them. The others I'm still waiting on. Links for the ones I'm still waiting for are below.

Kaguya Nanbu - (http://www.e2046.com/product/10113)
Kanu Unchou 2020 - (http://www.e2046.com/product/11517)
Psylocke - (http://www.e2046.com/product/11533)