Gone Fishing

I had this girl done for a while now (around 3-4 months), but she still needed a base. My friend gave me this drift wood and I just knew it was meant for this kit. At first I wanted her to run away with some jewels (cat burglar ) but I changed it at the end.

So my reasoning was like this:

Cats like fish - Fishing is good - I wish I was at the lake right now.

I think it worked out pretty well.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Rozen Maiden - Kanaria

I had a few days off, so I got to work on my Rozen Maiden kits. I had Kanaria all cleaned up and primed and ready to go, but I didn't had any time to actually finish her. But now she is all done.





Now I have a very nice audience on my shelf watching me work on other kits. They are waiting for the other Rozen Maiden dolls. I just hope they don't have to wait too long.

Rozen Maiden Set

Few weeks ago I finaly recieved this kit from E2046. It consist of seven Rozen Maiden sitting on the couch. The kit is based on very cool art work.

The girls are really tiny and its kind of painful to work on them, because it gives me crams in my hands. But it is so cute that I can't just let it go.
I actually started a WIP threat on E2046 forum, so I am going to keep that place updated. I just hate doing the same thing more then ones.
Here is the link http://forum.e2046.com/viewtopic.php?t=21264
Still here is a picture of Ichigo.

Arisugawa Shii part 3

I had to take some time off from Shii and work on Etna kit from Disgaea. For now they are both done, but I still have few finishing touches to do on Shii. I build both of this kits for competition, but I wasn't sure which I am going to use for which forum. After asking few people I decided that I use Etna for E2046 competition and use Shii for HobbyFanatic.

This is a quick shot of both of them done.

I am going to repaint Shii's sword from gold to metal and replace Etna's base. Better pictures are coming soon.

Shii part 2

I've been working on Shii for last few days and I can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. :)

I finally repainted her thighs (the area before her underwear and stockings). I had some issues with it. When I glued the parts together, I had a slight gap that was just bugging me, so I had to fix it. I masked the stockings and panties, puttied the gap and painted. The only problem was that when I took the masking tape off, I discovered that the skin I painted was way too pink. So I had to repeat all of the steps and do it again. At least now I am happy about the results.

Also I have been working on her head. I connected her bangs with her head and puttied the gap between them.

Still working on touch ups on her hair, but so far I like it.

There is not that much left on this girl to do. I have only her sword and some more touch ups. So for now I have her body standing on the shelf and cheering me to finish her up.

My watercolor commition work

For last few weeks I've been working on this piece for a friend. This is a portrait of two girls, who are really really cute, and my job was to put on the paper their cuteness. The size is 16x20 inches and its all done in watercolor and some watercolor pencils. My friend was very happy with result. Actually I am happy too, I think my skills with portraits is improving. Also I am very happy because now I have some time to finish my resin kits

This is a photo of finished portrait, but it got a little overexposed by light.

So here is a scan that I took from a finished piece.

Arisugawa Shii

Finally, after a very long time I found some time to update my blog. :D Today is a good day for me. I just finished my commission watercolor work (will probably post some pictures later) and now I have time to work on my Shii.

This kit is based on Shunya Yamashita's work and sculpted by I-don't-know-who, but whoever did it, did a great job. I love this kit, even thought she is half naked. I wish I had her body :) OK, back from a dream land. I am planning to use this kit as a entry for Winter Contest at the E2046, so I am trying to make her as perfect as possible.

The build is pretty straight forward. There is nothing hard or complicated about this kit, so I am going to skip the boring parts like sanding and puttying. Here comes the fan part - painting.

I am using acrylic paints (as usual) and Model Master sealers (stuff in the cans). Usually I start with painting the skin first, but I decided to change my order on this kit. I painted the shirt first, added some highlights and shadows and sealed it. The reason I started from shirt is that its all white and I didn't wanted to repaint all that white tone. It never comes out as clean as I want it to.

Next came the skin. First the base lite color, added some shadows, sealed it, pastel shadows, sealed it, lite-lite mist of base skin color to blend it all in, seal it, and some highlights, seal it.

Next I attacked the stockings. In the original art work, her stockings are purple, but I decided to change her colors a little. I painted her legs with skin color, even the part that have stockings. Masked the thigh part :) and used some brown color diluted with Future Floor Finish (no water). The Future Finish makes paint transparent and gives it a very nice glossy finish. I haven't made many stockings, so I was very satisfied with the results.

And this is how she looks after I assembled some of the parts together. Of course she didn't look like that for too long. When I was gluing the legs together ( I used 2 min epoxy glue) the leg shifted a little bit and it created a small hair thin line between the joints. It was bugging me too much, so I had to fix it. As expected, while trying to fix it, I manage to make it worse. So now she is all wrapped in the tape and her thighs are primed and ready to paint again. I hope I will have more luck the ( 1..2..3.. ) the third time :)

While I was waiting for some stuff to dry and fixing the leg problem, I painted the hair and her eyes. I tried to make her look as human as possible, plus I just hate painting lips, it never comes out the right way. After some struggling, this is what I got. Not too bad, if you ask me :) Now the only problem is that half of her face is going to be hidden behind the bangs and her glasses.

So this is as far as I got. Hopefully I will get more time to finish her up. Wish me luck on fixing her legs.

My little SD pair

With all the building on my workroom, I still managed to finish up this little pair.

They are painted with acrylic paint and shaded with pastels ( there was no way for me to shade their clothes with airbrush). I also added some cubes and a blanket for the boy.

The base was an experiment and I think it turned out great.

I used some rub on letters that I got in my craft store, and some wood finish. Of course I could just printed on decal paper, but this way its a little bit cheaper.

My new workroom

I was feeling very restless this week, so I decided to work on my workroom : )

I installed some shelves, so now I have more room for kits (you always should be prepared for Winter/Summer Festivals) and I finally build myself a spray booth.

I got all the parts in Menard's (my local hardware store) and it ended up costing me only $15. Can you say "cheap"?

I got a bathroom fan ($9.99) and flexible pipe ($3.69). For the body I used cardboard box ( I will probably replace it later on, but for now it works just fine) and I used one of the air filters that we had laying around in the house.

My new purchases.

While I was away from computer, I received few of my pre-order items.

The most exciting one is twin girls from Rozen Maidens. I wanted that kit from the day it came out, but couldn't afford it. Finally I just couldn't resist. I got it from E2046. The quality is very good. I just hope I could do justice to this kit.

The other kit that I got from E is Carmen. For some reason there is something about her that draws me to her. She is cool. The quality is very good. The only problem that I found was that her whole body is one piece. But is was in the past :) . One evening, I needed some distraction from sanding, so I took a saw and cut her body in half (I have the pictures, so maybe I will do a WIP later)






Last, but not the least is Rin from Fate/Stay Night. She is made by T's System and there is a set of three of the girls. It includes Saber with sword (light), Saber in black dress with sword and lion doll (dark) and Rin in maid outfit. I ordered Sabers from E2046 and received them long long time ago (received and completed), but I had to wait forever for Rin. I ordered Rin from HobbyFan. For the last 4 orders, HF was delivering perfect quality kits, but I guess it couldn't continue forever. The kit have lots of pin holes and 3 parts have been broken (it was super glued before shipping). Still she will be a fun to put together. Plus my Sabers need company :)

I am back !

I have not been blogging for a very long time. For the longest time I couldn't even use my computer. I totally blame my sister :)
My sister came home from her visit to Japan (she was there for a year as exchange student) and pretty much made a mess out of my organized life. I couldn't use computer, because she was always occupying it. She would make a mess in the house and for some reason I had to clean it. If you have younger sisters, don't you just love them?
The only good thing that came out of my sisters visit is that I got to hide out in my basement and work on my kits.
Sorry Misato-chan that I didn't answer your tag. If you are still interested, let me know.

Curious elf

I just got this very cool vinyl kit and I can't wait to start working on it. I never worked with vinyl before so it is going to be a challenge. I love challenges :).

Wish me luck.

Skulls

My friend asked me to paint this kit for her. She got it at the car show this summer. This is a second skull I am painting for her. I think she will have a lots more of them coming my way in the future. :)

This is one piece resin kit (the base is cast on). It was lots of fun painting it. On this kit, I used some real sand and rocks. It only took me two days to do. I wish I could complete kits that fast all the time.

Takeo finished

I've got this little girl finally done. First time I've seen her, I knew that I have to get her. She is such a character. She looks funny, cute, curious, young and cheerleader (jk). The sculptor paid lots of attention to her anatomy. Her body is very well proportioned and all of the muscles are defined. It really helps when you paint the skin. The hair were a little problem for me. The cast had lots of small bubbles all over the hair and its was a nightmare to fix it. But it was worth the trouble.

I think over all she came out beautifully.

Remodeling, part 2

OK, I just couldn't resist, I had to put this picture up. During the remodeling, we had to take some furniture outside and of course, our cats thought that its their full rights to go and use provided service. I wish I was a cat!

Home remodeling

I was on vacation last week, but didn't get to work on my models at all, because we have been working on our house remodeling. We repainted our living room, it use to be light beige color and now its light white-grey. Plus I installed mirrors on one of the walls. The room looks brighter and bigger now. Plus we painted some other stuff in the house. I am so not used to this kind of work, my muscles were kind of sore for a while, but it was worth it.

I am very happy with results, even that I didn't get to play with my models.

Sailor Mercury finaly completed

I am finally done with my Sailor Mercury.

I am very happy that I spend extra time and effort on making her base.

Maybe now I can do some other scouts too besides Mercury and Venus.